A teen girl inherits a powerful alien artifact and proceeds to make a series of increasingly poor decisions
The Automan's Daughter
Mike Stamm
Aisha Osman and her uncle Siddig outwit bikers, spies and kidnappers while gearing up for a showdown with the formidable Widowmaker mecha.
Paranatural
Zack Morrison
Superpowered middle schoolers fight evil spirits in their rural hometown. Come for the jokes, stay for the cast, the creatures, and the mystery that ties them all together!
The Sanity Circus
Windy
Magic, monsters and mysteries await in the odd city of Sanity. It's up to Attley and a colorful group of characters to find out just what is going on.
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
Hazy London
Scotty
A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
Godslave
Meaghan Carter
Edith has been thrown into the dangerous world of modern-day Egyptian mythology. Fighting monsters and dealing with family drama of godly proportions.
Kochab
Sarah Webb
A YA F/F fantasy comic about Sonya, a lost skier trying to survive a snowy wilderness and find her way back to her village; and Kyra - a fire spirit trying to fix the home that she let fall apart around her.
Go Get a Roomie
Clover
Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Alice and the Nightmare
Misha Krivanek
Alice finally attends University to learn to collect the dreams of humans, meet new friends, and deal with a pesky reflection along the way.
Monsterkind
Taylor C
Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
Love Not Found
Gina Biggs
Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
Lilith's Word
inkPangur
If you had the power to make any wish come true using just one word, what would you say?
Anarchy Dreamers
Emily Ree
Sparkly undead kids fight society's worst Nightmares in this pastel-punk urban fantasy coming-of-age!
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Fireweeds Moors
Gato Iberico
A cat-headed man and a girl with a sandwich hankering accidentally end up in a myth-infused country where magic chalices are a really big thing.
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
Diana Huh
Vincent is an unkind man looking to disappear, and finds himself in the care of a vampire and her two wicked children.
Tigress Queen
Allison Shaw
A barbarian warlord and a pampered prince try to avoid a marriage alliance that could end decades of violence.
Sufficiently Remarkable
Maki Naro
Two young women living in Brooklyn discover that you're always coming of age.
Cassiopeia Quinn
Gunwild, Psudonym
A cute, pantsless thief is pursued across the stars by a buttoned-up military officer in the spacey, laser-filled future.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Astral Aves
Moon Cabal
A fantasy coming-of-age following the adventures of Astra The Black and friends, as they navigate the mysterious world around them. It's politics, adventure, and the supernatural; oh, and crazy hair.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Devil's Candy
Rem, Bikkuri
A lush fantasy about boy genius Kazu Decker, the girl he constructed for his 9th grade science project, and the world of devils and monsters they live in.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Never Satisfied
Taylor Robin
Lucy Marlowe, a magician's apprentice, competes against other apprentices for an important, magical, Goverment Job.
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Cut Time
Juby
Rel and her trusty avian friend Fugue are on a quest to save a world that's lost track of time. Follow them and their new recruits, in a story written with help from the stars.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Ghost Junk Sickness
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Two hunters try to survive and end up being pushed to pursue a deadly bounty dubbed "The Ghost".
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
Star Impact
Jack McGee
A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Kiwi Blitz
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
Steffi thinks she can use her kiwi mech to become a superhero. This idea turns out to be very stupid.
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
Jailbird
Charlie Davis
An all-ages comic about a recently escaped prisoner's struggle to understand the outside world, and vice-versa. Also, a magic cape!
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Caramel Corn
Potchimew
Sarah is the only human left in a world full of mythical creatures and monsters. All she wants to do is live a quiet life, but everything changes when she meets her guardian angel, Jacob.
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
BOOKMARK Click "Tag Page" to bookmark a page. When you return to the site, click "Goto Tag" to continue where you left off.
BUFFER WATCH
Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:
Yeah, she did promise, didn’t she? Though part of her seems to be fighting to break that promise. The same part that makes her say things like “not yet.”
So what she told Billie in their last parting is still true– Billie really is Ruth’s only hope, right this minute. By all means, Billie is strongly advised to get more of a support system around Ruth as quickly as possible by any means necessary, but the next move is hers, and she no longer has the luxury of wallowing in failure.
Meantime, let’s just hope Ruth doesn’t get into any circumstances that’d make her feel right about a dramatic “self-sacrifice.” It’s only a “sacrifice” if you actually want what you’re giving up.
I mean, think about it. Ruth’s kind of just been saying that she doesn’t want Billie around. Billie has every right to be like #won’t deal. To say that Billie is her last hope isn’t true, either; Ruth’s a lot stronger than that. She’ll make mistakes, sure, because she’s human. But at this very moment, she’s strong enough to resist drinking even after, you know, that whole thing with Billie.
Personally, I think she just needs to put more faith in herself.
Given all of that, onus is on Billie to step in and help. She did it before, and just because she’s hurt doesn’t mean she shouldn’t do it again. (Or rather, it’s what a hero would do, and Billie wants to be a hero in her own right.)
I think it’s absolutely unfair, but Ruth is dead wrong about one thing: in college or elsewhere, we rarely get exactly what we deserve, at least in the short term. This is the hand Billie’s been dealt: how she plays will determine who she is.
How is that not unfair to Billie? To put that amount of stress and guilt on anyone is pretty harsh. “You are my only hope”, a.k.a. “You are the only person on this planet that is giving me the will to live, don’t fuck it up.” I do not think you understand the implications of this, and the effect that it’s had on Billie.
On the other hand, Billie did volunteer for this, and she was the one who broke the promise. I hope she’ll do the right thing and save Ruth from herself. :\
I think we’re in violent agreement. None of us asked for the lives we live, what we control is how we respond. Billie has sorta embroiled herself into this whole mess, and she is the only one who can do something about it. She’s a head cheerleader. The problem solver. That’s the identity she’s most comfortable with. Part of her current breakdown is the loss of that identity.
In some ways, this is exactly what she needs: A problem that she can solve.
Well, Ruth said “You *were* my only hope” and that was when she broke up with Billie. It’s not like she put the pressure on her while they were together.
What Ruth is doing is pretty awful; going to someone and telling them “if I die it’s YOUR fault” is a fucked up thing to do. And Ruth forced herself on Billie, which was also pretty fucked up. Making out with someone without their consent and guilt-tripping them with threats of suicide are not nice things to do to someone, to put it mildly. Ruth shouldn’t be alternating between molesting someone (someone she has power over as her RA, at that) and demanding that that person save her from herself. She put Billie in the situation you describe here, so yes, it is entirely unfair to her. It’s downright abusive.
Passive aggression and regular aggression. Not a nice mix. Neither of these girls are exactly stable, but at least I think they are both aware of this.
I don’t think Ruth realized what she said. She was trying to absolve Billie, but in the process revealed just how wounded she still is. She’s not forcing this on Billie, but now that Billie knows, she is compelled to act. Because that’s who Billie is.
I would be a little more worried about the “drowning myself” part of that monologue. Ruth’s an English major, after all, and she’s currently feeling very much like a betrayed lover. Does she have the full on self-destructive drama queen chops to pull a full Ophelia?
I was going to make a joke about Ruth being murdered by Billie’s mother, but it occurred to me that the popular theory that Gertrude murdered Ophelia isn’t well known outside certain circles.
1) Ophelia called her an adulterer, to her face, in their last scene together.
2) If Ophelia is pregnant with Hamlet’s child (which her carrying around an armful of birth control suggests) then that child is the rightful heir to the throne, NOT any child Gertrude has with Claudius, which factors into…
3) Ophelia offers Gertrude some of her birth control, and says that Gertrude likely has need of it as well, implying that Gertrude may be pregnant by Claudius.
It should be noted that birth control in that time period often worked by chemical abortion. Every single plant that Ophelia is noted to be carrying can be used to either prevent or terminate pregnancies.
An additional note: On number 1, I should have noted, Ophelia used the flower language popular among Elizabethan nobles to call her an adulterer. Ophelia: “There’s fennel for you, and columbines.”
Fennel and columbines and nasty shit in Elizabethan flower language. That’s pretty much the Elizabethan version of calling the Queen a whore, Gerry Springer style.
That actually would make a lot of sense. I never understood why Ophelia would have killed herself, but could totally see Gertude doing the deed/ordering someone to.
Worth noting here that most Shakespeare plays have some elements that are ‘lost in translation’, so to speak. I never new about the flower language or the birth control information. It is quite possible that that was the intended assumption for its original audience to make.
Better the Fennel than the way used on camels for centuries before that. They used to (used to?) take a stone, roll up their sleeves (or remove their KKK sheets) and stuff it into a camel’s uterus as a de facto IUD.
@ Ivan: While interesting in terms of content, I find the way you chose to phrase your comment in poor taste. Comparing the garb of desert nomads to Klan robes, implying there are similarities between the two groups, is xenophobic. The fisting joke seems to imply sexual violence.
Soon, all comics are about bathtime.
“Don’t make me bathe, you wouldn’t like me when I bathe.”
Bathman: The Scrubbed Night
“I’m the best at what I do, and what I do is refreshingly clean.”
Soap boxes in alley this morning, tire tread on empty shampoo bottle. This city is afraid of me. I have seen it’s true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of mud and when the drains finally dry up, all the vermin will suffocate. The accumulated filth of all their filth and mud will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Cleanse us!”…
The story goes that he noticed while getting into his bath that the water rose, and was therefore being displaced by the volume of his body.
So he actually had a revelation *about* the bath, rather than just in it.
I think they felt it was a slap in the face. The 4th ending is sort of an Easter-egg that occurs when you attempt to shoot the god-child-thing.
You hear and angry demon voice say something to the effect of “If this is your decision, SO BE IT”, the god-child flickers away, you see the battle raging on out side the dome, then a hidden bunker on some far away planet playing the recorded message Liara briefly mentions at one point explaining how they fought and lost.
Players said they wanted an option to go out fighting, since that is what they felt their Shepard would pick. They got what they asked for – very tactfully done, imho, given what the dev team had to work with – but what it wasn’t the way they wanted it to go.
Honestly, I think what pissed off people the most about the whole situation was that the tone of the entire series got turned on its head in the last 5 minutes of the game, with VERY little and arguably no foreshadowing. The new endings are definitely better, but they are still far and away from what anyone really wanted or expected.
You realize that there are a bunch of people that have no idea what the hell you guys are talking about, right? I mean I know you’re talking about some kind of video or PC game, but no idea which one…
A. Love the Gravatar. B. Doesn’t mean making the attempt and surviving (or even coming really close to doing it), isn’t extremely traumatizing to the attemptee and those closest to them. Technically, nobody died.
Just out of curiosity, why would he say that? Mr. Willis if you do not have a problem spilling your writing process secrets, would you be so kind as to explain why you have no intention of “crossing the line” of killing one of your characters in spite of how deeply emotional and realistic some of their lives are?
In short: “…nobody dies in DoA.” Why not?
Have you noticed how slow time passes in this strip? My characters would be devastated and in morning for YEARS. YEEAARRS. I wouldn’t want to write it, much less anybody want to read it.
Plus I don’t wanna. he said, while sticking his tongue out menacingly at the person who had the unmitigated gall to suggest so foolish a method without considering the complexity of the weave!
I believe part of the reason is to avoid rehashing storylines from the original Walkyverse, which has had character deaths as major plot points at several points throughout the story.
I’ve decided to take your comment and Catullus’s above into consideration…. meaning next frame we’ll find out Ethan just drowned in the shower like a baby turkey in the rain.
Eh, nonsense. The bit that Billie seems to not be hearing in her flashback is that Ruth also told her “I didn’t want to cause you that much pain again. So don’t worry. *I won’t*.”.
Selective hearing can make anything seem menacing.
Hello, Internet citizen! I agree with your comment, except that the noun you are trying to refer to is feelings; “feels” is a verb, as in she/he/it feels. (Also, it is probably just one feeling, which is lust. You want to be feeling lust. On your way, citizen.)
I mainly wanted to do the “the feeling is lust” joke. I mean, I saved up my one spasm of irritation over “feels” for it and everything. But yeah. Yeahhhhhh…
Just as you can go from a verb (noun) to where you verb a noun (verb -> verb) to a specific instance of a verbing of a noun (verbing -> noun), you can then verb that so that you wind up verbing a noun. The noun forms of verb and verbing are related but not quite identical in definition. A verb is primary; it is a word that denotes action or being. A verbing is the result of something being verbed. So not all verbs are verbings, but when they are both forms can be used interchangeably (at least in theory).
The humor in feels/feel/feelings is in treating the verb feel as verbed noun so that feel (and hence feels) are primary. It implicitly postulates there must be a feel to be felt. And feelings are that subset of feels which have in fact been felt.
you have it wrong clif, the English language is a clusterfuck of every word that just happens to fall out of enough people’s mouths in a certain time period ’till people accept what is said as English- like twerk.
Whether it is started as a noun does not matter as by the end of it all it will eventually become a verb, noun, pronoun, and adjective all at once. that being said, i need to go punch myself in the face for saying that twerk is a word.
You think the grammar discussions are rough? Check out the heated civilized discussions every time religion is mentioned in the strip.
That being said, slang is an important part of any language. On the one hand you have the technical language that you find in dictionaries. Then you have language the way its spoken by the lowest common denominator. Somewhere between those two is what everyone agrees is the main mode of communication. Over time the language changes, as the lowest common denominator of society start to gain more and more influence, or an outside language influences the original language. In fact, I think your planet has a story about how all languages diverged from a single, Ur-language; essentially whenever words like “feels” or “twerk” or “turducken” or “engex” are added to your language you are repeating the process of diverging.
Maybe not a bad thing, blue flashbacks. Billies locking on the ‘not yet’.
Ruth is fighting her own demons Billie, you’re not alone.
She knows just how you feel.
The broken record speaks again: go knock on her door and invite her to AA. Then go.
I thought the proper procedure was:
Smash the door in
Yell at one another for reasons
insult
emote
insult more
do something nice
further insults
THEN invite to A.A.
Actually, it’s the “forget me” that Billie’s really running into here. “Not yet” means “not yet,” but “forget me” taken out of context makes it sound as if Ruth has given up on herself. That’s what makes the ‘not yet’ sound so sinister.
Billie realizes it’s hero time.
Intercepts the mistake Ruth is on the cusp of making.
Dumbing of Age lives up to its name via bad idea thank you sex.
…
Jacob realizes that he too lusts for Ethan. Thus the DOA homosexuality equalizes and attains Gayvana.
I’m pretty sure it has to do with the fact that showers are proof that the world is not an entirely cruel place. They are a font of rejuvenation… and water.
When Ruth found out that Billie was cheating on her with the booze, she broke up with her and began to studiously ignore her. Which hurt Billie, who was deperately looking for closure. She began to feel like an abject failure who couldn’t do good for anyone, not even herself.
It took Billie this long to realize that Ruth as much as admitted to her last night that she still loves her.
She did help one person after all, despite herself.
Billie: problem solver. Because some problems are not soluble in alcohol.
Wow this heavy stuff. Lots of emotions. But what’s with the alt-text? Could someone explain that to me? I assume it’s from Earth’s popular culture, but not any that Bluestreak shared with me, before I got shunted into nothingness. So help an Autobot out: what is the alt-text referring to? Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with highly unstable engex on top?
It’s referencing Watchmen; it’s been a while since I’ve read it, so I can’t remember the details, but the gist of it is that there’s a scene where the Silk Spectre comes to the disturbing revelation that the Comedian (a pretty terrible guy for a whole host of reasons) was her father.
The comedian tried to rape her mother in the past- she later forgave him and they had an affair (her mother, the original Silk Spectre, was married to her publisher at the time).
Thanks. Bluestreak gave “Watchmen” to me, but I gave up after the pirate scene. (That’s more Longtooth’s interest than mine.) Now I kind of regret that. I hope this place I’m stuck in isn’t the Afterspark, cause I’m getting bored. I’ve already hummed all the songs I know! BTW: Abe Simpson was wrong; Matlock is not particularly interesting. I’d rather watch “Nominus’ Promise” ten times!
Small critique of the alt-text; shouldn’t “The Comedian” be capitalized? That was part of my confusion. On the other hand, if the alt-text doesn’t allow for capital letters, I hereby rescind that critique. I may not look big, but I’m a big enough Bot to recognize technical and/or time limitations.
Hey, if you want to come get me from whatever dark fate I’m currently caught up in, and smack me upside the head for being dense, I’m all for it. Provided you can find me, and get me out, that is! I’ll give you all the engex you could want! Provided my bar ever rematerializes, that is…
Silly old Swerve, I guess alt texts never use capital letters. Is that a stylistic choice, or does your planet lack the technology to make capital letters appear when hovering over an image? Cause I’m sure Swindle would be happy to sell you advance font technology from Hedonia!
Congratulations, Willis. I actually went and read the past two days’ comments to check, and no-one highlighted the lines that Billie’s highlightin here. Well played.
That being said, everyone who thinks Ruth’s talking about committing suicide: what’s missing from Billie’s recollection here is that fact that Ruth’s ‘do it’ specifically referred to the idea of her drinking herself senseless. Which is not quite the same as killing yourself, unless you try very, very hard (at least in the short term).
It stood out to me, yeah, but I interpreted the line entirely differently than how Billie is. Reading it even now, I kind of see it as her holding on still, rather than a warning that she’s slipping.
Context. “It” might be drinking, but consider that when Billie kicked the door in, Ruth was on the way to that place where you drown in your own vomit. What I got off last strip and this one is the same thing a lot of people who’ve been there got-Ruth may’ve had drinking in the immediate context, but the underlying is definitely darker than merely anaesthetizing through fruit-of-the-vine.
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the fact that thousands–THOUSANDS–of people are sitting on the edge of their computer seats in anticipation of discovering the romantic and holistic fate of two characters who were nothing more than figments of Willis’ imagination at one point?
*stands, claps* Way to go, you magnificent jerk-face.
I have to admit that he’s a master of his craft. He makes me feel for fictional characters, connect with them. So I must clap my hands in admiration for his skill as I say “Damn you Willis”
at one point? you mean David Willis possesses within him to take fictional characters and make them into actual people that live within the world? DEAR GOD, TRANSFORMERS ARE OUT THERE RIGHT NOW!!!
I have read this entire webcomic in less than 7 hours. I can happily say that I am addicted to this story and its host of colorful characters. I’m most definitively going to be reading this for many years to come.
So do I. Willis has drawn over 1000 comics in this series. To get through the entire DoA archive in seven hours, one would need to be reading the strips at an average rate of one comic every 25 seconds. While it could maybe be done, I don’t think one would get any of the nuances and subtleties of the story out of it.
Ruth doesn’t strike me as a terribly dramatic person; if she were looking to kill herself, I don’t think she’d do it here when Billie could conceivably knock her door down again to pull some heroic shit.
I wonder if she instead realized what others have pointed here, that she shouldn’t be an RA, and maybe took steps to get out of that? Or move to a different dorm (is that a thing?). Maybe Billie bursts into her room to find it empty.
Billie’s what, eighteen? Nineteen at the MOST? “Taking it out of context” is what you DO at eighteen, it’s how you learn to spot the context (at least, how MOST people learn-by doing and by screwing up).
I don’t think Ruth was talking about suicide, she was talking about going back to drinking. Despite Billie’s own drinking she really seems to want Ruth to stay sober, and I think hear realization here is not “uh oh suicide”. Billie thought that Ruth was ok now so she didn’t have to worry, but now she’s realizing the “not yet” means that Ruth is only a slight push away from going back to drinking again so she’s not OK after all.
Except, the whole (speculated) point of Billie keeping her drinking secret was to not drag her down with her, and the fact that she asked at all in this last conversation suggests she did consider Ruth to be a similar risk of relapse to herself.
The thing is, is there anything Billie can actually do, which doesn’t require her to either report Ruth, or admit to the college administration that she’s been drinking herself? And given how serious the stakes are (Ruth is at the very least sorely tempted to go on a drinking binge, or at worst take her own life) Billie’s going to feel pressure to do something. Ruth also pointed out how immature Billie is, and I don’t think she’s the best person to sort out Ruth’s problems. Maybe Billie should open up to one of her friends, especially someone level headed like Dorothy.
Sadly, I tried to help someone I was involved in with a romantic relationship and it made everything so much worse. Billie can help Ruth or love her but if she does both, she’ll ruin both.
The part of “Billie” in this strip is played by this week’s cameo guest star, Kiki Okinokiri, from popular children’s animated feature “Kiki’s Delivery Service”.
Loading ...
But. . . She can’t.
She will, and she’ll like it. (She won’t like it)
Yeah, she did promise, didn’t she? Though part of her seems to be fighting to break that promise. The same part that makes her say things like “not yet.”
So what she told Billie in their last parting is still true– Billie really is Ruth’s only hope, right this minute. By all means, Billie is strongly advised to get more of a support system around Ruth as quickly as possible by any means necessary, but the next move is hers, and she no longer has the luxury of wallowing in failure.
Meantime, let’s just hope Ruth doesn’t get into any circumstances that’d make her feel right about a dramatic “self-sacrifice.” It’s only a “sacrifice” if you actually want what you’re giving up.
That’s kind of unfair to Billie, though.
I mean, think about it. Ruth’s kind of just been saying that she doesn’t want Billie around. Billie has every right to be like #won’t deal. To say that Billie is her last hope isn’t true, either; Ruth’s a lot stronger than that. She’ll make mistakes, sure, because she’s human. But at this very moment, she’s strong enough to resist drinking even after, you know, that whole thing with Billie.
Personally, I think she just needs to put more faith in herself.
I don’t think it’s unfair to Billie at all. Billie is the only one in a position to help Ruth. She’s the only person who has seen all of the various sides of Ruth, which Ruth has stated in the text of this comic: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/privy/
Given all of that, onus is on Billie to step in and help. She did it before, and just because she’s hurt doesn’t mean she shouldn’t do it again. (Or rather, it’s what a hero would do, and Billie wants to be a hero in her own right.)
I think it’s absolutely unfair, but Ruth is dead wrong about one thing: in college or elsewhere, we rarely get exactly what we deserve, at least in the short term. This is the hand Billie’s been dealt: how she plays will determine who she is.
Billie is not the hero Ruth deserved, but the hero she needed.
Well she’s the hero she gets, one way or the other.
How is that not unfair to Billie? To put that amount of stress and guilt on anyone is pretty harsh. “You are my only hope”, a.k.a. “You are the only person on this planet that is giving me the will to live, don’t fuck it up.” I do not think you understand the implications of this, and the effect that it’s had on Billie.
On the other hand, Billie did volunteer for this, and she was the one who broke the promise. I hope she’ll do the right thing and save Ruth from herself. :\
I think we’re in violent agreement. None of us asked for the lives we live, what we control is how we respond. Billie has sorta embroiled herself into this whole mess, and she is the only one who can do something about it. She’s a head cheerleader. The problem solver. That’s the identity she’s most comfortable with. Part of her current breakdown is the loss of that identity.
In some ways, this is exactly what she needs: A problem that she can solve.
Well, Ruth said “You *were* my only hope” and that was when she broke up with Billie. It’s not like she put the pressure on her while they were together.
Ninja_jesus, i have nothing worth saying on your statement, but you may want to keep a lookout, some guy named rick is looking for you.
What Ruth is doing is pretty awful; going to someone and telling them “if I die it’s YOUR fault” is a fucked up thing to do. And Ruth forced herself on Billie, which was also pretty fucked up. Making out with someone without their consent and guilt-tripping them with threats of suicide are not nice things to do to someone, to put it mildly. Ruth shouldn’t be alternating between molesting someone (someone she has power over as her RA, at that) and demanding that that person save her from herself. She put Billie in the situation you describe here, so yes, it is entirely unfair to her. It’s downright abusive.
Passive aggression and regular aggression. Not a nice mix. Neither of these girls are exactly stable, but at least I think they are both aware of this.
I don’t think Ruth realized what she said. She was trying to absolve Billie, but in the process revealed just how wounded she still is. She’s not forcing this on Billie, but now that Billie knows, she is compelled to act. Because that’s who Billie is.
When you save someone’s life, you’re responsible for the rest of it.
in that case i think most people who’ve stopped a suicide have caused even more suicides because they thought the problem was over.
I…thought she’s talking about that she still cares without outright admitting it and Billie finally realizes that?
I would be a little more worried about the “drowning myself” part of that monologue. Ruth’s an English major, after all, and she’s currently feeling very much like a betrayed lover. Does she have the full on self-destructive drama queen chops to pull a full Ophelia?
I was going to make a joke about Ruth being murdered by Billie’s mother, but it occurred to me that the popular theory that Gertrude murdered Ophelia isn’t well known outside certain circles.
What does Gertrude stand to gain from murdering Ophelia?
1) Ophelia called her an adulterer, to her face, in their last scene together.
2) If Ophelia is pregnant with Hamlet’s child (which her carrying around an armful of birth control suggests) then that child is the rightful heir to the throne, NOT any child Gertrude has with Claudius, which factors into…
3) Ophelia offers Gertrude some of her birth control, and says that Gertrude likely has need of it as well, implying that Gertrude may be pregnant by Claudius.
It should be noted that birth control in that time period often worked by chemical abortion. Every single plant that Ophelia is noted to be carrying can be used to either prevent or terminate pregnancies.
There’s more, but I assume you don’t want me to copy/paste entire articles in here.
An additional note: On number 1, I should have noted, Ophelia used the flower language popular among Elizabethan nobles to call her an adulterer. Ophelia: “There’s fennel for you, and columbines.”
Fennel and columbines and nasty shit in Elizabethan flower language. That’s pretty much the Elizabethan version of calling the Queen a whore, Gerry Springer style.
That actually would make a lot of sense. I never understood why Ophelia would have killed herself, but could totally see Gertude doing the deed/ordering someone to.
Worth noting here that most Shakespeare plays have some elements that are ‘lost in translation’, so to speak. I never new about the flower language or the birth control information. It is quite possible that that was the intended assumption for its original audience to make.
Better the Fennel than the way used on camels for centuries before that. They used to (used to?) take a stone, roll up their sleeves (or remove their KKK sheets) and stuff it into a camel’s uterus as a de facto IUD.
I’ve seen fisting, but never cervical fisting!
@ Ivan: While interesting in terms of content, I find the way you chose to phrase your comment in poor taste. Comparing the garb of desert nomads to Klan robes, implying there are similarities between the two groups, is xenophobic. The fisting joke seems to imply sexual violence.
Whoa, mind blown.
I knew that would do it.
Who checked?
Who bathes the bathmen?
Soon, all comics are about bathtime.
“Don’t make me bathe, you wouldn’t like me when I bathe.”
Bathman: The Scrubbed Night
“I’m the best at what I do, and what I do is refreshingly clean.”
…I may be a little punch-drunk tonight.
About time they cleaned up their act.
Time is an illusion. Bathtime doubly so.
moar like BUBBLY SO
Soap boxes in alley this morning, tire tread on empty shampoo bottle. This city is afraid of me. I have seen it’s true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of mud and when the drains finally dry up, all the vermin will suffocate. The accumulated filth of all their filth and mud will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Cleanse us!”…
…and I’ll look down, and whisper “no.”
I wish I had more “Yes” just for your comment
Agreed!
WHO WASHES THE WASHMEN, GOD DANGIT
The Omb-suds-men, of course. With their giant blue, lufas.
Have all of my admiration
The Dark Knight Rinses
Bane: Nobody cared who I was until I scrubbed off the mask.
Scrubbing Of Age: When Somebody Washed Me
I am vengeance. I arm the night. I am Bathman.
With great power there must come great responsibility to bathe frequently and wash your costume twice a week, True Believer!
Because the original quote was in Latin and I can’t help myself:
Quis lavabit ipsos lotores?
YES
Ave!
DANGIT
[I had actually started with “showers” so I guess at least “bathes” was kinda recognizeable]
…..are you looking for volunteers? Cause I’ll bite that bullet!
sounds painful
Dumbing of Age: Introspective Moments in the Shower
I thought everyone does that.
I just jam to Daft Punk.
you’re up all night to get soapy?
Sudsy. Up all night to Get Sudsy.
Yeah, I bet the invention of philosophy and the invention of showers are linked somehow.
I mean didn’t Archimedes have a great idea in the bath and run outside yelling “Eureka!”?
The story goes that he noticed while getting into his bath that the water rose, and was therefore being displaced by the volume of his body.
So he actually had a revelation *about* the bath, rather than just in it.
That was more physics than philosophy. Lotsa good physics probably got worked out in the shower.
And all the other Greeks said, “You don’t smell so hot, yourself!”
and the colored girls go, “Doot, Doodoot, Doodoot, Doot-doodoot…”
yes, but the idea was a catapult.
I daydream about my characters and sing the english version of Bloody Stream.
The Mandarin version, combined with ‘sing-song’ is much more interesting.
You didn’t?
Interesting pattern of strip. Nice work. wake up Billie
…Ah shite.
Oh so now she has a reason to get drunk again.
Blue flashbacks? What the Hell does Blue mean?
Blue means Billie picked the Control Ending.
Does that mean Amber, with her red flashbacks, is a renegade player?
I didn’t see the red nightmare scars on her. Must’ve been Paragade.
You can be Paragon and still pick Destroy. Shepard deserves to survive, damn it.
Heck, we deserve a better ending, damn it.
They added a fourth, if I remember correctly. People complained about it too.
I think they felt it was a slap in the face. The 4th ending is sort of an Easter-egg that occurs when you attempt to shoot the god-child-thing.
You hear and angry demon voice say something to the effect of “If this is your decision, SO BE IT”, the god-child flickers away, you see the battle raging on out side the dome, then a hidden bunker on some far away planet playing the recorded message Liara briefly mentions at one point explaining how they fought and lost.
Players said they wanted an option to go out fighting, since that is what they felt their Shepard would pick. They got what they asked for – very tactfully done, imho, given what the dev team had to work with – but what it wasn’t the way they wanted it to go.
Honestly, I think what pissed off people the most about the whole situation was that the tone of the entire series got turned on its head in the last 5 minutes of the game, with VERY little and arguably no foreshadowing. The new endings are definitely better, but they are still far and away from what anyone really wanted or expected.
You realize that there are a bunch of people that have no idea what the hell you guys are talking about, right? I mean I know you’re talking about some kind of video or PC game, but no idea which one…
Normally go synthesis, myself.
It means your avatar’s hair got caught in the shower drain and billie can’t stop seeing it.
Oh……….shit
Oh shit oh shit oh shit.
It sounds a bit like she’s, uh, planning to kill herself.
Please don’t do this to me David.
Hasn’t Willis already said nobody dies in DoA?
A. Love the Gravatar. B. Doesn’t mean making the attempt and surviving (or even coming really close to doing it), isn’t extremely traumatizing to the attemptee and those closest to them. Technically, nobody died.
Just out of curiosity, why would he say that? Mr. Willis if you do not have a problem spilling your writing process secrets, would you be so kind as to explain why you have no intention of “crossing the line” of killing one of your characters in spite of how deeply emotional and realistic some of their lives are?
In short: “…nobody dies in DoA.” Why not?
Have you noticed how slow time passes in this strip? My characters would be devastated and in morning for YEARS. YEEAARRS. I wouldn’t want to write it, much less anybody want to read it.
So, is that an official “She isn’t?”
*Phew*
I’m with you
Right, but Billie obviously doesn’t know that.
An eternal Morning! The comic would slow WAY down!
You could always write in a time skip. ~5 months later~ and all that.
I’ve got too many interwoven plots going on for that to be even remotely plausible. Plus I don’t wanna.
Plus I don’t wanna. he said, while sticking his tongue out menacingly at the person who had the unmitigated gall to suggest so foolish a method without considering the complexity of the weave!
you know what David? THANK YOU FOR SAYING I DON’T WANNA! YOU ARE IMPENETRABLE WALL OF MANLINESS.
I believe part of the reason is to avoid rehashing storylines from the original Walkyverse, which has had character deaths as major plot points at several points throughout the story.
Willis is lying to us so that it will be unexpected when the meteor hits and kills everybody except Walky (and so it will have more impact).
Leaving only Walky and his toys to breed, thus creating a new species to trample upon the ruins of earth.
you sir, just wrote the next slipshine comic for willis.
Deep impact.
I’ve decided to take your comment and Catullus’s above into consideration…. meaning next frame we’ll find out Ethan just drowned in the shower like a baby turkey in the rain.
I hope you’re right, and we’re overreacting.
The plotline Khaner was suggesting does not have to end with someone actually dying.
He did say that nobody dies. But there’s still lots of ways for a drunken Ruth to seriously mess herself up without actually dying.
Eh, nonsense. The bit that Billie seems to not be hearing in her flashback is that Ruth also told her “I didn’t want to cause you that much pain again. So don’t worry. *I won’t*.”.
Selective hearing can make anything seem menacing.
Sounds more like typical college angst as opposed to real intent to me.
Her father is a comedian? Which one?
Shecky Rimshot.
It’s a reference to Watchmen.
Those men who are always punctual or those men who are very watchful?
The latter. If I recall, they were 35 minutes late.
No, they’re Transformers with time pieces as their Alt-Mode.
You sure that’s not Microman?
Billie is the Silk Spectre?
Somebody draw this plzkthx
And now, the Comedian will never get that kiss.
Y’know, the one form that comic book, and he laughs about people and death… the Joker.
-Gasp- Billie is Duela Dent? Yeah, she could rock the top hat… but not the Joker’s face.
Nah, everyone knows that Duela Dent is secretly Mad Moxxi.
And if you remember one episode of Batman The Animated Series, he is also a comedian who crashed a comedy contest.
Wow! I can’t tell you how pleased I am to not know what in the hell you are talking about!! The benefits of a Ratus Labrotorius.
Give her enough to drink and she could rock the joker’s face more than you want her to.
… these are not the feels I want to be having while looking at Billie in the shower. (And/or a towel.)
I’m having an internal struggle the likes of which has never been seen.
Hello, Internet citizen! I agree with your comment, except that the noun you are trying to refer to is feelings; “feels” is a verb, as in she/he/it feels. (Also, it is probably just one feeling, which is lust. You want to be feeling lust. On your way, citizen.)
It’s a meme….
Hello, Internet citizen! You’re a little late.
I mainly wanted to do the “the feeling is lust” joke. I mean, I saved up my one spasm of irritation over “feels” for it and everything. But yeah. Yeahhhhhh…
Also any noun can be verbed and verbs are subject to nounification as well.
This works even on verbs that started out as nouns.
“noun” –> noun
“to noun” –> verb
“nounification” –> noun
You might argue if it is correct English, but these are standard English moves. You didn’t have the least bit of trouble understanding them, did you?
Just as you can go from a verb (noun) to where you verb a noun (verb -> verb) to a specific instance of a verbing of a noun (verbing -> noun), you can then verb that so that you wind up verbing a noun. The noun forms of verb and verbing are related but not quite identical in definition. A verb is primary; it is a word that denotes action or being. A verbing is the result of something being verbed. So not all verbs are verbings, but when they are both forms can be used interchangeably (at least in theory).
The humor in feels/feel/feelings is in treating the verb feel as verbed noun so that feel (and hence feels) are primary. It implicitly postulates there must be a feel to be felt. And feelings are that subset of feels which have in fact been felt.
So now you know.
Also note the parallel distinction between a feeling of lust (feeling -> noun) and feeling lust (feeling -> verb).
you have it wrong clif, the English language is a clusterfuck of every word that just happens to fall out of enough people’s mouths in a certain time period ’till people accept what is said as English- like twerk.
Whether it is started as a noun does not matter as by the end of it all it will eventually become a verb, noun, pronoun, and adjective all at once. that being said, i need to go punch myself in the face for saying that twerk is a word.
We’ve reached the point where a word (and/or its various forms) can be used as nearly every word in a sentence: Fuck the fucking fuckers!
Twerk being a word kind of pales in comparison. ^^;
Only a Willis forum could turn into a grammar lesson.
You think the grammar discussions are rough? Check out the
heatedcivilized discussions every time religion is mentioned in the strip.That being said, slang is an important part of any language. On the one hand you have the technical language that you find in dictionaries. Then you have language the way its spoken by the lowest common denominator. Somewhere between those two is what everyone agrees is the main mode of communication. Over time the language changes, as the lowest common denominator of society start to gain more and more influence, or an outside language influences the original language. In fact, I think your planet has a story about how all languages diverged from a single, Ur-language; essentially whenever words like “feels” or “twerk” or “turducken” or “engex” are added to your language you are repeating the process of diverging.
Marry me.
Why don’t feel both?
You know, Ruth might not be ready for a relationship.
She’s barely ready for herself.
sarah can suggest a few toys that will fix that.
Beautiful.
I mean, the storytelling and the build-up, obviously, not what’s being implied here, just to be clear.
What is being implied? I lost track.
Ah suicide. Implied in the strip and not implied in the comments.
I am scared now.
Are we going to haft to spartan kick her door down again?
and that makes billie the silk specter?
She should team up with AmaziGirl.
Maybe not a bad thing, blue flashbacks. Billies locking on the ‘not yet’.
Ruth is fighting her own demons Billie, you’re not alone.
She knows just how you feel.
The broken record speaks again: go knock on her door and invite her to AA. Then go.
I thought the proper procedure was:
Smash the door in
Yell at one another for reasons
insult
emote
insult more
do something nice
further insults
THEN invite to A.A.
Actually, it’s the “forget me” that Billie’s really running into here. “Not yet” means “not yet,” but “forget me” taken out of context makes it sound as if Ruth has given up on herself. That’s what makes the ‘not yet’ sound so sinister.
Sssshiiiiitttttttt
Relevant Scrubs
Where do you think you are?
You never left.
Aaaaand I just spent fifteen minutes watching the best Dr. Cox rants.
Is she having an “a-HA!” moment? Because it looks like her revelation might not be a good one.
Realizing that somebody is hinting that they’ve contemplated suicide is rarely a good one.
The first panel could have been a perfect setup for a Psycho spoof.
Speaking of movies, because of TDKR, I couldn’t help but think of Batman when Ruth said “Not yet.” Oh, and Sweet EVA avatar!!!
Danke! ^_^
And the neverending blues continue.
And I guess that’s why they call it the blues.
Because it never ends?
Time on her hands could be time spent with Ruth.
Yes! Someone gets it!
It sounds like Ruth is about to kill herself (or at least had a serious thought about making the attempt). Jesus Willis, that’s dark as shit.
Well he did say it wouldn’t be a truck.
It’s going to be a monkey.
(Okay that was both bad and tasteless.)
You won a cookie.
But if that’s not what she meant, that just means YOU’RE the dark one.
Scooby doo: Ruh roh
Jinkies.
I am unable to can even…
That’s a really low showerhead.
Some dorms have shower heads that low. I’d hit my head on the ones in the last dorm I lived in if I tilted my head back for any reason, and I’m 5’3″.
Hmm… could this be the path to porn?
Billie realizes it’s hero time.
Intercepts the mistake Ruth is on the cusp of making.
Dumbing of Age lives up to its name via bad idea thank you sex.
…
Jacob realizes that he too lusts for Ethan. Thus the DOA homosexuality equalizes and attains Gayvana.
The future Jacob lusts for everyone, but the current Jacob is not yet sex addicted and so we get to watch the process. So to speak.
Wait, so Billie took a shower and those strange brown lines under her eyes disappeared?
Was… was that poop?
I’m pretty sure it has to do with the fact that showers are proof that the world is not an entirely cruel place. They are a font of rejuvenation… and water.
Possibly smudged/dried eye-make up? Or possibly just signs of exhaustion/hangover that just went away after a refreshing shower.
So…since the flashbacks are blue instead of red like Amber’s that means this will end well…right? Right?
No, just not with violence and mayhem.
I think it just means that Billie has a far more stable relationship with her flashbacks than Amber does.
because if I know my alcoholic college whores, stability is always a necessity!
Well shit. How I didn’t see that coming!
1) This strip is really lovely 2) Billie looks so cute here 3) I’m so excited for a possible happy resolution to this storyline ;a;
“2) Billie looks so cute here” << Yes, indeed.
… ah. This explains her expression just before closing the door.
… my psychic powers failed me last time.
…did Billie take some booze into the shower, or does she just happen to stop feeling the DTs so bad between panels one and three? :/
HOLY SHIT, has she not been drinking this past volume? Those were the DTs?
She was very intoxicated when AmaziGirl, er, Amber found her the other night. Still the same volume as that isn’t it?
Somehow, Danny is responsible for this.
Exclamation mark!
I am drawing conclusions out of this but if these last strips have taught me anything it is that I should not. Explanations?
When Ruth found out that Billie was cheating on her with the booze, she broke up with her and began to studiously ignore her. Which hurt Billie, who was deperately looking for closure. She began to feel like an abject failure who couldn’t do good for anyone, not even herself.
It took Billie this long to realize that Ruth as much as admitted to her last night that she still loves her.
She did help one person after all, despite herself.
Billie: problem solver. Because some problems are not soluble in alcohol.
Wow this heavy stuff. Lots of emotions. But what’s with the alt-text? Could someone explain that to me? I assume it’s from Earth’s popular culture, but not any that Bluestreak shared with me, before I got shunted into nothingness. So help an Autobot out: what is the alt-text referring to? Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with highly unstable engex on top?
It’s referencing Watchmen; it’s been a while since I’ve read it, so I can’t remember the details, but the gist of it is that there’s a scene where the Silk Spectre comes to the disturbing revelation that the Comedian (a pretty terrible guy for a whole host of reasons) was her father.
The comedian tried to rape her mother in the past- she later forgave him and they had an affair (her mother, the original Silk Spectre, was married to her publisher at the time).
Thanks. Bluestreak gave “Watchmen” to me, but I gave up after the pirate scene. (That’s more Longtooth’s interest than mine.) Now I kind of regret that. I hope this place I’m stuck in isn’t the Afterspark, cause I’m getting bored. I’ve already hummed all the songs I know! BTW: Abe Simpson was wrong; Matlock is not particularly interesting. I’d rather watch “Nominus’ Promise” ten times!
Small critique of the alt-text; shouldn’t “The Comedian” be capitalized? That was part of my confusion. On the other hand, if the alt-text doesn’t allow for capital letters, I hereby rescind that critique. I may not look big, but I’m a big enough Bot to recognize technical and/or time limitations.
that’s it, i’m taking your energon for not understanding alt text.
Hey, if you want to come get me from whatever dark fate I’m currently caught up in, and smack me upside the head for being dense, I’m all for it. Provided you can find me, and get me out, that is! I’ll give you all the engex you could want! Provided my bar ever rematerializes, that is…
Silly old Swerve, I guess alt texts never use capital letters. Is that a stylistic choice, or does your planet lack the technology to make capital letters appear when hovering over an image? Cause I’m sure Swindle would be happy to sell you advance font technology from Hedonia!
According to the rest of the comments it seems to be a reference to the Watchmen graphic novels. Speaking of which, that’s on my to-read list
Here’s to the inevitable pain Willis is going to give these two. Cheers
https://www.weasyl.com/~punkquacker/submission/180868/punkquacker-your-tears-are-delicious-523144.png
Now picturing Ruth as GOB Bluth and Billie as Michael. “You taste these tears! Taste my sad,
MichaelBillie!”Congratulations, Willis. I actually went and read the past two days’ comments to check, and no-one highlighted the lines that Billie’s highlightin here. Well played.
That being said, everyone who thinks Ruth’s talking about committing suicide: what’s missing from Billie’s recollection here is that fact that Ruth’s ‘do it’ specifically referred to the idea of her drinking herself senseless. Which is not quite the same as killing yourself, unless you try very, very hard (at least in the short term).
It stood out to me, yeah, but I interpreted the line entirely differently than how Billie is. Reading it even now, I kind of see it as her holding on still, rather than a warning that she’s slipping.
‘Not yet’ is not ‘Will soon,’ after all.
Context. “It” might be drinking, but consider that when Billie kicked the door in, Ruth was on the way to that place where you drown in your own vomit. What I got off last strip and this one is the same thing a lot of people who’ve been there got-Ruth may’ve had drinking in the immediate context, but the underlying is definitely darker than merely anaesthetizing through fruit-of-the-vine.
Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the fact that thousands–THOUSANDS–of people are sitting on the edge of their computer seats in anticipation of discovering the romantic and holistic fate of two characters who were nothing more than figments of Willis’ imagination at one point?
*stands, claps* Way to go, you magnificent jerk-face.
I have to admit that he’s a master of his craft. He makes me feel for fictional characters, connect with them. So I must clap my hands in admiration for his skill as I say “Damn you Willis”
at one point? you mean David Willis possesses within him to take fictional characters and make them into actual people that live within the world? DEAR GOD, TRANSFORMERS ARE OUT THERE RIGHT NOW!!!
Well, I met more than one person who could’ve been Mike as well. So perhaps Mr.Willis actually CAN bring fictional characters to life…
I used to be an unnamed extra.
You sound surprised. I’ve been posting for a couple weeks, and I think Megatron has been posting forever!
Megatron, the Doctor… Hell, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Optimus Prime a couple times over on the other comic.
I have read this entire webcomic in less than 7 hours. I can happily say that I am addicted to this story and its host of colorful characters. I’m most definitively going to be reading this for many years to come.
I call bullshit on that 7 hours, you must have lightning internet.
So do I. Willis has drawn over 1000 comics in this series. To get through the entire DoA archive in seven hours, one would need to be reading the strips at an average rate of one comic every 25 seconds. While it could maybe be done, I don’t think one would get any of the nuances and subtleties of the story out of it.
Five seconds to load plus 20 seconds to read should be more than enough for most strips, even on regular internet.
I dunno. I blasted through the entirety of Penny and Aggie in about the same amount of time. Now THAT was a ride.
Ruth doesn’t strike me as a terribly dramatic person; if she were looking to kill herself, I don’t think she’d do it here when Billie could conceivably knock her door down again to pull some heroic shit.
I wonder if she instead realized what others have pointed here, that she shouldn’t be an RA, and maybe took steps to get out of that? Or move to a different dorm (is that a thing?). Maybe Billie bursts into her room to find it empty.
Okay, Billie-you’ve been through the briefings, right? That’s a fripping SUICIDE NOTE right there, you dig? Ruth needs HELP.
But it’s not. Billie’s mind is just seizing on certain phrases and taking them out of context.
Billie’s what, eighteen? Nineteen at the MOST? “Taking it out of context” is what you DO at eighteen, it’s how you learn to spot the context (at least, how MOST people learn-by doing and by screwing up).
Throughout all that I completely missed that Ruth said “not yet”. I really hope she doesn’t go down that path.
Quick somebody put the drama tab back in!
Sorry. This universe came with the tag pre-pulled. You know, just like ours.
someone really needs to keep a better eye on robin.
That’s what her campaign managers are there for.
I don’t think Ruth was talking about suicide, she was talking about going back to drinking. Despite Billie’s own drinking she really seems to want Ruth to stay sober, and I think hear realization here is not “uh oh suicide”. Billie thought that Ruth was ok now so she didn’t have to worry, but now she’s realizing the “not yet” means that Ruth is only a slight push away from going back to drinking again so she’s not OK after all.
Except, the whole (speculated) point of Billie keeping her drinking secret was to not drag her down with her, and the fact that she asked at all in this last conversation suggests she did consider Ruth to be a similar risk of relapse to herself.
The thing is, is there anything Billie can actually do, which doesn’t require her to either report Ruth, or admit to the college administration that she’s been drinking herself? And given how serious the stakes are (Ruth is at the very least sorely tempted to go on a drinking binge, or at worst take her own life) Billie’s going to feel pressure to do something. Ruth also pointed out how immature Billie is, and I don’t think she’s the best person to sort out Ruth’s problems. Maybe Billie should open up to one of her friends, especially someone level headed like Dorothy.
Hmm, maybe this is a job for… Amazi-Girl!
How dare you make me enjoy drama Willis. How dare you.
Oh, shit. That does not sound like what someone says regarding merely drinking enough to pass out.
…and the joke’s on her?
Just fuck already
Sadly, I tried to help someone I was involved in with a romantic relationship and it made everything so much worse. Billie can help Ruth or love her but if she does both, she’ll ruin both.
The part of “Billie” in this strip is played by this week’s cameo guest star, Kiki Okinokiri, from popular children’s animated feature “Kiki’s Delivery Service”.
«sigh» I hope she doesn’t kill herself in THIS universe, too…