454

The Switch
Posted on February 20, 2024 by David M Willis

454 thoughts on “The Switch”

  1. Doctor_Who

    Maybe Charlie is unstuck in time like Billy Pilgrim.

    Would kinda explain a lot about her, actually.

    1. cbwroses

      Who is Billy Pilgrim?
      Do they fight evil exes?
      Or have questionable holidays celebrating the fact that they didn’t starve to death and thus perpetuating the tradition to eat roast (sometimes smoked) turkey instead of the objectively better fried chicken?

      1. Thag Simmons

        I assume they’re unstuck in time, or maybe that just happens in the anime adaptation-that’s-actually-a-stealth-sequel.

      2. staszu13

        Good one

    2. Laura

      That would make sense.

      I’m currently re-reading Slaughterhouse Five, this time in Ryan North’s graphic novel adaptation. My understanding of Billy Pilgrim’s time-line jumping is that it was a metaphor for dissociative episodes in PTSD.

      I’ve certainly experienced similar “space cadet” obliviousness to surroundings… I think a lot of people have. It’s very common to perceive different things from what others consider obvious. And to utterly fail to see the “obvious” things in front of you. That’s why changing user interfaces for machines give so many people so much trouble.

      Whether Charlie has the kind of PTSD that Billy Pilgrim had or not, she seems to perceive and interact with time differently, depending on whether Booster is talking with her or not.

      I dunno… being someone myself who has varying perceptions of time, different from those of other people, I really don’t quite understand the scorn and derision that I’ve been picking up from some of the comments, recently. (Not the origin to THIS thread, of course! Just a few others.)

      Sure, it can interfere with “functioning” and daily task completion like other people expect one to do. But it’s not always impossible to adapt and work with a winding path like that one.

      1. Regret

        Sounds like I should re-read slaughterhouse Five, more and more I have temporal discontinuity, where I remember similar experiences from the past, but have no idea where in time I am or was.

        1. Laura

          Might be helpful to talk with someone. When that was happening to me more frequently, it was PTSD. Sometimes it is just spaciness or other reasons, though. Either way, it can help to figure it out together with someone.

        2. Laura

          Just a thought… (and “someone” is NOT always code for “someone professional”!) Just an idea floating on the wind like a leaf, drifting past, to think of or not, as you like.

        3. Regret

          Thanks for caring 🙂
          I tend not to ask help, which, you know, just adds to your diagnosis 😛

          By my own estimate if I have PTSD it is cPTSD. Yay high school.

          Anyway, I still have hope that at some point I will feel safe enough to work on my psychological needs. I remember being skilled at constructive self-reflection. But I’m not that high on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs at the moment.

        4. Laura

          I get that! Totally. One step at a time.

          Take good care, friend.

          If you are in the US or Canada, calling 2-1-1 (United Way resource directory) is always a kind of a low-key, low-pressure way to start navigating nearby social supports. Just a thought… another leaf on the wind… 🙂

        5. Opus the Poet

          So many fellow PTSD survivors among the readership. I have had mine for more than 50 years now. More than 16 schools by the time I was a sophomore in high school, 4 in 8th grade alone. Plus getting shot at, killed in 2001, and a few other things. And untreated PTSD turns into depression, which they couldn’t treat when I got it because it wasn’t even a diagnosis until 20 years later. I hope that you got treated anyway, because my nightmares have devolved into hallucinogenic trips…

        6. Laura

          I’m so sorry you are dealing with all this, Opus the Poet.

          Don’t know if it might help at all, but I always share these:

          • United Way: https://www.211.org/ or call 2-1-1
          • Find Help: https://www.findhelp.org/
          • Connect IE: https://connectie.org/?lang=en

      2. SeanR

        PTSD? As in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? As in Shell Shock?
        Is this a case of one initialism, two meanings, or do you actually mean the result of surviving a harrowing experience and experiencing long-term mental effects from it?

        1. Laura

          Hi Sean,

          Yes, that is my understanding. Kurt Vonnegut was a prisoner of war during World War Two. My understanding is that Slaughterhouse Five was a metaphorical description of the kinds of post-traumatic dissociation that Vonnegut himself apparently experienced.

          Thanks for clarifying!

        2. Anna

          Billy Pilgrim (the character l) fought in WW2, became a prisoner of war, and survived the destruction of Dresden. He definitely suffers from PTSD in the novel.

    3. Formedras

      Hope Charlie doesn’t get assassinated at some point. But even if… so it goes.

      1. Laura

        “Poo-tee-weet?”

        1. MM

          Did canon ever establish a name for Dexter’s home planet? If not, is it Trafalmadore?

        2. hoop

          IIRC it was literally called “Alien”

    4. Needfuldoer

      Charlie just interacts with the world over a dial-up connection. 5000 ping and occasional disconnects.

      1. Laura

        Ah. That explains it. 🙂 (Cue dial-up modem sound…)

  2. Ana Chronistic

    is THAT how it works ?

    (Charlie seems to live in a happy little reality of her own, I’d like to visit)

    1. milu

      Hope you don’t mind seahorses

  3. Mr. Random

    I mean… dating doesn’t mean you’re exclusive.

  4. Animedingo

    I dont know if there’s a word for what Charlie has

    1. Doctor_Who

      The word for what Booster currently has is “migraine”.

      1. SmartAlec105

        Yeah, it’s nice to see Booster being the one fucked with this time. Pretty much every character needs someone who pushes their buttons.

    2. Laura

      A girlfriend! That’s the word. 😉

      1. RacingTurtle

        lol

    3. Proxiehunter

      Carla. She has Carla.

    4. Jamie

      “90s-style quirkiness”?

    5. DailyBrad

      A Switch. It might be Booster’s turn again soon, though.

      1. Librain

        Well, I don’t think we have confirmation on what Carla’s preferences are in that regar- oh wait, you’re talking about the game console…

  5. Chasey

    Wait.
    What?

    1. clif

      A switch. It’s what Willis just did.

    2. Tan

      Once again the universe bends itself to Carla’s benefit

      1. clif

        As is only proper.

    3. JoeCovenant

      Just came here to say EXACTLY the same thing!

  6. Grimey

    Just gals being pals.

  7. Chaucer59

    Love on the spectrum. It’s just as screwed up as love off the spectrum.

  8. Jo_cubstar

    Aaaaaaaaaah hahahahaha God Damn it, Willis! Well done messing with us all like that. That was absolutely brilliant ahahahahahaha.

    1. anon

      lol this makes me think of that ma3 strip “did i skip a page?!” since something like “oh i already held her hand but she still wasn’t aware of me” does seem something she’d tell booster whether accidentally or semi-bragging (tho I guess based on what we’ve seen so far it’s totally believable that charlie’s used to ppl holding her hand/guiding her with non romantic intentions)

  9. C.T. Phipps

    It’s good to see Booster’s evil schemes utterly thwarted.

    1. Rabbit

      …What part of their scheme was evil though?

      1. PedanticJerkass

        And what part of it was thwarted, for that matter?

        (Well, aside from the “evil scheme” of eating a warm lunch, that is.)

      2. C.T. Phipps

        It seemed Booster was going to use her connection with Charlie to force Carla into running through hoops in order to satisfy her sense of psychological control.

        Charlie headed that off.

        1. Bootshivers

          Their

        2. C.T. Phipps

          Typo. My bad.

        3. SeanR

          Booster is protecting their delicate sister from the sociopath-in-training that is Carla.
          “Prove to me that you’re not a massive, flaming, colon sphincter, who will hurt my sister before I help you get with her” is hardly what I’d call “psychological control”.

          Traditionally, this is the role of the brothers and father, to scare the prospective boyfriend into proving his worth, or getting lost, before he breaks their sister.

        4. superglucose

          wow this accidental transphobia towards Carla deserves multiple pies to the face

        5. thejeff

          Not to mention the bog standard misogyny of the “traditional” role of the man in family gatekeeping access to the women.

        6. C.T. Phipps

          Booster being a protective non-binary sibling is fine. But it seems they’re just enjoying playing with Carla’s head and not respecting their sibling’s autonomy.

          As a neurodivergent person, I hated when people infantalized me.

          Carla is loud and obnoxious but, well, a good person. She saved Ruth’s life.

        7. SeanR

          I will grant that Charlie’s obvious neurodivergence does factor into my labeling her as “delicate”, or at least more vulnerable to being taken advantage of, but the duty of a more capable, (of seeing and reading the signs, and of ending the threat), family member is to see to it that no one gets to hurt them. Regardless of their other attributes.

          Carla has publicly stated that what matters to Carla is Carla. She’s not a stock, cardboard-cutout of a villain, but no one is. If I were in Booster’s shoes, I’d not want to be the one introducing the two, either, as it could be taken as an endorsement, and I’d certainly not want to endorse Carla.

        8. thejeff

          Yeah, I don’t actually have any problem with Booster here. (Or at least not beyond the dumbing expected from any character in this comic.)

          It was the praise of that traditional male role that got to me.

        9. SeanR

          I was wrong. Carla doesn’t appear to be a sociopath.
          Carla certainly appears to be a narcissist.
          I’d want neither anywhere near anyone I cared about.

          How is it transphobia to not want the studied selfishness that is Carla near a loved-one? She goes out of her way to express that she cares about no one but herself.

        10. Uly

          The transphobia comes when you refer to both Booster and Carla as male – Booster as a *brother*, Carla as a *boyfriend*.

          Transphobia with a healthy dose of misogyny.

        11. Arillius

          While that is a read, it is certainly a very uncompromising read since they didn’t directly state ‘Booster is a brother’. They spoke of general, factually traditional roles associated with brothers and fathers. It’s only misogynistic if they insist that is something women are not allowed to do, which they did not.

        12. Taffy

          Well, until the court comes back with a verdict, maybe armchair litigation is a little bit preemptive.

        13. thejeff

          Oh no, it’s misogynistic as hell if you’re talking about those traditional roles with any kind of approval. Arguing that anyone in the family, but mostly the men, need to test prospective dates for their female kin, is misogynistic. Women can date who they want and don’t need some to try to scare them off.

          The transphobic part is a bit less clear, since it’s not stated directly, but since they’re applying the traditional role of brothers scaring prospective boyfriends to Booster and Carla respectively, the implication is there.

        14. S.R.

          Pretty sure “traditionally that’s directed towards the boyfriend” implies “traditionally it’s boys who court girls”, not “Carla is a boy”. Which is true, for some places and some time periods, including the places and time periods where that model of trying to scare off said courtiers is a thing.

        15. thejeff

          Combined with casting Booster in the role of “brother” and the general misogyny of the whole concept, I’m not inclined to cut a lot of slack here.

        16. Taffy

          That’s silly. Charlie doesn’t seem “delicate” at all.

    2. milu

      They will have their revenge!!!! Which is best served cold, like these fries

      1. clif

        These fries are best served cold? Well maybe with the right salsa.

  10. RassilonTDavros

    “Was this part of your plan too, Charlie?”

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Anyway Charlie just keeps climbing up my favorite characters list every time she appears.

  11. Rose by Any Other Name

    Charlie: “Carla’s my girlfriend.”

    Me: **backing away slowly**

    I mean, I love me an adorkable disaster lesbian romance, but… I don’t think that’s what this is. I don’t know what this is, but…
    **continues backing away slowly**

    1. AlexaSpuds

      I think they’re just kinda blind and awkward right now more than anything sinister or potentially destructive like with the almost-not-toxic-towards-the-end relationship Billie and Ruth had.
      These two are just a little silly with it.

      1. thejeff

        Well it gets a lot weirder and more problematic if you assume as we had every reason to until this strip that we’d seen all their interactions and nothing like what she said had ever happened.

        1. Rose by Any Other Name

          Like… even with this strip… they sat near one another without speaking or interacting in any way?
          Except that Carla maybe touched her hand once?

          Like, if I sit next to someone and bump their hand, it is CREEPY if they then think we’re dating.

          I mean, I’m glad Carla’s happy and all, but…

        2. Mturtle7

          It gets less creepy, I think, if you imagine that Carla was actually talking AT Charlie, hoping to be acknowledged but never seeing it. That is to say, they WERE meaningfully interacting, but Carla didn’t know that Charlie knew they were doing that, and Charlie didn’t know that Carla didn’t know that Charlie knew they were doing that.

          I go into a lot more detail into my headcanons about their interactions in a comment some ways below, which I hope will present a relatively plausible & non-creepy vision of how it all went down!

        3. Mturtle7

          Oh, and to be clear: I’m not saying this is a HEALTHY relationship for either of them, just that it’s not as creepy as you say.

        4. thejeff

          Well, we don’t know what their previous times hanging out were like.

          Why do you assume that it was that minimal?

        5. clif

          Both Charlie and Carla both know that it never happened. At this point they’re just messing with Booster.

          Crack ships are the best ships.

  12. BBCC

    I am cackling. GIRLFRIENDS!

    1. Now

      Exactly. This is a gag. It is hilarious. Let’s rejoice.

  13. Amós Batista

    Thia time skip was longer than I expected…

  14. Jon

    …what?

  15. Red

    hahahaha that’s great

  16. Schpoonman

    This is incredible.

  17. DarkoNeko

    fucking WHAT ? lol

  18. cbwroses

    So did this happen entirely off panel or were there Patreon strips that showed this?
    Because, if it was entirely off panel, I’m gonna need a timeline of when this occurred in relation to the recent arcs.

    1. AY

      Was definitely not in the patreon bonus strips

    2. brionl

      They ran into each other a couple of times in or near class recently. Maybe Charlie is just extrapolating from that.

      1. cbwroses

        Class isn’t on the weekend (unless you count Friday, and I don’t THINK their specific class is on Friday).
        And Carla acknowledges holding hands, but thought maybe Charlie did it because they were cold, which definitely didn’t show under any of the Charlie tags that I just checked.

        1. thejeff

          So, this is Monday. Last time we saw Charlie it was in class on Thursday. That was the time Carla tried to get her attention in the hall outside.

          On Saturday, Carla first approached Booster to get them to tell Charlie that she exists. It was Sunday that Carla spent all day waiting in the wrong dorm for Charlie.

          It’s hard for me to see space in there for Carla and Charlie to hang out. The Saturday conversation makes no sense if they already had. Nor the waiting all day in the wrong dorm. Maybe they met up after that?

        2. brionl

          Or maybe they didn’t actually meet up in objective reality, and Charlie is “remembering” things that she just thought about. And Carla is just playing along because “cute girl thinks we’re dating”.

        3. brionl

          Charlie might have Walter Mitty syndrome:

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Mitty

        4. thejeff

          It’s possible, but the more I think about it, the more I think it’s real. But it was last weekend, not the immediately past one.
          And Carla’s been trying to her attention and freaking out about it ever since.

    3. Thag Simmons

      We haven’t seen anything like this on-panel, so whatever the elaboration ends up being is probably going to be backfilled from this.

    4. Mark

      About halfway through this thread I thought, “Charlie is telling a little story to make Booster comfortable enough to leave, because she wants a private moment to ask, ‘so, why have you been trying to get my attention?’ She tends to be unaware of people in the moment but remembers it fully later, or something.”

      Also noting that “girlfriend” is ambiguous here. This should be interesting either way.

      1. thejeff

        But Carla plays into it, apparently confirming they were hanging out.

  19. AY

    Anyone remember how many days it’s been since the time skip? I’m trying to piece this together

    1. HueSatLight

      one chapter a day, plus a chapter for the Halloween flashback. First day after the timeskip was the Sunday before classes started. This chapter is the third Monday of classes.

  20. Doopyboop

    Not sure if this is a case where things happened off-screen and we just didn’t get to be privy to them, or if Charlie’s confusing Carla for someone else or… or something else O.o

    1. cbwroses

      Carla admits that they were in each other’s presence and held hands (she just wasn’t sure if it was all intentional).
      So unless she’s lying on the spot to go with what Charlie is saying, it really happened, apparently offscreen.

      1. Doopyboop

        Well, hot damn! Carla’s rizz was so powerful she didn’t even realize she immediately rizzed up Charlie as soon as their hands touched.

    2. anon

      well the ‘maybe your hands were cold’ implies that carla did hold her hands rather than it being another person.

  21. Samniel

    Well that went… better than expected? Funnier! Way funnier than expected

  22. elfroyalty

    booster: oh, no. there’s two of them.

    1. elfroyalty

      for those a little confused: there wasn’t a significant timeskip (last chapter ended with karaoke, and ruth told jason that she was out late the night before ‘karaokeing’ on feb 8th’s strip). friday thru sunday took place over the three previous chapters (‘but don’t give yourself away,’ ‘everybody’s looking for nothing,’ & ‘it’s the love i haven’t got’). the weekend just passed. last we saw carla, she was hanging out with a hat that said her name in a cute dress. these two meet-ups that charlie interprets as dates (and carla as possibly incidental hanging out, whether out of internal anxiety or charlie’s spaciness) happened off-screen.

      for the record, charlie’s actually known carla’s name since ‘joementum.’ (april 24th, 2023 strip ‘My name is’), she just hasn’t acknowledged it in front of carla.

      can’t wait for more charlie i am utterly obsessed with her

      1. Freemage

        Was there hand-holding in any of those strips we’ve seen? That seems to be the biggest point of confusion.

        1. thejeff

          No. And none of them were over the weekend.
          The only place an off-screen meet-up seems to make sense is after Carla spent the day waiting for Charlie in the wrong dorm.

          And at the start of this scene with Booster, she was still asking for an introduction.

        2. elfroyalty

          as mentioned in my previous post, “charlie’s actually known carla’s name since ‘joementum.’ (april 24th, 2023 strip ‘My name is’), she just hasn’t acknowledged it in front of carla.” carla requires explicit acknowledgement of her existence, it’s kind of her thing. usually you don’t refer to someone you’re talking to by name, at least not in english, outside of specific circumstances, and charlie doesn’t talk very much in any of her appearances. you can spend hours even alone with someone without having ever been properly introduced.

          the joke is that charlie has literally known who carla is the entire time, carla just wasn’t told. (also lesbians are dumb)(i’m lesbians) booster also could’ve cleared this up at any point, considering they’ve known that carla and charlie share a class since the april 27th, 2023 strip ‘Charlie’.

          not everyone will find the joke funny but i personally think it’s brilliant, an extremely funny twist. :3

        3. thejeff

          Though that doesn’t actually show that Charlie knew Carla’s name. She doesn’t say it. We can assume, but we don’t know how much she caught of Carla’s game.
          I’m not sure what you mean by Booster clearing it up. Everyone involved knew they shared a class. Carla just wanted an introduction so hopefully Charlie would focus on her a bit.

        4. BBCC

          I just assumed Carla’s been fucking with Booster.

        5. elfroyalty

          Nope! any hanging out was off-screen. the last time we see charlie is technically in a bonus strip, standing outside in the snow with the switch, and in the main comic, at class looking at her phone. (april 30th, 2023 strip ‘Wander’)

      2. missilentmurmur

        Thanks that was helpful

      3. Bridgebrain

        I think it’s entirely that charlie is so spaced/noncommunicative that absent mindedly holding someones hand without really realizing theres a person on the other end is entirely plausible, up until this reveal.

      4. Imp

        You call it obsessed, I call it due diligence, thank you very much.

  23. Pocky

    Mission failed successfully.

    Congrats; Carla.

  24. NGPZ

    ?

    *plays “Close To You” by The Carpenters on hacked muzak*

    1. Laura

      Excellent choice!

      Plays “Close to Me,” by the Cure on the hacked vinyl record player.

      Strains of the Beatles, “Got to Get You Into My Life” drift over from the nearby roller rink speaker system: “Ooh, you were meant to be near me
      Ooh, and I want you hear me…Ooh, and I suddenly see you, Ooh, did I tell you I need you?’

  25. JessWitt

    Top ten plot twists in anime DoA.

    1. anon

      I don’t think anyone saw this coming

      but be hilarious/frustrating for carla if the alternate was “oh i have a girlfriend, although we haven’t talked in 5 years but we technically never broke up either” XD

      1. Opus the Poet

        Including Carla and Booster.

  26. Diane

    A true mood, Booster. Cold fries are pretty sad, drown them in ketchup to fix it.

    1. Schpoonman

      There are some people who believe most any food is best eaten at room temperature, perhaps barring foods whose structural integrity relies on temperature, like ice cream.

      Those people are known as muddytruckers you avoid.

    2. Jamie

      Tbh, if they’re well seasoned, I’m okay with fries at pretty much any temperature.

      1. ArcaneDarkness

        Zero kelvin?

        1. Garry

          The cronch factor of a French fry in relation to temperature is a bell curve. At a certain point it’s cold enough to make those fries cronch again, and that’s what really matters.

    3. anon

      I would think if they’re on campus there’s a microwave for them to use and reheat whatever was ordered. if not ordering a new meal i’m sure carla would be in a good enough mood to treat booster to lunch for a month straight now

      1. anon

        also surprised they wouldn’t multitask/eat some of the fries even if they don’t unwrap their burger tho i’m more used to standing while eating sometimes even if i’m not walking/def would’ve if i was stuck in a convo with someone (or even just chewing on food while watching carla’s awkward convo lol)

    4. zee

      Cold fries are why everyone should own a toaster oven. Or an air fryer ig they’re just convection toaster ovens

      1. anon

        i think air fryers are a bit ‘fancy’ for a college student to have unless you can get some cheaper than a switch but even so i would worry about a roommate mooching it or breaking it lol

        1. Needfuldoer

          You can get a single service size air fryer with analog controls for about $30 at the big box stores.

          They might be forbidden under the same rules as hot plates, though.

  27. Aggrax

    …Damn you Willis

  28. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    It isn’t a date if one of you doesn’t know it is a date.

    1. Masumi

      But if they’re informed after the fact that it was a date, does it become a date?

      1. Taffy

        I think date status requires a certain form of consent. It’s like those chess rules that only exist if both players believe hard enough.

        1. AbacusWizard

          Oh, like that thing where both players agree to pretend that it matters which color square goes in the bottom right corner, and get mad at people who point out that it really doesn’t matter!

        2. BarerMender

          Of course it matters! If the board is oriented wrong, you will put your queen on the wrong color and the whole game goes to pot. Imagine the confusion:
          White: “How did I lose that game? It started off so good.”
          Black: “How did we both lose that game? It started off fucked up.”
          Director: “Who told these idiots they could play chess?”

        3. milu

          Or like that rule that you can promote a pawn into anything but somehow NOT into a laser-shooting lego pirate?? Man come on

        4. Taffy

          Or the rule that each player gets 2 water tiles to place anywhere on the board at any time.

        5. milu

          or that rule that when you’re mad about losing you get to flip the board and that makes you less of a loser actually!

        6. Freemage

          Find a copy of the game Knightmare Chess (there were two ‘editions’, both are good and can be added together to make a mega-game). It was a deck of cards you used while playing a standard chess game. While laser lego pirates weren’t in there, it did have a way for you to have a pawn blow up (capturing all the adjacent pieces), rotate the board 90 degrees, and create a “superqueen” that was both a Queen and a Knight, among other insanity.

        7. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          Yes. If all parties agree after the fact that it was a date, it retroactively becomes a date. But one person claiming it was a date doesn’t make it one.

    2. anon

      it def is surprising that charlie would be the one to bring it up/call her a gf, maybe the times that charlie was present/’in the moment’ during the hangout read carla’s body language/actions as being into her

      1. Freemage

        This is my take–Charlie, for all her spaciness, apparently is able to read people quite well, and understood Carla’s intent better than anyone, including Carla.

        “This person is interested in me. She’s cute. Okay, we’re dating now, holding hands like a couple of perverts.”

    3. Bogeywoman

      Tbf it’s a pretty typical lesbian experience to not know you were on a date. It has happened to me a few times. I have a friend who was dating someone for 6 months before she realised and they’re married now.

      1. milu

        This story would be even funnier without the “and”

      2. anon

        @bogey: i mean, ‘useless lesbian’ trope/stereotype aside it’d be better for more ppl to state their intentions at some point rather than assume b/c it’d be super awkward if someone actually leaned in for a kiss and it backfire/realizing and regretting. (plus for it to be six months unless they take it slow i’d think there’d be other indication of romantic affection as opposed to platonic like kissing versus just hand holding unless they literally act that way with all their other friends)

        or like “This is a date? Y’know I’m already dating ___, right?” if not “actually i’m not gay/straight, sorry if i gave you mixed signals?” Or someone, not necessarily hostile but insisting strongly that you don’t want any one on one hangouts to be a date so ppl don’t get the wrong idea off the bat/accidentally lead someone on

        Would be nice if there were more endearing oblivious ppl versus douchebags who assume they’re amazing and that you’re into them when you clearly show no interest either way lol

    4. thejeff

      Thing sometimes become dates retroactively. Or even in the middle.

    5. MM

      But it is quite easy to go on a date you’re not sure is a date if you’re both too scared to ask.

    6. Mel

      Fun fact, i got broken up with by a woman I was unaware considered us to be dating for the previous half year.
      There is no limit to how oblivious a lesbian can be

      1. anon

        @mel: lol i wish i had these problems (tho be nice to be more aware if someone was annoyed with me/disliked me within reason) but i can’t rly imagine seeing too many openly gay ppl here, even tho the south isn’t as ‘bad’ as it was two decades ago but i guess i live in a small suburb but i wouldn’t go outta my way to seek a relationship rather than having fellow allies/comrades

  29. MisterJinKC

    Ok this doesn’t make sense. I’m almost 100% positive that this isn’t something we saw happen. And it doesn’t make sense for it to have happened off screen because if they’d hung out multiple times and held hands Carla wouldn’t have needed Booster to introduce her to Charlie. Put in a good word for her due to not knowing where they stand? Sure. Subtly find out where she stands? Definitely. But not an introduction.

    1. Masha

      Yeah this is dumb af

      1. BohNo

        dumbing of fuck

    2. HueSatLight

      People can hang out holding hands without one of them acknowledging the other’s name.

    3. Devin

      We didn’t see it happen, can confirm that.

      My read on this is that Charlie did not give Carla what she would recognize as signals of acknowledgement. Charlie is pretty well-established to seem spacey to other characters, with not a lot of outward indication of what’s going on in her head, while Carla has never dealt in subtlety.

      1. Bryy

        It is entirely possible that Charlie was Booster when talking to Carla about Charlie, and went from there.

    4. Thag Simmons

      Yeah this doesn’t add up but it’s obviously meant to be a confusing swerve that is going to be explained in future strips, so I’m not really worrying about trying to fit the pieces together.

      1. milu

        I don’t think it will be explained. Willis has punked us, they are probably cackling as we speak, and presently will be reaching into their bag of tricks for their next stunt. We may fume at their mischief but they will not stoop to appease us. Or such is my presumption.

    5. anon

      skipping over their coupling might make some ppl happy tho

      but someone as comically jerky as mike (even tho he got killed off b/c he didn’t rly fit with the story long term), and stuff like arcs with amazigirl existing, them being a couple isn’t too unrealistic evenif it’s somehow ‘accidental’

    6. Mturtle7

      It took me like a solid five minutes (with intermittent bursts of giggling, b/c it’s still a funny strip) to figure out how this even remotely makes sense, but now I honestly think it does.

      The trick, for me, was realizing that “hanging out” or “going out” together doesn’t necessarily require any sort of CONVERSATION, or even verbal acknowledgement of each others’ existence. Carla was convinced that she needed an introduction to Charlie, because Charlie simply never spoke to her during their previous “dates”, or at least never identified her by name when she did.

      Picture the following scenario: Carla rolls up to the same bench as Charlie, and sits down to rest after a long skating trip. Naturally enough, she starts going on a long spiel about who she is, how awesome she is, and what awesome things she’s going to do in the near future. Charlie shows absolutely no signs that she even heard any of this, and appears engrossed in her phone. Carla abruptly leaves, in order to cover up how nervous and awkward this makes her. Charlie is about 70% sure this counts as a date, but Carla has no idea if Charlie even knows she exists. Next time they meet, Carla rolls up to Charlie in the halls, and follows her out to the bus stop, making a series of increasingly awkward (and from her perspective, failed) attempts at small talk. They both sit down. Charlie, still staring at her phone, holds Carla’s hand. Silence follows. The bus comes, and Charlie leaves Carla there. Charlie is now 90% sure they’re dating, and Carla is utterly smitten with how cool this random, aloof, stranger who totally doesn’t know her is. Next time they see each other in class, Carla starts yelling about how this freshman won’t pay attention to her, and that’s the first time we see them together in the comic.

      1. Keulen

        I’m hoping it’s something like this scenario, because otherwise it doesn’t make sense that Carla still thought she needed Booster to introduce her to Charlie, while Charlie thought they were already dating. Especially since we didn’t see any off screen stuff to indicate they went on any “dates” before now.

      2. Blume

        I believe you

  30. Dante

    Of a (DOA) semester of Booster being my favorite character, I had never related to them so much as tonight.

    Holy shit sdgjsldgjksjg if it weren’t for the “maybe your hands were cold” I’d swear Charlie’s confusing Carla with someone else. Congratulations on avoiding the “will they won’t they” lesbian trap by going full on “we held hands so we’re dating” lesbians, good show everyone.

    1. milu

      Counterpoint: “will they won’t they” is a sweet, sweet trap and i will enthusiastically fall for its intoxicating promise every time, allowing my wings to be glued down and my very flesh to dissolve into the blissful agony of its acidic depths.

    2. Freemage

      I still have no use for Booster as a person or a character, but I love Charlie more every time we see her, or even when someone mentions her name on-panel when she’s absent. She’s a force of nature, but not a violent one–more like a morning mist, glistening in the pre-dawn twilight, obscuring everything around her.

      1. Thomas

        Charlie’s absent anyway, whether she’s on-panel or not.

  31. sakamism

    Can’t tell if I’ve missed something or if Charlie is even more of a space cadet than we’ve been shown so far

    1. anon

      i guess something must’ve happened during the karaoke night even if they weren’t a part of it lol

      and congrats to carla for getting what she wants more or less, and to the ppl rooting for them to be a couple (tho idk if it’s better or worse that they skipped over more of the courtship, unless we’ll see more flashbacks or future dates lol)

  32. Throwatron

    W H A T

    help too cute i cant stay normal about thi

  33. HueSatLight

    “Sister, Christian” through “Trial and Sarah” if last weekend means 9 days ago. “Don’t Give Yourself Away” if last weekend started the Friday three days ago.

    Charlie was introduced to us in between those two.

    1. HueSatLight

      Great prank on us though. [chef’s kiss]

    2. cbwroses

      Good looking out.

    3. HueSatLight

      Because of how Carla acted in class, I would guess this last weekend Carla ran into Charlie, at like the student union or library, and they just chilled, holding hands. But without Charlie ever acknowledging Carla’s introduction.

      We know Carla is capable of just chilling, we’ve seen her do it with Sal, Malaya, Marcie, and also Ruth and Lucy.

      Carla asks Booster to introduce her to Charlie twice on Saturday, and then for so far unexplained reasons, asks to borrow butter from Joyce.
      Carla wakes Booster up around 7:30-8 on Sunday, and then is in Briscoe for 10ish hours (may be hyperbole) before Booster shows up. She’s back in Read to pie Walky as he’s headed out to karaoke, time uncertain.

      1. Taffy

        She was gonna eat the butter on its own in front of Mary, as a show of dominance

        1. HueSatLight

          oh that makes sense. I wonder if I could use that at work.

        2. milu

          Don’t forget to look your coworkers dead in the eye while you sink your teeth, over and over, into that stick of butter. You may choose to smile and nod amicably at them all the while to suggest that you may yet prove a benign alpha colleague if they submit without a fight.

        3. HueSatLight

          I work with cattle.

        4. milu

          hahaha

        5. milu

          do cattle not have alphas

        6. HueSatLight

          They do, but I don’t really consider the bulls my coworkers. And the cows are already easily… cowed.

        7. milu

          Well, this does rather render the point mooot.

        8. clif

          Do not recommend.

        9. Taffy

          I highly recommend.

      2. Aura

        Impeccable comic-tracking as always! Very helpful 🙂

      3. thejeff

        Yeah, it’s really hard to see when in that schedule even one meet up with Charlie could have happened.

      4. HueSatLight

        If Charlie’s bonus strip happened this weekend, it would have probably been Saturday, maybe Sunday. She’s standing outside student union for at least an hour, at the start there is snow on the ground, and the sky is clear and daylight. At the end, the sun has set / is setting, and it’s snowing.
        In the main strip, it snowed all day Friday. Saturday had only one panel outside, when it wasn’t snowing in the morning. Sunday had many strips outside, none showed snowing. The last one was when Walky saw/told his parents off. That happened “a few hours” after they finished their lunch with Jennifer and Asher.

        1. milu

          open-source journalism at its finest ?

        2. thejeff

          I now assume it was last weekend, not this one. That gives a lot more room for them to hang out.

          And it completely recontextualizes all of their interactions since. Carla trying to get her attention in their first strip together isn’t just a narcissist not getting her just attention, but her wondering why the girl she’d been hanging out with and thought she had a connection with wasn’t even acknowledging her.

  34. Reaver

    Que…?

  35. Ray

    The dumbing circle: complete.

  36. Bittersweet

    Somebody link me the strips where this happened lol, I thought they last interacted in class

    1. Taffy

      Those strips don’t exist.

      1. milu

        Omg Taffy quit trolling people

        1. Taffy

          At this point, I can’t always tell if I’m trolling or just saying something other people find strange. Usually they assume it’s the former and won’t hear a word to the contrary.

        2. milu

          hilariously someone always does seems to think you’re serious

        3. Taffy

          When I mention a slightly unusual behavior I had in kindergarten: “You always were a kidder, Taffy.”

          When I say, out of nowhere, that I’m gonna turn a real Glock into one of the Blade Blasters from Power Rangers and take it to a convention so I can shoot people dressed as the villains from the show: “You’re clearly being serious about this. Guns are dangerous, and you mustn’t ever do such a thing with them. This is the time to be parasocially stern with you like we know each other.”

  37. Kyrik Michalowski

    I never realized how much I needed this until just now.

    Ship Carlie(?) sails.

    Is Carlie acceptable?

    1. elfroyalty

      been calling them charla myself

      1. Bogeywoman

        It’s the ChaCa Slide

        1. Bogeywoman

          (your hand into my hand because it might be cold)

  38. saltchocolate

    I’m lost.

    1. Devin

      That’s okay, so is Carla. Charlie seems to have the best grasp on the situation, which I absolutely love. (Also apparently a decent grasp of Carla’s hand, which I also love.)

    2. Icalasari

      Everybody but Charlie is lost. And Charlie isn’t lost only because she hasn’t noticed she’s in a maze yet

      1. Freemage

        It goes deeper. Charlie IS the maze….

  39. Suet

    It all hinges on “I’m not entirely certain, but I kinda assumed”.

    But, Booster, the best thing in life is a burger but cold!

    1. anon

      Better than the alternative of “i assumed we went on a date but we’re not even rly friends/only have mutual acquaintances and no relationship otherwise” which has happened a lot more irl

    2. Liara

      Absolute unhinged crazy talk

  40. Jamie

    I feel like everyone both won and lost this round.

    1. Jeremiah

      I don’t know, I fell like Charlie is pretty much this strip winner.

      1. Hazel

        I think Charlie isn’t even playing the game.

        1. MM

          Charlie is literally playing eighth dimensional chess. It’s why she can’t focus on anything else.

        2. thejeff

          But she still won this strip.

        3. Freemage

          Why should Charlie play the game? She won before it started….

  41. Just an Armadillo

    The most devious conclusion to this you could have come up with, Willis. I applaud/curse you.

    1. anon

      quite early for april fools day lol, but yeah as far as artist/story trolls go atl east some ppl would ceelbrate it

  42. Hazel

    I…I love Charlie.

    1. Pocky

      Charlie stocks rising

      1. Taffy

        ?????

    2. anon

      we need more ppl like charlie. i’d love to be as (seemingly) chill as her tho idk if i could date someone like carla unless it’s a more toned down ver

      that said, would be interesting to see her actually in an emotional state and how that’d be handled

  43. CMasta1992

    I have never felt more kinship with Booster than I have in this moment.

  44. Bootshivers

    Y-yay lesbians

    (Bro this continuity isn’t mathing)

    1. Taffy

      Instead of trying to put the star-shaped block in the triangular hole, maybe a different approach would help.

      1. Bootshivers

        Unfortunately I’m a fucking moron, so it’s all going in the square hole

        1. Taffy

          Don’t be so down on yourself. I’m sure you’re plenty smart.

        2. milu

          Aw that’s sweet ?

    2. Aura

      The events Charlie refers to presumably happened of-screen, HueSatLight has a bit of a breakdown on when those could have occurred above 🙂

      1. Aura

        Eugh I was forced to stare at that typo for like a good 10 seconds while the page loaded after I pressed ‘Post Comment’ >.<

        1. milu

          Hey hey, so, a priest an imam and a rabbit walk into a blood bank,

        2. clif

          Goes off to ask a chatbot for the rest of the joke.

        3. Rabbit

          Hey, I do all my donations in gymnasiums, as god intended.

        4. Aura

          Thank you ❤
          (Why a blood bank?)

  45. AMagicalDuck

    Tbh Carla accidentally romancing her crush off panel and not realising it is both on brand and very relatable

    1. HueSatLight

      . o O ( huh, I guess we’re holding hands. probably shouldn’t read anything into this )

      I’ve had something like that experience before.

      1. Dara

        I’ve been a pretty useless lesbian a couple of times, but never that useless.

      2. milu

        “Oh you want to sleep with me sure, oh i guess you like to sleep naked, that’s fine, omfg you kissed me???”

    2. anon

      if only everyone (who wants to) can just easily get a partner by the other person stating it, would take a lot of pressure off

      makes me think of that 4chan? screenshot of like “they’re gonna be married and two kids before he realizes she’s into him” or something like that

  46. Wilde

    What, huh?? This doesn’t make sense even with a time skip. Why would Carla be trying to introduce herself still? Why would she not know where Charlie lives if they went out?
    Why would Charlie act like this with someone she thought was her girlfriend?

    Someone said she’s mistaken her for someone else, obviously not, since Carla suddenly remembers hanging out with her.

    Is Charlie meant to be kind of a Galasso, just a comical caricature?

    1. Taffy

      “Maybe your hands were cold” is the big clue here. It’s ambiguous and doesn’t really make a lot of sense as a real response to that information. I think Carla’s full of shit in that last bubble, because none of that happened.

      1. Jeremiah

        The way she says that makes me think she means it the “Maybe you only held my hand because yours were cold and there wasn’t anything romantic about it” way.

    2. Regret

      Have you see the way Carla acts around her? And how Charlie acts in general? I guarantee you, no meaningful conversation took place, and every single interactions was intentionally made to be as ambiguous as possible, while the small parts of their rational minds that still work are working overtime trying to figure out what is happening, considering all possibilities and rejecting all good ones as wishful thinking.

  47. Shaith86

    I’m with Booster, I hate this…

    1. anon

      Well, you could always take a break for 6 month, that way you can just speed read/skip past tihs and enjoy the other charas

  48. Rabbit

    The bit here is that it’s just an escalation of the clueless lesbian trope (Do you think she likes me?” while actively being cuddled by said woman) etc.

    That said I do not think this is being executed very well at all. And I’m kind of dissapointed bc I was hoping we’d get some more… idk internal carla? Seeing more of her?

    Feels like Willis only really wants to keep her for her bits and jokes as opposed to getting any more depth beyond “RECOGNIZE MY GREATNESS AND SUPERIORITY” jokes

    1. Taffy

      Carla’s such a clueless lesbian, she didn’t even notice she’d met Charlie before. Makes a lot of sense to me.

      1. Rabbit

        You sure are active today. You mentioned depression earlier. Do you need to talk? (This is a serious offer, I can give you my email or something)

        1. milu

          Are you for real?? Get a life. And learn fucking pronouns terfy shithead

        2. The Oracle

          What pronouns? What, are they hidden in his icon somehow?

        3. Taffy

          The offer is appreciated, but no, thank you. I don’t talk to very many people.

    2. morleuca

      Maybe this is the turning point for Carla from slapstick force of nature to fleshed out, fragile, lost-like-the-rest-of-us cast member?

  49. june gloom

    This is pretty much the only way this could possibly have ended.

  50. Wereg

    If this is on the level, it is actually the funniest way this could have ended.

  51. Ash

    I have so many questions.

    1. Taffy

      It’s probably gonna be a long time til we get answers to them, with this comic only updating on Tuesday and Thursday.

      1. Mturtle7

        Taffy, OH MY GOD.

        (new readers: please do not listen to their lies, the comic is still updating daily as normal)

        1. Taffy

          New readers, if you’re using a rando’s comment halfway down the page for your update information, consider not doing that in the first place.

      2. HueSatLight

        Last kickstarter did so bad, not only don’t we get weekend strips, we lost Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Blurnsday.

    2. Vanessa

      So do I, this is awesome.

      1. Ash

        Agreed.

  52. Chris Phoenix

    I don’t see what either of them sees in each other. They each seem oblivious to each other’s personality or mental state. They each seem too distracted (Carla by her own awesomeness, Charlie by … something) to even be looking for a relationship. I mean, imagine them trying to have an actual conversation, or making out – they just wouldn’t connect. They’d each do better dating a chatbot than each other.

    1. Taffy

      As if anyone needed an invitation to imagine these two making out.

    2. TulipKitten

      They could surprise you. But also, people have dumb relationships in college. I mean, we had Joyce and Ethan once. And Ethan and Mike.

      I’m rooting for the two weirdos, though. Let’s see where this lesbian situationship goes.

      1. BarerMender

        Talk about dumb relationships: I had a girlfriend in college and none of my friends could understand why I was with her. I don’t to this day see what was wrong with her.

        1. clif

          How did you break up?

        2. BarerMender

          To boil it way the hell down, I was unhappy about something, and instead of speaking my mind I went all passive-aggressive. For a long time. So long that she threw me out.

    3. Mturtle7

      According to the secret (not really) Dumbiverse lore, Carla isn’t particularly interested in making out with her girlfriends, any more than she is in having sex with them. Hell, she’s not even really that interested in having deep conversations with them either! Her main love languages in that universe, as I recall, were collaborating on pranks, mutual bongoing about acquaintances, and snuggling up on the bed watching movies together. I don’t think Charlie is into bongoing about acquaintances, but the other two remain open as possibilities!

  53. Adam Black

    Im confused. I’ve checked every charlie reference and they were on weekdays around classes.

    If this was off screen, are we going to get a b&w past scene

    ( What is that word For past cutaway?)

    1. The Oracle

      Flashback.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Yup, flashback.

  54. Dara

    (BAIT AND) SWITCH

    I GET IT AR AR AR AR AR AR AR

  55. sdrainbow

    what in the good god damn

  56. anon

    Wow from delayed reaction to skipping over to relationship status. I guess that’s a win?

  57. PirateTawnee

    I was going to write about the presence of hand-holding making it understandable we’d never seen anything before, as it was clearly too much for non-Slipshine comics, but we’ve seen Joyce holding two different male hands in strip, so it must be something about Charlie and Carla specifically that makes it different.

    1. Taffy

      Homosexual intimacy is viewed as inherently sexual in many cultures and regions, including the American Midwest. This view extends to things nobody would bat an eye at from a straight couple, like holding hands or Frenching in Walmart.

      1. Aura

        I-is th-this forbidden love? S-so l-l-l-l-lewd, I – *swoon*

      2. PedanticJerkass

        Um… if I saw a man and a woman Frenching in a Walmart, I would definitely ascribe a sexual characteristic to it. “Normal” kissing, on the other hand (like a simple peck on the lips or cheek, i.e. not Frenching), would indeed likely be seen as more benign and innocuous by most people if it were a straight couple doing it versus a gay couple doing it, granted.

        (Unless you meant that the man and woman were engaging in an act of food preparation, in which case, no, I probably wouldn’t ascribe a sexual element to that. Depends on how… weirdly they were going about it. Though in any case, I’d at least wonder why they were doing it in a Walmart, unless they worked there or something.)

        1. Taffy

          Um… Erm… Uh……….

        2. Mr D

          Can confirm, am a cashier (not at Walmart tho) and we’ve had people frenching in the supermarket.
          It is awkward for everyone, no matter the couple’s gender.

          However, last weekend there was a gay couple being very affectionate during my last shift and the old lady right in front of them was ten seconds from blowing up.

        3. Taffy

          Did someone manage to stop the countdown in time?

        4. milu

          she was an undercover cop wearing a bug. good thing Mr D figured that out and clipped off that wire just in time

  58. Bash

    Wait WHAT? They already hung out and held hands? What was any of this about? I’m super confused.

    1. anon

      i guess that’s part of the joke “carla: charlie doesn’t realize i exist” “charlie: she’s my girlfriend!”

  59. DailyBrad

    This is already better than any relationship Leslie has had in this universe so far.

    Also, I find it kind of hilarious Charlie is seemingly getting more action (even if it’s hand-holding) than Booster is, despite Booster more actively pursuing it (hitting on Ruth, Amber, arguably Ethan depending?, and uhh, am I missing anybody?) at various points. Booster may want to rethink their approach.

    1. anon

      i wonder if leslie is still with that ‘sexy dentist’ lol

      1. Doopyboop

        I’ve wondered that before too, the closest we have is Leslie’s line in this panel about Becky having been with Dina longer than she’s been with her girlfriend: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/relevant/

        Which could still technically be about the dentist gf, because I just checked the archives and surprisingly, she actually started dating Anna after Becky and Dina dated. I kinda hope Leslie’s moved onto another girlfriend, we’ll have to see I guess.

      2. Needfuldoer

        I liked Mindy better.

        1. Schpoonman

          Anna’s awful, but unfortunately so is Leslie’s taste in women.

  60. Amelie Wikström

    So they’ve been “hanging out” a couple of times off panel. That’s about as much solid facts as we can discern. Almost a How I Met Your Mother level recontextualization twist, still.

  61. DashWallkick

    …. What???

  62. DailyBrad

    I love that the third panel makes it feel like Charlie is looking right at us as she drops this bombshell. She knows most of us will respond like Booster, and that’s kind of beautiful.

  63. chuckroast

    Thank god Carla got what she wanted. I’d hate to see what happened if she didn’t.

    1. Icalasari

      Eh, Carla is also baffled. There’s still a chance she gets driven insane (“be careful what you wish for”) or that Charlie is so oblivious that we see in a few strips her actual girlfriend who is also named Carla come in and whisk Charlie away while leaving Carla’s brain breaking down from sheer confusion

  64. AGV

    One needs explicit confirmation, the other has enough with implicit subtext.

  65. Odditude

    I… I … I can’t with Charlie

  66. Nenja

    Wait, what?

  67. Kenny

    When did this happen?

  68. Hazel

    I’m reserving judgment, for the moment, but I could be won over.

  69. Maddie B

    I feel as if I’ve seen this hand-holding, even though the universe seems to disagree with that feeling.

    1. Maddie B

      Also, glad to see Carla falling into the “doesn’t realize she’s in a relationship” useless lesbian trope.

  70. Aura

    BWAHAHAHAHA omg ? This is amazing! DYW, you got us you sly dog ?

  71. Needfuldoer

    How long until we learn Charlie’s face-blind and she’s actually seeing a different lanky redhead?

    1. Taffy

      That’s close to what I’m thinking. Possibly she recognises Carla by name and face, but this hypothetical other person by activity. Or there are two Carlas and this is how we find out.

  72. twig

    FLISDHUAEHSUIGVHSAIUFEASHLASKEIFHUAEJKSHVNJSHDLFSFWALDCJKAFHEWUIYDIUESHKFHIWPIFJSDHLKWUIYQFUICKJHSDJKVFKYERPQIRREYURFIWESKFHSKFNHWIEPURYQIUCNJVHDIPFUWFQYIUSDHAKJYQPFJAHKJCNJVKJAPQUFISDKNCJHWEPUQYPRUFSANVJKDAYQWPFUIQISDHFIAYPQYFUHSIAHFWYRQPQUIDAQPIFCHNIUGWAHIYWUIQPFUIWAHPFUIW

    Oh that’s freaking AMAZING what the POOP flsjdahjkaJKDSJP

  73. Steven York

    I can so identify. I suspect I have undiagnosed autism to some extent (I’m in my 60s, they didn’t know back then). Recently when I was visiting my mom in my home town, she talk about somebody who “wanted to be my friend so bad.” I answered, “They were my best friend!” Looking back though, I don’t know what their perception was. My idea of a play-date was somebody would come over and we would play in our own corners. But it never extended to someone I was dating. (Or did it? Oh, god, now I question everything!)

  74. Kim

    Hahaha what a great punchline to this little arc ??

  75. GUIGUI

    Wait, when did they hold hands? Did I miss that?

    1. Taffy

      Check all 12 of Charlie’s appearances and you’ll find nothing of the sort.

      1. Daibhid C

        I think there’s been some indication in past strips that the characters sometimes do things when we’re not looking at them.

        1. Daibhid C

          Darnit, messed the tags up.

        2. GUIGUI

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPvzGU41iNo

        3. thejeff

          Sure, but in this case, all the indications were that Carla had been seeking Charlie out but hadn’t actually found her.

  76. Mr.Morningstar

    WHAT

  77. Acher4

    Waaaaait what?
    So this romance was in-media-res from the get go?
    Sneaky Willis! 😛

  78. Coco

    Way to endear Carla to me. Endearing level + 1000!

  79. Bryy

    Obviously I’d need more info, but it sounds like Carla just found someone more toxic than her.

    1. Daibhid C

      Yep, nothing more toxic than not knowing what’s going on and not liking to ask.

      1. UrsulaDavina

        Is that toxic beacuse honestly alot of my life is like that.

    2. Queezle

      Charlie seems like extremely absent-minded. To a worrying degree, I wonder if she is disassociating. But toxic? I do not understand where you got that impression. Care to elaborate?

    3. NGPZ

      Coffee then comment amigo. Coffee THEN comment.

  80. Taigan

    That… seems pretty typical for lesbian relationships actually.

    1. Azu

      ^

  81. M!a

    It makes no sense and that’s by intention. There’s no basis for speculation; all you can do is stay tuned and wait to see what really happened, if anything.

    *(mic drop)*

    1. M!a

      *(not to be confused with a Mike drop)*

      1. Mark

        [groan]

        1. Schpoonman

          Yes, he did groan a lot before finally perishing.

        2. Taffy

          I remember being shocked at his last words of “Oof, boy golly this sure does hurt. Ouch, oh I’m in a lot of pain here. Gosh, is that the grim reaper here to guide me to the afterlife? Yup, that’s him. Wowie wow wow, I’m dead after all.”

        3. HueSatLight

          “Live with … integrity…
          one … regrrrr… bleh”

  82. Acebender

    what a plot twist

  83. milu

    I thought we agreed to call it a (bait and) Nintendo

    1. Taffy

      Gotta hit the light Nintendo before you enter a room. It’s important.

      1. Mark

        Please be careful: the heavy Nintendo hits back!

        1. milu

          hey my book is boring, do you wanna Nintendo?

  84. Sharaku

    Ha, and here we all were assuming this was a moment for Carla to grow.

    We forget the cardinal rule. The universe bows to Carla.

  85. Alan in DC

    Okay, how many strips did I miss while I was down with covid?

    1. Taffy

      That depends on how many days you had COVID.

    2. Laura

      I hope you are feeling better, Alan!

  86. Taffy

    Let’s assume for a moment that Charlie is telling the exact literal truth, canonical events have occurred which fit her description exactly and there’s no misidentification of any information. Now that we’re all in this room together, do we think Carla just casually hangs out and holds hands with with random women, without ever asking for their names or even seeming to recognise them later?

    1. Bittersweet

      Imagine stubborn child with a crush silently holding hands with someone trying to get their attention, and that’s what I’m picturing happened lol

      1. Taffy

        I don’t like imagining any sort of child, because I instinctively think about what that child would be like with me as its parent, and then that causes an episode and then the entire day is gone in the blink of an eye.

        But I do understand what you mean. I did it once or twice as a young’un, and it must have been hilarious to the teacher.

    2. milu

      Carla has been pestering Booster to get them to tell their sister that Carla exists, and is superawesomecool. Which we, lacking today’s information, assumed meant the two had never interacted and that Carla was still stuck at the sign-waving stage of her crush, but that was a prank, because as it turns out they have been seeing each other somehow, and even holding hands, except because Charlie is Charlie Carla wasn’t sure how much of the situation (including the hand-holding) had registered for her.

      turns out Charlie was there for it, just not very expressive about it. Also presumably too busy considering seahorses or bumblebees or some other amusing animal to wonder very much about Carla’s name, phone number, or other topics of so-called normal conversation.

      Meanwhile Carla was likely dumbstruck and swooney in Charlie’s presence and forgot her words as well. All in all, very cute, completely dysfunctional and immature but very cute.

      so that’s my understanding

      1. thejeff

        So was “last weekend” the immediate past weekend, when Carla was actively trying to find Charlie, or was it the weekend before and all we’ve seen of their interactions been Carla trying to get the attention of the girl she’d already kind of maybe been seeing?

        I don’t know if that makes things better or weirder.

        1. milu

          you’re making a lot of this rest on Charlie’s apprehension of linear time

        2. MacareuxMoine

          I’d go with ‘the weekend before’:
          – it’s Monday in comic and to me last weekend is more than a day ago
          – we haven’t seen much of Carla on that weekend (room for untold stories)
          – Carla’s acting in class seems less weird if they’ve met before

        3. thejeff

          Yeah, that’s basically where I got to. My first assumption was this past weekend and that just made no sense.
          The previous one works much better.

        4. HueSatLight

          “last weekend” is ambiguous, perhaps intentionally. I still lean towards “this last weekend”, but there’s good points for “last last weekend” too. I eagerly await the answer being revealed within the next six months.

  87. MegaBee

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA holy shit, this is brilliant!

  88. Carla's #2 Fan

    How far into the semester are we?

    1. HueSatLight

      This is the Monday of the third week of classes.

      1. Carla's #2 Fan

        Thank you! Well, that’s enough time then.

  89. Laura

    It looks like there’s been a little moderation in the comments section, which is a good thing overall, I think.

    Since everyone knows me as the link monster, though, I thought I’d just perhaps remind folks that these are out there, in case anyone feels like reaching out to non-professional peers for a talk.

    https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

    https://findahelpline.com/i/iasp

    https://www.nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/Helpline/NAMI-National-HelpLine-WarmLine-Directory.pdf

    1. Taffy

      Huh. Didn’t know there was an Anxiety Hotline.

    2. MM

      <3

  90. Pergola

    I think I may have wandered into the negaverse again. Hillary is still president, right?

    1. Taffy

      That’s really insensitive. Everyone knows she was kidnapped by rogue gamers and forced to play Fortnite for three years. They kept her awake with energy drinks and beef jerky. When the authorities final found her (thanks to an anonymous tip that turned out to be from Josh Brolin, of all people), she’d been default dancing for three hours and wouldn’t respond to any name but “Shlorah_Deborah”.

    2. Pergola

      Definitely the negaverse. Dangit.
      ( glad to see youre feeling better )

      1. Taffy

        Was a comment deleted?

  91. BohNo

    W HA T

    1. Taffy

      Okay, so Charlie is the one with boobs, Booster is the one wearing pink, and Carla is the one wearing a v-neck shirt. Or at least it looks like pink on my phone.

      1. BohNo

        oh thank you now i understand everything

    2. BohNo

      actually- coming back to my comment afterwards to let you know that another excellent ‘the gays are oblivious’ moment is Snorpy and Chandlo from Bugsnax. Play it- It’s real good.

  92. Cloud

    Wait… How many people have I dated without realizing?!
    *CONFUSED CLOUD NOISES*

    1. Taffy

      Every group chat, use of public transit, multiplayer guild, trading card tournament, bench conversation or shared class you’ve ever participated in might count as dating. It’s scary to think about how many hearts we’ve all broken over the years, without us or them ever realising it.

      1. milu

        what you never realized at the time was that when your heart broke, it split right along the crevices and tender cracks from all of the small accumulated heartbreaks that came before and you just weathered, laughed off, decided not to dwell upon.

    2. BohNo

      this is me in every social circle im in

  93. Shawn L.

    I expected this to get awkward…

    But not in this way.

  94. Steamweed

    They had us in the first two panels, not gonna lie.

  95. Retrikaethan

    of all the things i expected to possibly happen this was not one of them.

  96. egon

    carla’s her girlfriend but has been actively ignoring her in every strip they’re together, ok ?

    1. Jeremiah

      She doesn’t actively ignore anyone though? It’s been established that she is just very absent minded and it can take her a while to realize someone is talking to her.

      1. egon

        if someone’s talking to you and you’re too in your own head to hear, you’re still ignoring them ?

        1. Taffy

          Nah, ignoring somebody requires intent. Otherwise it’s normal inattentiveness, which has the benefit of being a much less judgemental term that puts less of that needless moral spin on the scenario.

        2. egon

          and everyone knows that’s not charlie’s intent? speaking from personal experience, normal people take it very poorly and offensively

        3. egon

          i’ll be real with you guys, i was hangry when i wrote this

        4. Taffy

          It’s okay, I don’t understand it.

  97. milu

    oh shoot, i forgot to post this, (it’s fine no one cares ‘cept for my 3 or 4 sweetie-boos who leave me a sweet comment like bosses, you know who you are, ilyyy =) i know i’m not great at this, but i do need the encouragement if i’m ever gonna git gud haha <3 <3)

    NEW PAGE yo ??
    (also updated ye olde pages, the last two or three that is cuz the uploads were shamefully lo-q)

    1. thejeff

      We care, even if we forget to comment. 🙂

      These are great.

      1. milu

        aw thank you!!!

    2. Amós Batista

      Great! Just love this strip.

      1. milu

        ?✨

    3. HueSatLight

      I’m assuming this is safe for work, since it doesn’t say NSFW.

      1. milu

        ahaha i’m cracking up just thinking of the various ways i could answer that

        i’ll go with: your colleagues are cows

        1. HueSatLight

          They’re already doing sexually explicit things in public, I don’t want to encourage their exhibitionism.

        2. milu

          hey, your colleagues have probably never seen a human naked. they’d look at that and think, “oh no something’s wrong with these tiny misshapen humans on my colleague’s phone”. if anything it might make them stop whatever disgusting thing they were doing.

          if all else fails, do the butter thing.

        3. Taffy

          Those cows have seen more naked humans than any of us.

  98. Rocketboy1313

    Boy this brings back memories of me having to ask, “This is a date right”? While resting my head in the woman’s lap.

    1. Zamperla

      Oh that’s so real.

  99. Caro

    this is the funniest fucking way this could have gone and i am here for everyone seething in the comments

    1. Icalasari

      Like god, even people who hate Carla getting what she wants should be laughing at this – Carla is confused as hell, to the point that even Carla is questioning reality

      Charlie is going to break her

    2. Pergola

      Carla is shuffling through her mental trains looking for interesting derailments.
      ( was i drunk or stoned then )

  100. Plaaaaaa

    Did I miss the comic where they held hands? Was it a bonus or a slipstream or something?

    1. HueSatLight

      No. It happened off panel. This strip continues the tradition of a character playing matchmaker to two characters who are already involved. Except this time we weren’t in on the joke.

      1. HueSatLight

        We are Jennifer, we are Joyce.

        1. Schpoonman

          Your second link is borked.

        2. HueSatLight

          I’m being silenced!
          https://www.dumbingofage.com/relentlessly-2/

    2. BohNo

      stellar slipshine idea of no-dialogue panels of them holding hands, lol

  101. Sombrero

    Am I reading too much into the first panel or did Booster somehow “switched” Charlie into the world outside her head?

  102. Nathan

    Did they hold hands on panel? Or is this new information?

  103. thumb

    I am also upset. I am on Booster’s side in all this.

    1. Amós Batista

      Me too, but they reaction also got me more relaxed about Carla and Charlie situation.

    2. Icalasari

      Even Carla is confused. We’re going to see Charlie break Carla

  104. Rabisch

    I’m a bit afraid Charlie might forget about Carla in the future, as easily as she remembers her in a past that Carla doesn’t seem to remember. But seeing Booster’s reaction, she probably won’t ( let’s hope). It’s funny to see Carla discover that she’s already the girlfriend of the girl she likes. Let’s hope she’ll continues to like her for some time to come.

  105. HueSatLight

    I wonder if not showing most of Walky and Lucy’s kisses was a sign we shouldn’t expect to see every significant step in every relationship.

  106. Adept

    Suddenly the dork-factor is off the scale.

  107. Amós Batista

    That’s why I read DoA each day.
    Today’s strip is so wonderful.

  108. bcb

    Okay…what? My gut is telling me Charlie has confused Carla with someone else.

  109. poyo

    LMAOOOOO i love it. show us the wedding willis

    1. Quinn

      Twist! They already got married off panel, but Charlie forgot to invite anyone and is fuzzy on the details of the event. Carla assumed that it was a skit for a class. Carla’s parents rented out Luxembourg (all of it) for the ceremony and reception. It was lovely, probably.

      1. poyo

        perfection. i love it

  110. Beans

    I’m going to be so sad if we don’t get to see a blue hand holding flash back

    24 page slip shine exclusive of Carla and Charlie holding hands and nothing else

  111. Chronos

    They held hands? When did that happen? I don’t remember this.

    1. Taffy

      We’ve never been shown anything of the sort, which makes me doubt it ever happened. I’m like 87% sure Charlie is confusing Carla with somebody else, maybe combining the two in her mind.

  112. Icalasari

    I love this. Even Carla can’t register what

  113. Alan in DC

    What’s “burber derber”, seen on the sign in the BG?

    1. Pergola

      Burger Derby was taken.
      ( is my guess )

    2. Mark

      My guess was: a station where they serve burgers.

    3. HueSatLight

      It’s probably a play on Erbert & Gerbert’s

  114. Mark

    Another sudden thought which is probably wrong: Booster has seen this happen before, knows how it’s going to go, and is no longer worried about Charlie (and doesn’t care to worry about Carla).

    I, on the other hand, have no idea how this is going to go….

    1. anon

      we don’t know if charlie’s dated anyone before but i feel like if they had seen it before they wouldn’t rly think it’d be necessarily to ‘introduce’ them even tho carla was insisting lol

  115. Dday

    Ehhhh, it’s a sweet reveal if kinda cheaty. This would have been more fun if there was subtle stuff in the archive we could look at and realize was the proof that Charlie thought they were already dating all along.

    1. Icalasari

      A chunk of folks aren’t fully convinced Charlie isn’t just THAT much of a space cadet and mistook Carla for somebody else

  116. Zamperla

    YEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH CARLA! STAYS! WINNING!!!!!!!!!!!

    CARLA ALWAYS WINS!!!! THIS IS PRO CARLA HOURS.

  117. Sleepy Hailey

    I’m so happy with this turnout.

  118. Lia

    how are people not getting that the real reveal here is that Carla assumes when people spend time with her it’s “accidental”? this is huge character development stuff for the comic’s main character cmon people

    1. Lia

      also its really cute

    2. anon

      it might be a charlie specific thing considering she’s had some ‘movie nights’ with lucy and ruth or that one time

    3. Icalasari

      Didn’t think of that. Don’t narcissists have a fragile ego? So if she isn’t a true narcissist, then she could be hiding her insecurities by being obnoxiously in people’s faces

    4. Schpoonman

      I took Carla thinking it was accidental specifically considering Charlie’s spaciness, not that she thinks that people would only spend time with her on accident.

  119. Weatherheight

    Maybe this is twisted of me, but a part of me is wodering if Charlie is seriously messing with Carla (and possibly Booster, too, since the whole sibling dynamic) this whole time. The ignoring Carla at first, then talking to her, and then doing this just to mess with Booster.

    All if it is an elaborate practical joke designed to mess with Booster and Carla.

    I m*may* have some trust issues… ?

  120. Arianod

    What’s this “offscreen hand-holding” baloney?? I’m calling applesauce on this! Panels or it didn’t happen!

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