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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 7d
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social ⋅ 20d
Gwen Snyder is uncivil @gwensnyder.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Ash Parrish @adashtra.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Katie @katiestp.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Hunter S Schafer @bolt451.bsky.social ⋅ 4d
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(he/him)
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you lied because you made your bed and had to LIE IN IT
wait no
good job, Willis, you get a candy
Happy Halloween everyone!!!!
How are you all gonna celebrate? Lemme know below!
*plays “It’s Terror Time Again” by Skycycle on hacked muzak*
I went to a ritual the Druid circle in my city held today. It was pretty cool. Then I made my roommates binge Over the Garden Wall with me, because it’s mandatory for Halloween.
Tomorrow I’m going to buy piles of discount candy and maybe go to a drag show.
I was amazed to find we’re the most popular Halloween stop in our ‘hood. No candy. We give out comic books to the older kids and age-appropriate temporary tattoos to the little ones.
That is awesome. Of course, you have the most popular stop.
For a while, my family’s house was the house to hit… in more ways than one. We were the house that the bad kids dared people to steal decorations from.
My wife doubled down at the last minute and handed out Hot Wheels to the toddlers. So cute.
Happy Halloween!
We watched some Scooby Doo/WWE crossovers for Sunday because my dad wasn’t gonna be home and tonight I’m going to my boyfriend’s to hang out with him and his best friend and then I’mg going to come home and watch movies with my brother.
I live in a new neighborhood, one that apparently gets tons of trick-or-treaters, which is new for me.
So I’m handing out treats. Gonna be the cool house and give full sized bars (as long as the supply lasts at least, got some fun sized for emergency backup).
Well I have a truly terrifying amount of homework, so I will be doing that and trying not to fail my classes. Though if I become too exhausted to work anymore, there is a scary audiodrama I’ve been meaning.
PS. Happy Halloween to you too, Wellerman. What are your plans for All Hallows Eve?
Thanks!! Well I’m still bummed out I didn’t get to release the DoA horror game
On the bright side, it’s still my favorite holiday, so imma treat myself to some Hallow-weed cookies and chilly down with horror classics like Jurassic Park, Alien, Freddy vs Jason, Hocus Pocus, as well as some new horror anime like Promised Neverland and Made in Abyss.
I’m also gonna finish the first season of Little Demon, the show is fucking PERFECT
🥹
Probably gonna blast Pumpkin Hill music at all hours (beginning at midnight) until someone physically makes me stop. After that, see if I can’t find a red t-shirt my size for a makeshift Knuckles costume.
Then I guess I’ll watch some Halloween-related or otherwise-spooky media. Gotta do It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! for sure. Might watch some old Doctor Who and try to be happy those eight faces are canon while forgetting the particular tortured way in which they were made canon.
I’m driving home from a fantastic weekend.
Fortunately Halloween isnt really a thing here. And we have dogs so those few kids that actually bother give our place a wide berth. We’ve imported enough silly American culture without adding this one to the list.
While I fully appreciate the point about silly american culture, Halloween is like, the *one* thing worth importing.
On that topic (imported culture), what aspect of your culture would you export and be happy to see america adopt?
The same way I always do Halloween: trying to sleep and hoping the local trick-or-treaters respect the unspoken rule: “no porch light no candy”.
Keep company with my kid who is sick this year.
I’m going to read all the comics I usually read every day, then watch some youtube, make a quick dinner, get some sleep, have a small breakfast, fuck around online, and then go to work. It’s just another Monday.
No Halloween here. Our holiday is in November 2nd, when latin countries attend the Day of the Dead (or Dia de los Muertos, in spanish-talk countries).
Er, maybe Latin countries is too broad? We don’t have that here in Arg
We had the Halloween party at our school last Wednesday. Laser tag and costume contest. Today I showed the kids the Disney classics “The Skeleton Dance” and ‘Trick Or Treat”(with Donald Duck and Witch Hazel).
Super fun!!! 🤩
Gonna listen to some SCP podcasts until I head into the office for our annual chili contest. Eat a bunch of chili and then drive home, then maybe work on some red beans and rice for dinner. Watch some spooky movies and give kids candy.
I’m dressing up as an Installation Wizard.
mmmmm…. chilli dogs are a great way to chilly down
I’ve never been in a country that celebrates Halloween but it’s always been one of my favorite holidays. I already read, watch, and listen to a lot of horror, so tonight I’ll just curl up with a great horror movie, probably.
I have to work
Plus side, work pays double on holidays, instead if the usual 1.5x
I went to a funeral. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but that’s what I got. It involved roughly four hours’ driving time each way, so along with some family visiting, it took up the entire day.
Afterwards, I watched a few Gravity Falls episodes with my mother, so that was nice.
Well, SHE certainly told HER.
Ruth: “You lied by saying you loved me more than Kit Fisto!”
Jennifer: “You lied by insinuating that I don’t have a chance with him! Plans are in motion!”
What’s the big deal about Kit Fisto?
Everybody has a fictional character they crush on to an absurd degree (mine is Kira Nerys). Jennifer’s is a minor Star Wars Legends/Clone Wars character.
It illustrates her anti-nerd facade is just that.
Mirror Universe Kira.
That is all.
By Willisverse multiversal law, which is a good example for everything, Intendant Kira being bi means Main Kira is.
Kira that lives rent free in Gul Dukat’s head and laughs at the idea Sisko would ever respect him.
Ask Jennifer.
… okay, Ruth, I call BS on that last one. You can’t do a thing and then be angry that you succeeded. I mean, you can be, but it’s shitty and does nothing to support you. You done fucked up.
I think Ruth was the initiator of this $&!t-show, but they both screwed up from that point on.
Yeah, this one really makes it seem like the reason Jennifer kept ignoring Ruth breaking up with her was that Ruth TOLD her to. Which is a BS situation to put somebody in, and a BS thing to then be salty about
Agreed, also sorry for the accidental flag
I real confused by this whole thing now cause the consensus was that Billie was abusive and toxic and Ruth was in the right to force her out of the relationship but now Ruth regrets breaking up??? Kind of makes her seem like the abusive one to put this on Jennifer. But their relationship is like a rollercoaster through a funhouse mirror with grenades strapped to it anyway so maybe it’s not supposed to make sense.
they’re both awful for each other. ruth is arguably worse for being a bit older and in a position of small authority, but in terms of “who’s right about feelings” it’s “neither, both of them need to go see hecking therapists”
I think they both tried and it didn’t work? Very few treatment options for anything work for everyone.
Maybe there is no “abusive one”? Just two messed up kids, rather than an abuser and a victim.
I don’t think Ruth is actually angry Jennifer didn’t “let her” break up with her, or at least I don’t think she’s actually blaming Jennifer for that. To me it looks more like just a counterdig for the sake of the counterdig, to prove that they both failed to stick to their word. Obviously up to individual interpretation, but that’s the vibe I’m getting from her wording and expression
Same here.
Also, I notice that the Which Character Is Most Right/Wrong comments tend to be kinda fun to write, but usually tedious to read, at least for me. Does anyone else feel that way?
(To clarify, I’m not asking people to stop, I’m perfectly able to skip a day or scroll on by whenever I’m not in the mood to read comments! Just, I can’t think of other things that I find more fun to write than to read, so I wonder what’s up with that, and if it’s common.)
yeah it reads much closer to me as “these are the excuses that they’re telling one another” because they’re both mad for incoherent and intense reasons and there’s no real explanation other than “sometimes shit doesn’t work” and they’re working to that point.
I think it’s one of those things that you say when you’re mad even though you know it’s unfair.
I feel bad for Jennifer being hurt but man they’re so awful for each other I can’t be mad about the outcome.
i would think jen would wanna avoid ruth, and avoid any kinda provoking in case she actually ends up relapsing into drinking and suicidal ideation again
Yaaaaayyyyyy they’re talking again!
Surely this will end up being a healthy conversation right?
Ahahahahaha, I kill me.
hmm ruth I’m not sure that’s the own you think it is
Honestly, not to be total trash, but that line makes me really question these dynamics anew. Like, does Ruth WANT Jennifer to pursue her? Is Jennifer mad because she has correctly identified that Ruth’s been behaving dishonestly and irrationally? Jennifer is an awful communicator in many ways, but Ruth unquestionably is, too, and… Ruth has given basically no indications she wants to break up except that she thinks it’s for Jennifer’s own good.
Jennifer’s shitty reaction is, yeah, shitty, but it’s also her at her worst in a lot of ways–she thinks Ruth is self-destructing and is sick of Ruth acting like she isn’t, and maybe it’s magnifying her worst traits because she’s *scared* for the woman she loves. Hence her trying to hook Ruth up with people, being satisfied when Ruth lashes out, etc. She doesn’t know how to process this breakup, and a part of her always worried (hoped?) that Ruth was doing it self-destructively and that Ruth was still in danger without her.
This is mostly Devil’s Advocate. I think calling this ship toxic and bad is a pretty safe take, and I definitely don’t want to debate that point when I probably overall agree with you. That said, I have… questions.
Oh, and to be clear, the “satisfied” could as much be relief that Ruth isn’t trying to take the bullet for her anymore as the more toxic “oh good you’re still a mess who needs me”. Like, Jennifer seems to be worried that Ruth is self-destructing for Jennifer’s sake, and Jennifer wants Ruth to stop pretending to be fine when she’s obviously hurting.
I think it’s well-established neither Ruth or Jennifer know WHAT they want and don’t think they deserve anything good in their lives. Ruth’s anger is that Jennifer remained dumped apparently and Jennifer is mad that Ruth finally “got better” then chose to dump her for it.
Even though Ruth did everything she could to break up for real, I think a part of her was hoping that Jennifer would keep pursuing her and it would be out of her hands.
“You lied about the Leafs making it to the Stanley Cup”
*plays on the jacket patch Said I Loved You…But I Lied by… Michael Bolton*
Nah, the only ones who say that’ll happen are non Toronto fans. Leafs fans just wait for the Leafs to give up a 3-1 lead to lose in the first round.
What even is real feelings to either of them at this point. Their relationship was buried under so much performative misery it’s hard to actually know now.
Yes, and also, people can have more than one feeling at a time. All the feelings can be real. People are complicated like that.
I’m gonna say “contradictory”
I think Jennifer is forgetting that their relationship was always an inseparable alloy of love and (mostly self) hate. Ruth being mad at Jennifer is just as real as her undiminished love, even the deepest hate is not incompatible with the greatest love.
Both Jennifer and Ruth are becoming better people.
But they loved the shitty version of each other, which means they’re pissed at both changing.
It’s oddly relevant to Joyce who is exhausted with the fact all of her friends liked the “Old Joyce” more than the person she thinks is objectively better.
To be fair “The Old Joyce” wasn’t as prone to self-loathing funks as the “new” version. She’d have a brief freakout and move on, at the most.
“Reopening old wounds? That’s for basic bongoes. We’re about to go SPELUNKING in these wounds!!”
—Jennifer and Ruth, probably
This relationship definitely keeps me guessing on who’s being shittier. Jennifer was kinda winning until Ruth dropped that last line, woof
I mean at this point their relationship is essentially an arms race on who can be more toxic to the other so I think it makes sense that they flip flop on who’s the shittiest at any given moment.
For real. This made me laugh tho >.>
MAS (Mutually Assured Shittiness)
Oh for fucks’ sakes please just stop speaking to each other, I cannot bear this endless dramawanking you both do
“Dramawanking” lmao nice
But dramawanking is kind of the premise of the strip. If that went, what would Willis have to write about? Alien conspiracies?
that’d be walky’s podcast if he had the attention span/determination to keep at it lol
lol doa can’t be peaceful for too long
i thought jen was actually flipping her off for a sec that last panel but yeah it’d best if they stayed away from each other
Oooh, nice, you DID have them talk about Halloween on Halloween! That is almost worthy of declaring this an honorary Dumbing Day. Almost.
oh fuck.
Alt-text: Lots of people manage to mention Halloween on Halloween. Sorta a low bar.
Not when you have to schedule it out years in advance.
I love all of the complicated relationships in this series but I really want Ruth and Jennifer to end permanently. It’s losing a source of a lot of drama but I think the strip could endure it.
People love all the flawed, twisted, and bittersweet relationships in this comic, they just want them all to end.
I think their romantic relationship has permanently ended, but their conflict isn’t quite there yet (but at least they only have one class together)
Idk, part of me really wants them to both learn a lot and then somehow get together in a way that’s actually healthy. I am a sucker for things where people are fucked up and somehow manage to get better together. But a) both of them have to actually recognize what’s wrong and try to fix it and b) that’d take….. SO LONG.
For me what is definitely part of the thing is that the relationships that replaced them are just so boring. You’d think that a foreign transplant who lost his job for fucking a student with a supervillain father and a mob prince would be more interesting. I suppose Asher still has time to surprise me, but he hasn’t done anything remotely interesting since calling in Blaine’s hit.
Sure, he probably had a guy murdered, but what has he done for us *lately*
(I mean I agree with you, the boys in those relationships are kinda just there to prop up the girls. We don’t see them having anything else going on outside of their relationships with Jennifer & Ruth. They might not even have other stuff going on. But it was too funny not to mention.)
That was like three entire months ago. The people (me) demand blood.
Boring could also just mean stable. Jason and Asher are boring because their respective relationships with Ruth and Jennifer are not non-stop peaks and valleys of drama. Jason and Asher wouldn’t aggressively makeout with their lover only to barricade them out of their room and life minutes later, or consistently flip flop on their sobriety to remain co-dependent. That plus in general they’re not main characters so we don’t really see much of them outside of when they’re relevant to someone with higher story status.
You’re right about Jason though. He’s boring and he sucks, and I’d much prefer Ruth dated someone else but she kinda sucks too so they deserve each other.
Will you two please just make out again? If the boyfriends have a problem with it, point them at each other for solace or something. Gimme that wlw catastrophe back, y’know?
Jason x Asher would be a fun crack ship to try to figure out how the hell that’d work.
“My dad’s… maybe evil in this universe. I mean, probably he is.”
“I have an evil family, for sure.”
“We have so much in common already.”
Ruth i love you but that’s the equivalent of saying “it’s not my fault he died when i stabbed him”
Like, what the hell
Knives don’t kill people, blood loss kills people.
Okay, crazy idea but I’m calling it here:
This is all building up to a situation where these two sit down and just TALK to each other.
Ruth and Jennifer/Billie have been one of the biggest sources of drama and relationship intrigue throughout the source of the comic. The fights, the suicide pact, the hate sex, the physical altercations, all of it and more; it keeps building up and adding on, and eventually you expect things to inevitably blow up and take several buildings along the way. Because that’s how these kinds of things tend to go for these characters.
But this is also Willis we’re talking about, who quite enjoys toying with his audience. I could see all of this building up to what one would expect to be a massive blowout… and then it turns out, no. They sit down, they talk it out, and they come out better for it. Happier, healthier, maybe friendlier.
We don’t even get to see the conversation. We don’t get to know what’s said or who does what. We see them go into a private area, sit down with each other… and then we see the aftermath. It becomes the new Halloween that Willis hangs in front of our noses for months if not years on end.
Because what’s a more trollish way to resolve the single most dramatic romance in the series than with a complete and total LACK of drama?
You know this kind of off-screen resolution is going to end up in people assuming that, as soon as we stopped looking at them, they had a cataclysmic slipshine-a-thon that fixed everything, right?
That’s a feature, not a bug.
This was fun to read but I don’t believe it. I think Willis is more invested in being a good storyteller than a good troll.
Yeah, so, while Ruth’s last line is pretty crappy, Jennifer is the one who is instigating this and literally going:
“How DARE you have FEELINGS opposite of WHAT I WANT.”
ouch
Ruth definitely went too far with her last line, but I’m confused about what Jennifer wants Ruth to do. What does she mean, “this is the real you”?
Maybe related to Ruth being on anti-depressants?
I think Billie is saying, “See? The real you still wants to be with me. You lied when you pretended you wanted us to break up.” Or something along those lines.
Which is true.
Or at least sort of true.
It’s true that Ruth never had her heart in breaking up, but I don’t think it’s fair to call it a lie.
I’d say she didn’t want to break up. She was happy with Jennifer. She did it because she thought she should – that it would be better for Jennifer.
But she may still have been hoping, deep down, that Jennifer wouldn’t let her do it.
Some sports commentary:
Liar-Calling Playoffs Match 1: Jennifer 3 – Ruth 1.
Jennifer wins easily even without proper sport attire. Will Ruth want to take Match 2 to punches, where she has shown already she has some advantage?
[Insert Patreon ad here]
I didn’t get Jennifer’s talk in last panel.
I take it that Jennifer is saying that the last thing Ruth says in this strip is the real her. Petty, spiteful, and that this civility she has displayed a few times is bullshit on her part and an act. Honestly, she may have a point.
That tracks with this little interaction the other day (DoA time):
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/04-dont-stop-billie-ving/dislodged/
ok this may be because I just woke up but what they say don’t make a lot of sense
I just want them to be happy ok!!
The cracks between the paving stones
Like rivers of flowing veins
Strange people who know me
Peeping from behind every window pane
The girl I used to love
Lives in this yellow house
Yesterday she passed me by
She doesn’t wanna know me now
Crawled around in the glowing
All-embracing wreckage
Sun-burned and snow-blind
Excavating the space we left behind
Thank goodness these two have a long, rich history of healthy communication or else I’d suspect this isn’t going to end well /s
Ruth, you really, *really* need to avoid getting sucked in to Jennifer’s portrayal of this as a battle of lies. “I ended us because as sexy as a sexy lesbian suicide pact is, it’s still a suicide pact, and I wasn’t convinced we wouldn’t relapse.” Then, and this is the hard part, you need to *stop interacting with her*. For fuck’s sake. Y’all are never going to get over this, there’s always going to be that wound. So stop poking it.
Jennifer, you’re…well, honestly, I think you’re doing alright as these things go. I’d like it more if you were more true to yourself rather than burying certain aspects of your personality, but I think you’re in a healthier place. But also you need to start ignoring Ruth as well.
Jennifer is also realizing that she hated Billie.
Which is kind of funny because the fans hate Jennifer and love Billie while are on Joyce’s side to leave behind Old Joyce.
So, maybe I’m projecting (I’m probably projecting), but my take away is that Jennifer /wants/ Ruth to be the same ruthless, “toxic”, codependent, jealous person she remembers. Or least, she wants her to be angry and upset. Like, that would be easier for Jennifer to handle than the anti-conflict end she got. Ruth doesn’t want to be that person anymore and seems to be really trying, but it’s who Jennifer still believes to be her “real” self.
(toxic is in quotation marks because I loathe using that word to describe people even though it can be a useful shorthand)
Remember Ruth dumped Jennifer for making her happy.
Yea… good ol’ “Well you lied too” technique… that always works SO well…
Ruth has lost a great occasion to be mute… Jennifer see only her truth, Ruth never loved her, she actually dislike her very much… Jennifer and Ruth are a disaster, expecially together.
There’s a difference between things that are good for your physical and mental wellbeing and things that are “healthy,” and that’s what I feel like this arc is partly about. Both Billie and Ruth have gotten past some of their worst problems, but in trying to act like “healthy” people, they’ve developed new problems that can’t really be addressed within that framework.
Ruth isn’t suicidal and doesn’t seem to have a fucked up relationship to alcohol anymore, but she’s avoiding having strong feelings about anything, dating a person she doesn’t care about very much because she’s afraid of dragging a more vulnerable partner down with her, completely ignoring what Billie actually feels and wants because she can’t model Billie as having any agency, and generally seems to be treating herself more as a hazard that needs to be managed than as a person who should get to have joy in her life.
Billie, meanwhile, is also drinking less and has gotten over a lot of her high school popularity bullshit, but she’s fallen into an extremely culty group of friends led by a human garbage can who talks over Billie in therapy speak, only cares about her because stealing her away from her other friends might hurt them, and renamed her like an adopted dog. She’s dating someone who’s even less safe to be around than Ruth, and she seems to be more into him than Ruth is into Jason, but she’s clearly in this relationship because she’s trying to look like she’s completely moved on. I also feel like she’s backsliding in terms of her relationship to her sexuality (I know bi girls can date dudes, but it feels like she’s playing up that she’s dating a dude now and there was also all that weird projecting she did about Dorothy and Joyce, and I think she’s right about Dorothy and Joyce but she was also definitely projecting?).
Both of them were happier when they were being “unhealthy” than when they were being “healthy”, but instead of taking what they had and trying to make it better and more sustainable, Ruth blew it all up and Billie didn’t fight her on it. And now they’re miserable, and Billie is starting to catch on.
I don’t know where this storyline is going, but hopefully it continues to be critical of recovery culture because god does someone need to be.
I don’t think she’s dating Jason. She’s literally just locked him up for a couple of days.
I’m still not sure who’s more to blame for their breakup at this point.
Blame it on the boogie.
Does it matter? Sometimes people just don’t work out together, and that’s ok.
“you lied about never letting me push you away again”
about that… “You didn’t take the abuse and come crawling back to me” is not a good defense.
It’s not, but it’s a bit more complicated, since that was their deal at the start.
It’s a bad basis for a relationship, but it was also something they both used and relied on, so maybe some discussion about how it was a bad idea and with them a bit healthier they should change it might have been in order.
And the final breakup wasn’t over Ruth’s abuse. Ruth dumped Jennifer because they were in a good place and she thought they might both survive it. Jennifer at the time pulled the “I’m not going to let up you push me away” card, which makes this reaction kind of out of place.
…I feel like there’s at least a 60% chance of them banging.
Something has just clicked in my brain and I’m going to put it out there to enrage anyone who has the ability to comprehend it:
Jennifer has serious Vriska vibes.
Now that you pointed out that, Ruth kinda looks like John…
Site broken for a few hours for anyone else?
Maybe the site thinks we’re broken and just wants a break from our collective shenanigans.