It's a pretty rigid format but we keep the content loose, you know?
Peritale
Mari Costa
A fairy godmother with no magic tries her best to successfully fulfill a Fairytale and win the respect of her peers.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
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!
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.
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Heroes of Thantopolis
Izzy Strontium Hall
A living boy fights to save the City of the Dead.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Angel's Orchard
Harry Bogosian
After the events in Demon's Mirror, Gerda has accepted her role as a Demon Hunter, and Cezar has traveled back to the Demon City. Demons have existed alongside humans for millennia, so things begin to return to normal. But an impossibly powerful Relic has been taken by one of the Demon Masters, and a silent war enters its final stages.
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.
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.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
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.
Novae
KaiJu
A historical romance with a touch magic and a dash of astronomy. It chronicles the romantic adventures of Sulvain, a sweet tempered necromancer and Raziol, a passionate 17th century astronomer.
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.
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.
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.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
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...
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
Ozzie the Vampire
Eric Lide
Ozzie and her best friend Kimmy are your average everyday normal art students – except one is an immortal vampire with superpowers and the other possesses a magic talking grimoire. Also they have to save their town from a demonic invasion.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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.
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.
The Messenger
indui
In a ruin-abound town cursed with bad luck, Kai and Kalla--a young boy and a fledgling dragonbird spirit--take on a quest in hopes the reward will solve all of their problems.
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?
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.
Monster's Garden
Ash G.
Champion pit fighter Kilo Monster was content to spend the rest of his days tending to his quiet garden alone... until he met a curious robot girl and her human family.
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Ugh… re-reading this, I cringed when realizing my pun about ‘opportunity cost’ is probably too subtle compared to the rapey-sounding taking advantage of a drunk patron.
fwiw i immediately got that the joke was a pun on “opportunity cost” =)
being economics-ly illiterate i can’t tell how witty it was but it really just sounded too much like a jolly old pun for me to dig any deeper
I would “joke” that this isn’t what it looks like, but… it probably actually isn’t. Jason actually gives a shit about consent, so I’m betting he just escorted her home and then spent the night because he was tired.
They can work and I think it works better if he just escorted her home precisely because a person who gives a shit about consent and not abusing your partner is whom Ruthless needs.
I think the common misconception arises in part from the fact that Billie/Jennifer is the only Ruth relationship that’s ever gotten any significant attention from the narrative, in either continuity. However, she did have at least one boyfriend back in high school (a Dumbiverse alt version of a character from an old webcomic that was never finished), and it’s not like they broke up because she wasn’t into him— it was because Gramps up and moved her (insert inordinately large number here) miles away and uprooted her entire life.
(Let’s just forget that one Walkyverse flashback story where she dated Ryan because nope nope nope)
There was also some dialog from an earlier comic where she was asked (by her brother i think) whether she was gay now because she was dating billie/jennifer. She responded “maybe?”
Funnily enough my best friend actually married his canadian girlfriend a few years back then moved up there to be with her. now he is part canadian, they did the blood moon sacrifice for the CONVERSION ritual and everything.
Jeff I’m gonna be real with you. If the assumption of a character’s sexuality when it comes to same sex relationships is that they are always gay, that doesn’t mean we need to constantly clarify that. That means y’all need to stop assuming one thing.
You’re the wrong one here. Please stop acting like your inability to change an extremely simple assumption is worth digging your heels into.
People are often surprised by rarely referenced character traits, even if they’re well known to people who follow the story closely. More people will be surprised to learn she’s bi than that she’s Canadian because Canadian is a more prominent character trait. That is literally all I was saying.
I know bi invisibility is a thing, but at the same time, people miss character traits all the time. Hell, there was someone earlier today who didn’t even think Ruth and Jason had met.
I’m saying if you see a dude kissing another dude you can’t just go “he’s gay until proven otherwise” for all eternity anymore. I’m saying that bi invisibility and us getting rolled into being gay comes from the assumption that, inherently, kissing someone of the same gender means the character is gay, even though there are other sexual identities that do the same thing.
So instead of going “it’s not their fault, she’s kissed a girl on-panel and not a boy, so it makes sense to assume she’s gay” you should think of it as “Ruth has kissed a girl so the only thing she definitely isn’t is straight.”
Jason gives a shit about consent in theory, just like he gave a shit about being a good educator in theory.
In practice? The last we saw of him where sexual consent was concerned, he’d exploited (deliberately or accidentally) his positional power over a student. It wasn’t completely non-consensual, but consent has a bit of a gray border between “they’re definitely not consenting” and “they’re definitely consenting”.
It seems like Jason thought Sal was definitely enthusiastically consenting when she was actually agreeing in the presence of moderate academic duress that was at least into that gray border, perhaps all the way past the border, and certainly not enthusiastic.
Without commenting more than that on whether or how much Jason was in the wrong with Sal (because I’ve already said my piece on that a bunch of times), it points to a significant lack of caution on his part where consent is concerned. Even if Sal were enthusiastically consenting (and it seems he thought she was), the situation was such where he should have (at the very, very, very, minimum and less than that even) been alert that what appeared on the surface to be consent may have been… not so much consent. (And there were a lot of problems involved in there BEYOND consent, which I’m not commenting on here.)
Having had a few drinks doesn’t necessarily make someone unable to consent. They don’t magically lose the ability to say yes and have it mean yes just because there’s a bit of booze in them. Three sheets to the wind and not able to understand what’s happening, that’s definitely nonconsensual, as is nearly- or entirely passed out. But in between the extremes of that and perfect sobriety can be less clear. That sort of grayness, combined with Jason’s precedent of incaution, worries me a little bit here.
…..
Oh, wait, this is Ruth we’re talking about, she’s clearly sobered up by this point, and his femurs and other bones appear entirely intact. So yeah, anything that happened was consensual.
I agree, consent was not their issue. He didn’t even gesture in the direction of putting sex in the same room with Sal before she decided to half-strip and climb in his lap.
Frankly, if consent was iffy on either side there, I’d actually be inclined to wonder about Jason’s, if he hadn’t later specifically said he said yes to the sex.
On the surface, it isn’t, but on a deeper level the reason we have rules about sexual relations when there are power imbalances – like teachers or like employers, is that consent is always problematic when dealing with someone you have power over.
Why are you suggesting that Sal may not have been consenting, while totally ignoring the fact that Jason might not have been?
Power imbalance issues are definitely a thing, but this seems to be the opposite case, really.
I kinda don’t want it to happen now. Not because Ruth banged Jason but because she blew Daisy off only to bang Jason. It kind of undercuts the idea she was self conscious about the expectations of that date. Ruth just wasn’t really into Daisy. That’s fine, but Daisy deserves a girl just as into her as she would be into them.
I’m prepared to wipe egg off my face for this but, I don’t think they banged? Jason’s been very upfront about the whole “being drunk is being dumb” thing the last few pages he’s been on.
True and I could wiping egg off mine for making a rational assumption based on the images presented. Which would be falling for a manipulation. My only defense is we don’t know how much time it has been. Did the derby happen the same night as the date? Is this the day after both? I don’t know. Also not sure Jason has the best track record on sex ethics considering he banged a student. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow who the egg face is. Should be fun!
I’m not sure. I usually run off the idea that each storyline typically starts and ends on its own day though I don’t know if that’s a regular pattern. So if the Walky’s hot now thing happened on Thursday then the roller derby was on Friday night which would make today Saturday in comic just as an example. I never actually know what day it is in comic. But that might not even matter. Some people have made good points as to the topic of Ruth’s consent vs drunkeness so I’m not sure what to think. I don’t know why it would be this ambiguous if he really just walked her home. Why sleep in her dorm room? Ugh. I’ve so overthought this now!
Maybe he wanted to make sure her new meds really didn’t have side effects; she had to go to the hospital last time and he knows that. Maybe she wanted company to watch old hockey games, or just didn’t want to be alone on her birthday and thought that someone she could talk to was a good option for company. Who knows? We don’t yet.
Whatever the case may have been, at this point Ruth seems to have no problem with his presence or reasons for being present. She’s an adult, he’s an adult, he’s no longer any percentage teacher, and certainly wasn’t any percentage HER teacher even when he actually had that percentage. Hell, he’s probably not even that much older than she is. Why would it necessarily be a problem if they hooked up? The issues that existed with Sal don’t exist here, and there’s no real evidence of others. (Yet.)
@anonymsly There’s nothing wrong with them hooking up. As you noted Ruth seems fine. Unless some problematic details are revealed what happened doesn’t really matter. My issue is that I liked the Ruth and Daisy pairing and regardless of what actually happened between Ruth and Jason they are together right now. That means Ruth chose to spend time with him over Daisy. Even if she was nervous about being with Daisy that night, she still blew her off through text to hangout with someone else. Either she didn’t like Daisy that much or didn’t trust her which tells me any future relationship with Daisy beyond maybe friendship has no hope. Even if Jason shook Ruth’s hand and said “Well good luck with courting Daisy.” before leaving. I wouldn’t want Daisy to be involved with her like that. That bums me out since I was invested. Turned out to be a waste of time. The only way to save this. Would be if Daisy is also in that room.
Each storyline, except where a time skip is noted, is the day after the previous one. Roller derby went past midnight, which is what we saw. This is later the same day.
Yes. Just after midnight, so on a different day.
There was only one strip, of Lucy and Walky cuddling, between Daisy leaving the bar with Jason and Ruth still there and the start of the roller derby game.
I think there’s only been one exception – one early storyline had a multiday skip a couple strips in, clearly noted in a caption. Otherwise each storyline has been one day with any time skips in between and clearly noted.
This is probably pretty naive, but I’m still hanging on to the idea that they didn’t bang, mostly because it hasn’t been explicitly stated yet. Maybe Jason just helped her get home, and they did just talk all night? She was pretty wasted, and they really did seem to click on a surface level. Ruth seems like she might need someone to talk to that she doesn’t have previous baggage with. Again, probably naive, but I do love to see the S.S. Friendship sail too.
I recognized him, but he went without for five or six years in the original continuity so I guess my familiarity with that made it easier for me to recognize him here.
For some reason, I think it’s sweet that Sal still calls Ruth Ruthless. Also, I have a theory that Sal is terrible at remembering names and that’s why everyone gets a nickname from her. Math TA is good support.
Thats an interesting take because one of the reasons I dislike Becky is because of her habit of giving people nick names yet thats a legit (albeit lazy and rude) reason for Sal to do so
She does know his name though. She even knows his last name. She probably just doesn’t care anymore cause he’s no longer relevant to her. Honestly surprised she didn’t just call him a tool.
Sal calls almost everyone nicknames until she knows them better, so I think you might be right. Once she knows them better, she either switches to their name if she likes them or calls them less than pleasant names if she doesn’t.
So, I’d take this as either she doesn’t know them particularly well (true with Ruth at least) or doesn’t like them (Jason).
i’m a nicknamer who also happens to be fairly good at remembering names, so (not faces though i suck at faces i wish i could nickname faces if that’d help but alas that’s not how faces work)
Walky does something similar. At least close enough to be an interesting parallel.
His refusal to remember Jason’s name, when he was supposedly being tutored. Or Amber’s before they got together.
It really seems to depend on country, culture, and individual school policies. TA’s are often students themselves (Masters or PhD candidates). Some schools seem to be zero tolerance, others are “not if you’re marking *that* student’s papers, if something comes up, disclose to your supervisor and hand their assignments to another TA to mark (or the prof).”
Since Jason was reported by another TA who was herself doing the same thing, more prolifically than him, he does have my sympathy.
Yeah, I didn’t blame Sal either. Jason was office adjacent to a female TA. My understanding was that the other TA turned him in despite her also being shown to have done the same thing repeatedly. Yeah, Penny the TA threw him under the bus with a false accusation. (she didn’t know he actually had until after she told him she got him fired too).
Maybe. I don’t know, I feel like setting Daisy up with a date who went on to go home with a boy will get her into a worse mood even if she doesn’t blame Jen.
A few strips ago, Sal said she was “totally fine” at not having a relationship using the tone of someone trying to convince herself. Now she’s annoyed that Lucy tells her she has a boyfriend, sayd to her who that can’t last and then she sees the guy she had a short, intense and controversial, relationship with in a room (and in a tank top) with a girl she loves to annoy. Everything seems to remind Sal of the fact that she don’t has a Special someone… Her level of anger and frustration grows more and more. She needs to talk with her friend Danny. He’s the only one who seems able to calm her down.
Incorrectness. One is a subject of the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The other is a subject of the Queen of Canada. Those these offices are both house within the same person, they are separate. Though Ruth and Jason are both citizens of Commonwealth nations, of which Liz is the head. She is busy with her own troubles at the moment. Fankly I just hope her grandkids can settledown and give her some peace in her twilight years.
And @Eldritchy, we need way more additions to complete the set, but I really like where you’re going with this!
Though they were kinda getting along last we saw Jason and Ruth together, I wasn’t expecting them to actually do a sex. Or maybe he just escorted her back to her dorm when she was drunk and they haven’t actually done it yet, I don’t know.
If I understand the timeline right, we are the morning after Ruth’s birthday crash-and-burn with Daisy. So, yes, Jason has spent the night with Ruth. Now, maybe he was just watching her to make sure she was okay after drinking heavily but, in all honesty, it is most likely that they were having sex, yes.
Ruth’s a legal adult and Sal has no claim on Jason so she has no right to be annoyed but she will be because she’s the sort of person who holds onto grudges, even petty or hypocritical ones, long after it stops making sense.
Not a good birthday present to me if this is what it looks like! I want Daisy to get a girlfriend, dangit! Ruth could been good if given more time to relax! Maybe I could be Daisy’s girlfriend? Write me in as myself 4 or 5 years ago.
Yup, I’m back to shipping Daisy with the barely existing purple haired character who once worked the desk at Forest Quad. While I don’t think Ruth and Jason banged, this doesn’t look good for her and Daisy.
(Unless Ruth and Jason stayed up late into the night conferencing on what she should say while texting Daisy???)
now that you mention it, why would they need the RA to clear the trash chute?
if it’s just blocked i’m sure anyone can find some sort of stick and push it down? (or sure, kick it down if they’re wanting to show off)
and if it’s actually full, well, someone has to go down to that room with the dumpsters and like move a new dumpster under the chute? does that make sense, raised eyebrow emoji
Ah I didn’t word it correctly. I meant it from the perspective of the administration rather than students. At least I Assume there are some rules that only a member of the administration can fiddle with the chute.
Oh I getcha now. Indeed, admin types definitely be like that. Especially beaurocrats. Fortunately young people are more often, “that rule is dumb, so whatever.” Honestly with how burdened we are by rules these days, I think our children need to be more subversive.
Maaayyybe. It’d be up to a judge based on the exact circumstances. Personally I’m rather appalled at the attitude of shunting liability rather than taking responsibility for what we see in the world (not saying this is you thejeff, just out in the world).
No Smooti. Even if these two *did* engage in congress, your point is still absolutely valid. It’s a pity that hollywood and media does so little to show people just being friends or even just decent to each other. In some ways I suspect it’s due to the format (limiting cast size) but it really doesn’t seem like it should be *that* hard to have two people of different genders be friends without a persistent undercurrent of *will they fuck already*?
I feel like I need to say one more thing before I close my thoughts on this Jason and Ruth spending the night together scenario. He’s been in this exact situation before. The whole being a “gentleman” and escorting the drunk girl home. With Sal.
You know what he didn’t do in that situation? Stay the night with her. Stand next to her with his shirt off. He left, even though it was late and he could’ve been tired. Even though Sal kind of wanted him to stay (although she was very drunk) So even if Jason and Ruth didn’t bang he is interested in her. This isn’t an entirely innocent development.
One difference is that he was still a math T.A. at that point, and getting caught in a compromising position with a student could have gotten him questioned/fired. He can’t get fired now.
Also sal was annoying to him while he and Ruth her pretty amicable, so i don’t think he wanted to be there any longer than he had to be. Sal also hadn’t been previously hospitalized due to a bad interaction of alcohol and meds like Jason knows Ruth had.
I think this only proves my point more. Ruth was indeed a lot less annoying and a lot more amicable. Further enticing him to stay the night with a women he enjoys being with. If Jason had no interest in Ruth like he had no interest in Sal, he would’ve left.
Also, Sal isn’t wearing her gloves and her scar is visible and I feel like we all just brushed over that in the question of whether or not Ruth and Jason banged.
Some were deleted– well, I think one was deleted, which deleted the replies/comments under it– which could affect it. But also, do you regularly count the number of comments on the comics?
Yeah. Whole thread’s gone. Pity, as I found it an interesting dialogue, but it seemed to be pretty upsetting to some and I certainly wasn’t at my best.
Ah, I was wondering where that had gone. Admittedly, all I saw was the first post, to which I considered responding for a second before nope-ing right out of there, but I was looking forward to seeing the thread it spawned. Guess I should have checked sooner.
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Jace, why you ALSO answer the door, you wuz a T.A., not a R.A.
He doesn’t understand being sneaky
*Audible gasp*
Yes. I totally did not see that coming.
and yet, after the last time we saw them, I should have.
Meh. Don’t beat yourself up. No-one else saw them *ahem* coming either. The door was closed and Ruth doesn’t have a roommate.
Seconded!
this is priceless
But I’m betting there’s a cost.
But what an opportunity!
Ugh… re-reading this, I cringed when realizing my pun about ‘opportunity cost’ is probably too subtle compared to the rapey-sounding taking advantage of a drunk patron.
Wow. still strugglung with wording today. mea-culpa
fwiw i immediately got that the joke was a pun on “opportunity cost” =)
being economics-ly illiterate i can’t tell how witty it was but it really just sounded too much like a jolly old pun for me to dig any deeper
Yeah, same. I thought it was an econ pun too. I don’t think reasonable people thought you were being cringe. Don’t be hard on yourself!
Let’s just ask ourselves: what was Ruth’s next best alternative to Jason?
Galasso.
Both were a bit down the list, but Galasso was next.
What about Daisy? I mean, Ruth essentially gave up the opportunity to be with her that night. Thus Daisy would be her opportunity cost.
Looks like she had one drink too many last night…
I don’t think they hooked up, more likely he helped her back to her room and slept on the floor to make sure she was okay
Based on their interaction at the bar, I assume the best, but also wonder how he could have gotten off work to make all this happen.
She could have hung around until he got off work.
I would “joke” that this isn’t what it looks like, but… it probably actually isn’t. Jason actually gives a shit about consent, so I’m betting he just escorted her home and then spent the night because he was tired.
I actually think it may not be though I do like the idea of them and think it could work
They can work and I think it works better if he just escorted her home precisely because a person who gives a shit about consent and not abusing your partner is whom Ruthless needs.
Except I was under the impression that unlike Jenifer who’s bi Ruth is a lesbian. Could have sworn she said that at some point.
Nope. Ruth is bisexual. They had a ‘sexy lesbian suicide pact’ but both herself and Billie are bisexual.
I think the common misconception arises in part from the fact that Billie/Jennifer is the only Ruth relationship that’s ever gotten any significant attention from the narrative, in either continuity. However, she did have at least one boyfriend back in high school (a Dumbiverse alt version of a character from an old webcomic that was never finished), and it’s not like they broke up because she wasn’t into him— it was because Gramps up and moved her (insert inordinately large number here) miles away and uprooted her entire life.
(Let’s just forget that one Walkyverse flashback story where she dated Ryan because nope nope nope)
There was also some dialog from an earlier comic where she was asked (by her brother i think) whether she was gay now because she was dating billie/jennifer. She responded “maybe?”
Ruth had a boyfriend back in Canada.
And Willis also drew art of Danny/Jennifer/Ruth for Bisexual Awareness Day some years back.
In the old comic, they were a kind of threesome. Kinda. Just, not all at once.
A boyfriend in Canada?
Sounds familiar somehow….
I suspect that there are many people with a boyfriend in Canada.
Now mind you, many of those people are in Canada themselves. But still.
We tend to have American girl/boy-friends, or sometimes Quebecois. Allegedly crossing provincial boundaries is also effective.
Funnily enough my best friend actually married his canadian girlfriend a few years back then moved up there to be with her. now he is part canadian, they did the blood moon sacrifice for the CONVERSION ritual and everything.
Man if y’all are surprised Ruth is bi you are gonna flip when you learn she’s also Canadian.
Outside of the comments, Canadian has come up much more often than bi.
Jeff I’m gonna be real with you. If the assumption of a character’s sexuality when it comes to same sex relationships is that they are always gay, that doesn’t mean we need to constantly clarify that. That means y’all need to stop assuming one thing.
You’re the wrong one here. Please stop acting like your inability to change an extremely simple assumption is worth digging your heels into.
huh?
I don’t even follow.
People are often surprised by rarely referenced character traits, even if they’re well known to people who follow the story closely. More people will be surprised to learn she’s bi than that she’s Canadian because Canadian is a more prominent character trait. That is literally all I was saying.
I know bi invisibility is a thing, but at the same time, people miss character traits all the time. Hell, there was someone earlier today who didn’t even think Ruth and Jason had met.
I’m saying if you see a dude kissing another dude you can’t just go “he’s gay until proven otherwise” for all eternity anymore. I’m saying that bi invisibility and us getting rolled into being gay comes from the assumption that, inherently, kissing someone of the same gender means the character is gay, even though there are other sexual identities that do the same thing.
So instead of going “it’s not their fault, she’s kissed a girl on-panel and not a boy, so it makes sense to assume she’s gay” you should think of it as “Ruth has kissed a girl so the only thing she definitely isn’t is straight.”
Willis has referred to Ruth as bisexual multiple times, but I don’t remember if Ruth herself has used a specific term.
Jason gives a shit about consent in theory, just like he gave a shit about being a good educator in theory.
In practice? The last we saw of him where sexual consent was concerned, he’d exploited (deliberately or accidentally) his positional power over a student. It wasn’t completely non-consensual, but consent has a bit of a gray border between “they’re definitely not consenting” and “they’re definitely consenting”.
It seems like Jason thought Sal was definitely enthusiastically consenting when she was actually agreeing in the presence of moderate academic duress that was at least into that gray border, perhaps all the way past the border, and certainly not enthusiastic.
Without commenting more than that on whether or how much Jason was in the wrong with Sal (because I’ve already said my piece on that a bunch of times), it points to a significant lack of caution on his part where consent is concerned. Even if Sal were enthusiastically consenting (and it seems he thought she was), the situation was such where he should have (at the very, very, very, minimum and less than that even) been alert that what appeared on the surface to be consent may have been… not so much consent. (And there were a lot of problems involved in there BEYOND consent, which I’m not commenting on here.)
Having had a few drinks doesn’t necessarily make someone unable to consent. They don’t magically lose the ability to say yes and have it mean yes just because there’s a bit of booze in them. Three sheets to the wind and not able to understand what’s happening, that’s definitely nonconsensual, as is nearly- or entirely passed out. But in between the extremes of that and perfect sobriety can be less clear. That sort of grayness, combined with Jason’s precedent of incaution, worries me a little bit here.
…..
Oh, wait, this is Ruth we’re talking about, she’s clearly sobered up by this point, and his femurs and other bones appear entirely intact. So yeah, anything that happened was consensual.
I mean I’m not an expert but I don’t think the issue between Sal and Jason is really one of consent.
I agree, consent was not their issue. He didn’t even gesture in the direction of putting sex in the same room with Sal before she decided to half-strip and climb in his lap.
Frankly, if consent was iffy on either side there, I’d actually be inclined to wonder about Jason’s, if he hadn’t later specifically said he said yes to the sex.
On the surface, it isn’t, but on a deeper level the reason we have rules about sexual relations when there are power imbalances – like teachers or like employers, is that consent is always problematic when dealing with someone you have power over.
Why are you suggesting that Sal may not have been consenting, while totally ignoring the fact that Jason might not have been?
Power imbalance issues are definitely a thing, but this seems to be the opposite case, really.
This is the morning of the next day. He was there overnight.
And as for Jason and consent, lets ask… let me check my notes here, oh yeah… SAL about that. She might have opinions.
Yeah, Sal might have not cared about Jason’s consent alright.
Se escorted Sal back to the dorm once, too. Even tho they were on pretty bad terms at the time
Aw! There goes my Daisy ship!…..Along with the idea two people can just talk without banging! A big loss for ol’ Sirk today!
It’s not sunk, there’s just another yacht in the regatta.
I kinda don’t want it to happen now. Not because Ruth banged Jason but because she blew Daisy off only to bang Jason. It kind of undercuts the idea she was self conscious about the expectations of that date. Ruth just wasn’t really into Daisy. That’s fine, but Daisy deserves a girl just as into her as she would be into them.
Alcohol is a helluva drug.
I’m prepared to wipe egg off my face for this but, I don’t think they banged? Jason’s been very upfront about the whole “being drunk is being dumb” thing the last few pages he’s been on.
True and I could wiping egg off mine for making a rational assumption based on the images presented. Which would be falling for a manipulation. My only defense is we don’t know how much time it has been. Did the derby happen the same night as the date? Is this the day after both? I don’t know. Also not sure Jason has the best track record on sex ethics considering he banged a student. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow who the egg face is. Should be fun!
I think this is the next day?
I’m not sure. I usually run off the idea that each storyline typically starts and ends on its own day though I don’t know if that’s a regular pattern. So if the Walky’s hot now thing happened on Thursday then the roller derby was on Friday night which would make today Saturday in comic just as an example. I never actually know what day it is in comic. But that might not even matter. Some people have made good points as to the topic of Ruth’s consent vs drunkeness so I’m not sure what to think. I don’t know why it would be this ambiguous if he really just walked her home. Why sleep in her dorm room? Ugh. I’ve so overthought this now!
I definitely don’t think a day has passed since the Derby game. That was earlier in the morning from this comic.
Maybe he wanted to make sure her new meds really didn’t have side effects; she had to go to the hospital last time and he knows that. Maybe she wanted company to watch old hockey games, or just didn’t want to be alone on her birthday and thought that someone she could talk to was a good option for company. Who knows? We don’t yet.
Whatever the case may have been, at this point Ruth seems to have no problem with his presence or reasons for being present. She’s an adult, he’s an adult, he’s no longer any percentage teacher, and certainly wasn’t any percentage HER teacher even when he actually had that percentage. Hell, he’s probably not even that much older than she is. Why would it necessarily be a problem if they hooked up? The issues that existed with Sal don’t exist here, and there’s no real evidence of others. (Yet.)
@anonymsly There’s nothing wrong with them hooking up. As you noted Ruth seems fine. Unless some problematic details are revealed what happened doesn’t really matter. My issue is that I liked the Ruth and Daisy pairing and regardless of what actually happened between Ruth and Jason they are together right now. That means Ruth chose to spend time with him over Daisy. Even if she was nervous about being with Daisy that night, she still blew her off through text to hangout with someone else. Either she didn’t like Daisy that much or didn’t trust her which tells me any future relationship with Daisy beyond maybe friendship has no hope. Even if Jason shook Ruth’s hand and said “Well good luck with courting Daisy.” before leaving. I wouldn’t want Daisy to be involved with her like that. That bums me out since I was invested. Turned out to be a waste of time. The only way to save this. Would be if Daisy is also in that room.
Each storyline, except where a time skip is noted, is the day after the previous one. Roller derby went past midnight, which is what we saw. This is later the same day.
But was the date night also the same night as roller derby? That’s my confusion.
i get the feeling that generally speaking one storyline = one day, but i’m sure there’ve been exceptions?
Yes. Just after midnight, so on a different day.
There was only one strip, of Lucy and Walky cuddling, between Daisy leaving the bar with Jason and Ruth still there and the start of the roller derby game.
I think there’s only been one exception – one early storyline had a multiday skip a couple strips in, clearly noted in a caption. Otherwise each storyline has been one day with any time skips in between and clearly noted.
The Daisy Ship can join the Ruthless Armada
This is probably pretty naive, but I’m still hanging on to the idea that they didn’t bang, mostly because it hasn’t been explicitly stated yet. Maybe Jason just helped her get home, and they did just talk all night? She was pretty wasted, and they really did seem to click on a surface level. Ruth seems like she might need someone to talk to that she doesn’t have previous baggage with. Again, probably naive, but I do love to see the S.S. Friendship sail too.
Agreed. S.S. Friendship is awesome. Also, welcome to the Sarah Club Lanie.
May I enquire as to your pronunciation? LAWN-ee, LAY-knee, other?
Lanie like Kanye?
I’m thrilled to be in the Sarah club! I hope I do the avatar proud. You got it with the second one, LAY-knee.
Loooll I don’t hate it actually
What.
“Ruth I thought you were gay.”
“I am.”
“I slept on the floor. My back hurts.”
She’s bi, it’s come up before.
Noted.
The remainder stands though.
Huh, well I didn’t see that coming
Not until the Slipshine, at least.
I hope it goes something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAs9laxC-rs
If they kept the lights off, maybe Ruth didn’t either.
I literally didn’t recognize him without the bowtie.
You’re not alone.
I recognized him, but he went without for five or six years in the original continuity so I guess my familiarity with that made it easier for me to recognize him here.
Okay, “I didn’t recognize him without a bowtie, turtleneck, or angst.”
I mean he’s got a new look going.
His hair looks a little different, too, but maybe that’s just me.
He definitely doesn’t have his hair slicked back anymore. His whole presentation is a lot more relaxed now.
The lack of bowtie and his new hairstyle confused me for a moment.
That’s not a hairstyle; that’s ‘bed-head’.
This is only going to be more awkward if neither of them have pants on. Or trousers to Jason, I guess.
No, it’s *definitely* worse if he doesn’t have pants on then.
*throws a copy of Lady Antebellum’s “Bartender” through the office shredder*
There’s not much of a bass-line, but I really dig the rythym.
For some reason, I think it’s sweet that Sal still calls Ruth Ruthless. Also, I have a theory that Sal is terrible at remembering names and that’s why everyone gets a nickname from her. Math TA is good support.
Thats an interesting take because one of the reasons I dislike Becky is because of her habit of giving people nick names yet thats a legit (albeit lazy and rude) reason for Sal to do so
She does know his name though. She even knows his last name. She probably just doesn’t care anymore cause he’s no longer relevant to her. Honestly surprised she didn’t just call him a tool.
Sal calls almost everyone nicknames until she knows them better, so I think you might be right. Once she knows them better, she either switches to their name if she likes them or calls them less than pleasant names if she doesn’t.
So, I’d take this as either she doesn’t know them particularly well (true with Ruth at least) or doesn’t like them (Jason).
i’m a nicknamer who also happens to be fairly good at remembering names, so (not faces though i suck at faces i wish i could nickname faces if that’d help but alas that’s not how faces work)
Walky does something similar. At least close enough to be an interesting parallel.
His refusal to remember Jason’s name, when he was supposedly being tutored. Or Amber’s before they got together.
reading a few pages downstream from Thag’s bungled link somewhere on this page and it seems that no one calls Jason by his actual name ever
I mean.
Damn Sal.
At least remember the person’s name.
I may not remember everyone’s name, but I sure as hell would remember the name of someone who lost their job because of their sexcapades with me.
Lost their job and is now dodging deportation to some extent, even.
If he didn’t wanna get deported, maybe he should have tried not being British.
How is Damn you Willis like Paul Revere?
We depend on both of them to find out if the British are coming.
Yeah, poor Jason. Losing his job because he had sex with a student.
A reason to remember him, I suppose, but I wouldn’t phrase it that way.
It really seems to depend on country, culture, and individual school policies. TA’s are often students themselves (Masters or PhD candidates). Some schools seem to be zero tolerance, others are “not if you’re marking *that* student’s papers, if something comes up, disclose to your supervisor and hand their assignments to another TA to mark (or the prof).”
Since Jason was reported by another TA who was herself doing the same thing, more prolifically than him, he does have my sympathy.
I’ve got some sympathy for Jason, but not enough to blame Sal
Yeah, I didn’t blame Sal either. Jason was office adjacent to a female TA. My understanding was that the other TA turned him in despite her also being shown to have done the same thing repeatedly. Yeah, Penny the TA threw him under the bus with a false accusation. (she didn’t know he actually had until after she told him she got him fired too).
Poor Daisy’s dry spell continues.
well executed
I guess Ruth did get a birthday present after all.
I mean Ruth and Jason PROBABLY didn’t bang right
He’s in his undershirt, but he always bangs with the bow tie on.
Proof positive.
I’m curious, what are the other two things bugging Ruthless is good for (either in truth or according to Sal)?
Ruth is actually pretty good at beating up middle aged adults. She’s 2 for 2 in that regard.
Kicking ass of abusive parents?
If they have a kid (and they die not long after) he’ll be a Naruto.
Goodness DoA is a prequel to Naruto, it makes so much sense now
Jen’s big dumb plan to get Ruth laid seems to have succeeded.
But I suspect Jen setting Daisy up with a girl who broke off the date and then shagged the bartender is going to backfire to an insane degree.
Given that Daisy blames herself (specifically her bowels) for that? Probably not.
Maybe. I don’t know, I feel like setting Daisy up with a date who went on to go home with a boy will get her into a worse mood even if she doesn’t blame Jen.
How would Daisy know the shagging part?
Sources.
MATH T.A.!
BARTENDER!!
DOCTOR SCOTT!!
ROCKY!?
[glare]
BULLWINKLE!
NO moose is good moose.
OR: THE VANISHING CANADIAN
Donkey!
KHAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
Gary?
Well, THIS oughta be interesting.
oh no, math TA :(((
It’s time for everyone’s favorite subject: MAAAAATTHH!
[##$$== -------‐---------------------------------- ==$$##]
[##$$== SPOOP MODE ACTIVATED ==$$##]
[##$$== -------‐---------------------------------- ==$$##]
They could both do worse…
Jason? JAson!
Oh my Cheese this is perfect! Will either Sal or Jason be willing to admit to their affair in front of Ruth or Lucy?
Okay, I’ll admit that this is 100% something that I didn’t see coming!
Bartender?
I hardly know ‘er! haha
Also called it.
Another surprise hidden at the end of the strip so you can’t see it in the blurry Patreon preview!
I knew it! Yay for Ruth and Jason for gettin’ some! Also yay for Lucy, I hear she has a boyfriend now!
Lucy: Hi Ruth! You have a boyfriend now? _I_ have a boyfriend now! Eh? EH???
Ruth:…i am too hungover for this right now.
Ruth: Also… does he know?
Lucy: W- Yes he knows!! WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP ASKING ME THAT??
Jason: I didn’t know I was a boyfriend.
Ruth: Don’t worry. You’re not.
I’m gonna go with “I escorted her to the dorms cause she was drunk, but also I was too tired to go home. Fetch my coffee, student”
A few strips ago, Sal said she was “totally fine” at not having a relationship using the tone of someone trying to convince herself. Now she’s annoyed that Lucy tells her she has a boyfriend, sayd to her who that can’t last and then she sees the guy she had a short, intense and controversial, relationship with in a room (and in a tank top) with a girl she loves to annoy. Everything seems to remind Sal of the fact that she don’t has a Special someone… Her level of anger and frustration grows more and more. She needs to talk with her friend Danny. He’s the only one who seems able to calm her down.
Yes.
Her friend, Danny.
And nothing more.
Sal can only benefit from a loooong chat with her good friend Danny.
Sal should not be surprised. The Commonwealth still exists, and there is nothing strange in two of the Queen’s subjects banging each other.
They just need an Australian to complete the set.
Incorrectness. One is a subject of the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The other is a subject of the Queen of Canada. Those these offices are both house within the same person, they are separate. Though Ruth and Jason are both citizens of Commonwealth nations, of which Liz is the head. She is busy with her own troubles at the moment. Fankly I just hope her grandkids can settledown and give her some peace in her twilight years.
And @Eldritchy, we need way more additions to complete the set, but I really like where you’re going with this!
*Frankly. hehe, fankly.
Pleasure and joy are Common Wealths that should be shared!
Thanks for the wonderful explanation! Somehow now I cannot stop thinking when Danny was trying to date Amber and Amazi-Girl at the same time…
Good lord. Grammar/spelling/conjugation much? Apparently I wasn’t quite awake yet. (of course, that presumes I’m ever really cognizant of myself)
Though they were kinda getting along last we saw Jason and Ruth together, I wasn’t expecting them to actually do a sex. Or maybe he just escorted her back to her dorm when she was drunk and they haven’t actually done it yet, I don’t know.
If I understand the timeline right, we are the morning after Ruth’s birthday crash-and-burn with Daisy. So, yes, Jason has spent the night with Ruth. Now, maybe he was just watching her to make sure she was okay after drinking heavily but, in all honesty, it is most likely that they were having sex, yes.
Ruth’s a legal adult and Sal has no claim on Jason so she has no right to be annoyed but she will be because she’s the sort of person who holds onto grudges, even petty or hypocritical ones, long after it stops making sense.
unlike you, obviously. U_U
No-one is perfect
Pobody, truly
Where is Sal annoyed? She’s just surprised here.
Hold up a cod darned minute
Did Ruth and Jason actually fudge???
Or is this a very funny misconception?
I want it to be the later because no one will believe them, not even the comments
Casual reminder that Ruth is consistently the hottest character in every strip featuring her.
Why would Jason be in there? Has he even interacted with Ruth before? He’s more or less white noise to me.
Yeah, a few times at Galasso’s bar, notably recently.
Yeah, this was set up at the bar during Ruth’s date with Daisy. It wasn’t clear this was going to happen, but people were speculating on it.
Yeah, in his two most recent appearances (starting <a href="https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/04-vote-for-robin/curse-2/" and here)
Dammit, I’d been doing so well with the tags
As a fellow ginger-canadian, I would love to think that this implied something about me too, but well, it just doesn’t work that way.
That may be true if Jennifer wasn’t in the comic.
I mean, you’re not wrong.
(She’s up against some tough competition sometimes, though…)
Not a good birthday present to me if this is what it looks like! I want Daisy to get a girlfriend, dangit! Ruth could been good if given more time to relax! Maybe I could be Daisy’s girlfriend? Write me in as myself 4 or 5 years ago.
This sounds like the very purpose and soul of that most hallowed institution known as fanfiction.
Yup, I’m back to shipping Daisy with the barely existing purple haired character who once worked the desk at Forest Quad. While I don’t think Ruth and Jason banged, this doesn’t look good for her and Daisy.
(Unless Ruth and Jason stayed up late into the night conferencing on what she should say while texting Daisy???)
Good on Sal refuting that ‘need permission’ bullcrap.
and good on Ruth for ‘drinking the english tea’
good on Lucy for being on boyfriend-announcing terms with her brother!
good on Jason for helping Ruth answer the door!
Whatever he did last night, Ruth seems to be without a hangover. The Bartending is strong with this one.
OH SHIT ?!
Love the callback to Jennifer clearing the trash chute. Now that her cheerleader legs and flexibility aren’t there who will do it?
I mean, if you’d grab him by the legs and swing him around Jason would make a fine unclogger
He’s the 21st century college dorm version of Bert the chimney sweep from Mary Poppins.
We just need Agatha to come back to kick-start the musical dance number.
now that you mention it, why would they need the RA to clear the trash chute?
if it’s just blocked i’m sure anyone can find some sort of stick and push it down? (or sure, kick it down if they’re wanting to show off)
and if it’s actually full, well, someone has to go down to that room with the dumpsters and like move a new dumpster under the chute? does that make sense, raised eyebrow emoji
I imagine they want someone who has the authority and is held accountable to do that stuff, not wanting any potential damage and all that.
I’d guess (despite them being american) it’s less about liability, and more about it either being ‘dirty’ or ‘not my job’ or both.
Ah I didn’t word it correctly. I meant it from the perspective of the administration rather than students. At least I Assume there are some rules that only a member of the administration can fiddle with the chute.
Oh I getcha now. Indeed, admin types definitely be like that. Especially beaurocrats. Fortunately young people are more often, “that rule is dumb, so whatever.” Honestly with how burdened we are by rules these days, I think our children need to be more subversive.
Of course, the existence of the rule means they get to avoid any liability if something does happen when the students mess with it.
Maaayyybe. It’d be up to a judge based on the exact circumstances. Personally I’m rather appalled at the attitude of shunting liability rather than taking responsibility for what we see in the world (not saying this is you thejeff, just out in the world).
Most likely the RA has the authority to submit a work order to the maintenance staff.
Ruth would be the one expected to call building maintenance about problems like this.
Watch them send in the wise old groundskeeper who looks like Ray Walston. I’m sure he’ll have some pertinent advice.
Fack. That link is supposed to be:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Boothby
Hehe, the ways Panels 2 and 3 flow together, it looks like Sal’s hair is WAY more voluminous than usual… I love it.
HA! Same with Panels 4 and 5! It’s intentional, isn’t it, Willis?
Lot of people jumping to conclusions on whether or not they slept with each other
Like, you can spend the night at someone’s house, especially if you’re concerned for their wellbeing and want to make sure they’re okay.
…Watch the next strip prove me wrong, I guess
No Smooti. Even if these two *did* engage in congress, your point is still absolutely valid. It’s a pity that hollywood and media does so little to show people just being friends or even just decent to each other. In some ways I suspect it’s due to the format (limiting cast size) but it really doesn’t seem like it should be *that* hard to have two people of different genders be friends without a persistent undercurrent of *will they fuck already*?
I’m really rooting for yhis Smooti. I hope that’s how it turns out.
“Shocking truth!”
That said, I’m betting they just hung out. That’s why she got no problem answering the door with the bartender in tow.
I’m on team “I don’t think they banged” myself.
I feel like I need to say one more thing before I close my thoughts on this Jason and Ruth spending the night together scenario. He’s been in this exact situation before. The whole being a “gentleman” and escorting the drunk girl home. With Sal.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/sappy/
You know what he didn’t do in that situation? Stay the night with her. Stand next to her with his shirt off. He left, even though it was late and he could’ve been tired. Even though Sal kind of wanted him to stay (although she was very drunk) So even if Jason and Ruth didn’t bang he is interested in her. This isn’t an entirely innocent development.
One difference is that he was still a math T.A. at that point, and getting caught in a compromising position with a student could have gotten him questioned/fired. He can’t get fired now.
Also sal was annoying to him while he and Ruth her pretty amicable, so i don’t think he wanted to be there any longer than he had to be. Sal also hadn’t been previously hospitalized due to a bad interaction of alcohol and meds like Jason knows Ruth had.
I think this only proves my point more. Ruth was indeed a lot less annoying and a lot more amicable. Further enticing him to stay the night with a women he enjoys being with. If Jason had no interest in Ruth like he had no interest in Sal, he would’ve left.
Also, Sal isn’t wearing her gloves and her scar is visible and I feel like we all just brushed over that in the question of whether or not Ruth and Jason banged.
Oh dang you’re right.
Not her first time going gloveless, but it’s pretty cool to see <3
Sal stopped wearing her gloves regularly after having it out with Amber/Amazi-Girl.
hold up; just gotta go throw up for a sec
Jason: *puts on hat*
Sal: “PERRY the Math T.A.!?”
Have an upvote
That’s strange; why am I counting only 201 comments when it says 235?
Some were deleted– well, I think one was deleted, which deleted the replies/comments under it– which could affect it. But also, do you regularly count the number of comments on the comics?
Nah, I just couldn’t find comments that I remembered were there, and did a count just to check.
The comments in question are still available for viewing in the RSS Feed, by the way.
Pretty sure it was lulu and their accusations of biphobia that got yeeted.
Yeah. Whole thread’s gone. Pity, as I found it an interesting dialogue, but it seemed to be pretty upsetting to some and I certainly wasn’t at my best.
Ah, I was wondering where that had gone. Admittedly, all I saw was the first post, to which I considered responding for a second before nope-ing right out of there, but I was looking forward to seeing the thread it spawned. Guess I should have checked sooner.
How do you read them via the RSS?
How’d they recognize him without the bowtie?
Sal’s seen him without the bowtie before. At least with enough of the bowtie missing for it to count.