Well it is a common reaction when somebody dies. It is kind of grim for Ruth to commit suicide by hanging herself from the doorknob or having an auto-erotic asphyxiation accident.
She opens the door and a wave of alcohol comes out, flooding the whole floor and knocking people off of their feet. Ruth literally drowned herself in it.
All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl. All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl. All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl. All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl.All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl. All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl.All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl. All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl.
Hoping for alcohol here. Seeing that was meant to be a cliffhanger, I feel compelled to say it: Damn you, Willis! Now I am hoping yet dreading that some day, when the book is printed, this strip will come in scratch-and-sniff…
Finally some more Billie ‘n Ruth? Was waiting for that for a long time…altough I am sure it will be sweet sweet drama of the Willis variety waiting ahead. And I just want them to be happy q_q
Judging by the title of the strip, I’m going to guess it’s alcohol. You don’t normally spill urine, unless you keep it in a jar. Which Ruth may have been doing…
Judging by the title, Exxon & BP have set up a joint drilling operation in the limestone, but the blow-out protectors sucked and blew (blowed?)… and now we have this 879,000,000 gallon spill on our hands! Will Briscoe ever be the same again??
Vomit is likely, but generally doesn’t look like that. Pee seems really strange. My guess is that she broke a bottle of strong liquor in front of the door. (err…behind it?) Maybe by unintentionally stepping on it. I hope Bilie calls campus police. Well, I mean after checking for herself, and maybe asking around. That seems more realistic.
So… they say Ruth hasn’t left her dorm room at all since the kiss? Does that mean not even to go to the bathroom? … I’d say give it a week and she’ll be forced out of the room as a bio-hazard.
Sad to say that was my first thought as well. Anything else is kind of hard to explain and there’s little else that would cause your nose to rankle up like that. Unless it’s quite humid there and spilt beer has time to soak that far through the carpet and go bad before evaporating away.
Could be that Ethan is gay, Ruth dies… multiversally.
There’s still hope of course, but there’s been some pretty strident foreshadowing.
… We’ve already had enough Saturday comics to move a planned Friday comic to Tuesday?
Where has the time gone? (Also, assuming the Kickstarter doesn’t get to the point of Sunday comics coming, any idea how long before you get to the point where cliffhangers are planned for when the comics actually go on their break again?)
I have been pretty sure that Ruth is in the trash chute every since she was first noticed missing, and the chute was mentioned as being backed up. However, as no one’s mentioned trouble with the chute lately (lately? DoA time?) I guess maybe that’s Ruth seeping out from under the door.
Rotten eggs have a strong smell too… But why would it be lighter fluid or rotten eggs??
I don’t get your reasoning. Because it is something that could smell strong, it should be considered?
How about the juice from a 5 gallon jar of pickled pigs feet? That has a strong smell, right? Or last year’s Kimchi that Ruth had been preparing to share with the entire floor as punishment — but now, suddenly, the radioactive seal has broken, and is flooding the whole compartment!
I’m not exactly sure why I even thought of lighter fluid. Somehow that was the first thing that popped into my head. Lighter fluid seems so extreme. Sorry about that.
Well, perhaps, but that’s some exceedingly lateral thinking right there…
1. Just how do you get to the point of making a puddle of it, seeing as disposable lighters contain very small amounts each, and the refills for reusable ones come in aerosol cans?
2. Why … just, why? Is the suggestion that she was trying to off herself by way of solvent inhalation, or that she was (is?) trying to set the place ablaze?
3. Lighter fluid evaporates pretty damn fast, which is why small amounts of it have a strong smell (and why sniffers go for it). Not sure it would soak through a carpet so much as just wick up through it and into the air.
This does however prompt a new theory: it’s the overspill from a gallon of gas, tipped over her head, and she’s about to burst through the door looking like the Human Torch, having set herself alight and intending to give firey hugs to as many people as possible before jumping down the trash chute to start a powerful, blinding/choking-smoke-billowing, building-consuming blaze thanks to the combination of thin plastic bags, small pieces of paper and card, copious amounts of part-fermented organic waste, and a wide but still enclosed flue with ersatz chimneys opening out onto every floor.
Nah, you’re thinking of butane refills. Lighter fluid is literally a fluid, usually a light petroleum distillate, that you use to fuel lighters that use a padding-and-wick sort of arrangement, rather than pressurized gas – Zippo Lighters, for example.
So … I wonder, why noone thought about bathing foam or shower gel?
Ruth came back from the showers, her towel in one hand, shower gel and shaver in the other hand, fumbling with her keys – and dropped the bottle of shower gel.
What if the bottle was closed? The spill could could have been caused by the bottle being wet, in which case it would just be water, which would not explain how she was able to smell it.
Eh, the attached bathrooms don’t have baths or showers, which means if it’s coming from the attached bath it’s coming from a sink or toilet. I cannot really fathom a suicide attempt that involves leaving a sink going, and death by swirly isn’t really suicide material. If it’s water from a glass or bottle, then it has to be recent. And honestly, IIRC, they’re upstairs. If the bath -was- overflowing, they’d know it downstairs probably before it leaked into the hallway.
I think I’ve been watching too many crime dramas. I saw that puddle and I’m like, “We haven’t seen Ruth in so long. Maybe it’s because she’s dead.” Which makes sense when you consider that she looks down because she can smell something. >__< I hope I'm wrong.
Billie’s going to shrug and walk away. In a week or two, something else will draw her attention to Ruth’s door. She’ll consider it for a moment, then shrug and walk away. This sort of thing will repeat for the entire rest of the comic’s run. We’ll never actually see Ruth again. Because damn you Willis, that’s why.
Billie looks like she is kinda disgusted by the smell. so perhaps it is pee or worser.. bodyfluid. *shudders* Don’t be dead Ruth. DON’T! we will revive you and you will be an awesome zombie RA who snacks on the naughty “lawbreakers” 😀
I’d be really surprised if Willis killed Ruth. I mean, on one hand, it’d be a pretty huge tonal shift fairly early in the storyline. It’d also mean Ruth was “that girl that Billie made out with that then died”, and it’d also be kinda sudden for Ruth’s arc, as well as Billie’s. I mean, it’s established that she’s troubled, she has some vague issue with somebody that isn’t her dad, and she has a crush on Billie. Killing her off now would just sort of leave things incomplete and unresolved. That happens in reality, but it’s not very satisfying in a fictional narrative.
I would be surprised as well for him to go that route. Aside from Willis stating that he isn’t going to kill her off, it’s more likely that he would go with a near-miss sort of deal, like Joyce’s party incident.
What was interesting for me though is that I got worried she may have been killed off without even having read Willis’ other work at the time. I blame an overabundance of detective shows. =P
1. Ruth deliberately left a puddle of booze outside her door as bait for a Billie sexy-trap.
2. Ruth’s demons are a lot more literal than anybody thought, and she just killed one in her room. The ectoplasm seeped under the door, but don’t worry. It’ll evaporate in a few minutes.
Best to worst options:
Water – Stop neglecting your plumbing Ruth! Ruth? Hello?
Booze – Put the bottle down Ruth!
Lighter Fluid – Put down the lighter Ruth!
Transparent blood – Oh no! Ruth has transparent blood disease!
I really hope she isn’t dead. I mean, I love Ruth, but that would traumatize the FUCK out of Billie. “Oh I didn’t reciprocate her feelings and she KILLED HERSELF.”
Willis: I really think you need to add a FAQ on here where you remind readers that you said that Ruth and Dina are safe from dying during the course of this comic, but that Tony’s not.
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AAAARG CLIFFHANGER!
CLIFFJUMPER!
CLIFF RICHARDS!
CLIFFORD D. SIMAK!
HEATHCLIFF HUXSTABLE!
CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG!
Damn! I didn’t reload the tab and someone got it before me…
HEATHCLIFF THE CAT!
Cliff Richard and falling off a cliff:
http://youtu.be/ozjN_bmfI5c?t=2m55s
Cliff’s Notes!
Fun fact–all of my knoweldge of Cliff Richards comes from The Young Ones.
CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG!
HANK MARVIN!
Wait what game were we playing again
AAaaagh! Frickin’ CLIFF RACERS!
(These things, if you don’t remember: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW-creature-Cliff_Racer.jpg)
Thankfully, those horrible creatures were wiped out by Saint Jiub somewhere between Morrowind/Oblivion and Skyrim 😀
More like wiped out by the GIANT VOLCANIC ERUPTION.
CLIFF NOTES (or the condensed version: ClfNts)
CLIFF CLAVEN!
…pee?
Urine trouble now.
just a piddle bit
Does that mean that wee are going to start another widdle pun thread?
It’s to-ilet. It’s already started.
Cool, I’m a whizz at puns.
That wasn’t quite flush with the other puns.
Oh, like yours is much wetter.
who gives a crap?!?
… I think I did that wrong.
Oh, just shake it off…
These puns are awful, and that pisses me off.
These puns are just bowling me over in the lolvatory.
Alright guys, this is getting off mark, let’s wipe it up.
No job is complete until the paperwork is done.
Tooo funny! I’m bowelling with laughter!
Your guess is as good as mine.
Nah, it’s booze… A LOT of booze.
Well it is a common reaction when somebody dies. It is kind of grim for Ruth to commit suicide by hanging herself from the doorknob or having an auto-erotic asphyxiation accident.
It’s not dark. It’s just F’ing intense, like going camping with prostitutes
Suddenly, urine, again?
Someones trying to drown them selves…
We’re just flush with toilet humour today, aren’t we?
I hope that is just alcohol and Billie’s alcohol consumption has given her super scent for alcohol.
If alcohol is soaking the carpet THAT much, anyone could smell it. Familiar with the stuff or not.
If she starts licking carpet we’ll know it’s alcohol.
I think that story line is happening elsewhere on campus.
I’d like to think on the other side of that door.
Or that Billie secretly is Bear Grylls.
Confrontation time?
Her super heroine name would be Booze Hound
wait, i thought it was amazi-girl.
I don’t know if I could’ve handled this as a Friday cliffhanger.
Saturday.
Don’t mind me, just posting before reading alt-text and also before considering how obnoxiously pedantic it can sound.
It’s vomit stains.
Either that or beer.
But seeping under the door?
She opens the door and a wave of alcohol comes out, flooding the whole floor and knocking people off of their feet. Ruth literally drowned herself in it.
No!! Let Billie save Ruth. Let her save the whole floor! Cheerleader to the rescue!
She will drink all the booze and save them all!
That reminds me of a scene form Strange brew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssM4KBRX_Qw
Save the cheerleader, save the booze??
And then the entire rest of the comic is just a riff on The Shining.
*Jack Nicholson voice* Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit’s Walky!
All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl. All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl. All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl. All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl.All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl. All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl.All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl. All Ethan and no makeouts makes Joyce a dull girl.
Galasso as the ghost bartender.
“or”? The two are not even remotely mutually exclusive.
Nice comment-avatar synergy there.
Nooooooooo!
I think Ruth’s water broke!
I didn’t even know she had her water fixed!
And then she walks off ’cause she ain’t give a damn.
I AM INDIFFERENT TOWARDS YOU WILLIS!
Urine for a surprise in the next comic!
Are we finally going to see Ruth?
Hoping for alcohol here. Seeing that was meant to be a cliffhanger, I feel compelled to say it: Damn you, Willis! Now I am hoping yet dreading that some day, when the book is printed, this strip will come in scratch-and-sniff…
Oh no, Ruth’s room is flooding with her own tears!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOOK OUT
Dammit Ruth, just because something says “Eat me” on it doesn’t mean you should! Now you’ll never get through the little door!
Billie’s booze senses are tingling.
Uh-oh…
Daid of alcohol poisoning?
I can’t help but read that in the voice of the little girl from Manos: the Hands of Fate because I’m reading your spelling error phonetically.
I hear it as Judd from Oklahoma; “Poor Judd is daid”
Flawless victory.
No error, I spelled it that way on purpose.
Welcome to America’s #17 game show,
GUESS THAT LIQUID!
Is it:
a) Urine
b) Alcohol
c) Water
d) Liquified Iocane Powder
It can’t be d), Billie clearly smelled it.
E) love juice
A mass orgy is happening behind that door
Ick. I can’t believe I was the only one to think of this.
That gravatar fits so well.
“Free beer, sweet!”
It’s a tarp!
Finally some more Billie ‘n Ruth? Was waiting for that for a long time…altough I am sure it will be sweet sweet drama of the Willis variety waiting ahead. And I just want them to be happy q_q
Judging by the title of the strip, I’m going to guess it’s alcohol. You don’t normally spill urine, unless you keep it in a jar. Which Ruth may have been doing…
Judging by the title, Exxon & BP have set up a joint drilling operation in the limestone, but the blow-out protectors sucked and blew (blowed?)… and now we have this 879,000,000 gallon spill on our hands! Will Briscoe ever be the same again??
Vomit is likely, but generally doesn’t look like that. Pee seems really strange. My guess is that she broke a bottle of strong liquor in front of the door. (err…behind it?) Maybe by unintentionally stepping on it. I hope Bilie calls campus police. Well, I mean after checking for herself, and maybe asking around. That seems more realistic.
“My booze sense is tingling.”
But since WHEN are Willis comics realistic? xD
D-Do we want to know what that is??
So… they say Ruth hasn’t left her dorm room at all since the kiss? Does that mean not even to go to the bathroom? … I’d say give it a week and she’ll be forced out of the room as a bio-hazard.
RA’s get their own bathroom in some colleges.
I keep forgetting Ruth is even in this comic.
That’s body juice. Like, Dead body juice. Cause Ruth is probably dead.
Sad to say that was my first thought as well. Anything else is kind of hard to explain and there’s little else that would cause your nose to rankle up like that. Unless it’s quite humid there and spilt beer has time to soak that far through the carpet and go bad before evaporating away.
Could be that Ethan is gay, Ruth dies… multiversally.
There’s still hope of course, but there’s been some pretty strident foreshadowing.
Time to call CSI Indiana.
I wouldn’t have thought she would become decomposed that quickly.
Though I suppose it depends how warm it is in the apartment.
Everybody dies multiversally.
Given that Billie was the one to notice the smell, I’m going with whiskey.
She can’t die without saying the arc words. Off-panel doesn’t count. I’m adamant about this.
Billie’s already there, and she is a CSI.
Cheerleader Super Intoxicated
Dear Ruth, please be something other than dead. That’s all I ask.
I echo that sentiment.
Suddenly, undead.
Hot Vampire lesbian Ruth sounds suddenly sounds like the greatest thing ever.
I really hope its not what I think it is… Gasoline.
Are you suggesting Ruth is a catgirl?
… We’ve already had enough Saturday comics to move a planned Friday comic to Tuesday?
Where has the time gone? (Also, assuming the Kickstarter doesn’t get to the point of Sunday comics coming, any idea how long before you get to the point where cliffhangers are planned for when the comics actually go on their break again?)
It’s on tuesday this week, so monday, saturday, friday … three almost-weeks … 18 days from now.
My guess is, it’s a puddle of Hennessy. In which Ruth has been looking for answers.
That’s a stupid-expensive puddle if so. More likely a puddle of Wild Grouse or some other off-brand gulpin’ whiskey.
So that’s what Hennessy is. I’ve been too lazy to google it.
IT’S BODY FLUIDS FROM THE CORPSE!
I have been pretty sure that Ruth is in the trash chute every since she was first noticed missing, and the chute was mentioned as being backed up. However, as no one’s mentioned trouble with the chute lately (lately? DoA time?) I guess maybe that’s Ruth seeping out from under the door.
Billie cleared it with a well-placed kick. Presumably any corpses that were in the shaft are now waiting for pickup in the dumpster below.
The wild Billie is able to smell sources of alcohol from up to 500 yards away.
Guys, she’s clearly partaking in a water fight. Be glad Ruth finally lightened up.
Ruth is spiderman! See this pic: http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/p480x480/37537_134325696602150_5974198_n.jpg
Aunt May’s next thought: Ewww.
Did anyone think about lighter fluid? That stuff has a strong smell right?
Rotten eggs have a strong smell too… But why would it be lighter fluid or rotten eggs??
I don’t get your reasoning. Because it is something that could smell strong, it should be considered?
How about the juice from a 5 gallon jar of pickled pigs feet? That has a strong smell, right? Or last year’s Kimchi that Ruth had been preparing to share with the entire floor as punishment — but now, suddenly, the radioactive seal has broken, and is flooding the whole compartment!
SHE’S DEAD ALREADY!
I’m not exactly sure why I even thought of lighter fluid. Somehow that was the first thing that popped into my head. Lighter fluid seems so extreme. Sorry about that.
Lighter fluid?
Well, perhaps, but that’s some exceedingly lateral thinking right there…
1. Just how do you get to the point of making a puddle of it, seeing as disposable lighters contain very small amounts each, and the refills for reusable ones come in aerosol cans?
2. Why … just, why? Is the suggestion that she was trying to off herself by way of solvent inhalation, or that she was (is?) trying to set the place ablaze?
3. Lighter fluid evaporates pretty damn fast, which is why small amounts of it have a strong smell (and why sniffers go for it). Not sure it would soak through a carpet so much as just wick up through it and into the air.
This does however prompt a new theory: it’s the overspill from a gallon of gas, tipped over her head, and she’s about to burst through the door looking like the Human Torch, having set herself alight and intending to give firey hugs to as many people as possible before jumping down the trash chute to start a powerful, blinding/choking-smoke-billowing, building-consuming blaze thanks to the combination of thin plastic bags, small pieces of paper and card, copious amounts of part-fermented organic waste, and a wide but still enclosed flue with ersatz chimneys opening out onto every floor.
Then they kiss, I mean what’s hotter than lesbians making out? Lesbians making out while on fire.
Nah, you’re thinking of butane refills. Lighter fluid is literally a fluid, usually a light petroleum distillate, that you use to fuel lighters that use a padding-and-wick sort of arrangement, rather than pressurized gas – Zippo Lighters, for example.
……This universe HAS to be better to Ruth. Come on!
it’s like the longer you stare at billie’s face in the last panel, the funnier it is
Hang on … look closer at the puddle.
There’s three bits, only one of which overlaps with the door frame.
Whatever that is, it was spilt on the outside.
So … I wonder, why noone thought about bathing foam or shower gel?
Ruth came back from the showers, her towel in one hand, shower gel and shaver in the other hand, fumbling with her keys – and dropped the bottle of shower gel.
Now THAT is an interesting theory. Let’s hope it’s right, too. But then again, how would Billie be able to smell that?
Have you never walked past a Bath and Body Works?
No, Billie would definitely be able to smell another girl’s shower gel; especially if it was recently spilled.
Only if it’s alcohol-based.
What if the bottle was closed? The spill could could have been caused by the bottle being wet, in which case it would just be water, which would not explain how she was able to smell it.
I seriously hope it isn’t water… because it would be one DARK turn for this comic.
I don’t think the dorm rooms have plumbing…
Other than the attached bathrooms that have been repeatedly shown, you mean?
Eh, the attached bathrooms don’t have baths or showers, which means if it’s coming from the attached bath it’s coming from a sink or toilet. I cannot really fathom a suicide attempt that involves leaving a sink going, and death by swirly isn’t really suicide material. If it’s water from a glass or bottle, then it has to be recent. And honestly, IIRC, they’re upstairs. If the bath -was- overflowing, they’d know it downstairs probably before it leaked into the hallway.
i don’t know if this was a dark waters reference or not but if it was, it was appreciated.
SHE DEAD
She’s dead Dave!
They’re all dead, Dave!
Everybody is dead, Dave.
Dave’s dead, Dave.
(Sorry, had to go for Narbonic’s reference of the Red Dwarf reference you’re all pulling out.)
That’s an assprint, a footprint and a handprint. Someone’s squatted in that doorway for peepee.
Last panel Billie: “Oooooh! Free beer!”
+1
I think I’ve been watching too many crime dramas. I saw that puddle and I’m like, “We haven’t seen Ruth in so long. Maybe it’s because she’s dead.” Which makes sense when you consider that she looks down because she can smell something. >__< I hope I'm wrong.
Hennessy!
The sweet stench of vodka, urine, vomit and failure.
She’s dead Jim, Dead!
Damnit Bones, I’m a captain not a doctor…wait, that’s your line.
It’s go time people.
This was supposed to be a cliffhanger, so clearly it’s blood. Ruth has very clear, very smelly blood.
Billie’s going to shrug and walk away. In a week or two, something else will draw her attention to Ruth’s door. She’ll consider it for a moment, then shrug and walk away. This sort of thing will repeat for the entire rest of the comic’s run. We’ll never actually see Ruth again. Because damn you Willis, that’s why.
I would love this to happen.
“Ruth, Defecating yourself is not going to help make me want to hump you, sweetie.”
Billie looks like she is kinda disgusted by the smell. so perhaps it is pee or worser.. bodyfluid. *shudders* Don’t be dead Ruth. DON’T! we will revive you and you will be an awesome zombie RA who snacks on the naughty “lawbreakers” 😀
Maybe it’s KY Intense!
Please let this be true.
My guess is alcohol. For some reason, I’m thinking it’s vodka.
Vodka doesn’t have a smell.
Except for the distinctive alcohol smell most vodka has.
Seriously, this is college. What kind of vodka do you think they’re drinking?
Alcohol does seem to be the most sensible guess here. However, my stupid brain seems to keep insisting that Ruth is dead, because it is a jerk.
I’d be really surprised if Willis killed Ruth. I mean, on one hand, it’d be a pretty huge tonal shift fairly early in the storyline. It’d also mean Ruth was “that girl that Billie made out with that then died”, and it’d also be kinda sudden for Ruth’s arc, as well as Billie’s. I mean, it’s established that she’s troubled, she has some vague issue with somebody that isn’t her dad, and she has a crush on Billie. Killing her off now would just sort of leave things incomplete and unresolved. That happens in reality, but it’s not very satisfying in a fictional narrative.
I would be surprised as well for him to go that route. Aside from Willis stating that he isn’t going to kill her off, it’s more likely that he would go with a near-miss sort of deal, like Joyce’s party incident.
What was interesting for me though is that I got worried she may have been killed off without even having read Willis’ other work at the time. I blame an overabundance of detective shows. =P
Crap! Now I’m caught up! I HATE when that happens!
Don’t worry, daily(ish) updates! Also, we appear to be forming a Mary-gravatar singularity.
For the low low price of $2,235, you can unlock Sunday updates for all of us!
I see two distinct possibilities:
1. Ruth deliberately left a puddle of booze outside her door as bait for a Billie sexy-trap.
2. Ruth’s demons are a lot more literal than anybody thought, and she just killed one in her room. The ectoplasm seeped under the door, but don’t worry. It’ll evaporate in a few minutes.
I thought ectoplasm was for ghosts and sulfur was for demons?
I find your base racism appalling, friend.
That’s a common misconception. Ectoplasm is for anything from the Nevernever.
Best to worst options:
Water – Stop neglecting your plumbing Ruth! Ruth? Hello?
Booze – Put the bottle down Ruth!
Lighter Fluid – Put down the lighter Ruth!
Transparent blood – Oh no! Ruth has transparent blood disease!
I really hope she isn’t dead. I mean, I love Ruth, but that would traumatize the FUCK out of Billie. “Oh I didn’t reciprocate her feelings and she KILLED HERSELF.”
Willis: I really think you need to add a FAQ on here where you remind readers that you said that Ruth and Dina are safe from dying during the course of this comic, but that Tony’s not.