A story about story-telling, and other metaphysical themes such as Nightmares! (Failed) Teamwork! Comedy! And more!
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!
Lies Within
Lacey
Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
Ride or Die
Mars Heyward
Ride or Die is an LGBTQ webcomic about two street racers who team up with a demon-possessed muscle car in the search for a missing woman, while being hunted by a deadly religious cult.
Nigh Heaven & Hell
Scotty
Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
The Forgotten Order
Christy
A young witch for whom every spell is a misfire finds solace and friendship in her new companion - a cursed doll.
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.
Not Drunk Enough
Tess Stone
Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
The Weave
Rennie Kingsley
A young woman pursued by bad luck is witness to the murder of the Fairy Queen of Summer. Can she get to the bottom of this mystery?
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
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.
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.
Missing Monday
Elle Skinner
Two girls fall in love through a magic door connecting their worlds. When Monday suddenly goes missing, it's up to Foyle to find her. How she's going to navigate an entirely unfamiliar world is another matter.
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.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Trying Human
IntroducingEmy
Two women separated by over half a century are brought together by an alien-filled conspiracy involving murder, mystery and romance!
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Augustine
Winter Jay Kiakas, Windy
August and her ragtag group are just like everyone else, simply surviving in the treacherous Crater... When they stumble into what may be an artifact of the ancient past, their lives are thrown into a much bigger loop as they trifle with bounty hunters, monsters and gods.
Freakshow
Scotty
A festival of broken people, blood flows in the center ring. Come one and come all, to the greatest show in all of Paris.
Gzhel Guardian
Atla Hrafney, nushanchel
The Railway World is a complex, mysterious network of trains, towns and mechanical monsters. Leo is a Guardian of one of these towns, and although their burn-out and depression has taken hold of them, they have one last job to finish.
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.
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.
The Last Diplomat
Cat Farris
Samma and Tark didn't ask to be stuck together, but now they're partners on the adventure of a lifetime.
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
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.
Sakana
Mad Rupert
Our heroes must navigate a hazardous dating scene, overcome personal anxieties, and wrangle unruly seafood in order to find love, peace of mind, and a paycheck.
How to be a Werewolf
Shawn Lenore
Malaya Walters was bitten by a werewolf as a child. After being raised by her human family, she faces the chance to learn what being a werewolf is really like as an adult.
Little Tiny Things
Clover
What are the little things that move us? The simple joys that warm our bodies and hearts? The micro life of insects that influence our world more than we think? The tiny steps we make everyday to have a happier tomorrow?
Alexander, The Servant & The Water of Life
Reimena Yee
The 21st century retelling of the life and legends of Alexander the Great.
Aquapunk
Lo
In an underwater world of unknown coordinates, inhabited by aliens, ghosts, and robots, a young member of a warrior underclass is framed for a crime and goes on the run. Little does he know he is part of a grand design that only gods and ancestors could choreograph.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Sleepless Domain
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
In a world where magical girls and their battles are commonplace, loss has become all too common as well.
Within
Verena Loisel
A young hitman meanders between a reality that seems to happen without him, and his dreams where he is lost in an endless house. When he makes an accidental friend, his world is shaken up and he realizes there are things he can't remember about himself.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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.
The Substitutes
Myisha Haynes
What happens when three roommates accidentally acquire otherworldly and powerful magic weapons destined for someone else?
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
Scape
Lauren
Sula has always preferred to forge her own path, but before she knows it, she is pulled into the middle of a civil war between man and monster!
Barbarous
Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota
A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
Quick$ilver
Crypto
The flirtatious, directionless, and ever disastrous Luci searches for excitement in a life of crime, and finds himself caught in a web of messy romance and bad blood.
Widdershins
Kate Ashwin
A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins!
Edison Rex
Chris Roberson
The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
The Golden Boar
Magnolia Porter Siddell
A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
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.
This is Not Fiction
Nicole Mannino
What do you do when the person you're in-love with is an anonymous romance novelist? Get your best friend to hire your worst enemy for help!
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!
Beeserker
TJ Cordes
This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
The End
August Brown, Cory Brown
Two aliens crash a sci-fi convention and accidentally take seven nerds on an adventure that spans the galaxy!
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
Brian Clevinger, Escher Cattle, Lee Black
A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
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:
I didn’t have a curfew, I just had to tell my parents whether or not I was going to be home and make sure to have my cell phone on me (and tell them where I was or whatever). I think I turned out fine, and I’m sure you did, too.
That’s nothing. I know someone who wasn’t allowed to cross the street to go to the library — which took two minutes, and you could see them the entire way there — even when they were fifteen.
There are some crazy-controlling parents out there. *shudder*
I had a friend who, when she went to a friend’s house, she had to have her cell phone on her at all times. Why? Because, let’s say this friend (we’ll call her Bob) were to be at another friend’s house (let’s call her Jar Jar). If Bob wanted to leave Jar Jar’s property for any reason, then she had to call her mother to ask if she could. I’m not talking about her just deciding she was tired of being at Jar Jar’s and wanting to leave. I’m talking, if there was a party at Jar Jar’s house and the party decided they wanted to go to the park literally ACROSS THE STREET she’d have to call to ask. If she didn’t call, she got grounded.
I don’t get why she’d just… not do it. In the face of stupidity, either ignore it, call it out or lie to it’s face. I can’t understand why anyone would bulk at such demands.
@TheBenenator I live on my own, am 20 and my mother still calls me every day to ask where I am and make sure I’m not doing anything…. fun……….. crazy controlling parents… my friends have dubbed her the dragon lady.
Yea, when I started college some people had to explain to me what a curfew was. My parent’s rules were to please let them know if I was planning on leaving Germany, and don’t lose my passport.
Thomas Harris seems to think that stimulating the prostrate with a cattle prod will cause an ejaculation. Whether it’s accompanied by an orgasm, how deeply unpleasant it might be, or how the hell he might know that I am afraid to ask…
…..seriously? No doctor? Joyce only started feeling the effects like a minute ago, it could easily get worse with this only being the start of the symptoms. And again they don’t know what was in there. This is a bad plan. A baaaad plan.
Indeed. I was disappointed in Sarah for not insisting on the hospital, but then I remembered that Sarah’s only used to people taking drugs willing. And that she is only a sophmore, despite how mature she wants to appear.
Joyce’s choice of clothes help, here. Ryan will be hard-pressed to try and blame Joyce (successfully) of “mixed messages” from how she dressed. You know, in a sweater.
Yeah, but Sarah’s plan of reporting is easier said than done. He’s probably got a few slick plans up his sleeve already.
And I’ve experienced a lot of that slick with hackers on a certain fanbase I’m a part of. Apparently, it’s not illegal to hack a 911 phone line and other people’s phone lines. The whole P.R. Fanbase and even former P.R. actors Facebook pages have been attacked for almost a year now by some deranged hacker who’s also apparently in a mental institute. I’ve managed to stay un-involved for the most part, but have been informed from the sidelines, so I know how tricky this guy could get.
That’s what I’ve been thinking. If Joyce doesn’t go to the hospital then there is no physical evidence that she was drugged. And it comes down to Joyce’s word against his and if she’s been drugged then it’s not reliable testimony. Dorothy and Billie weren’t there and while Sarah can testify that she saw him attacking her, but unless there were other witnesses it’s her word against his. Now since Sarah cooperated with the authorities regarding her previous roommate’s drug abuse they might be inclined to believe her, but like you said she has enemies and they might just as easily say she attacked Ryan without provocation.
If she’s over the age of majority (is she? Not sure) then the hospital pretty much HAS to abide by her wishes to not contact her parents or anyone else unless she dies and they need her next of kin, or there’s a suspicion that she is involved in something heavily illegal or something (say, the victim or perpetrator of child abuse).
I do understand what she’s saying, but it may not be an issue at all. Besides, she’s just been roofied. Why the hell are they accepting her judgement as being legitimate? The entire point of those things is to make you susceptible to suggestion. I mean, obviously she doesn’t want to leave college; but to risk letting him get away with it (not to mention possible damage) by not getting documented medical attention immediately is, well, not a sound judgement, I’d say.
Who’s paying her bills? Yeah, the hospital isn’t allowed to tell the parents anything, but when they get a statement from the insurance company, they’re going to know something happened.
Problem is that a police report probably won’t get back to daddy, but charges onto the medical insurance most definitely will. And will trigger questions better left unanswered.
Hmmm, you might be right. However, on the other hand, they lost contact with her for what? 5 years? They changed a lot in those 5 years of not having Joyce. Seems to me, like they were attempting to try once more themselves.
The characterization of different characters has differed in relation to where they were at in development in the other ‘Verse, to an extent. Joyce and Walky, for instance, are both considerably less well-adjusted than they were by the end of IW. Mike, on the other hand (for instance), seems about where he is in the more recent strips in Shortpacked.
I don’t think we have seen enough of Joyce’s parents (and I’m not sure we ever will) to know how they are relative to the other ‘Verse’s characterization.
I don’t know about Joyce being less well adjusted. I THINK OTHERWISE. But as for Walky he grew up with Sal this time and wasn’t being primed to save the world, so yeah he’s a little behind.
Doesn’t this comic stand on it’s own? I haven’t read any of the others; but I assumed form david’s writns that the ‘Joyce’ of this comic was another character then the Joyce of his other ‘verses’. But I might be wrong…
They are different characters, yes. Yes, this comic does stand on its own.
That said, the characters who have had versions of themselves in the original ‘Verse have been characterized in a pretty similar way in DoA as they had been in the original ‘Verse. Minus the things related to the sci-fi elements of the setting of IW.
I’m just looking for clues as to how Joyce’s parents would be characterized, since we didn’t see enough of them at the beginning of the strip to know if they’re really as overprotective as Joyce says they are, or if they’re a bit looser with things.
Wouldn’t be too hard. Amb….errrr…I mean Amazi-Girl is looking for the guy right now. The blood all over him and the description that they gave her would help her find him. Can’t be too hard to find a guy with a Blue sweater and a fairly white stripe across it.
I am sure that commenters will have many opinions about whether Sarah’s plan is the best possible plan.
But do they have BASEBALL BATS?
Because, as far as I can tell, that seems to be the primary basis for Sarah’s authority over a situation which she was the last or second-last person to enter (depending on how you count Amazi-Girl).
I mean, I’m sure not sorry Sarah was there to use the bat, but an unfortunate side effect to that action is that she seems more certain than ever that she knows better than anyone else.
I do, in fact, own a baseball bat, but it has only ever been used for baseball.
And yeah, it does seem like Sarah’s acting superior… then again, they are roommates. I don’t know if this is how others are, but I feel responsible for my roommate in a way. When my roommate is creeping girls out (in the “awkward overly friendly” way, not the Ryan way) I feel responsible to apologize for him. Maybe that’s why she’s taking authority in this? I dunno.
The person most qualified to lead isn’t always the most willing. I can’t personally blame anyone for not wanting to feel responsible for letting a sexual predator walk free or for robbing Joyce of a lifetime’s worth of opportunities and I certainly don’t look down on Sarah for stepping in and being decisive when no one else was.
Right now Sarah’s Taichi from Digimon Adventure, Dorothy’s Joe, and Billie’s Izzy.
Dorothy is right, she need to go to the hospital and get her blood tested, it’s there only evidence. Without it’s he said she said, and he has injuries
More importantly, if he was new to this, he may not know what dosages are actually safe for a human to ingest- or may have not cared. They still aren’t even sure what she was drugged with, so it would behoove them to make sure she isn’t going to be dead in the morning.
To be fair, she isn’t expressing faith in the system so much as her unwillingness to be the weak link in the system. She’ll be able to say she did her part regardless of the outcome.
I agree with you, OP, but I also know what it’s like to feel the way Joyce is feeling.
Last December, I was sexually assaulted. I was terrified to tell my parents because I didn’t know what they would do. I felt guilty for allowing myself to get in that place where I could have been assaulted. I know it wasn’t my fault, but I still felt guilty. My father and little brother still don’t know; I only told my mom, and even that was rough, since I too come from a pretty uptight background.
I didn’t want to call the cops because I didn’t want my parents to know. When one of my friends got angry and called them for me, the police did absolutely nothing. As it turns out, the guy was a registered pedophile too.
You know. Fun times.
Wow, that is awful. I do not have words to express my sympathy (both about the original incident and police response).
I hope you know that, whatever your “uptight background” might make you think about any situation you may or may not have found yourself in, you aren’t responsible for the incident in any way.
Okay, first off, that is scarily overprotective. Second, she needs to go to the hospital, otherwise there is no evidence.
Third, I’d bet her father would be proud of how she handled the situation. And by “handled the situation”, I mean “broke a glass in the guy’s goddamn face”.
Another problem in the his word against hers. How are they going to explain away the beating they gave him when he presses charges against them. AB means more than just at-bat in this context.
Testimony will of course count for something. But Kernanator’s right that that the best evidence is a positive test for a date rape drug. The effects of date rape drugs do resemble drunkenness and without a blood test, they can’t prove that she was drugged.
Sarah’s plan is very stupid. Joyce isn’t the best judge of her condition, obviously. She needs to go to the hospital. While a lot of people around here seem convinced that her parents would have to find out if they went to the hospital, I really don’t think that’s true. There are lots of privacy protections built into the system when dealing with sexual assault.
While Joyce is acting dumb, and to some extent her friends are acting dumb by listening to her, the fact remains that Joyce is absolutely convinced that if words gets to her parents, she’s done with this whole college thing.
It’s clear to me that Joyce fears that much more then any other fallout from this situation.
And any number of bystanders, many of whom hate Sarah and might be inclined to lie about what they saw to get her in trouble. Hell, they might even BELIEVE that she was the aggressor.
And I forgot to mention: If the would-be rapist is any sort of athlete, it’ll be trivially easy for him to find “witnesses” who will swear he was just minding his own business.
….great plan Sarah. Now if she reacts poorly and dies (Im sure it won’t happen but roofies CAN kill you) it can be on your head. For someone who prides themselves on their intelligence she’s rather stupid.
Hm. Given that Sarah’s finally been showing she cares about someone other than herself, I’d like to side with her on this, but the “No hospital” bit isn’t good advice. Wouldn’t one of the first things the police would ask be “Did you go to the hospital? Well, why not?”
As the daughter of over-protective conservative parents, I can *assure* you… it is always always ALWAYS better to be up front about it and suffer whatever consequences may come because of what happened, then cover it up, lie by omission/outright lie, get found out (because these things DO tend to get found out), and suffer the WORSE consequences, because not only did you get into a dangerous situation, you then removed their ability to trust you.
Take it from the voice of experience – that second outcome is always worse than what you THINK your parents might do if you were otherwise honest.
*claps* Thank you thank you thank you. I know what you mean, and I learnt it the hard way. Damn teenage episodes in high school…at least they made me a better person.
Chances are Joyce’s parents will be more understanding than she thinks – as far as I can see, she herself has done nothing that they would disapprove of (other than perhaps attending the party in the first place, and that she did to help out a friend). Ryan lied to her, hurt her and was going to attempt far, far more than that…but at no fault of Joyce’s own. I think they’d definitely consider the possibility of pulling her out of college, but if her parents are anything like mine they’d decide against it in the end because they want her to get that education.
I’ll be the first to agree that Joyce should definitely be going to a hospital for her condition. She’s bleeding from several points on her hand, shards of glass likely caught in the wounds. While roofies might not be the most dangerous drug out there with the intent behind the removed, she could still have an adverse reaction to them, and of course, there’s the matter of documented evidence for the coming police report.
However, I do see where Joyce is coming from here, and I really can’t help but side with her on it. When an overprotective parent relinquishes their control in their child’s life like Joyce’s Dad has by letting her attend college, it’s usually a point of intense turmoil for them, and more often than not, they’re looking for any reason they can find to call the whole thing a mistake and haul the kid back in and chain them down.
If news of this were to get back to Joyce’s dad, his first reaction would likely be, “I knew she wasn’t ready for this yet. I knew something like this would happen! We just can’t let our little girl loose in this world! She’s coming back home, this whole college business was all a huge mistake!” This, of course, lasts only as long as it takes Joyce to move away, but it would likely be the cause for emotional rifts between Joyce and her parents, and a lot bitterness and resentment on both parties, and I really think Joyce cherishes her relationship with them.
What it really all clinches on is the importance of staying in college to Joyce. She wants to see more of the wider world. She wants to be involved in varying social settings with various types of people. I’m sure she was aware that there were Ryan’s out in the world, though I doubt she expected to encounter one, and certainly not one who seemed so appealing so quickly.
This is just an instance in which she feels she needs to suck it up and keep moving. The fact that she still wants to keep moving and not run crying home, a compulsion that I’m sure several people in a potential assault and rape situation would find it hard to ignore, is a huge testament to her fortitude if nothing else.
Should Joyce see a doctor? Yes. God, yes. Would it be better for her in the long-run if she just got past this on her own?
She certainly seems to think so.
And while I may not entirely agree, I can definitely see why she does.
This is always a complicated issue. This happened to someone I know and she chose not to go to the hospital or press charges, and got a LOT of flack for it from the “you’re letting him do this again!” crowd amongst friends. But–in the end, I firmly believe it’s the woman’s choice what she does. Going through legal avenues for this is horrible. There is no easy solution to this kind of thing and no one knows the answers, so don’t pretend you do. I personally think doing what Joyce asks is absolutely the right thing to do, and Sarah is wise for listening to her.
This has been a hard story arc to read and it’s even harder reading the comments, but I really appreciate how it’s been handled. This is always a shitty, difficult, complicated situation, and thanks David Willis for not portraying it so well so far.
I think most of the people commenting agree except for the fact that (unknown) drugs are involved that could cause serious and immediate problems. If it were alcohol being used to cloud Joyce’s mind I think most people would agree that “you’re letting him get away” wouldn’t be enough to justify ignoring her desire to avoid legal avenues.
If they’re going to file a report anyway, wouldn’t it be better if they do it now? I don’t want to get too technical or realist, but Joyce has evidence on her. The longer they wait, the more of it is gone. Also, remember the possible memory loss? She might not be able to report proper testimony.
And wow, sixteen? I was riding buses across town on my own at twelve.
Strangely enough, Joyce’s dad as portrayed don’t give that over-protective vibe to me; heck her mother in Walkyverse was wise to her little shenanigans…
Billie seems to have sobered up considerably–I don’t think she was ever really that drunk to begin with. Sometimes it’s better to act drunker than you are. You still get to goof off like an idiot without significant consequences, but you don’t lose your good judgement when you need it.
It’s not any particular actions or reactions that bother me about her character, or her naivete. Under the circumstances, Joyce behaved as well as she reasonably could, both in this arc and from the beginning of the strip. She’s a strong person and consistently characterized.
That doesn’t change the fact that she’s really fucking annoying.
I must agree 100% with Minder. I also still fucking LOATHE the judgmental little retard. It’s not like I was sitting there rooting for her to get raped or anything, but I feel zero sympathy for such a mentally deficient character. And I don’t think the guy deserved a life-altering scar and a possibly fatal beating with a deadly weapon. He called her a cock-tease, he wasn’t trying to kill her.
Mentally deficient? There is a big difference between being naive and sheltered beyond the point of plausible social interaction and being “mentally deficient”. One leaves a much greater possibility for growth, for one thing, it’s not like she is the way she is because of a dangerously low IQ. And moreover the fact that you would loathe someone for being “mentally deficient” if the term did apply…
And moreover, as you mentioned, he was trying to rape her. All he did was call her a cock-tease because it was all he got the chance to do before the glass and the baseball bat hit. If that didn’t happen Joyce would’ve been raped. It’s not like he’s innocent in all this, that his only crime was being a bit of an asshole.
I wouldn’t go that far. Don’t get me wrong, I hate Joyce, and I’m resentful of this storyline for ensuring that she’s going to get all the limelight for at least a few weeks to come, but nobody deserves to get raped. She did what she needed to do to protect herself.
I’m really more disappointed that Ryan went that route at all. I was hoping it would turn out he was harmless.
I don’t think filing a police report for an attempted rape where the dude is badly hurt and the women doesn’t have any medical records to back her statement is a good idea. I just don’t see someone like him not lying about what happened, and if he is injured his story will sound more believable. I’m not saying he sould get away with this, I’m saying he would pry get away with this if not informing anyone of the details was really the victims priority.
Of course they should alert the police. Because the’re going to be very interested in the reason why a home-schooled christian girl and her roommate targeted him for ‘assault’ while he didn’t press charges… Besides: there are a lot of people in this party that have seen Joyce before and after the bathroom-incident. She must have been drugged. There are other people that can give statements that Joyce didn’t drink alcohol that night. Finally: while they didn’t see who started the violence, they did hear the things Sarah and Joyce said just after the incident when they where not busy thinking about the legal implications… It’s very unlikely that the police would just assume that two girls, with no prior history of violence, and no other association with the ‘victim’ to suddenly and withoud provocation, beat up a guy.
GIMME GRANDCHILDREN. That’s how. Of course, they were older then, and that was after Joyce had disappeared for years… good chance that both changed their perspective a bit. And regardless, I can see either universe’s Joyce thinking her parents were much stricter than they actually were. That universe’s Joyce might have thought her parents were super-strict when she was that age too.
“Quiet, you drunk.”
Seriously, I don’t know how much of Billie’s thoughts are liquor right now. Is she a coherent drunk? Is there such a thing as a college Ballmer’s Peak?
Very bad idea on Joyce and Sarah’s part. There have been some date rape drugs used recently that make the female victims sterile. It would be better to find out what she was drugged with, what the concentration was, and treatment options if there are long-term effects.
DEFINITELY keep the glass. Given that the drink was clear and didn’t smell of alcohol, and also given that flunitrazepam is not the least bit soluble in water, we can expect the substance to have been soda.
Here’s some more bad news for Ryan: flunitrazepam has had colored dye added to its powder so forensics teams can more readily detect the material. A typical dose of flunitrazepam for rape is 1-2 mg (plenty), and one can probably assume that if the dumbass was stupid enough to use a clear substance in a clear glass (the dye is hard to detect in colored fluids and on colored glass), he probably made the mixture homogeneous by stirring.
I’d run GCMS and NMR analysis on the drink sample, then check the remainder for dye if flunitrazepam shows up. Meanwhile, a standard DNA assay from the blood on the glass and a sample from Ryan would be sufficient to link the two.
Translation? Keep the glass, and take a urine sample from Joyce to cross-reference with the glass. Gather witness testimony, and Ryan’s as good as fried.
Hehe ^^, let’s hope one of them is smart enough to preserve the glass. It’ll have his finger prints and hers. TBH, I was expecting the drink to be in a plastic cup, not glass.
Except that the glass was used as a weapon well after it was drugged. That bit’s circumstantial at best. Fingerprinting the glass would be much better. Presumably, it should only have the owner of the glass (or the last person to wash it at least), the attempted rapist, and Joyce’s fingerprints on it. Also, much less expensive and time consuming.
Unlike in CSI, the real cops don’t like doing expensive, weeks long procedures when they don’t have to.
The point on circumstantial evidence I give you, and the expense of the machines is unquestionable, but the entire experiment I just described, taken in isolation, would take ONE researcher about two hours. That means I could do four cases a day, twenty a week, all by myself. And that’s at a very, very leisurely pace. If rushed, I could have the results in about 45 minutes. The real time gap is in transporting the sample to the laboratory. All told, I expect a week at most before you’ve got the results in an investigator’s hand.
Also, as I understand it police departments often send their samples to forensic laboratories outside their precinct in order to defer the cost of the equipment.
DRAMA! but yeah, in the real world, mr pastors son would get a tort lawyer, and sue both of them to kingdom come. depending on what state they’re in, joyce is the one at fault, she heightened a verbal altercation to a physical one by assaulting him, then he attempted to defend himself and her friend attacked him from behind. its hard to prove that he was the one that drugged her, and these days judges seem to like listening to lawyers who say that she was leading him on.
I suppose it would entirely depends on the judge. It’s possible Joyce/Ruth would just end up with community service. It also depends on whether the the judge is willing to take into account the Seperate cases: Ryan vs the State/Joyce and Ruth vs Ryan.
That’s completely unfair! That’s not justice! It doesn’t even RESEMBLE justice! A man tries to rape a woman using a drug, she defends herself, and she has to PAY him for failing to rape her? And if anyone tries to disable him once he starts fighting with her, they get to go to jail?
The law is designed to protect RAPISTS from their victims? That’s wrong. Completely wrong. As in, prosecution lawyers, judges, and legislators should be ashamed of themselves kind of wrong.
To quote a lawyer I know, specifically from a political discussion we had, “In practice the law has near absolutely nothing to do with justice or even fairness, no matter how much that is theoretically it’s point”
I’ve heard that one too. But it indicates that the practice needs to change. A justice system, sans justice, is worthless and needs modification. People cannot simultaneously preach the benefits of the law for maintaining a civilized society and then shrug their shoulders when things like this come up. I hold the system accountable for its actions.
I’m calling BS on Sarah’s words here. She’s too responsible for this. I bet she’s like, “I’ll take Joyce home” but then she actually drives her to the hospital. What’s Joyce gonna do, fight her about it? She’s practically knocked out as it is.
Or anyone who is not fit to make decisions for themselves, as in the case of someone who is under the influence of a mind altering substance like alcohol or drugs.
I’d think it depends on the state. And the universe in question. I have no idea if IRL laws apply to DoA region-specific laws, or what those IRL laws are.
Headline a few days later: “Upstanding son of beloved pastor brutally beaten by drunken college girls who later tried to falsely claim attempted rape.”
I’m sorry if I’m repeating this, but I simply don’t have time to read through all the posts over the last few days. I could be wrong, but I think Ryan is the same Ryan from Roomies who seduced Ruth only to break her heart later. If he he played a roll in making this Ruth who she is then add another contender vying for a pound of flesh.
his Dumbing of Age storyline does disturb me a bit, mainly because she was DRUGGED, which has wayyyyy more factors than just alcohol (ex: what type of roofie did this guy use? We don’t know. And also, we don’t know HOW SHE IS GOING TO REACT. EXAMPLE: I HAVE HAD FRIENDS WHO HAVE GOTTEN ROOFIED AND THEY JUST VOMITED. I have had friends who have gotten roofied who had to go to the hospital because it was way more than one vomit time. It was all night and they couldn’t think straight and they had a fever etc.)
I am just saying that the hospital would have been more important than the police report, arguably. Good thing they didn’t file the police report when Joyce was all “omg I’m incoherent and drugged” but like…seriously? Hospital would have been good, guys.
I realize that it’s part of college culture where we don’t realize that serious medical situations are actually, you know, serious (I once had to convince a group of strangers with an unconscious, vomit-crusted girl in their van that no, “throwing up this much is not normal and if she’s fading in an out of consciousness with what looks like blood, that is alcohol poisoning and we have no idea how we are going to make sure she is OK unless WE GET SOMEONE TO LOOK AT HER, YOU DUMBASS”)
But I am just saying that medical care is the first priority.
/rant
Sometimes medical care isn’t the first priority. She’s still coherent and roofies aren’t life-threatening from what I understand. Hence social implications can outweigh transitory medical ones. Ofc, I’d push part of the blame for this to the parents – if she’d not be so afraid of them knowing, she’d seek immediate medical help. It’s interesting to see one of the many reasons overprotective parenting is more damaging then helpful.
Loading ...
Along with a taser.
I was thinking more along the lines of electric cattle prod. Fits better up in his —
http://images.craigslist.org/3k33p83o95U35P65X1b9l4b5d2eeca66c15cb.jpg
I like it!!!
Though, behind Billie in the first panel it looks like he’s there!! GET HIM!
No scar. Or bruises. Also he’s actually standing.
This looks to be an exciting week
Week? By the time it’s Saturday in the comic, it will probably be 2012 in our world.
Sixteen? Yikes. Also, I wonder how Amazi-Girl’s search is coming along.
I think/hope Amazi-Girl and Mike take turns beating Ryan up more.
on the other end of the scale, I had an all access subway pass when I was 10.
I didn’t have a curfew, I just had to tell my parents whether or not I was going to be home and make sure to have my cell phone on me (and tell them where I was or whatever). I think I turned out fine, and I’m sure you did, too.
We would have had to INVENT CELLPHONES before that would have worked for me.
I wasn’t allowed to walk around my neighborhood alone until I was almost seventeen, so I have to say I can sympathize with Joyce on this one.
That’s nothing. I know someone who wasn’t allowed to cross the street to go to the library — which took two minutes, and you could see them the entire way there — even when they were fifteen.
There are some crazy-controlling parents out there. *shudder*
My best friend in highschool had a mom who made him wear a virginity necklace (it was this gold chain with a heart-shaped key) at all times.
Obviously he hid the damn thing whenever he managed to get away from the harpy, but it was fucking hilarious.
. . .
Good thing I lost all faith in humanity long ago, otherwise that would be depressing.
That’s not too bad… long as nobody knew what it meant.
They’d just assume he was a girly-boy who liked hearts and flowers and pretty pretty dresses, if they didn’t know what it meant.
My girlfriend had one of those. Kept getting the way when we were kissing, so she took it off after I took off her bra. Virginity necklace my ass.
Have a free internet, good sir. That comment made my day.
I had a friend who, when she went to a friend’s house, she had to have her cell phone on her at all times. Why? Because, let’s say this friend (we’ll call her Bob) were to be at another friend’s house (let’s call her Jar Jar). If Bob wanted to leave Jar Jar’s property for any reason, then she had to call her mother to ask if she could. I’m not talking about her just deciding she was tired of being at Jar Jar’s and wanting to leave. I’m talking, if there was a party at Jar Jar’s house and the party decided they wanted to go to the park literally ACROSS THE STREET she’d have to call to ask. If she didn’t call, she got grounded.
I don’t get why she’d just… not do it. In the face of stupidity, either ignore it, call it out or lie to it’s face. I can’t understand why anyone would bulk at such demands.
@TheBenenator I live on my own, am 20 and my mother still calls me every day to ask where I am and make sure I’m not doing anything…. fun……….. crazy controlling parents… my friends have dubbed her the dragon lady.
So… what stopped you from telling her ‘none of your business’?
And I was tearing around my town all day on my bike as soon as I was old enough to ride it without crashing. I guess I was lucky.
Yea, when I started college some people had to explain to me what a curfew was. My parent’s rules were to please let them know if I was planning on leaving Germany, and don’t lose my passport.
I like your parents.
Wouldn’t it be better to shove a tazer up there instead?
Or hand him over the white guy named Bubba in the state prison.
How about a white guy named Chopper?
http://www.alabama3.co.uk/public/images/ABOUT/the_spirit_pics/chopper-reid.jpg
Either way i’m happy.
Being a devout Aussie, I agree to Chopper Read!
Anal rape with a tazer… sounds like a fair punishment
While I am not endorsing this statement, I want to point out that those shocks cause violent muscle spasms.
I fail to see a flaw in this plan.
Not a flaw, just a bad mental image of which muscle would start to spasm.
Technically, it isn’t a muscle.
His penis is not a muscle, it is the filling of the organ with blood that makes it move (making it look like one from the outside).
However, his gluteal muscles are. Lots of shaking butt cheeks (hilarity) will ensue.
‘His penis is not a muscle’
I’ll take ‘Sentences I Never Expected To Hear’ for $200, thanks.
There are muscles around the penis, however, that guys can move to give the penis the appearance of independent movement.
There might be a worse issue here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroejaculation
I was going to point out it sounds like a fun time. And you pointed out WHY. Thanks.
Im pretty sure thats a fetish, i’ll let somebody else look it up…
rule 34
Thomas Harris seems to think that stimulating the prostrate with a cattle prod will cause an ejaculation. Whether it’s accompanied by an orgasm, how deeply unpleasant it might be, or how the hell he might know that I am afraid to ask…
And then we’d get to see if he smokes after sex.
FTW!
…..seriously? No doctor? Joyce only started feeling the effects like a minute ago, it could easily get worse with this only being the start of the symptoms. And again they don’t know what was in there. This is a bad plan. A baaaad plan.
Indeed. I was disappointed in Sarah for not insisting on the hospital, but then I remembered that Sarah’s only used to people taking drugs willing. And that she is only a sophmore, despite how mature she wants to appear.
Also, no hospital tonight probably turns this into a case of his word vs. her word. And he’s the son of a pastor in a hick county.
Joyce’s choice of clothes help, here. Ryan will be hard-pressed to try and blame Joyce (successfully) of “mixed messages” from how she dressed. You know, in a sweater.
I can see it now…
Cop: “She was wearing a baggy turtleneck sweater.”
Ryan: “I know, right? It’s like she was practically BEGGING for it!”
Cop: (facepalm)
And the partygoers might decide Joyce is an “Acceptable loss” if, by supporting him, they can get Sarah kicked out/sent to prison on assault charges.
After all, they LIKED her old roommate.
Yeah, but Sarah’s plan of reporting is easier said than done. He’s probably got a few slick plans up his sleeve already.
And I’ve experienced a lot of that slick with hackers on a certain fanbase I’m a part of. Apparently, it’s not illegal to hack a 911 phone line and other people’s phone lines. The whole P.R. Fanbase and even former P.R. actors Facebook pages have been attacked for almost a year now by some deranged hacker who’s also apparently in a mental institute. I’ve managed to stay un-involved for the most part, but have been informed from the sidelines, so I know how tricky this guy could get.
What is P.R.?
Only PR acronym I know is public relations, and that doesn’t have a fanbase.
Judging by his avatar, I’m going to assume Power Rangers.
*cue awesome classic theme*
That’s what I’ve been thinking. If Joyce doesn’t go to the hospital then there is no physical evidence that she was drugged. And it comes down to Joyce’s word against his and if she’s been drugged then it’s not reliable testimony. Dorothy and Billie weren’t there and while Sarah can testify that she saw him attacking her, but unless there were other witnesses it’s her word against his. Now since Sarah cooperated with the authorities regarding her previous roommate’s drug abuse they might be inclined to believe her, but like you said she has enemies and they might just as easily say she attacked Ryan without provocation.
Well, his word versus her word versus like 3 other womens words. Assuming no one else at the party gets involved.
If she’s over the age of majority (is she? Not sure) then the hospital pretty much HAS to abide by her wishes to not contact her parents or anyone else unless she dies and they need her next of kin, or there’s a suspicion that she is involved in something heavily illegal or something (say, the victim or perpetrator of child abuse).
I do understand what she’s saying, but it may not be an issue at all. Besides, she’s just been roofied. Why the hell are they accepting her judgement as being legitimate? The entire point of those things is to make you susceptible to suggestion. I mean, obviously she doesn’t want to leave college; but to risk letting him get away with it (not to mention possible damage) by not getting documented medical attention immediately is, well, not a sound judgement, I’d say.
Who’s paying her bills? Yeah, the hospital isn’t allowed to tell the parents anything, but when they get a statement from the insurance company, they’re going to know something happened.
Problem is that a police report probably won’t get back to daddy, but charges onto the medical insurance most definitely will. And will trigger questions better left unanswered.
Looks like Dotty and Billie are kneeling before their Old Testament God.
Actually I think her dad might be a little proud of Joyce for smashing the glass into the creeps face.
If he’s anything like the other continuity’s Mr. Brown, he would be very proud of her smashing a glass in Ryan’s face.
Hmmm, you might be right. However, on the other hand, they lost contact with her for what? 5 years? They changed a lot in those 5 years of not having Joyce. Seems to me, like they were attempting to try once more themselves.
The characterization of different characters has differed in relation to where they were at in development in the other ‘Verse, to an extent. Joyce and Walky, for instance, are both considerably less well-adjusted than they were by the end of IW. Mike, on the other hand (for instance), seems about where he is in the more recent strips in Shortpacked.
I don’t think we have seen enough of Joyce’s parents (and I’m not sure we ever will) to know how they are relative to the other ‘Verse’s characterization.
I don’t know about Joyce being less well adjusted. I THINK OTHERWISE. But as for Walky he grew up with Sal this time and wasn’t being primed to save the world, so yeah he’s a little behind.
Oops! No special emphasis with the all caps. Just a typing goof.
I’m not saying Joyce is particularly poorly adjusted; compared to Roomies!Joyce, she’s pretty much a normal kid.
But simply put, she hasn’t undergone the same amount of ‘growing up’ that she had by the end of IW.
Doesn’t this comic stand on it’s own? I haven’t read any of the others; but I assumed form david’s writns that the ‘Joyce’ of this comic was another character then the Joyce of his other ‘verses’. But I might be wrong…
Well, than what’s the point of making her look like Joyce and calling her Joyce?
She’s the same Joyce, except if she had never been abducted by aliens.
Yes, they’re different characters. Alternate universes, y’see.
They are different characters, yes. Yes, this comic does stand on its own.
That said, the characters who have had versions of themselves in the original ‘Verse have been characterized in a pretty similar way in DoA as they had been in the original ‘Verse. Minus the things related to the sci-fi elements of the setting of IW.
I’m just looking for clues as to how Joyce’s parents would be characterized, since we didn’t see enough of them at the beginning of the strip to know if they’re really as overprotective as Joyce says they are, or if they’re a bit looser with things.
http://youtu.be/jEItBM1dc9o
Ouch, not sure how effective that will be without Joyce coming forward. Not to mention the potential for Ryan to file charges of his own.
Or the potential for Ryan to disappear forever after they discover he gave Joyce a fake name.
Makes me wish somebody had been smart enough to swipe his wallet when they had the chance.
Wouldn’t be too hard. Amb….errrr…I mean Amazi-Girl is looking for the guy right now. The blood all over him and the description that they gave her would help her find him. Can’t be too hard to find a guy with a Blue sweater and a fairly white stripe across it.
I am sure that commenters will have many opinions about whether Sarah’s plan is the best possible plan.
But do they have BASEBALL BATS?
Because, as far as I can tell, that seems to be the primary basis for Sarah’s authority over a situation which she was the last or second-last person to enter (depending on how you count Amazi-Girl).
I mean, I’m sure not sorry Sarah was there to use the bat, but an unfortunate side effect to that action is that she seems more certain than ever that she knows better than anyone else.
She is also the oldest person there…
I do, in fact, own a baseball bat, but it has only ever been used for baseball.
And yeah, it does seem like Sarah’s acting superior… then again, they are roommates. I don’t know if this is how others are, but I feel responsible for my roommate in a way. When my roommate is creeping girls out (in the “awkward overly friendly” way, not the Ryan way) I feel responsible to apologize for him. Maybe that’s why she’s taking authority in this? I dunno.
The person most qualified to lead isn’t always the most willing. I can’t personally blame anyone for not wanting to feel responsible for letting a sexual predator walk free or for robbing Joyce of a lifetime’s worth of opportunities and I certainly don’t look down on Sarah for stepping in and being decisive when no one else was.
Right now Sarah’s Taichi from Digimon Adventure, Dorothy’s Joe, and Billie’s Izzy.
Dorothy and Billie are staring at Sarah’s word bubble in the last panel?
I thought I was the only one who noticed that.
*Gasp* I love shoving police reports up dudes asses!
You do this often??
Only Mondays through Fridays. I solve crimes on the weekends.
Yeah, it’s like the people expect the police to SOLVE CRIMES OR SOMETHING.
Nanako, get daddy another beer.
Dorothy is right, she need to go to the hospital and get her blood tested, it’s there only evidence. Without it’s he said she said, and he has injuries
*Their, not there
More importantly, if he was new to this, he may not know what dosages are actually safe for a human to ingest- or may have not cared. They still aren’t even sure what she was drugged with, so it would behoove them to make sure she isn’t going to be dead in the morning.
I have a feeling Joyce is going to wind up at the hospital, anyway.
Me too. I won’t be surprised if Sarah’s just telling Joyce what she wants to hear so they can get her to the hospital more easily.
joyce! joyce! do you want to go to the park? do you, joyce? let’s go to the park, joyce! oh, who’s a good joyce? you are!
It’s cute how Dorothy actually has faith in the system like that. Maybe when she’s older she’ll learn better.
To be fair, she isn’t expressing faith in the system so much as her unwillingness to be the weak link in the system. She’ll be able to say she did her part regardless of the outcome.
Horerczy, your naivety is adorable.
I agree with you, OP, but I also know what it’s like to feel the way Joyce is feeling.
Last December, I was sexually assaulted. I was terrified to tell my parents because I didn’t know what they would do. I felt guilty for allowing myself to get in that place where I could have been assaulted. I know it wasn’t my fault, but I still felt guilty. My father and little brother still don’t know; I only told my mom, and even that was rough, since I too come from a pretty uptight background.
I didn’t want to call the cops because I didn’t want my parents to know. When one of my friends got angry and called them for me, the police did absolutely nothing. As it turns out, the guy was a registered pedophile too.
You know. Fun times.
Wow, that is awful. I do not have words to express my sympathy (both about the original incident and police response).
I hope you know that, whatever your “uptight background” might make you think about any situation you may or may not have found yourself in, you aren’t responsible for the incident in any way.
Okay, first off, that is scarily overprotective. Second, she needs to go to the hospital, otherwise there is no evidence.
Third, I’d bet her father would be proud of how she handled the situation. And by “handled the situation”, I mean “broke a glass in the guy’s goddamn face”.
YOU NEED EVIDENCE! OH MY GOD! NO EVIDENCE = NO CASE!
Or you know, all the witnesses? Testimonies from at least 3 people do count for something.
<—Criminal Justice Major.
That’s still more or less their word against his.
Another problem in the his word against hers. How are they going to explain away the beating they gave him when he presses charges against them. AB means more than just at-bat in this context.
Testimony will of course count for something. But Kernanator’s right that that the best evidence is a positive test for a date rape drug. The effects of date rape drugs do resemble drunkenness and without a blood test, they can’t prove that she was drugged.
Sarah’s plan is very stupid. Joyce isn’t the best judge of her condition, obviously. She needs to go to the hospital. While a lot of people around here seem convinced that her parents would have to find out if they went to the hospital, I really don’t think that’s true. There are lots of privacy protections built into the system when dealing with sexual assault.
While Joyce is acting dumb, and to some extent her friends are acting dumb by listening to her, the fact remains that Joyce is absolutely convinced that if words gets to her parents, she’s done with this whole college thing.
It’s clear to me that Joyce fears that much more then any other fallout from this situation.
She’s not acting dumb. She’s been drugged. She’s not capable of making rational decisions at this juncture.
And any number of bystanders, many of whom hate Sarah and might be inclined to lie about what they saw to get her in trouble. Hell, they might even BELIEVE that she was the aggressor.
And I forgot to mention: If the would-be rapist is any sort of athlete, it’ll be trivially easy for him to find “witnesses” who will swear he was just minding his own business.
That, and the fact she’s already being hit pretty hard after like 5 minutes, she probably needs to go to a hospital so she doesn’t die.
….great plan Sarah. Now if she reacts poorly and dies (Im sure it won’t happen but roofies CAN kill you) it can be on your head. For someone who prides themselves on their intelligence she’s rather stupid.
*herself
*her intelligence
Oh, thank you. I forgot that she was wrong twice.
No reason to be rude. o.o
Now I feel like a dick.
Sorry.
Agreed. I’d have turned her into the hospital personally.
I’d have turned her into Anti-Joyce, myself. More chance of chaotic fun, that way.
Hard to believe this is STILL the first week of college, huh?
And this storyline’s been going on since July. >_>
Hm. Given that Sarah’s finally been showing she cares about someone other than herself, I’d like to side with her on this, but the “No hospital” bit isn’t good advice. Wouldn’t one of the first things the police would ask be “Did you go to the hospital? Well, why not?”
Sarah is becoming progressively more and more awesome.
Joyce?
As the daughter of over-protective conservative parents, I can *assure* you… it is always always ALWAYS better to be up front about it and suffer whatever consequences may come because of what happened, then cover it up, lie by omission/outright lie, get found out (because these things DO tend to get found out), and suffer the WORSE consequences, because not only did you get into a dangerous situation, you then removed their ability to trust you.
Take it from the voice of experience – that second outcome is always worse than what you THINK your parents might do if you were otherwise honest.
*claps* Thank you thank you thank you. I know what you mean, and I learnt it the hard way. Damn teenage episodes in high school…at least they made me a better person.
Chances are Joyce’s parents will be more understanding than she thinks – as far as I can see, she herself has done nothing that they would disapprove of (other than perhaps attending the party in the first place, and that she did to help out a friend). Ryan lied to her, hurt her and was going to attempt far, far more than that…but at no fault of Joyce’s own. I think they’d definitely consider the possibility of pulling her out of college, but if her parents are anything like mine they’d decide against it in the end because they want her to get that education.
Moments like this are why Sarah is my secret favorite character.
I’ll be the first to agree that Joyce should definitely be going to a hospital for her condition. She’s bleeding from several points on her hand, shards of glass likely caught in the wounds. While roofies might not be the most dangerous drug out there with the intent behind the removed, she could still have an adverse reaction to them, and of course, there’s the matter of documented evidence for the coming police report.
However, I do see where Joyce is coming from here, and I really can’t help but side with her on it. When an overprotective parent relinquishes their control in their child’s life like Joyce’s Dad has by letting her attend college, it’s usually a point of intense turmoil for them, and more often than not, they’re looking for any reason they can find to call the whole thing a mistake and haul the kid back in and chain them down.
If news of this were to get back to Joyce’s dad, his first reaction would likely be, “I knew she wasn’t ready for this yet. I knew something like this would happen! We just can’t let our little girl loose in this world! She’s coming back home, this whole college business was all a huge mistake!” This, of course, lasts only as long as it takes Joyce to move away, but it would likely be the cause for emotional rifts between Joyce and her parents, and a lot bitterness and resentment on both parties, and I really think Joyce cherishes her relationship with them.
What it really all clinches on is the importance of staying in college to Joyce. She wants to see more of the wider world. She wants to be involved in varying social settings with various types of people. I’m sure she was aware that there were Ryan’s out in the world, though I doubt she expected to encounter one, and certainly not one who seemed so appealing so quickly.
This is just an instance in which she feels she needs to suck it up and keep moving. The fact that she still wants to keep moving and not run crying home, a compulsion that I’m sure several people in a potential assault and rape situation would find it hard to ignore, is a huge testament to her fortitude if nothing else.
Should Joyce see a doctor? Yes. God, yes. Would it be better for her in the long-run if she just got past this on her own?
She certainly seems to think so.
And while I may not entirely agree, I can definitely see why she does.
This is always a complicated issue. This happened to someone I know and she chose not to go to the hospital or press charges, and got a LOT of flack for it from the “you’re letting him do this again!” crowd amongst friends. But–in the end, I firmly believe it’s the woman’s choice what she does. Going through legal avenues for this is horrible. There is no easy solution to this kind of thing and no one knows the answers, so don’t pretend you do. I personally think doing what Joyce asks is absolutely the right thing to do, and Sarah is wise for listening to her.
This has been a hard story arc to read and it’s even harder reading the comments, but I really appreciate how it’s been handled. This is always a shitty, difficult, complicated situation, and thanks David Willis for not portraying it so well so far.
Ack I meant portraying it so well, not not. I started off saying something else and edited it and yeah.
I think most of the people commenting agree except for the fact that (unknown) drugs are involved that could cause serious and immediate problems. If it were alcohol being used to cloud Joyce’s mind I think most people would agree that “you’re letting him get away” wouldn’t be enough to justify ignoring her desire to avoid legal avenues.
Of course it’s the woman’s choice of what she does. It’s also the friends choice of what they do.
Joyce has a sliced up hand and has been drugged with some unknown agent. It seems irresponsible to not take her to a hospital.
That being said, this has been an exciting arc.
I wonder if Roz noticed ANY of this??
Hmmm.
If they’re going to file a report anyway, wouldn’t it be better if they do it now? I don’t want to get too technical or realist, but Joyce has evidence on her. The longer they wait, the more of it is gone. Also, remember the possible memory loss? She might not be able to report proper testimony.
And wow, sixteen? I was riding buses across town on my own at twelve.
Strangely enough, Joyce’s dad as portrayed don’t give that over-protective vibe to me; heck her mother in Walkyverse was wise to her little shenanigans…
Billie seems to have sobered up considerably–I don’t think she was ever really that drunk to begin with. Sometimes it’s better to act drunker than you are. You still get to goof off like an idiot without significant consequences, but you don’t lose your good judgement when you need it.
I wonder what the people who hated Joyce think of this arc.
Still hate her.
It’s not any particular actions or reactions that bother me about her character, or her naivete. Under the circumstances, Joyce behaved as well as she reasonably could, both in this arc and from the beginning of the strip. She’s a strong person and consistently characterized.
That doesn’t change the fact that she’s really fucking annoying.
Ah, thanks. Fair enough. Curiosity: Satisfied!
I must agree 100% with Minder. I also still fucking LOATHE the judgmental little retard. It’s not like I was sitting there rooting for her to get raped or anything, but I feel zero sympathy for such a mentally deficient character. And I don’t think the guy deserved a life-altering scar and a possibly fatal beating with a deadly weapon. He called her a cock-tease, he wasn’t trying to kill her.
Mentally deficient? There is a big difference between being naive and sheltered beyond the point of plausible social interaction and being “mentally deficient”. One leaves a much greater possibility for growth, for one thing, it’s not like she is the way she is because of a dangerously low IQ. And moreover the fact that you would loathe someone for being “mentally deficient” if the term did apply…
And moreover, as you mentioned, he was trying to rape her. All he did was call her a cock-tease because it was all he got the chance to do before the glass and the baseball bat hit. If that didn’t happen Joyce would’ve been raped. It’s not like he’s innocent in all this, that his only crime was being a bit of an asshole.
I wouldn’t go that far. Don’t get me wrong, I hate Joyce, and I’m resentful of this storyline for ensuring that she’s going to get all the limelight for at least a few weeks to come, but nobody deserves to get raped. She did what she needed to do to protect herself.
I’m really more disappointed that Ryan went that route at all. I was hoping it would turn out he was harmless.
But Dorothy, he might enjoy that for all you know.
Don’t you mean Sarah?
How about we wait for Joice to pass the drugs in her system and decide for her damn self.
Because the drugs in her system are all the evidence they have that could get this guy convicted.
I don’t think filing a police report for an attempted rape where the dude is badly hurt and the women doesn’t have any medical records to back her statement is a good idea. I just don’t see someone like him not lying about what happened, and if he is injured his story will sound more believable. I’m not saying he sould get away with this, I’m saying he would pry get away with this if not informing anyone of the details was really the victims priority.
Of course they should alert the police. Because the’re going to be very interested in the reason why a home-schooled christian girl and her roommate targeted him for ‘assault’ while he didn’t press charges… Besides: there are a lot of people in this party that have seen Joyce before and after the bathroom-incident. She must have been drugged. There are other people that can give statements that Joyce didn’t drink alcohol that night. Finally: while they didn’t see who started the violence, they did hear the things Sarah and Joyce said just after the incident when they where not busy thinking about the legal implications… It’s very unlikely that the police would just assume that two girls, with no prior history of violence, and no other association with the ‘victim’ to suddenly and withoud provocation, beat up a guy.
I like how Dorothy and Billie look like split images of each other in the last panel,
(despite their differences =D)
*Gets out the hedge-clippers and ping-pong paddles, then fires up the forge to make a red hot poker for Sarah, to go with the police report*
Cookie for the first person to get the reference.
Why, Joyce, you little rebel you!
So Joyce’s parents are a _lot_ different in this timeline…
(Sarah is unleashed now. There will be no stopping her.)
I’m unfamiliar with the characters in the previous timelines. How are her parents different?
GIMME GRANDCHILDREN. That’s how. Of course, they were older then, and that was after Joyce had disappeared for years… good chance that both changed their perspective a bit. And regardless, I can see either universe’s Joyce thinking her parents were much stricter than they actually were. That universe’s Joyce might have thought her parents were super-strict when she was that age too.
“Quiet, you drunk.”
Seriously, I don’t know how much of Billie’s thoughts are liquor right now. Is she a coherent drunk? Is there such a thing as a college Ballmer’s Peak?
This has bad decision written all over it, girls.
Well if they’re not going to the hospital, at least keep the glass as evidence. Maybe they’ll be able to trace what could be still in it.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope Ryan doesn’t file a report himself.
Very bad idea on Joyce and Sarah’s part. There have been some date rape drugs used recently that make the female victims sterile. It would be better to find out what she was drugged with, what the concentration was, and treatment options if there are long-term effects.
DEFINITELY keep the glass. Given that the drink was clear and didn’t smell of alcohol, and also given that flunitrazepam is not the least bit soluble in water, we can expect the substance to have been soda.
http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/etc/medialib/docs/Sigma/Datasheet/7/f9261dat.Par.0001.File.tmp/f9261dat.pdf
Here’s some more bad news for Ryan: flunitrazepam has had colored dye added to its powder so forensics teams can more readily detect the material. A typical dose of flunitrazepam for rape is 1-2 mg (plenty), and one can probably assume that if the dumbass was stupid enough to use a clear substance in a clear glass (the dye is hard to detect in colored fluids and on colored glass), he probably made the mixture homogeneous by stirring.
I’d run GCMS and NMR analysis on the drink sample, then check the remainder for dye if flunitrazepam shows up. Meanwhile, a standard DNA assay from the blood on the glass and a sample from Ryan would be sufficient to link the two.
Translation? Keep the glass, and take a urine sample from Joyce to cross-reference with the glass. Gather witness testimony, and Ryan’s as good as fried.
I should totally be a forensic scientist. O_O
Hehe ^^, let’s hope one of them is smart enough to preserve the glass. It’ll have his finger prints and hers. TBH, I was expecting the drink to be in a plastic cup, not glass.
Except that the glass was used as a weapon well after it was drugged. That bit’s circumstantial at best. Fingerprinting the glass would be much better. Presumably, it should only have the owner of the glass (or the last person to wash it at least), the attempted rapist, and Joyce’s fingerprints on it. Also, much less expensive and time consuming.
Unlike in CSI, the real cops don’t like doing expensive, weeks long procedures when they don’t have to.
The point on circumstantial evidence I give you, and the expense of the machines is unquestionable, but the entire experiment I just described, taken in isolation, would take ONE researcher about two hours. That means I could do four cases a day, twenty a week, all by myself. And that’s at a very, very leisurely pace. If rushed, I could have the results in about 45 minutes. The real time gap is in transporting the sample to the laboratory. All told, I expect a week at most before you’ve got the results in an investigator’s hand.
Also, as I understand it police departments often send their samples to forensic laboratories outside their precinct in order to defer the cost of the equipment.
I’m impressed…chemistry student?
Yep, I’m a scientist all right. A Pathologist, really, but there’s a lot of chemistry involved.
But how will Joyce’s parents get the grandchildren they want if they never let Joyce out of the house again? oO
Well, there is always the [i]Chinatown[/i]option . . .
What is the Chinatown option???
Steal a baby from a chinese family, I assume.
DRAMA! but yeah, in the real world, mr pastors son would get a tort lawyer, and sue both of them to kingdom come. depending on what state they’re in, joyce is the one at fault, she heightened a verbal altercation to a physical one by assaulting him, then he attempted to defend himself and her friend attacked him from behind. its hard to prove that he was the one that drugged her, and these days judges seem to like listening to lawyers who say that she was leading him on.
I suppose it would entirely depends on the judge. It’s possible Joyce/Ruth would just end up with community service. It also depends on whether the the judge is willing to take into account the Seperate cases: Ryan vs the State/Joyce and Ruth vs Ryan.
But replace all instances of the name “Ruth” with “Sarah”.
That’s completely unfair! That’s not justice! It doesn’t even RESEMBLE justice! A man tries to rape a woman using a drug, she defends herself, and she has to PAY him for failing to rape her? And if anyone tries to disable him once he starts fighting with her, they get to go to jail?
The law is designed to protect RAPISTS from their victims? That’s wrong. Completely wrong. As in, prosecution lawyers, judges, and legislators should be ashamed of themselves kind of wrong.
To quote a lawyer I know, specifically from a political discussion we had, “In practice the law has near absolutely nothing to do with justice or even fairness, no matter how much that is theoretically it’s point”
I’ve heard that one too. But it indicates that the practice needs to change. A justice system, sans justice, is worthless and needs modification. People cannot simultaneously preach the benefits of the law for maintaining a civilized society and then shrug their shoulders when things like this come up. I hold the system accountable for its actions.
I’m calling BS on Sarah’s words here. She’s too responsible for this. I bet she’s like, “I’ll take Joyce home” but then she actually drives her to the hospital. What’s Joyce gonna do, fight her about it? She’s practically knocked out as it is.
The thing that surprised me most now I think about it is that NOBODY was recording this on their camera phones.
Good point. It did happen rather suddenly, though, so maybe that’s why.
In my experience, whether they go to the hospital or the cops, the cops or the hospital will become involved either way.
In the case of the cops, the police will insist on blood work, thus involving the hospital.
In the case of the hospital, medical staff are legally bound to report incidence of abuse to the police, which this clearly qualifies as.
I thought the hospital only had to report knife/gun shot wounds?
Or abuse of a Minor.
Except, if she’s in college, that means she’s at least 18, right? No longer a minor.
Or anyone who is not fit to make decisions for themselves, as in the case of someone who is under the influence of a mind altering substance like alcohol or drugs.
I’d think it depends on the state. And the universe in question. I have no idea if IRL laws apply to DoA region-specific laws, or what those IRL laws are.
DAMN YOU WILLISSSSSSSSSSSSS…
Headline a few days later: “Upstanding son of beloved pastor brutally beaten by drunken college girls who later tried to falsely claim attempted rape.”
Sarah, it won’t fit. I broke my foot in there kicking him.
I’m sorry if I’m repeating this, but I simply don’t have time to read through all the posts over the last few days. I could be wrong, but I think Ryan is the same Ryan from Roomies who seduced Ruth only to break her heart later. If he he played a roll in making this Ruth who she is then add another contender vying for a pound of flesh.
his Dumbing of Age storyline does disturb me a bit, mainly because she was DRUGGED, which has wayyyyy more factors than just alcohol (ex: what type of roofie did this guy use? We don’t know. And also, we don’t know HOW SHE IS GOING TO REACT. EXAMPLE: I HAVE HAD FRIENDS WHO HAVE GOTTEN ROOFIED AND THEY JUST VOMITED. I have had friends who have gotten roofied who had to go to the hospital because it was way more than one vomit time. It was all night and they couldn’t think straight and they had a fever etc.)
I am just saying that the hospital would have been more important than the police report, arguably. Good thing they didn’t file the police report when Joyce was all “omg I’m incoherent and drugged” but like…seriously? Hospital would have been good, guys.
I realize that it’s part of college culture where we don’t realize that serious medical situations are actually, you know, serious (I once had to convince a group of strangers with an unconscious, vomit-crusted girl in their van that no, “throwing up this much is not normal and if she’s fading in an out of consciousness with what looks like blood, that is alcohol poisoning and we have no idea how we are going to make sure she is OK unless WE GET SOMEONE TO LOOK AT HER, YOU DUMBASS”)
But I am just saying that medical care is the first priority.
/rant
Sometimes medical care isn’t the first priority. She’s still coherent and roofies aren’t life-threatening from what I understand. Hence social implications can outweigh transitory medical ones. Ofc, I’d push part of the blame for this to the parents – if she’d not be so afraid of them knowing, she’d seek immediate medical help. It’s interesting to see one of the many reasons overprotective parenting is more damaging then helpful.
“He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.”
Job 7:10