A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Goblins
Ellipsis
A fantasy RPG as told through the eyes of the low-level monsters.
Far to the North
Allison Shaw
Kelu turns to the monsters of her remote mountain home when her family is held hostage by outsiders.
Fairmeadow
Kendra P. / KP
A wayward soldier finds herself in a pacifist commune deep in the wilderness of a war-weary land. Living in isolation brings her closer to those she was sworn to kill than she could ever imagine - but also threatens to tear the place apart.
MASKLESS
kickingshoes
In a world where people can wield the magic of elemental Masks, all Ashe wants to do is help. Maskless and useless, with dreams of fire and smoke on the back of his tongue, he finds himself on a strange, dangerous path to uncovering the secrets of these incredible objects, and the source of the monsters plaguing his home.
Heart of Gold
Eliot Baum, Viv Tanner
A pianist with failing eyesight seeks out a priest with a miraculous healing touch, drawing him deeper into a world of miracles and curses.
Killjoys
Flatw00ds
When two disgraced ex-feds fall backwards into trouble with the clown mafia, getting out in one piece is gonna be no joke!
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
Drugs & Wires
Mary Safro, Io Black
Dan used to be a VR operator until his brain got fried by malware. Now he's stuck delivering packages in a post-Soviet hellhole all while trying to adjust to his new life and find some answers.
Clockwork
Chikuto
Cog Kleinschmidt is a diligent, quiet worker at the Mercia Fortress, the world power's leading stronghold. His orderly life is thrown into chaos when an enemy kingdom sends a diplomat for peace talks. This diplomat needs something from Cog - whether he agrees to their terms or not!
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
Diana Huh
Vincent is an unkind man looking to disappear, and finds himself in the care of a vampire and her two wicked children.
Come Hell or High Water
Jenny/Star, Mori
Prince Gladimir was never meant to fall for a pirate. Swearing off love for duty, the threat of war propels him back into the Captain’s world of high seas and high stakes. Their relationship could be the thing to save the kingdom of Yvoire - or destroy it.
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.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Go Get a Roomie
Clover
Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
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!
Patrik the Vampire
Bree Paulsen
Patrik loves to knit, bake, and help his friends while dealing with his own demons... like his thirst for blood because, oh yeah--he's a vampire.
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Solstoria
Angelica Maria
After her brother goes missing, Samantha vows to become a Knight and help those around her in the Kingdom of St. Helena.
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
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.
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Anacrine Complex
Sae Cotton
A superhuman heist involving probably too many pigeons than entirely necessary.
Hazy London
Scotty
A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
Sunshine Boy
Moosopp
New-kid Kelly is sweet but naive. Luckily, he's got his outgoing neighbor Grey in his corner.
Obelisk
Ashley McCammon
In 1908 New York, a young woman struggles to put her life back together in the wake of her father's death - until she discovers a vampire in the shambles of her inheritance.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Lunar Blight
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Lunar Blight is a gothic horror story about an elite knight serving a moon cult who must choose between upholding his honoured duty or condemning everything he’s grown to know.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Spinnerette
Krazy Krow, Rocio Zucchi, Pablo Rey
When a lab accident gives Heather Brown spider powers and six arms, she does what any midwest comic geek would do: Become Ohio's #3 superhero!
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
Demon Studies
Miyuli
Four students summon and study potentially dangerous demons within the walls of the mysterious Summerland University.
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
Folklore
Adam Ma, Colin Tan Wei
A superhuman horror story focused on a small band of survivors trying to navigate a war-torn world in the aftermath of the Federation’s collapse.
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Tove
Severin
The end of the world is coming, and Tove doesn't want to be a hero, but SOMEONE has to look after her little brother.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
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I believe Meredith’s room is the only one whose location in the wing can’t be pinpointed, other than which direction the door opens. Not arguing she’s not nearby, even if she were at the far end of the variable length hall. Just a factoid. Would be neat to see more Meredith.
I mean I feel that maybe the best outcome would have involved more talking and less immediately giving the underage depressed girl alcohol, but like you said then it wouldn’t be Ruth and she is far from Ruthless. Also, how where do you get all your cool emoji’s? Do you make them yourself or does the comment board come with them?
You see that’s what I respect about Palpatine. He takes over and, unlike all real world dictators who spend all day in stuffy suits and military uniforms, he actually uses his UNLIMITED POWER to improve his standard of living, never being seen outside his bathrobe for the next twenty 25 years.
I miss being able to alter my mood with substances, but I can longer do so due to my meds. No alcohol, no weed, no cigarettes, and no “other” substances either.
I mean, you could, but you’d have to be good about moderation which I, historically, know that I’m not lol. Unless you have a super paternalistic psychiatric provider you should be able to use the occasional mood altering substance without endangering your treatment. The real question is why you want to alter your mood. If it’s due to a lack of sources of meaning and satisfaction in your life, then the real danger is not addressing that directly. Without the direction those provide, you can become dependent on the drug to paper over the discomfort that makes you feel and then you can get into real trouble.
Maybe don’t dispute people’s medical issues? You don’t know what the meds are or what they’re taking them for, so saying it’s only “super paternalistic psychiatric providers” that would object is absurd. Drug interactions exist and can be serious, even with moderate use.
Uh… seems like you have an axe to grind and I don’t know why, so no point in escalating. I had no intention of “disputing” their medical issue. I just know that a lot of institutional providers have blanket “no drugs” policies where they withhold treatment and valuable medications if a patient is found to be using illicit substances which can ultimately cause more harm than whatever drug use occurs. If that is the case here, then my point was that it’s possible to find a provider that will partner with you to make sure that any substances you do use are used safely instead of blindly imposing total abstinence.
It absolutely should be. We can pretend that we are abstract rational beings but at the core of our cognition is an engine that cares about one thing above all: food. Sex, meaning, everything else is secondary to that drive in food’s absence. We can ignore it because our technology has allowed us to provide food for a vast number of people but it is always in the background modulating our behavior and sugar is a powerful trigger.
Me too. Sometimes I find my self eating a cake and not even really enjoying it – having realized I mostly even started eating because I was feeling down. I still finish my piece of cake, but when it comes to cake I have the backbone of an earth worm.
Since I get hangry, or chocolate cravings during certain times of the month (along with emotional swings then), food/chocolate is normally my first go to when I am feeling upset.
I just take a nap when I’m feeling depressed or anxious or cry it out if it gets really bad. Crying or sleeping is surprisingly effective for helping your brain reset.
It always bugged me how Dotty was basically the human embodiment of writing “my greatest weakness is that I’m a perfectionist” on a job application. But now I’m just really sad…
If this is Dorothy’s first time drinking alcohol, she’ll need to mix that Scotch with something to make it go down easy. Otherwise it’ll just hurt more. Maybe Ruth can help with that.
You aren’t wrong; Ruth will at least keep an eye on her and be there to help if she drinks too much and/or gets self-destructive. Although some would argue drinking is self-destructive already.
getting wasted is a good plan if you don’t want to humiliate yourself again. New chapter has to be pretty soon, so I bet we won’t see her drunk dials/texts.
Hopefully Ruth will be there to persuade/prevent Dorothy from sending drunk texts/calls.
Last time I drunk texted someone it was my girlfriend at the time, and they were sappy texts that simply made her laugh and reminded me to drink plenty of water. Miss having someone to do that with.
Think there needs to be a serious discussion on what counts as being a ‘ little bit’ selfish. Cancelling a planned friend’s hangout to sleep in or watch cartoons is in leauge with what I think Ruth had in mind when she gave that advice.
You gotta consider, Dorothy never got to calibrate her selfishness. She always went for zero. Or her best guess thereof. So she’s still gotta learn how much a little bit is.
I mean, this case is a bit complicated. She had been dating him for awhile and had only pushed him towards Lucy because she thought it was the unselfish thing to do since she couldn’t give him the relationship he wanted. Now that her reason for pushing him away has evaporated, she was hoping to undo that mistake. She knows that he is with Lucy now but despite the real world time that has passed, Lucy and Walky haven’t even made it past their 3rd date. So yea, it’s a bit dickish to try to break up a new couple but honestly, I’m suspicious of people who “fall in love” that early into a relationship anyway. In all likelihood you are more enamored with the idea of being with someone than you are with the actual human being standing next to you. To love someone, you need to get to know them.
It’s looks to me like Dorothy is consciously avoiding her friends who would see that and actually try to help (Or in Joyce’s case, get someome else to help).
Agreed, Dorothy goes to a fair amount of trouble to seem untouchable and problem free to her peers. She doesn’t want them thinking she’s a person with needs.
That tends to happen when you bury your own problems by losing yourself in helping others with theirs. Eventually that self-care debt comes due, but nobody believes you need the help because you’ve always been fine before.
I wonder if Ruth has the alcohol as a test for herself. Because I could see her doing that. Or maybe it was Billie’s and she hadn’t the heart to get rid of it.
It’s a common thing in fiction that the alcoholic keeps booze nearby as a test (see also: The recovering alcoholic bartender). Don’t know if that’s a thing IRL.
isn’t something like scotch a bit on the pricier side compared to six packs of beers? i can imagine not wanting to throw it away even if you give it as a gift or drink very rarely for a special occasion
She’s probably getting those ‘sample’ bottles (little 2-ounce bottles, sometimes referred to as ‘airline bottles’) from Jason at no cost. But I find it hard to believe that Ruth is a scotch drinker. Scotch whisky is definitely an acquired taste, and most younger drinkers are drawn to a sweeter, heavily flavored type of booze like flavored vodka to cover up the bite of the alcohol itself.
Though a little weird to be coming from the bartender. Bars don’t usually stock the nip bottles.
As for acquired taste, while we don’t know exactly what Ruth used to drink, we know it was strong and came in large brown bottles. I would have guessed cheap whiskey rather than Scotch. She was looking for oblivion, not taste.
Eh, brown liquor generally goes down easier and tastes less bad than white liquor. I think bourbon is way nicer but I’d rather drink either than touch white rum ever again
Also whiskies are just expensive compared to party vodka I’d assume
Vodka makes a more neutral mixer, if you’re looking to hide the flavor in mixed drinks.
I’ve recently found some white rums that I actually like, but a lot of it is just cheap rum.
What test? Ruth’s drinking again. We saw at the bar when she picked up Jason instead of Daisy and it’s been referenced since.
She’s convinced herself it’s okay because she’s 21 now and it doesn’t cause an immediate obvious reaction with her medication.
I am sure it’s cold comfort to Dorothy, but I feel like Walky is very likely to forgive and forget here with her. She’ll know, though, and it’ll nag at her.
That said… she would not be the first or last to do this, and that includes actual presidents. Like this is no more embarrassing than FDR and Warren G. Harding’s transgressions.
It’s easy for historical things to get mixed up. I remember Ford pardoning Nixon like a personal grudge though, because it is.
Have to take issue with Carter being ineffective though. He took on complicated problems that had little political benefit for him, which is a different thing. He set a standard that we will be returning to shortly, out of survival necessity.
“Successful” presidents wind up being American icons after totally shafting the middle and lower classes.
well, you can’t get ‘hangovers’ with weed, as far as i know though also might be risky, i hear some ppl canget rly bad highs despite stoners being annoying about how great weed is all the time
Oh yeah, you gotta pace yourself sometimes. I’ve had a couple of bad highs and both were from taking too much THC at once. At a few points, it felt like I was falling for half an hour, and I kept experiencing things in a weird, non-linear feeling way. It’s fun at a smaller scale, but if I can’t move under my own power it gets scary fast.
Dorothy knows exactly the people weak point, in the most necessary times. She’ll be fucking insufferable and powerful when she left the need to be nice to everyone.
Being helpful and noble is key to her identity the way being sexually “pure” is still and will continue to be for some time key to Joyce’s. The parallels between this and the weird JoyceJacob situation are relatively big, both involving a very selfish desire to get with a man who is taken (though Joyce iirc did it with the justification that Raidah sucks and was mean to Sarah and Dina, Dorothy did it knowing it was selfish but clearly not really realizing how extreme of a selfish act that was).
If that mini arc with Joyce was any indication, Dorothy won’t really learn much from this but she IS gonna return to some of her old ways once she has this all figured out. I just hope that does not involve getting with Joe.
Ruth could get pretty easily convince Carla to share by playing on her ego. And threatening to involve her parents. My point more was that it was amusing how little of a choice that was, because Dorothy’s smart enough to know that getting high with Carla is not going to be an introspective, relaxing time.
Yeah, according to one bonus strip, she’s not gonna spare her weed given how expensive it is. Ruth likely also knows this, and that suggestion was probably a ploy to get Dorothy to give up in her quest for escape via substance, giving in only upon knowing how she was gonna find it one way or antoher.
I question Dorothy’s methods here, she’s being really awful towards Ruth, but honestly I think having a good sad drunk cry could be good for her. Sometimes you need to hit that place before being able to recover and move forward.
One facet of Dorothy’s problems, is she broke it off with Walky before all his emotional distance and lies caught up with him. So now, she sees the failure of the relationship as her fault, when it was going to fail either way. She sees Walky as a wonderful person she hurt instead of the emotionally unavailable man-child he is.
Idk if it’s fair to call someone who still has “teen” in their age a “manchild”. No one should be expected to be fully mature during your first year of college.
I agree that she SHOULD do it anyway. I mean, there’s not much point in having close loved ones if you become so afraid to burden them, that you can only open up to strangers. You got close to these people in the first place for a reason and most people want to support their loved ones and don’t see it as a burden.
But helpers often have a hard time asking for help, especially as people may think they are put together so they are always going to be okay or always be bringing fresh problems to them.
I agree with Sam about the hug and the listening ear, but I also think some of Dorothy’s problem lies in the fact that she puts so much effort into a distant future, and puts no effort into maintaining short term happiness. When the distant happiness goal crumbles, she has almost nothing that keeps her afloat as a functioning person. She broke up with Walky and she almost acts like an authority figure in her relationship with Joyce, so I don’t know if she would be able to accept help or advice from her even though they are best friends.
From my perspective, a good cry would probably help her, and then to focus on her own short term happiness (but like, in a healthy way – get a new hobby, go take an improv class or something). It’s easier to evaluate your own goals in life if you’re in a space where you know what kind of things you need to function in your daylight life.
how big is a sample bottle? are american drinking tolerances striking again or am I vastly underestimating the size of the bottles? or perhaps the size of ruth’s stash…
anyway, goddammit dorothy, be honest with your therapist or something
Well no, the point is to have one or two, just to see if you like the alcohol inside. Depending on the person, it’d probably take about 4-5 of them to really do much.
Who knows how many little bottles she may have smuggled in her jackets?
And also I think we can give her more than one afternoon to experiment with reassessing her life goals for the first time since age 4 before panicking.
Just now realizing perhaps the one advantage of never presenting as the confident, sensible one… low expectations made it easier to survive repeated humiliation
She has. We’ve seen her drink before since the timeskip – notably during her date with Daisy where she picked up Jason. She said at the time that her new medication didn’t have the nasty interaction with booze that hit her before the timeskip.
And she’s legal now, so there are obviously no problems.
It’s not like she was alcoholic or anything, right?
Currently going through a somewhat similar situation as Dorothy which might be why this is so painful for me to read, but…man, it’s hard seeing someone who has historically been so tough be so down low. I know she’ll be okay but I hope it’s soon.
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have you tried snuggling with a block of ice
(woulda suggested some… OTHER things, but that might not be a good idea for reasons)
[unless you WANT to spend $$$$$ on a barrel of benzocaine]
did you have that alt-text in the queue for THAT long??
(RIP)
6 month buffer, Conroy passed on 10th November 2022, so it checks out.
FeelsBatMan
don’t make me sad about kevin conroy again I just got over it
So telling you about the video of him singing “I’m so blue” would be a bad thing right?
Very.
What’s the URL?
v=55zpDpTbAiw for youre youtubes
Matt Baume had a really great YouTube video on him.
* plays Gordon Lightfoot’s “Carefree Highway” on the hacked Muzak*
Nice choice (and another RIP, damn).
oh hey, fringe pfp
Weed would probably be better Dotty. Though whether Carla is willing to share is another matter.
In terms of inebriatation or attempting to get Crunk as kids say. Therapy would be best or telling your therapist would be best
There was a whole bonus comic specifically about Carla not sharing her weed.
Dorothy has reached the point of breaking and entering. She doesn’t have to ask.
No problem, Merideth is just a few doors down
I believe Meredith’s room is the only one whose location in the wing can’t be pinpointed, other than which direction the door opens. Not arguing she’s not nearby, even if she were at the far end of the variable length hall. Just a factoid. Would be neat to see more Meredith.
Given this is Dumbing of Age, I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. Ruth really is good at her core. 🥹
I mean I feel that maybe the best outcome would have involved more talking and less immediately giving the underage depressed girl alcohol, but like you said then it wouldn’t be Ruth and she is far from Ruthless. Also, how where do you get all your cool emoji’s? Do you make them yourself or does the comment board come with them?
I think it’s a case of ‘she’s going to get the alcohol eventually, one way or another.’ But this way Ruth can keep an eye on her.
She won’t abstain because of her RA, but maybe she can drink with a friend.
This is not the first person Ruth has handcuffed and held hostage in her room due to the other person’s poor life choices after all.
I just have those emojis on my phone keyboard
Yeah I just copy and paste from this: https://getemoji.com/
On Windows, you can press Win+. (windows key and period/full stop) to open an emoji window for text input.
Wait, what?!
🤯
Man, I don’t get more than
and 
with my normal Compose key combos.
I’m FREE!! FREE FROM MEMORIZING ALT CODES ♥♥
well i doubt she’d do the same thing if it were Mary, but i imagine mary wouldn’t also be asking ruth for alcohol either
Oh okay Dorothy’s only reading from Roomies!-year-two Danny’s playbook, cool cool cool, definitely no trucks waiting in the wings here
The eighteen-wheel curled up in Ruth’s closet: *Abort, Abort, they’re on to us*
God I can’t imagine using drugs in order to alter my mood.
I use cake.
Don’t forget video games!
I mean let’s be real Mario games are just one big acid trip LOLPor que no los dos?
Video games and weed go together like eggs and toast. Both good on their own, but amazing together.
It’s true.
Tarvek: “You know, there’s more to being an evil despot than getting cake whenever you want it.”
Agatha: “If that’s what you think, then you’re doing it wrong!”
– Girl Genius
You see that’s what I respect about Palpatine. He takes over and, unlike all real world dictators who spend all day in stuffy suits and military uniforms, he actually uses his UNLIMITED POWER to improve his standard of living, never being seen outside his bathrobe for the next twenty 25 years.
lol
I wish that we could upvote things sometimes. This is hilarious.
I dare to hope we’ve hit the 2/3rds mark on the already-over-a-year-long filler arc for GG.. but I worry I’m wrong.
I found a little gummy from time to time helps with my mood though sometimes it leads me to eat cake
I miss being able to alter my mood with substances, but I can longer do so due to my meds. No alcohol, no weed, no cigarettes, and no “other” substances either.
Shit sucks yo. :/
I mean, you could, but you’d have to be good about moderation which I, historically, know that I’m not lol. Unless you have a super paternalistic psychiatric provider you should be able to use the occasional mood altering substance without endangering your treatment. The real question is why you want to alter your mood. If it’s due to a lack of sources of meaning and satisfaction in your life, then the real danger is not addressing that directly. Without the direction those provide, you can become dependent on the drug to paper over the discomfort that makes you feel and then you can get into real trouble.
Maybe don’t dispute people’s medical issues? You don’t know what the meds are or what they’re taking them for, so saying it’s only “super paternalistic psychiatric providers” that would object is absurd. Drug interactions exist and can be serious, even with moderate use.
Uh… seems like you have an axe to grind and I don’t know why, so no point in escalating. I had no intention of “disputing” their medical issue. I just know that a lot of institutional providers have blanket “no drugs” policies where they withhold treatment and valuable medications if a patient is found to be using illicit substances which can ultimately cause more harm than whatever drug use occurs. If that is the case here, then my point was that it’s possible to find a provider that will partner with you to make sure that any substances you do use are used safely instead of blindly imposing total abstinence.
Refined sugar isn’t usually considered a drug, but maybe it should be.
Samuel R. Delany had a character list it as a drug in one of his science fiction books. Triton IIRC.
wow damn I LOVED triton so much, I think of the socialist system in it often
Considering caffeine is probably a drug and isn’t really regulated, I don’t know if I trust regulations.
Whether it’s refined is completely irrelevant. I have no idea why that isn’t obvious to more people.
It absolutely should be. We can pretend that we are abstract rational beings but at the core of our cognition is an engine that cares about one thing above all: food. Sex, meaning, everything else is secondary to that drive in food’s absence. We can ignore it because our technology has allowed us to provide food for a vast number of people but it is always in the background modulating our behavior and sugar is a powerful trigger.
Same. Every so often I come across something about sugar being addicting and I just… Sort of intentionally ignore it
Me too. Sometimes I find my self eating a cake and not even really enjoying it – having realized I mostly even started eating because I was feeling down. I still finish my piece of cake, but when it comes to cake I have the backbone of an earth worm.
Since I get hangry, or chocolate cravings during certain times of the month (along with emotional swings then), food/chocolate is normally my first go to when I am feeling upset.
I am fairly certain I have heard “cake” as a name for a drug.
I think it had to do with cannabis resin, but there’s so much edible stuff now, I can’t find anything about what I remember.
Cake was the name of a fake drug on the satirical UK news comedy Brass Eye back in the 90’s. The whole episode is on YouTube, worth a watch.
Honestly, same. I have zero interest in getting intoxicated*. I’ve just never seen the appeal.
(To be clear, that’s just me. If others want to that’s fine. Just be safe, and don’t expect me to clean up vomit.)
I just take a nap when I’m feeling depressed or anxious or cry it out if it gets really bad. Crying or sleeping is surprisingly effective for helping your brain reset.
They’re called re-uptake inhibitors and they’re amazing
Well, I guess we know when Willis wrote this alt-text.
Girl really wants to just forget what happened.
The weed would be a better option though, and safer lol
Oh that alt-text was a punch
It always bugged me how Dotty was basically the human embodiment of writing “my greatest weakness is that I’m a perfectionist” on a job application. But now I’m just really sad…
Also:
Conroy
I think we know when this strip was drawn/uploaded…
o7
If this is Dorothy’s first time drinking alcohol, she’ll need to mix that Scotch with something to make it go down easy. Otherwise it’ll just hurt more. Maybe Ruth can help with that.
It’s not her first time. She’s had wine in France, she got drunk at Joyce’s party, she’s drunk with Jennifer.
Honestly Dorothy getting drunk *with Ruth there* is the best case scenario for a meltdown years in the making
You aren’t wrong; Ruth will at least keep an eye on her and be there to help if she drinks too much and/or gets self-destructive. Although some would argue drinking is self-destructive already.
The sample bottles are a good way to limit how wasted she gets too, I’m assuming they’re the shot-sized minibottles.
Plus, Ruth can start her with the good stuff, so she’s not wasting it after already drunk on rail. As the good book says.
Oh dear. Yeah this has worrying implications for where Dorothy is going.
Handcuffed to the bed post but without getting her pants ripped off, if I can toss out a bet.
getting wasted is a good plan if you don’t want to humiliate yourself again. New chapter has to be pretty soon, so I bet we won’t see her drunk dials/texts.
is ^not^ a good plan
I just assumed you were being sarcastic, anyhow.
that’s what the “adult” supervision is for.
Hopefully Ruth will be there to persuade/prevent Dorothy from sending drunk texts/calls.
Last time I drunk texted someone it was my girlfriend at the time, and they were sappy texts that simply made her laugh and reminded me to drink plenty of water. Miss having someone to do that with.
I see nothing but good decisions here.
Dotty, being selfish – with or with out truancy – does not need to be humiliating. You don’t need to act like Dom DeLuise in Munchie.
But Carla’s joints sound nice also. Boosts her depraved ego. hums Numb by Khalid
Think there needs to be a serious discussion on what counts as being a ‘ little bit’ selfish. Cancelling a planned friend’s hangout to sleep in or watch cartoons is in leauge with what I think Ruth had in mind when she gave that advice.
You gotta consider, Dorothy never got to calibrate her selfishness. She always went for zero. Or her best guess thereof. So she’s still gotta learn how much a little bit is.
I mean, this case is a bit complicated. She had been dating him for awhile and had only pushed him towards Lucy because she thought it was the unselfish thing to do since she couldn’t give him the relationship he wanted. Now that her reason for pushing him away has evaporated, she was hoping to undo that mistake. She knows that he is with Lucy now but despite the real world time that has passed, Lucy and Walky haven’t even made it past their 3rd date. So yea, it’s a bit dickish to try to break up a new couple but honestly, I’m suspicious of people who “fall in love” that early into a relationship anyway. In all likelihood you are more enamored with the idea of being with someone than you are with the actual human being standing next to you. To love someone, you need to get to know them.
I like this story-line because her peers don’t think of Dorothy as having problems or as needing their support.
It’s looks to me like Dorothy is consciously avoiding her friends who would see that and actually try to help (Or in Joyce’s case, get someome else to help).
Agreed, Dorothy goes to a fair amount of trouble to seem untouchable and problem free to her peers. She doesn’t want them thinking she’s a person with needs.
That tends to happen when you bury your own problems by losing yourself in helping others with theirs. Eventually that self-care debt comes due, but nobody believes you need the help because you’ve always been fine before.
I wonder if Ruth has the alcohol as a test for herself. Because I could see her doing that. Or maybe it was Billie’s and she hadn’t the heart to get rid of it.
It’s a common thing in fiction that the alcoholic keeps booze nearby as a test (see also: The recovering alcoholic bartender). Don’t know if that’s a thing IRL.
Bojack horseman and the galaxy in a bottle. Less a test, more a reminder
isn’t something like scotch a bit on the pricier side compared to six packs of beers? i can imagine not wanting to throw it away even if you give it as a gift or drink very rarely for a special occasion
She’s probably getting those ‘sample’ bottles (little 2-ounce bottles, sometimes referred to as ‘airline bottles’) from Jason at no cost. But I find it hard to believe that Ruth is a scotch drinker. Scotch whisky is definitely an acquired taste, and most younger drinkers are drawn to a sweeter, heavily flavored type of booze like flavored vodka to cover up the bite of the alcohol itself.
It’s from Jason. He probably has Standards when it comes to alcohol.
Though a little weird to be coming from the bartender. Bars don’t usually stock the nip bottles.
As for acquired taste, while we don’t know exactly what Ruth used to drink, we know it was strong and came in large brown bottles. I would have guessed cheap whiskey rather than Scotch. She was looking for oblivion, not taste.
Eh, brown liquor generally goes down easier and tastes less bad than white liquor. I think bourbon is way nicer but I’d rather drink either than touch white rum ever again
Also whiskies are just expensive compared to party vodka I’d assume
Vodka makes a more neutral mixer, if you’re looking to hide the flavor in mixed drinks.
I’ve recently found some white rums that I actually like, but a lot of it is just cheap rum.
The little shot bottles range from 1-5 bucks here, Dewars and J&B are less then a fiver.
So those little nip bottles I see trashed on the side of the road all the time cost that much, each?
That’s sadder than all the crumpled $10 scratch tickets littering the convenience store parking lot…
Fyi, sometimes the homeless drink to help stay warm over chilly nights.
Note that this doesn’t work. You might feel warmer, but you’re actually more at risk of hypothermia.
That just makes it even sadder!
What test? Ruth’s drinking again. We saw at the bar when she picked up Jason instead of Daisy and it’s been referenced since.
She’s convinced herself it’s okay because she’s 21 now and it doesn’t cause an immediate obvious reaction with her medication.
‘me find it elsewhere?’ damn dotty even your grammar is slipping
Well, “slipping”… this is part of the same shift that has turned “would you mind my opening the window” into “would you mind me opening the window”.
I am sure it’s cold comfort to Dorothy, but I feel like Walky is very likely to forgive and forget here with her. She’ll know, though, and it’ll nag at her.
That said… she would not be the first or last to do this, and that includes actual presidents. Like this is no more embarrassing than FDR and Warren G. Harding’s transgressions.
I doubt Carter was her hero president, and he’s basically the cleanest one we ever had, and even he pardoned Nixon.
And I doubt she’s worried about Walky forgiving her, more then the realization that she tarnished his image of her.
Her need to have people think the best of her is what’s caused this spiral to start spinning down the toilet.
Carter did not pardon Nixon. Ford did. Carter was a wonderful human being and an ineffective failure of a president.
Where did you get the idea that Carter pardoned Nixon?
It’s easy for historical things to get mixed up. I remember Ford pardoning Nixon like a personal grudge though, because it is.
Have to take issue with Carter being ineffective though. He took on complicated problems that had little political benefit for him, which is a different thing. He set a standard that we will be returning to shortly, out of survival necessity.
“Successful” presidents wind up being American icons after totally shafting the middle and lower classes.
based carla
well, you can’t get ‘hangovers’ with weed, as far as i know though also might be risky, i hear some ppl canget rly bad highs despite stoners being annoying about how great weed is all the time
ye it can really fuck with you if you’re not ready to accept your faults as your brain goes through more esoteric paths
Oh yeah, you gotta pace yourself sometimes. I’ve had a couple of bad highs and both were from taking too much THC at once. At a few points, it felt like I was falling for half an hour, and I kept experiencing things in a weird, non-linear feeling way. It’s fun at a smaller scale, but if I can’t move under my own power it gets scary fast.
You also have to try really hard to get a hangover at 19 tho
College kids often put the work in though.
They also often forget to hydrate properly before going to bed/passing out.
Dark Dorothy Dark Dorothy
I’m imagining that as a chant accompanied by drums.
Emotionally blackmailing an alcoholic, nice one Dorothy
Dorothy knows exactly the people weak point, in the most necessary times. She’ll be fucking insufferable and powerful when she left the need to be nice to everyone.
Ooooh, NOW she’s ready to become president.
Being helpful and noble is key to her identity the way being sexually “pure” is still and will continue to be for some time key to Joyce’s. The parallels between this and the weird JoyceJacob situation are relatively big, both involving a very selfish desire to get with a man who is taken (though Joyce iirc did it with the justification that Raidah sucks and was mean to Sarah and Dina, Dorothy did it knowing it was selfish but clearly not really realizing how extreme of a selfish act that was).
If that mini arc with Joyce was any indication, Dorothy won’t really learn much from this but she IS gonna return to some of her old ways once she has this all figured out. I just hope that does not involve getting with Joe.
Just realized I’m a day late to say something about shipping DoRuthy.
Not that I actually do, but…
I love how Dorothy doesn’t even consider spending time *getting high with Carla*
To be fair, Carla, for all her many qualities, of which she will expound upon at length, probably doesn’t know who Dorothy is.
Right, because Carla’s going to share. Or keep anything Dorothy says under her hat.
Share? No. Sell.
Ruth could get pretty easily convince Carla to share by playing on her ego. And threatening to involve her parents. My point more was that it was amusing how little of a choice that was, because Dorothy’s smart enough to know that getting high with Carla is not going to be an introspective, relaxing time.
Yeah, according to one bonus strip, she’s not gonna spare her weed given how expensive it is. Ruth likely also knows this, and that suggestion was probably a ploy to get Dorothy to give up in her quest for escape via substance, giving in only upon knowing how she was gonna find it one way or antoher.
I question Dorothy’s methods here, she’s being really awful towards Ruth, but honestly I think having a good sad drunk cry could be good for her. Sometimes you need to hit that place before being able to recover and move forward.
One facet of Dorothy’s problems, is she broke it off with Walky before all his emotional distance and lies caught up with him. So now, she sees the failure of the relationship as her fault, when it was going to fail either way. She sees Walky as a wonderful person she hurt instead of the emotionally unavailable man-child he is.
Idk if it’s fair to call someone who still has “teen” in their age a “manchild”. No one should be expected to be fully mature during your first year of college.
At her point of life, I think there’s no more advice for Dorothy.
Any opinions can her who is so low at point of life. I don’t have any idea of how can I help her.
Probably, a hug and a listening ear would go a long way. But Dorothy is the ‘helper’ friend so she’s not gonna want to burden anyone.
Just do it anyway. “One’s enough to start with. Sit. Talk. What’s this all about?”
I agree that she SHOULD do it anyway. I mean, there’s not much point in having close loved ones if you become so afraid to burden them, that you can only open up to strangers. You got close to these people in the first place for a reason and most people want to support their loved ones and don’t see it as a burden.
But helpers often have a hard time asking for help, especially as people may think they are put together so they are always going to be okay or always be bringing fresh problems to them.
I meant that Ruth should just do it: the hug, the talk. It’s kinda her job anyway, at least the talk.
A high five at least.
I agree with Sam about the hug and the listening ear, but I also think some of Dorothy’s problem lies in the fact that she puts so much effort into a distant future, and puts no effort into maintaining short term happiness. When the distant happiness goal crumbles, she has almost nothing that keeps her afloat as a functioning person. She broke up with Walky and she almost acts like an authority figure in her relationship with Joyce, so I don’t know if she would be able to accept help or advice from her even though they are best friends.
From my perspective, a good cry would probably help her, and then to focus on her own short term happiness (but like, in a healthy way – get a new hobby, go take an improv class or something). It’s easier to evaluate your own goals in life if you’re in a space where you know what kind of things you need to function in your daylight life.
daily* life
how big is a sample bottle? are american drinking tolerances striking again or am I vastly underestimating the size of the bottles? or perhaps the size of ruth’s stash…
anyway, goddammit dorothy, be honest with your therapist or something
About a shot, usually.
If I’m thinking right, these samples are the size of my thumb.
There’s no way somebody can be drunk with only one sample.
Well no, the point is to have one or two, just to see if you like the alcohol inside. Depending on the person, it’d probably take about 4-5 of them to really do much.
Who knows how many little bottles she may have smuggled in her jackets?
And also I think we can give her more than one afternoon to experiment with reassessing her life goals for the first time since age 4 before panicking.
50m a bottle
50mL damned fingers
Just now realizing perhaps the one advantage of never presenting as the confident, sensible one… low expectations made it easier to survive repeated humiliation
Has Ruth changed her meds? Isn’t alcohol an even worse idea for her than it used to be, these days?
She has. We’ve seen her drink before since the timeskip – notably during her date with Daisy where she picked up Jason. She said at the time that her new medication didn’t have the nasty interaction with booze that hit her before the timeskip.
And she’s legal now, so there are obviously no problems.
It’s not like she was alcoholic or anything, right?
She was suicidally depressed, and drinking heavily. That sounds like an alcoholic to me.
Obvious sarcasm
Why did my avatar change? Noooooooooo
It’s all Charlie’s fault
Hey now Lyle was thrown in too!
Are you sure? Really sure? How many new gravatars did DYW throw into the rotation? I want to see the model sheet!
I can’t list them all now, but I can confirm that there are 29 avatars in total.
You have to shuffle the gravitar 20 times for a 50/50 chance of getting any specific one.
Oh, to the reshuffler I go then.
Oh, this one hurts.
Currently going through a somewhat similar situation as Dorothy which might be why this is so painful for me to read, but…man, it’s hard seeing someone who has historically been so tough be so down low. I know she’ll be okay but I hope it’s soon.
I didn’t know masking counted as being tough.
Also, me too.
Does anyone else think Ruth looks REALLY good in black? I think she found her color.
green and black is a great combo