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If I understand javascript correctly, every numerical variable is a floating point number. Before we lose precision (essentially have to switch to scientific notation, at which point we lose the ability to be a counter), the maximum exact value we can reach is 9,007,199,254,740,992. Exactly how long do you expect this counter to last?
Nah. Just manipulate the last digit, and if it’s already nine, do same with the next etc. Could also make a function mapping from values of the double to string values shown, and still store it as a double (more memory efficient, but more work on each pageview).
Hmm. It should be possible to add DAMN YOU WILIS under every page, and allow you to push it once per session. Now as allways there will be people that will abuse this, but it woulds still give us usefull data to see how many damnations each page gets.
So sessions unless somebody has a better idea how to differentiate visitors.
I didn’t see it coming until I read the comments yesterday, and was like “Oh crap, that makes sense, it’s probably going to happen now. Please don’t happen.”
It’s like a soap opera. You know Michael is cheating on Beth with her best friend’s twin sister’s mom’s husband and it’s going to blow up in his face, but doesn’t make it any less rough.
It’s probably not over yet. That would end the drama. And that would be Wrong.
Whether the peons will manage to patch the leaks or the thing will sink to the bottom of the ocean is still anyone’s guess. It’s definitely taking on water though.
Yeah…and did Finn just forgot about his awesome sword? Could’ve come in handy in jail. Really, if you think about, Finn pretty much have no need to be in the episode. The Fire Lord was handled by the Fire King, Cinnamon Bun can hold his own…really Finn is pretty much useless….which then it hit me. Whose to say that CB brought Finn along just to rub it in?
Well, it ALL starts at around the first time we meet Ricardio.
Something in TVTropes, the fridge section, mentioned something. CB did a flip and landed on his head. It’s implied that he became brain damaged because of this.
Aside from this, if you notice CB’s eyes when his hat, and more importantly his head is hit, they grow. Similar to how they looked during the party, all those years ago.
The hit, thrown by a wizard, fixed his brain.
He speaks more fluently, he pontificates well.
It never WAS specified though, what he did for PB.
I think he was a knight.
Because.
Now, he’s a knight.
My god, I shipped Finn and FP real hard… but after that episode, I couldn’t blame FP in the slightest. Finn really Danned it up good.
He was being a downright creeper… Dude needs to just back off the lady biz for a bit and concentrate on his hero stuff. Otherwise, he may not be a hero much longer. (And then we’ll have Adventure Time with Cinnamon Bun and Jake!)
Yeah, well, if there’s one thing Willis as a storyteller likes to do its have characters become inspired and salvage a bad situation at the 11th hour. So there’s hope.
Have you tried confessing and apologising while having a competition with someone about whose tongue can first taste the other’s tonsils?
I haven’t, but I imagine it’s difficult to speak and kiss at the same time. (There’s also, you know, tomorrow’s panels. Billie can still screw this up even further. I mean, confessing and apologising.)
As as I said, I haven’t tried to confess and apologise to someone while our tongues are all over each other like a pair of hyperactive slugs during mating season…
…but I imagine it can’t be any easier than any other form of talking with your mouth full.
She wanted to talk about it though, it was why she said she didn’t deserve the cheerleader outfit. Oh well Billie, should have said something sooner I guess. Now to return to awkward relationship uncertainty.
The fall-out is going to be bad, but just imagine how much worse it could have been if they had continued where this was leading and the truth didn’t come out until later.
“I mean…I’m not mad. It’s just I can’t keep making out with you because then I will technically still be tasting alcohol. Wash out your mouth and then we will continue”
I was about to thank you for yesterdays strip, but I was too scared of what might happen, so I decided to wait for todays strip. Couldn’t you have defied my speculations this one time?
A few weeks or so ago, I noted that 12:15 was the fastest I’d seen it hit 100 comments. 12:12. New record? Anyway, I did pause to literally out loud say “NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO”, so my timing might be off.
Though, as a RA at my university, I did cringe yesterday. At least where I work, relations with anyone that lives in a building/floor you have access to (aka a resident) is a big nono. But my suspension of disbelief kicked in and things were okay.
‘Cause breaking into their rooms and stealing and vandalizing their stuff and tripping them and clotheslining them and getting drunk with them when you’re both underage aren’t big no-nos.
Ruth is not a paragon of virtue is what I’m saying.
*out of crowd of people, points a fork. not a pitchfork, but a salad fork, with a crouton on it. points for in your direction while addressing you*
I think that’s an interesting theory. Not super likely, but still pretty interesting.
Not sure how much of a thing it has to be, though.
“I know. I’ve been strong these last three days, but last night I broke down and had a drink. I’ve hated myself for it ever since. This morning I was breaking down and running away from you because I couldn’t face you or what I did. I’ve been looking for a way to tell you all morning. I’m sorry. I know I said I’d be the alpha lady jerk here- I’d be the strong one that gets you through this. And I still want to. But I figured out I’m not as strong as I thought, and I can’t carry both of us like I thought I could. You have every right to be angry, but please don’t give up on this! I need your help too. Maybe we can carry each other from now on? I know I fucked this up. Let me try again. Please?”
Yeah, maybe its wishful thinking. Maybe a few words can’t change the sense of betrayal. Maybe they’re both too broken to really have a relationship anyway. All I’m saying is, I don’t think it is impossible. Even after all this.
All that being said, I will keep my gravatar picture the way it is. Consider it the metaphorical candle for the Vigil I am holding hoping that our now comatose ship might at some point regain consciousness.
Told ya, it’s ship sinking and love hurts week. Well…unless you’re a certain ghost with 3 hands. And it’s kinda ironic considering this particular week.
Willis has a few days to fix this if he wants to give us all a present for that day you’re alluding to!
So of course that won’t happen…
And even though things look like they have a chance of heading in a positive direction with Danny and Amber once they can have a good conversation, just to keep us all miserable and screaming, “Damn you, Willis,” that won’t happen before Valentine’s Day either.
So what will our present be? What is the most horrible thing he can do to all of our hearts within the next few days?
Will we discover that Dorothy, when leaping out of the top bunk of that bed, slipped and snapped her neck?
Will Joyce and Ethan get engaged?
Will the Valentine’s Day strip just be a nude pin-up of Blaine?
Yes, I know these were scripted and drawn out weeks if not months in advance. All that shows is that you jinxed it so bad you broke spacetime in the process and caused retroactive doom.
You fool. Tears are salty. They will either make you throw up or kill you! I recommend bathing in them instead. It allows for the same show of contempt for their pain and suffering and won’t destroy you in the process.
Actually, filling a kiddie pool with them and then proceeding to frolic in them feels just fantastic. But only when they’re other people’s tears. Doing it in my own just makes me sad.
I wish I could say I called it…but I honestly expected Billie to have gone long enough and eaten something strong enough to mask the taste of booze…Guess not.
Now…what will Billie have to steal for Ruth for forgiveness?
“No, it just takes 10 days to fully unpickle a tongue that has been as far up in the bottle as mine was…” Do we think Billie could say this with a straight face??
Does anyone have the link for the strip where Billie “feel off the bandwagon?” I remember them making the pact not to drink, and I’m taking everyone’s word for it (and, well, the comic) that she did, but for the life of me I can’t remember it happening.
Seriously. This is my ship. My OTP. You let Walky and Dorothy have a sex. Danny and Amber had their moment. Why can’t you let this awesome couple be happy? Do you fear their awesomeness? Their superiority over all other ships? Why must you litter their waters with icebergs? There are not enough tables in the world to satisfy my flip needs.
Think I’ll close out and go to bed by offering another possible outcome to this happening. Even less likely, but far more whimsical. And perverted.
Billie: Oh shit.
Ruth: You’ve been drinking behind my back? WHAT THE HELL.
Billie: I’m sorry! I made a mistake! I…I guess you don’t want to do anymore…
Ruth: Excuse me? Oh no you don’t. You think you get off that easy? Fuck that. Not only are we dating, we are finishing this cold turkey shit. I’m making sure of it.
Billie: ..what do you mean?
Ruth: You just violated your parole, tubby! From now on you can consider yourself on lockdown, and I’m the goddamn warden. And you can damn well be sure you aren’t getting any more alcohol in here.
Billie: ..Okay, that’s fair, I guess. But how do you intend to-
Ruth: Random breathalyzer tests.
Billie: ..by which you mean..
Ruth: That you and I will be making out several times a day for the foreseeable future, yes.
Billie: ..Yeah. Okay. I can live with that. Umm…does this prison include handcuffs or strip searches.
It just occurred to me that if Billie and Ruth are actually alcoholic, quitting cold turkey could easily be lethal, so I don’t know what they were thinking.
So satan just showed up on my doorstep looking for a place to crash.
“That damn Willis has taken over, doing all the torture… I’m bored and needed a vacation anyway, he can have it.”
Welp, the only upside is that this is getting out now, as opposed to months down the line when there’s an actual, honest-to-gosh relationship to torpedo.
I guess I’m the only one who is actually kind of glad that this bump in the road to ‘sexytime’ got hit? The whole relationship seems forced and a typical “ooooh they hated each other so much but were secretly trying to find ways to boink!” trope and… yeah… no. Plenty of relationships start out and end up that way I suppose, but the ‘romance’ here is toxic and based on a mutual oath made to purge said toxicity, of which was broken not even a day after it was made (by Billy, of course).
Maybe it’s just me but given that this Ruth has the potential to not end up dead in an act of martyrdom, she could do better than catering to the gaping emotional void she’s been trying to fill up with booze and now some hormonal ‘romance’ with a stuck up brat. I hope she wisens up and realizes she’s likely only attracted to Billy because all she knows are dysfunctional relationships and drops her like the bad habit she is for breaking her oath. I also sincerely hope Ruth keeps up on her end of her oath instead of falling back into it out of some twisted thinking that it wasn’t worth even trying since Billy flaked out on her end of the deal.
Eh. I kind of feel like you’re glossing over a lot of the character development between these two that’s taken place in the past year, especially when you write Billie off as a “stuck up brat.” Yes, she fell off the wagon – but it’s also obvious that she feels regretful and guilty as hell about it in the face of Ruth’s gratitude.
Worse, Billie seems like she has a lot of trouble talking about her feelings or opening up (an interesting contrast to Ruth, who continuously overshares), so she covers by either making snarky remarks or just running off – behavior that might look “bratty” at first glance, but speaks to larger emotional insecurities underneath. As for her snobby, clique-ish attitude elsewhere in the comic, a lot of that seems to stem from her absent parents and fairly empty personal life.
To me, the appeal of the Billie-Ruth relationship is the fact that they’re broken people, but broken in a weirdly complementary way. They come across as lonely and in desperate need of emotional validation, but still try like hell to put up a strong facade around others. At the same time, both seem completely unprepared for other people actually doing nice things for them – that somebody would want to help them, or take an interest in their lives or well-being is treated as this utterly foreign concept.
And as nobody else on campus really seems to give much of a damn about them, they’re left attempting to care for one another in their own dysfunctional, haphazard way. Neither of them seems terribly well equipped for it, but the fact that they’re still trying makes the whole relationship oddly sweet.
That’s pretty close to how I analyse them/my headcanon; Billie grew up with absent parents and few friends (mostly Walky, according to Walky). Cheerleading is/used to be pretty central to her identity and the feeling of being loved, and with her DUI and Walky and Joyce having less time for her, she’s taking pretty strong hits to her self-esteem.
I actually knew somebody a lot like Billie growing up – half-Japanese, mother perpetually away on business, father completely disengaged (and with a second secret family on the side!). She was pretty bookish and down-to-earth through middle school, but when she hit high school, she basically did everything in her power to make herself popular and get the attention and affirmation she wasn’t getting at home, right down to the athlete boyfriends. (Amusingly, the parallels don’t end there, since she eventually married some random loser she met in college.)
That’s why I find it very easy to see the same thing happening to Billie: growing up spending a lot of time with Walky watching cartoons or playing video games, then hitting puberty and wanting something a little more substantial. So she reinvents herself as Queen Bee of the school, and the rest is history.
The thing I find very sympathetic about Billie (and the thing I feel a lot of people miss when they write her off as shallow or bratty) is the fact that she really moved heaven and earth to help her high school friends when they got into trouble, but if her Twitter is anything to go by, those selfsame “friends” completely abandoned Billie after her DUI.
So she starts college having seen 4+ years of work and relationships go down the toilet, leaving her with absolutely nothing. She’s gained a fair bit of weight. The “cool” kids want nothing to do with her. She can’t even get a random hookup going, regardless of how much she lowers her standards (hi, Danny!). And then on top of everything, there’s this redheaded psychopath who seems to have made it her life’s mission to make Billie’s existence as miserable as possible…
Danny isn’t “just” lowering her standards though; she pretty much throws herself at him when he’s the first and only person to “validate” her by telling her she’s so attractive she’s probably a cheerleader.
(Ruth must be pretty good at reading people; she was able to tell exactly which aspects of Billie’s self-esteem to attack when she wanted to hurt her.)
Considering how badly she misread Billie’s guilt earlier in this storyline, I’m more inclined to chalk it up to Ruth jumping at the most obvious and hurtful insult available to her. Billie is pretty much the biggest girl in Ruth’s wing.
So, fan theory, maybe she started backsliding because she saw how much Ruth was opening up to her, maybe even realized she WAS attracted to her, and caved under the stress that caused?
I’d say it’s hard to pick singular reasons; Billie has several reasons to feel extremely stressed that night, and out of those, “attraction to Ruth” is less likely than “concerned for Ruth as a friend/fellow human being”, “reminded yet again that her parents don’t pay attention to her”, “painfully reminded that she’s no longer a cheerleader”, not to mention the obvious “addiction is hard to break”.
Relapses because it’s a stressful day? Almost certainly. Relapses specifically because she admits to herself her love for Ruth? Eh…
Yeah, this is true, Family Day was hell on wheels for everyone and Billie certainly had a LOT of stuff on her mind might have contributed. Her conversation with Walky about simplicity versus complications (I’d link it, but I’ve been throwing around a lot of links lately and I’m starting to feel like I’m abusing the power) just made me start thinking that getting together with Ruth might have been on her mind for quite some time now. But I fully take your point- even if there’s some truth to my theory, it would have just been one of a hundred contributing factors to a fairly stressful semester.
Well, there’s enough messy aspects to their relationship to keep anybody up at night:
Uncertainty: Billie knows Ruth is attracted to her on at least some level and may try to act on it again. Added problem: whichever part of Billie chose to kiss Ruth back isn’t necessarily opposed to the idea.
Guilt: Though Ruth insists otherwise, I wouldn’t be surprised if Billie still feels responsible for Ruth holing up in her room for two days and nearly drinking herself to death.
Worry: Ruth has ongoing issues with depression, as well as some unspecified family drama going on in the background, either of which could flare up at any moment.
[My guess on that front: Her grandfather currently controls her and Howard’s share of their parents’ estate, and she has to kowtow to him in order to keep her tuition money flowing. Inheritance law in Ontario would have given her her share when she turned 18, but there might have been extenuating circumstances, especially given her relocation to the US.]
In addition, Billie now knows Ruth might also be wrestling with questions around her sexual orientation, since she didn’t identify as bi up until the point she tried to make a pass at Billie. Ruth seems to have come to terms with that fact, but Billie doesn’t know that yet.
Tension: Even though Ruth and Billie now get along, there’s still that tension you get when somebody who was physically and emotionally abusing you just days ago suddenly switches gears and tries to play nice.
On the other hand, as an alcoholic, Billie’s probably gotten used to going to sleep buzzed. It might just be that old habits die hard.
And to be fair there is some evidence to support the idea that Billie has been cheating on going sober all along- she wasn’t getting sick the way Ruth was over these last 3 days, although she claimed to be. I’m assuming Billie is being honest with her sobriety over those days mostly because of that off-hand comment she blurted out to the front desk lady about being sober for three d-no months. I figure if she was gonna make that kind of slip of the tongue it anyway it wouldn’t coincide with what she was telling Ruth unless it was true. But I’ve been wrong before and I’m certainly guilty of *wanting* to believe in Billie.
The tragic thing about addictive behavior is that it often has to do with other things in your life you don’t want to deal with, things that will creep back in with a vengeance while your struggling with ending the addictive behavior. I don’t know yet if that’s the case with either Ruth or Billie, but it has been a worry of mine for awhile.
Unless what she started to tell Asma was just repeating the lie she’d gotten used to telling Ruth each day, before she realized she had to revise it for this audience. Say something often enough, and it starts to become your reality, even if you know it’s not true.
I want to believe in Billie, too, but I’m not sure I can.
Seriously, this cut to the quick like no other comic ever has. A few songs I’ve heard recently hit home, too, but this…just…I was already having a rough night…I’ll dig up a song quote:
“This is to anyone out there that’s listening
From everyone that ever let you down and went missing
Lovers, parents, best friends, and siblings
Sometimes life conspires to make liars of good men”
Well, at least Walky/Dorothy got somewhere or we’d be pretty much batting zero. And maybe Amber’s mom and Joe’s dad, but, well.
I consider it likely that in the long run, the alcohol level of Ruth and Billie will assimilate but the process won’t be pretty, and there are a lot of options for the storywriter to make us unhappy.
Great opportunity for a cliffhanger right here, but we’ll probably see Ruth taking the uniform with her for now. Or actually worse, leaving it there.
FGZHERGTKEZJFZGF AAAAAARGH !
Damn You Willis ! (throws fit in the air)
How dare you be such a jerk ? You already did the exact same thing last year : taunt the ship, have them kiss then … “N-No, Fuck Off” !
…. why does it still hurt as much the second time ?
I did not have a drink until into my thirties and even then it was only one salude. Can Ruth taste the alcohol from the previous night or did Billie sneak a drink during Amber’s fight?
That was a sad moment. I could see it resolving in a handful of ways, some posted above, so I’ll reserve my “Damn you, Willis!” until I feel it’s appropriate. Definitely enjoying the emotional roller coaster, though.
So, after a night’s sleep, the following thought occurred to me…
I’m guessing that Billie’s slip-up was more then just the one bottle, then?
At one time, she was proud to be three months days sober, so she initially was making an effort.
The only time we saw her drinking was just the previous night, which (correct me if I’m wrong). And since it is now night time again, about a whole day has passed since then.
In that time, one would hope that Billie would have brushed her teeth at least once. But even failing that, it is quite likely she’d have had at least one good meal since then (we do see her having lunch with Walkie), possibly more.
Not being a big drinker myself, nor having dated any big drinkers, exactly how long does the taste of alcohol linger in one’s mouth? Especially if possibly brushing and definitely eating has occurred in the interim?
What I’m getting at is… Since the taste is still in her mouth, can we assume that she’s had a more recent drink, then? Perhaps guilt over the first drink, especially in light of Ruth’s kind gesture of fixing the Dragons uniform, also combined with her own uncertainty over her own feelings towards Ruth… I’m guessing she may have done more drinking today?
I was about to say, “God, I hope Ruth doesn’t burst into Billie’s room and find bottles everywhere!” But then I remembered, she’d have been in there already leaving the IU Uniform… But anyway, while I am sure there will be some hurt, please please please please let the follow up to this be a serious conversation, and not angry storming off followed by a year’s (real world time) of tension with no resolution!
Oops… Ignore the “which (correct me if I’m wrong).” That was from an earlier version of that sentence, which I forgot to remove in the revision! (Pity there’s not a way to edit one’s comments…)
Well, it’s been a couple of hours since we last saw her, and I don’t think she was expecting Ruth to ambush her in her own room. (She also had to watch Walky and Dorothy engage in nauseatingly cute PDA, which would definitely warrant drinking.) I could easily imagine Billie keeping a flask around her person for “emergencies” like this.
Well, I’m still (hopefully not foolishly) optimistic that things can be salvaged here… But in the worst case scenario, maybe we can still have “Ruth (and/or) Billie Performs a Masturbation.”
No… On second thought… At this point, unless they do something together, anything else would just kind of be sad and unfulfilling…
I love how almost everyone was ready to crucify Danny, who genuinely meant well but screwed up because of things he didn’t know, and yet almost everyone is trying to find an excuse and explanation for Billie, who had all the information in the world and still screwed up simply because it was the easiest way out. I guess boobs make a difference. I for one hope for some serious backlash.
I personally never was in on the Danny hate. (I like him! I hope things work out well with him and Amber.)
As far as Billie and Ruth… They both have problems, and there was definitely going to be some shit at some point. My own personal frustration isn’t that it happened, but how it happened. Right smack in the middle of their first consensual kiss. Really? Damn you, Willis!
Billie was clearly already racked with guilt over having fallen off the wagon again. Even if it delayed the much coveted kiss, I wish she could have confessed herself. Ruth could have still been pissed, we could have still gotten drama, but at least it would have put Billie in a stronger position for the eventual aftermath.
Now, the best we can hope for is damage control. I said above, and I’ll repeat it here: I really hope, even if it starts as an angry argument, this leads into a conversation, and doesn’t just end with Ruth storming off and an additional year or so (real world time) of unresolved hurt and tension between the two of them…
I reckon people make too much out of the first kiss. I’ve had some mighty awkward first kisses that led to a series of many more kisses, each better than the previous one. If everything works out in the end, you just think back to your own stupidity and laugh at it. If it doesn’t work out, you’re not laughing whether you kissed or not.
Besides, Billie really needed this one to be painful. She had great chance to not screw up and she threw it away.
I think it’s less people wanting that first kiss to be ideal and more people, well, not wanting to wait half a year or more for a resolution to this latest relationship bomb. After Ruth first kissed Billie, the story didn’t shift back to them for four months – heck , it took three months just to get Billie and Ruth back in the same room after Billie ran off back in November. That’s the downside of having a large cast of characters and an ultra-decompressed narrative.
How is Billie changing squat? If anything, Billie is trying to change herself more then she’s trying to change Ruth.
The only change she’s trying to impose on Ruth is giving up alcohol. And that is one she’s trying to do herself, as well. She was successfully dry for three days. Yes, Billie slipped up. But for Billie and Ruth, alcohol is an addiction, it was almost inevitable that one of them would slip up at some point. One can only hope that Ruth recognizes this, and gives Billie the support she needs to get back on the wagon.
But in addition to that change, Billie is making a rather big change in herself by questioning just what sort of person she might be attracted to, don’t you think?
So what exactly does Billie deserve here? Not saying Ruth doesn’t have a right to be angry about this… but I just hope that anger is channeled into support (“How dare you? I thought we were doing this together! If you want any more kisses, I better not taste that on you again!”) and not rejection (“How dare you! I thought we were doing this together! I never want to see you again!”).
Honestly? Total bias. I find Billie a more interesting person than Danny. She started off extremely flawed and remains so, but has evolved as a character and has shown more depth and redeeming qualities as the series has gone on. Danny…well, look. There’s nothing wrong with Danny. He’s a nice guy, if a little oblivious. Pretty inoffensive as far as characters go. Certainly hasn’t done anything worthy of condemnation aside from finding a way to blindly walk further and further into a rising shitstorm and not realize it until it exploded all around him (which, if you take Dorothy’s breakup into account, is the second time this has happened to him over a girl). I totally have no objection if you like the guy- to me he’s just kinda milquetoast as a character. At least at the present moment. There was a time I thought Billie was just a stuck-up bongo who was hating on “nerds” due a highschool dynamic that no longer even applied to her. I thought Ruth was a demented bongo who liked to abuse her power as an RA. Sarah was another standoffish bongo, Joe was a big dumb jock, and similar uncharitable knee jerk reactions. But they’ve all grown as the series continued, and I expect them to keep on growing. Danny is showing promise in this area, and I feel like he’s gonna have some major evolution happen right around the corner. But for now he’s one of the least interesting characters to me, so I think I grade him on a different scale from a character who’s flaws and struggles I’ve seen more of and can empathize a little better with.
I judge Danny more harshly than Billie, because Billie has tried to do something really hard to change herself (seriously, she’s a drug addict; giving that up isn’t easy) for someone that she really has no reason to care about, and faltered and is wracked with guilt about it, and about Ruth continuing to treat her like she hasn’t failed, because she’s afraid to tell Ruth straight out that she faltered – though she has hinted at it with the “I don’t deserve this”.
(At least I’m hoping she actually tried. I will be much more angry with her if it turns out that she’s just been lying to Ruth about it the whole time.)
Danny, on the other hand, was ignorant of important and relevant facts, knew that he was ignorant, was fucking things up and hurting someone he purported to care about because he was ignorant, and, far from trying to rectify his ignorance, which he had the raw information to do if he was willing to put it together, he was acting all holier-than-thou about making the wrong decisions because of his willful ignorance. And he would still be ignorant if Amazi-Girl’s mask hadn’t literally fallen off right in front of him. About the only thing you can say for the dude is now that he’s had his face rubbed in the consequences of his actions, he’s realized that he fucked up.
Yer kiddin’, right? Danny’s boring, Billie’s not. I suspect all antipathy ultimately goes back to this. Regardless, I don’t really care about whether they ‘meant well’ (both did, fyi), and what information did Billie have that makes her immune to her addiction? Meh. I’mma enjoy what’s happening, but that’s because I love watching drama in fictional relationships, not because I’m some horrible person – same reason I enjoyed it for Danny.
Let’s be real for a moment here. I’m counting roughly 300 commenters who seem legitimately upset about this development; why?
Would you prefer if Billie continued to lie to Ruth and failed to fight her addiction just so they could play at love?
Did you think nothing would come of it? That Billie would suddenly stop being alcoholic and get all better without Ruth ever finding out?
Within the realm of plausibility, this is the best thing that could have happened. Win or lose, Billie and Ruth’s relationship just got real. Maybe Ruth is going to jump off the wagon and they spend the rest of their lives resenting each other and drunkenly wallowing in the bitter ashes of what could have been or maybe Ruth is going to break Billie’s femurs and then help her and over time their relationship is strengthened with mutual respect and trust and they have hundreds of fat children and live happily ever after but at least they’re not going to compromise.
It’s like Tom Waits said, “You must risk something that matters.”
Just as Billie was there for Ruth earlier in this strip when Ruth drank herself into a stupor, now perhaps it is Ruth’s turn to be there to blow away Billie’s smokescreen about her drinking. By holding a mirror up to each other it will give them the opportunity for them see another viewpoint of their difficulties with alcohol, and through mutual assistance perhaps they will both end up confronting and defeating their problems.
Sorry for being totally off topic, but I never looked at your avatar until just now and always thought it was Fry from Futurama riding a bicycle. Man was I way off.
Okay, Billie, let’s run through some possible responses and rate each of them:
1 ) “No, YOU do.” BUZZ! Wrong
2 ) “Gimme a break. How was I to know we were gonna end up frenching tonight? If I’d known, I would’ve brushed my teeth first.” BUZZ! Wrong
3 ) “I spit on your cheerleader gift! PTUI!” BUZZ! Wrong
4 ) “I know. I fucked up. I let myself down, and I let you down. There’s no excuse for it. You have every right to be pissed off at me. I’m pissed off at myself too. I’d understand if you wanted nothing to do with me again. Or at the very least not to kiss me any more. But I still want to kick this thing, and I know you do too, so can we start again? As friends?” DINGDINGDING! We have a winner!
(Yes, I know, even saying the right thing wouldn’t automatically, magically make it all okay from Ruth’s perspective. But owning up, without minimizing or excusing it, is still the right thing to do here.)
So Willis is talking about drawing a new porn on Twitter… So maybe Billie and Ruth are gonna bone like a dinosaur exhibit after all? Hopefully it’s canon…
I don’t remember seeing Billy drink at all recently in the comic though, I even went through her tag but the most recent thing I’ve seen was the coke from her conversation with Walky. Was it off screen?
Willis, if you cut from this to something else entirely I will be able to do nothing but fret until you get back to these two but please, please, please don’t do it.
“Lips that have touched alcohol must never touch mine,” quoth the Anti-Saloon League in the 1900’s. That would seem to apply in this instance; albeit a touch hypocritical on Ruth’s part … still.
I am not fluent in English so I could sound a bit weird (if a lot, is my brain) Also my apologies for the bestgramialities.
Amazing comic. I just spend like 25 hs along two days working the archive.
IMO great art and colours, wonderful palette, lovely characters and hooking plots. Dialogues and characters are believable and personalities are well designed.
Beside that I felt touched by the stories, specialy with some character’s burdens.
Also lots of fun and insight in the comments
I want to congratulate the artist for such great comic, thank you for share it, I straight added it to my very short list of web comics I am reading.
In short: new fan over here
I will be reading but for a while quietly. Or maybe not
Partially because same-gender relationships are so under-represented in any media I consume but also because I love these two characters I was so hoping this’d turn out well. Not that I’ll suggesting every portrayal should pretend everything always works out well, that’d be bad, just… feeeeeeeeeeeeeeels.
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
Hot Toys Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 1/6 Scale Darth Vader Deluxe ($495) & Standard ($315) is up for preorder at Sideshow - shrsl.com/4wcx6 #ad
If you preorder make sure to hit the Exclusive versions since they include a commemorative plaque and cost the same.
btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 1d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
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And what a way to find out.
Called it.
A bunch of people called it.
An just like any Cassandra, nobody listened to them althought they were deadly right ….
boom classical reference, lets just hope it doesnt turn out quite as badly as that
Uhoh.
I wish there was some kind of a “Damn you, Willis” counter that he could embed into the homepage.
For Dave Willis comments, we call those “page hits.”
If I understand javascript correctly, every numerical variable is a floating point number. Before we lose precision (essentially have to switch to scientific notation, at which point we lose the ability to be a counter), the maximum exact value we can reach is 9,007,199,254,740,992. Exactly how long do you expect this counter to last?
I think this one page would probably cause that counter to overflow.
You could always store the number in a string and do math on said string to get around the variable size limitations.
You’d still run into limitations of physical memory.
Nah. Just manipulate the last digit, and if it’s already nine, do same with the next etc. Could also make a function mapping from values of the double to string values shown, and still store it as a double (more memory efficient, but more work on each pageview).
Still would overflow. Damn you, Willis!
If this comic ever breaks 9 quintillion “Damn you willis!” hits Willis will retire a happy man.
And the entire world will hate him for it.
Welp. Might as well start counting.
DAMN YOU, WILLIS!!! (1)
…
Willis, this will not be forgotten.
ಥ_ಥ
Or forgiven.
Hmm. It should be possible to add DAMN YOU WILIS under every page, and allow you to push it once per session. Now as allways there will be people that will abuse this, but it woulds still give us usefull data to see how many damnations each page gets.
So sessions unless somebody has a better idea how to differentiate visitors.
I.P or Cookie?
No matter how big that number’s maximum value, it WILL roll over within a month.
Cue the sad trombone. Damn you, Willis!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Nooooooooooooooo,god damnit! RAGE QUITE! * throws phone at wall*…….
Damn you, Willis!!!
Nooooooo.
that’s her natural taste
Yeah, she’s like 40% alcohol by volume.
Don’t smoke near her, she’ll go up like a bomb. Making her Sal’s roomie was probably a bad move.
Billie is actually booze incarnate.
Or she’s related to Bacchus.
From Tides of Destiny? I can see that.
Well, I was going to say the Roman god of wine….but that works too I guess.
Let’s get a motherfuckin bacchanalia going.
She’s an alemental.
That’s a spirit, right?
Considering spirit can be also used as a synonym for booze, why not? An alemental spirit of spirits.
Alcohol elemental. 8HD of pure fun.
Nooooo! Damn you, Willis!
Expected… but, damn you, Willis!
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
┻#^┻ ╯(°□° ╯) why you do this?
what the hell did you do to that table?
It landed on something sharp.
(I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it)
I didn’t get it.
But then I did.
You, I like.
FUCK. I WAS EXPECTING BILLIE TO COME UPFRONT ABOUT THIS.
BUT THIS IS WAY WAY WORSE.
“I was expecting Billie to to the difficult but responsible thing! Where did I go wrong?”
You forgot that this is Dumbing of Age! And in Dumbing of Age… *dramatic turn and fierce gaze* THINGS ALWAYS GO WRONG!
Sarah is the perfect avatar for that comment
You forgot this wasn’t El Goonish Shive.
It’s like they planned it, right?
Don’t stop
BELEVINNGGGGG
HOLD ON TO THOSE FEELS!
Streeeetlights, peeeeople, Woahohooooooohh!!!!
…sez the Billie avatar.
“It’s surprisingly refreshing!”
Incoming wall of CALLED ITs!
I did in fact call this exact scenario. I am absolutley not proud of that.
I hate everybody who predicted this yesterday.
Burn them in a fire!
Cragalanch is fireproof, so your plan is majorly flawed
how did I not see that coming
It’s funnier when you look at your avatar
Look in yesterday’s comments. Like, 5 people saw this coming
I didn’t see it coming until I read the comments yesterday, and was like “Oh crap, that makes sense, it’s probably going to happen now. Please don’t happen.”
It’s not better to find out this way.
“And you taste like maple syrup and regret.”
“Also politeness, Tim Hortons, and affordable health care. It sickens me!”
Don’t forget about hockey, eh!
*Ruth* tastes like politeness? You serious?
and back bacon. Mmmm, bacon
Damn it, Willis, you suck!
The problem is that Ruth sucks. If you follow me.
Well if Billie’s tongue didn’t taste like booze, she wouldn’t!
The jig is up! RUN!
This isn’t gonna end well, is it?
Billie performs a sleeps on the couch?
Billie gets performed in the face.
At least she’ll have her femurs!
Not clear.
Well, so many of you called it. Doesn’t make this any easier to watch, though.
Exactly what I was thinking.
It’s like a soap opera. You know Michael is cheating on Beth with her best friend’s twin sister’s mom’s husband and it’s going to blow up in his face, but doesn’t make it any less rough.
No, Michael is cheating on Beth with your mom. He found a nickel on the floor, and had to spend it on something.
I was never certain if he was paying the nickel or getting paid the nickel
I always understood that he paid it. Because your mom is a whore.
It could work either way. Maybe he’s a nickel gigolo and that’s the best your mom can get.
Is it too soon for a “Damn you, Willis”?
Never. If things get worse (“if”, HAH) you can just use more capslock and go again.
It’s never too soon for a “Damn you Willis”.
Hell, there were people anticipating this yesterday and pre-emptively damning Willis. There is no “too soon.”
Only Zuul.
+1
BETRAYAL
BETRAYED ME
“It’s… IT’S JUST MY MOUTHWASH!”
No lie. Booze flavored Mouthwash would totes be a thing. Just to prank people into thinking you’re drunk.
Single malt toothpaste.
Hey, that arbiter of all things hip, Ke$ha, once brushed her teeth with a bottle of Jack, so it’s totes possible.
Many of us called it.
Congrats us
now we may all weep together for this tragically sunken ship, crashed a mere 24 hours out of port.
But it was Unsinkable! How could it have been sunk?
BilliexRuth = The Titanic of DoA ships
(Too soon?)
That’s the good ship Rullie to you.
(walks away grumbling about people not reading the comments from previous comics…)
Bilth. Because this is just dirty.
It’s been, like, one hundred years, people are over it
Instead of an iceberg they get hit by a truck
I wonder if drinking is an appropriate method to mourn the loss of this ship…
Well, might as well test the theory.
This is the future. We want to know if it worked.
Report: drinking numbs pain but creates headaches.
Not recommended for those who had to get up at 7am for class
>_<
Well, headaches are pain and drinking numbs pain.
Do the math.
Eh, they’ll probably get back together once this fence is hurdled.
Does this mean I can start shipping Sal and Billie together?
That would make you Sillie.
Booo!
It’s probably not over yet. That would end the drama. And that would be Wrong.
Whether the peons will manage to patch the leaks or the thing will sink to the bottom of the ocean is still anyone’s guess. It’s definitely taking on water though.
Annnnnnnd, there’s the other shoe. Ouch, dis…gonna be bad.
Well that didn’t take long
WELP. That’s the end of that.
Drops to knees
Screams and sobs
And this is why I didn’t get TOO excited about yesterday’s strip.
ooh BUSTED.
The tag has been pulled! now for sadness!
No. NonononononononononononononoOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU TO HFIL!
Dammit Willis, you gave me whiplash.
She had ONE job!
ONE. JOB.
More like a NONE job. She underwhelmed by overachieving.
Last reference I would have expected under this page.
Yeaaaah, I kinda saw that coming. Still, a hell of a strip today.
She made it 4 panels. That’s got to be some kind of record.
And we have a NEW RECORD!!!!!
Damn you, Willis.
GASP!
HOW COULD YOU BILLIE!
OH SHIT WHO CALLED IT
EVERYONE!
And now everyone’s having stress-related heart attacks because of this strip.
Maybe her tongue is just… stained? That’s a thing, right?
DON’T TAKE THIS AWAY I MAY HAVE BEEN SHIPPING THEM SINCE DAY ONE MAYBE
God damn it. This is exactly what I was expecting, and it’s still awful.
Which is to say – DAMN YOU WILLIS!
David WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Too many perform a sex jokes.
How can there be a sex jokes?
“Your Mom” is a sex joke.
No…I mean a sex JOKES. It’s the inner pedantic in me talking
It’s the “perform a sex” jokes. It’s a bit confusing because he left out the quotes.
“What did one sex say to the other sex…”
“Is this an f, n, or g?”
That is offensive.
not sure how pedantic you’re being, but the problem is he forgot the ” around ‘perform a sex’ as in ” Too many ‘perform a sex’ jokes”
Knew it.
Similar to Ruth in tomorrow’s strip, I WANT TO MURDER EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW.
Hmm…what will hit first, the sudden realization as to why Billie was being weird, or just a sense of rage and betrayal?
Well Played Willis. Well Played.
Well played, well_played. Well played.
Willis sunk the ship.
Well, that’s the second ship I see sunk in 12 hours.
What was the first?
Flame Princess and Finn.
Oh ya I saw that episode, cinnamon bun really?
I just want to shake Finn when he acts like that, I really do.
Yeah, what the heck? Since when Cinnamon Bun suddenly becomes a bad ass?
All I know is that he owned Finn on All levels
Last time we saw him, he was wandering around the woods with a tray of drinks and now, he’s a badass? I still don’t believe that.
I feel as if I want too slap him upside the back of his head and say ” you got out staged by CINNAMON BUN! get your shit together!”
Yeah…and did Finn just forgot about his awesome sword? Could’ve come in handy in jail. Really, if you think about, Finn pretty much have no need to be in the episode. The Fire Lord was handled by the Fire King, Cinnamon Bun can hold his own…really Finn is pretty much useless….which then it hit me. Whose to say that CB brought Finn along just to rub it in?
Well, it ALL starts at around the first time we meet Ricardio.
Something in TVTropes, the fridge section, mentioned something. CB did a flip and landed on his head. It’s implied that he became brain damaged because of this.
Aside from this, if you notice CB’s eyes when his hat, and more importantly his head is hit, they grow. Similar to how they looked during the party, all those years ago.
The hit, thrown by a wizard, fixed his brain.
He speaks more fluently, he pontificates well.
It never WAS specified though, what he did for PB.
I think he was a knight.
Because.
Now, he’s a knight.
How about the ss mordaret? (Mordecai and Margaret)
Well, the SS Mordaret still has a chance. Margaret is just put on a bus, it’s not really a breakup. The bus’ll come back.
My god, I shipped Finn and FP real hard… but after that episode, I couldn’t blame FP in the slightest. Finn really Danned it up good.
He was being a downright creeper… Dude needs to just back off the lady biz for a bit and concentrate on his hero stuff. Otherwise, he may not be a hero much longer. (And then we’ll have Adventure Time with Cinnamon Bun and Jake!)
Well that is what the new episodes are about
I’m still pissed at the Cosmic Owl about that. Finn didn’t blew it, you did, you Cosmic A-hole.
Fuck you cosmic Owl
Heck, from that episode onwards, things been rolling down hill for Finn.
I think Willis and the Owl are in cahoots.
It’s like, I love the hover text but it ruins all dramatic tension.
You see, DoA readers? There’s nothing that Willis cannot take away
By the way, I’m misquoting Belloq.
So what you are saying is that if we find the arc of the covenant we can use it to melt Willis’ face?
Well, that is if you can find it. Top men are assigned to guard it.
Bah. Handful of Russian spies should be all it takes.
My roommate is playing a little game of team slayer in my living room. As I read this, all I heard was “Betrayal”.
SHAKING MY FIST WILLIS
WHHHHYYYY WHHYYY WHYYYYYYY
Damn it, damn it, damn it. This sucks, Willis. Sucks.
Welp, this was bound to happen. Especially given that Dotty/Walky hogged all of the cast’s supply of happiness rations.
Those happiness gluttons.
Happiness is zero-sum in Willis universes? That explains so much…
Not only zero-sum, but diminishing returns every time it gets passed around. Occasionally the system gets a refresh, but not often.
BOOM! Called it. One day real-time!
Also,
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
I don’t see this as a sunk ship…just grounded for the moment.
Where is the screw propeller when you need it?
I agree. There’s some character development to happen, but I hold out hope for this pairing.
Damn you, Willis!
“Shit we’ve been compromised! ABORT! ABORT!”
Dammit, Billie. You couldn’t wait a few hours to get your booze on. Now we’ll have to wait a whole year for another kiss ;.;
Aaaaaand it’s over.
It’s not over till the fat lady sings…and since there is no singing….you get the idea.
So, are you suggesting that Billie’s going to try to lure Ruth back with a siren song?
Oh Dammit…Billie blocked!!!
Noooooo!!!!!!
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Oh boy! Billie is Danning things up in here. Dannington’s Disease is contagious
So yeah, I guess that “time bomb” I talked about yesterday was set to about nine seconds! Here we go!
KA-BWOOOOOOO… slowmotion’splosion…
Well, it’s nicer than, “No! Fuck off!”
C’mon, Billie. Tell her you slipped up. Apologize. Suggest that it’d be easier not to slip up again if she were there for you. In your bed.
Billie can’t hear you. And even if she could her actions were predecided months ago. THERE’S NO STOPPIN’ THIS.
What, like that means I can’t control her actions via sympathetic magic through my gravatar?
You are also not one of the voices in her head. (is that good or bad?)
Yeah, well, if there’s one thing Willis as a storyteller likes to do its have characters become inspired and salvage a bad situation at the 11th hour. So there’s hope.
I was hoping Billie would end up confessing and apologising. But nope. Willis the killjoy. Damn you, Willis.
Have you tried confessing and apologising while having a competition with someone about whose tongue can first taste the other’s tonsils?
I haven’t, but I imagine it’s difficult to speak and kiss at the same time. (There’s also, you know, tomorrow’s panels. Billie can still screw this up even further. I mean, confessing and apologising.)
It’s. It that difficult, it’s just rude and no one’s in the mood to listen to an apology at that moment.
((Speaking from experience?))
As as I said, I haven’t tried to confess and apologise to someone while our tongues are all over each other like a pair of hyperactive slugs during mating season…
…but I imagine it can’t be any easier than any other form of talking with your mouth full.
Haha “apolgise” is British, it’s “apologize” that is used over here.
…Is that supposed to be funny?
And lo, a cry was heard throughout the land. A cry of anguish and betrayal. A cry of “DAMN YOU, WILLIS!”
DAMN. No Slipshine story.
Still possible, just not highly probable.
It still hurts. But this was pretty much destined to happen.
NUUUUUUUUUUU! Billy, you have to turn in your chip!
DAMN YOU WILLIS.
*sigh* I’ve been reading Willis’s comics for several years now. This sensation is familiar, but it still stings. On the bright side, nobody’s dead!
(yet.)
The ship can still be saved, right?
Right…?
Given what it’s been through so far, I’m pretty sure it will still be around after this. Not without a lot of pain in the interim, though.
DAMN YOU WILLIS
Damn, you really have a way of caressing us gently and then slamming our face into the floor.
I like Willis’ work and all, but I honestly think I’d rather have him slamming my face into the floor than “caressing me gently”.
But what if he was caressing your ego with compliments? :O
Well there goes the reservations.
Damn your sudden but inevitable betrayal!!!
No..its not alcohol… just go back to kissing…please?
She wanted to talk about it though, it was why she said she didn’t deserve the cheerleader outfit. Oh well Billie, should have said something sooner I guess. Now to return to awkward relationship uncertainty.
Denied
Nooooooooooo what nooooooo aw dang D:
You know what? THANK YOU, WILLIS! I dreaded that this would get dragged out.
I agree, let’s pull off that bandaid now. Keep things rolling.
The fall-out is going to be bad, but just imagine how much worse it could have been if they had continued where this was leading and the truth didn’t come out until later.
Seriously. When I said a couple strips ago that Billie needed to come clean NOW, I meant it. Hopefully it’s not too late.
Dammit Billie! Why didn’t you listen to me shouting my advice from the other side of the fourth wall?
Because the strips were written long before you commented and you don’t have magical powers to retroactively change the past?
Get your linear time nonsense out of here.
I don’t think the horadric cube would help herenow.
Yeah, this. It was going to happen anyway, we all knew that, and now that shoe has dropped and we can proceed from there.
Man that ship got sunk rite when it was leaving the port.
Not sunk! Just floundering! The ship just needs some serious time in dry dock!
Dry… Like no booze…
Er…
I’ll get my coat…
No need for the coat, I think it worked pretty well
Saw it coming, but I do believe a “DAMN YOU WILLIS” is still in order.
DAAAAAAAMN YOOOOOO, WILLLLLIIIIIIIIS!
how’s that?
And now in Japanese: ONORE WILLIS!
Needs more crying.
… My ship. :'(
Everyone, join the chorus! If we chant it loud enough, maybe it can be heard from the lofty ivory tower in which that cheeky devil resides.
*sucks in breath*
DDDDAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMNNNNNN
YYYYOOOOOOOOUUUUUU
WWWIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS!
+1
No, no, no you’re just making him stronger !
The Willis feeds on reader’s tears and anger !
It’s not vodka, its Banaka.
Huh…this must be Ship Sinking Week.
Willis sank everyone’s Billieship.
“I mean…I’m not mad. It’s just I can’t keep making out with you because then I will technically still be tasting alcohol. Wash out your mouth and then we will continue”
Still my favorite commenter. You are always full of good idea, Yotomoe.
Stop You’re gonna make me blush!
DAMMIT BILLIE. THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS.
Oh man, Mr Willis…
I was about to thank you for yesterdays strip, but I was too scared of what might happen, so I decided to wait for todays strip. Couldn’t you have defied my speculations this one time?
A few weeks or so ago, I noted that 12:15 was the fastest I’d seen it hit 100 comments. 12:12. New record? Anyway, I did pause to literally out loud say “NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO”, so my timing might be off.
NO YOU CAN’T DO THIS I WAS JUST STARTING TO LET MYSELF SHIP THEM
I’ve been shipping for a while. I knew this was going to happen but I fell into the trap. *desk flip*
Billie, how did you even manage that? You just got home (from lunch with Walky, I think?), what did you smuggle a flask into the cafeteria?
I hope it isn’t lunch! Amazi-Girl just fought her dad in the total darkness of night!
Maybe there was a total eclipse when Amazi-Girl was handing Blaine his teeth?
It was a long dark stormy lunch-time of Billie, and the rain was actually booze.
Maybe she had a small sip before going back to her dorm
DANGER! DANGER! THE SHIP IS SINKING!
ALL PERSONNEL REPORT IMMEDIATELY TO BATTLE STATIONS
NO YOU FOOL! THAT’S NO BATTLESHIP, IT’S AN AUTHORIAL HURRICANE!
ABANDON SHIP! WOMEN AND LADYBOYS FIRST!
No we got a better solution. Everyone remain calm it the 20th century we can fix this ship
Dude the 20th ended like 13 years ago (13 years, 1 month, 12 days) This is the 21st Century. Duck Dodgers is due in 237 years +/-
Ruth’s hands. Ruth’s hands!
Someone just earned a new traumatic red flashback panel, and for once it isn’t Amber.
Well Billie, this is what happens when you layer track-pant leggings under shorts.
My boyfriend just said “That’s not a GOOD sign,” from his computer. And then I pulled up the website. He was right.
Good move, Billie!
Well, at least we got to see Ruth and Billie ever so briefly sucking FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻
GOD DAMN IT ALL!!!!!!
well that was fast
DAMN YOU WILLIS
Just….
Aw, hell.
Damn you, Willis.
C’mon….let there be actual repercussions…
You know…I was going to suggest that every time we see a DAMN YOU WILLIS comment, we take a shot…but I’m guessing that no one wants a hangover.
But… wouldn’t taking a shot because of comments to this strip be kind of awful, regardless of hangovers?
Anyway, I said it up above, I’ll say it again, and if anyone wants to take a shot, that’s their business…
Damn you, Willis!
THAT’S WHAT GOT US INTO THIS MESS
Which was kind of my point.
Oh, and by the way… Damn you!
Damn you Willis!
Though, as a RA at my university, I did cringe yesterday. At least where I work, relations with anyone that lives in a building/floor you have access to (aka a resident) is a big nono. But my suspension of disbelief kicked in and things were okay.
Oh, I fully expect that’ll be the next big drama bomb after they recover from this little setback.
‘Cause breaking into their rooms and stealing and vandalizing their stuff and tripping them and clotheslining them and getting drunk with them when you’re both underage aren’t big no-nos.
Ruth is not a paragon of virtue is what I’m saying.
Eh, the first thing Billie did after getting kissed was ask about getting Ruth fired. Sal kinda talked her out of it.
They don’t make the rules unless people are breaking them.
And, when Billie brought it up to Daisy, it was pointed out that it could be both bad and litigious.
So yeah, not that it has no consequences in Dumbiverse, just Ruth not making ideal choices.
Damn you Willis!
NOOOO DAMN YOU WILLIS
I KNEW IT.
I say to myself, “I give it a day” and now look. Ruined.
Wait.
Doesn’t it always taste like that?
Clearly, Danny force-fed it to her.
And so the champagne bottle that was used to launch this ship had way too much alcohol in it, thus it caught on fire and burnt it to the ground.
It didn’t help that this ship was launched on a sea of hard liquor.
At least this relationship didn’t end with a car wreck.
YET.
That’s what Ive been waiting for. Sadly it will be in the NSFW section.
I’ll be in my bu- DAMN YOU WILLIS!
Damn you Willis! Can you please please just let this end well? Is it too much to ask? (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
┬─┬ ~ ノ( ゜-゜ノ)
So this is the chapter where everyone finds out everyone’s secrets? Ethan better hide. In a closet.
That was an awfully fast other shoe drop.
Also, a very HEAVY thump for that second shoe to make.
This shall not be pretty.
Licky style!
Let’s hope Ruth interprets that philosophically instead of literally and takes it as a sign that she’s addicted to Billie?
*Awaits angry mob*
*out of crowd of people, points a fork. not a pitchfork, but a salad fork, with a crouton on it. points for in your direction while addressing you*
I think that’s an interesting theory. Not super likely, but still pretty interesting.
Expected as much.
Not sure how much of a thing it has to be, though.
“I know. I’ve been strong these last three days, but last night I broke down and had a drink. I’ve hated myself for it ever since. This morning I was breaking down and running away from you because I couldn’t face you or what I did. I’ve been looking for a way to tell you all morning. I’m sorry. I know I said I’d be the alpha lady jerk here- I’d be the strong one that gets you through this. And I still want to. But I figured out I’m not as strong as I thought, and I can’t carry both of us like I thought I could. You have every right to be angry, but please don’t give up on this! I need your help too. Maybe we can carry each other from now on? I know I fucked this up. Let me try again. Please?”
Yeah, maybe its wishful thinking. Maybe a few words can’t change the sense of betrayal. Maybe they’re both too broken to really have a relationship anyway. All I’m saying is, I don’t think it is impossible. Even after all this.
Then again, maybe I’m just pulling a Homer Simpson. “Its still good! Its still good!”
http://www.hulu.com/watch/19878
(Thanks for relocating this one, Willis! You are the best, toy with our hopes and dreams though you might.)
All that being said, I will keep my gravatar picture the way it is. Consider it the metaphorical candle for the Vigil I am holding hoping that our now comatose ship might at some point regain consciousness.
I honestly thought it would take longer for this truth to out, but I guess we need to stay on our toes with Willis. Damn you Willis…
Wow, this week is starting to suck ass in the romantic department.
Told ya, it’s ship sinking and love hurts week. Well…unless you’re a certain ghost with 3 hands. And it’s kinda ironic considering this particular week.
Willis has a few days to fix this if he wants to give us all a present for that day you’re alluding to!
So of course that won’t happen…
And even though things look like they have a chance of heading in a positive direction with Danny and Amber once they can have a good conversation, just to keep us all miserable and screaming, “Damn you, Willis,” that won’t happen before Valentine’s Day either.
So what will our present be? What is the most horrible thing he can do to all of our hearts within the next few days?
Will we discover that Dorothy, when leaping out of the top bunk of that bed, slipped and snapped her neck?
Will Joyce and Ethan get engaged?
Will the Valentine’s Day strip just be a nude pin-up of Blaine?
DAMN YOU, WILLIS!
Oh God…why did you give me that mental image?
Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
(Cough.)
The worst thing that could happen?
Ruth, enraged, hits Billie again.
AmaziGirl gets herself committed for psychological treatment as a danger to herself and others.
Dorothy gets pregnant?
damn i called it and now i really wish i didnt
Yeah, way to jinx it!
Yes, I know these were scripted and drawn out weeks if not months in advance. All that shows is that you jinxed it so bad you broke spacetime in the process and caused retroactive doom.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Best way to get a buzz without actually having to drink.
Hmmmm that’s some hot french kiss action :)~~~~~
So, what’s going on with Sierra and Joe?
How did we not see this coming? Don’t kid a kidder.
YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! I knew it!
*prepares tear cup* Come to daddy!
Actually, I gotta put this. Willis, you are a master.
http://i.imgur.com/v06N8.gif
DAMMMMMMMMMNNYYUUUUUOOWWWIILLLLLIIIIIIIIIIISSSS
… *pulls out an empty glass and some condiments* By the gods, my tears will taste delicious this week. So much raw sadness I’ll consume.
And I’ll show up and steal those tears. B
ecause I’m twisted like that.
You fool. Tears are salty. They will either make you throw up or kill you! I recommend bathing in them instead. It allows for the same show of contempt for their pain and suffering and won’t destroy you in the process.
Actually, filling a kiddie pool with them and then proceeding to frolic in them feels just fantastic. But only when they’re other people’s tears. Doing it in my own just makes me sad.
Well, sadder.
Sigh. And there it is. Who else is ready to not have this issue resolved for the next few months as we fumble around? -_____-
Damn you Willis! You take so much pleasure in torturing us! *weeps bitter tears*
*places cup under your eyes* Mmmm… bitter tears. My favorite.
I wish I could say I called it…but I honestly expected Billie to have gone long enough and eaten something strong enough to mask the taste of booze…Guess not.
Now…what will Billie have to steal for Ruth for forgiveness?
Holy crap, I think Willis discovered the secret to getting the most posts. Lesbian drama. I mean we have 245 in the past hour and a half. Holy crap.
Billie is bi
Damn! Wouldn’t that kiss put Ruth at risk of relapsing? Billie, what have you done!?
“No, it just takes 10 days to fully unpickle a tongue that has been as far up in the bottle as mine was…” Do we think Billie could say this with a straight face??
Please don’t make this storyline hurt.
It already hurts.
Does anyone have the link for the strip where Billie “feel off the bandwagon?” I remember them making the pact not to drink, and I’m taking everyone’s word for it (and, well, the comic) that she did, but for the life of me I can’t remember it happening.
Here.
I like you David.
Seriously. This is my ship. My OTP. You let Walky and Dorothy have a sex. Danny and Amber had their moment. Why can’t you let this awesome couple be happy? Do you fear their awesomeness? Their superiority over all other ships? Why must you litter their waters with icebergs? There are not enough tables in the world to satisfy my flip needs.
My prediction? Tomorrow will be a scene change. To a Dina-centric joke. Unrelated to any of the current ships, floating, sinking, or sunk.
Naaah, Dina’s cuteness would act as an anesthetic to the shipper’s pain.
So of course what we’ll have is Mike.
Omigod, dude! People actually predicted this! I read one and I was pretty sure they weren’t serious but there you go.
Aw, man. I feel bad. Things had just gotten nice.
Looks like Walky and Dorothy still have the monopoly on stability.
Think I’ll close out and go to bed by offering another possible outcome to this happening. Even less likely, but far more whimsical. And perverted.
Billie: Oh shit.
Ruth: You’ve been drinking behind my back? WHAT THE HELL.
Billie: I’m sorry! I made a mistake! I…I guess you don’t want to do anymore…
Ruth: Excuse me? Oh no you don’t. You think you get off that easy? Fuck that. Not only are we dating, we are finishing this cold turkey shit. I’m making sure of it.
Billie: ..what do you mean?
Ruth: You just violated your parole, tubby! From now on you can consider yourself on lockdown, and I’m the goddamn warden. And you can damn well be sure you aren’t getting any more alcohol in here.
Billie: ..Okay, that’s fair, I guess. But how do you intend to-
Ruth: Random breathalyzer tests.
Billie: ..by which you mean..
Ruth: That you and I will be making out several times a day for the foreseeable future, yes.
Billie: ..Yeah. Okay. I can live with that. Umm…does this prison include handcuffs or strip searches.
Ruth: Stay sober and we’ll talk.
Which all leads into being the inspiration for… Faz and Faz performs a sex.
Er, I like this solution.
It just occurred to me that if Billie and Ruth are actually alcoholic, quitting cold turkey could easily be lethal, so I don’t know what they were thinking.
F%#K you Willis…now I am sad
So satan just showed up on my doorstep looking for a place to crash.
“That damn Willis has taken over, doing all the torture… I’m bored and needed a vacation anyway, he can have it.”
WAIT wait it’s not so bad if you just read the strip backwards! Phew!
Yeah. Though it says something awful about Ruth’s ability to stay on the wagon.
Billie -Doesn’t- Perform A Sex
Ruth Does Perform An Intervention
It’s only her dentifrice!!! y_y
щ(ಥДಥщ) Billie! Bow down in forgiveness!
Ruth: you know what, screw it! lets go back to kissing! Intervention tomorrow!!
TRAP SPRUNG
BUSTED!
And I don’t mean she has a rack, either…
Sound at Panel 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYDkQ4s80SQ
I wish the LEGO Movie hadn’t JUST come out, I need a gif of Bad Cop throwing a chair around to fully express my feelings right now.
nooooo.
GAME OVER! ABORT, ABORT!
Just in time for Valentine’s Day. Yay.
Damn you Willis.
Well, that was fast.
But they are so cute and it’s the only time we see that they have a side besides bongo. Damn you Wills.
noooooooo…
[cries softly]
Yesterday’s strip: Well, looks like things are pretty much patched up betwe- OMG EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Today’s strip: -EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEyousunnufab**chwillis…
Seriously, what a case of mood whiplash. Will they ever know true passion???
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOH SHIT
Guess I will have to wait another year for hot lesbian 69ing action.
That avatar is entirely too perfect.
You wouldn’t believe how many people have said that.
God dammit
Well, there’s one way to salvage this mess.
“You taste like alcohol.
…
I love it!”
Welp, the only upside is that this is getting out now, as opposed to months down the line when there’s an actual, honest-to-gosh relationship to torpedo.
I guess I’m the only one who is actually kind of glad that this bump in the road to ‘sexytime’ got hit? The whole relationship seems forced and a typical “ooooh they hated each other so much but were secretly trying to find ways to boink!” trope and… yeah… no. Plenty of relationships start out and end up that way I suppose, but the ‘romance’ here is toxic and based on a mutual oath made to purge said toxicity, of which was broken not even a day after it was made (by Billy, of course).
Maybe it’s just me but given that this Ruth has the potential to not end up dead in an act of martyrdom, she could do better than catering to the gaping emotional void she’s been trying to fill up with booze and now some hormonal ‘romance’ with a stuck up brat. I hope she wisens up and realizes she’s likely only attracted to Billy because all she knows are dysfunctional relationships and drops her like the bad habit she is for breaking her oath. I also sincerely hope Ruth keeps up on her end of her oath instead of falling back into it out of some twisted thinking that it wasn’t worth even trying since Billy flaked out on her end of the deal.
Eh. I kind of feel like you’re glossing over a lot of the character development between these two that’s taken place in the past year, especially when you write Billie off as a “stuck up brat.” Yes, she fell off the wagon – but it’s also obvious that she feels regretful and guilty as hell about it in the face of Ruth’s gratitude.
Worse, Billie seems like she has a lot of trouble talking about her feelings or opening up (an interesting contrast to Ruth, who continuously overshares), so she covers by either making snarky remarks or just running off – behavior that might look “bratty” at first glance, but speaks to larger emotional insecurities underneath. As for her snobby, clique-ish attitude elsewhere in the comic, a lot of that seems to stem from her absent parents and fairly empty personal life.
To me, the appeal of the Billie-Ruth relationship is the fact that they’re broken people, but broken in a weirdly complementary way. They come across as lonely and in desperate need of emotional validation, but still try like hell to put up a strong facade around others. At the same time, both seem completely unprepared for other people actually doing nice things for them – that somebody would want to help them, or take an interest in their lives or well-being is treated as this utterly foreign concept.
And as nobody else on campus really seems to give much of a damn about them, they’re left attempting to care for one another in their own dysfunctional, haphazard way. Neither of them seems terribly well equipped for it, but the fact that they’re still trying makes the whole relationship oddly sweet.
That’s pretty close to how I analyse them/my headcanon; Billie grew up with absent parents and few friends (mostly Walky, according to Walky). Cheerleading is/used to be pretty central to her identity and the feeling of being loved, and with her DUI and Walky and Joyce having less time for her, she’s taking pretty strong hits to her self-esteem.
I actually knew somebody a lot like Billie growing up – half-Japanese, mother perpetually away on business, father completely disengaged (and with a second secret family on the side!). She was pretty bookish and down-to-earth through middle school, but when she hit high school, she basically did everything in her power to make herself popular and get the attention and affirmation she wasn’t getting at home, right down to the athlete boyfriends. (Amusingly, the parallels don’t end there, since she eventually married some random loser she met in college.)
That’s why I find it very easy to see the same thing happening to Billie: growing up spending a lot of time with Walky watching cartoons or playing video games, then hitting puberty and wanting something a little more substantial. So she reinvents herself as Queen Bee of the school, and the rest is history.
The thing I find very sympathetic about Billie (and the thing I feel a lot of people miss when they write her off as shallow or bratty) is the fact that she really moved heaven and earth to help her high school friends when they got into trouble, but if her Twitter is anything to go by, those selfsame “friends” completely abandoned Billie after her DUI.
So she starts college having seen 4+ years of work and relationships go down the toilet, leaving her with absolutely nothing. She’s gained a fair bit of weight. The “cool” kids want nothing to do with her. She can’t even get a random hookup going, regardless of how much she lowers her standards (hi, Danny!). And then on top of everything, there’s this redheaded psychopath who seems to have made it her life’s mission to make Billie’s existence as miserable as possible…
Danny isn’t “just” lowering her standards though; she pretty much throws herself at him when he’s the first and only person to “validate” her by telling her she’s so attractive she’s probably a cheerleader.
(Ruth must be pretty good at reading people; she was able to tell exactly which aspects of Billie’s self-esteem to attack when she wanted to hurt her.)
Considering how badly she misread Billie’s guilt earlier in this storyline, I’m more inclined to chalk it up to Ruth jumping at the most obvious and hurtful insult available to her. Billie is pretty much the biggest girl in Ruth’s wing.
I was also thinking of the cheerleader thing.
I agree with your analysis. Though it has awakened a new character interpretation in me that I’m concerned about.
Despite what Ghostwriter here claims, we have reason to believe Billie was sticking with the program for at least the first three days:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/removed/
As you say, Billie has a lot of trouble opening up. Which leads to this conversation:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/privy/
She starts drinking that night.
So, fan theory, maybe she started backsliding because she saw how much Ruth was opening up to her, maybe even realized she WAS attracted to her, and caved under the stress that caused?
I’d say it’s hard to pick singular reasons; Billie has several reasons to feel extremely stressed that night, and out of those, “attraction to Ruth” is less likely than “concerned for Ruth as a friend/fellow human being”, “reminded yet again that her parents don’t pay attention to her”, “painfully reminded that she’s no longer a cheerleader”, not to mention the obvious “addiction is hard to break”.
Relapses because it’s a stressful day? Almost certainly. Relapses specifically because she admits to herself her love for Ruth? Eh…
Yeah, this is true, Family Day was hell on wheels for everyone and Billie certainly had a LOT of stuff on her mind might have contributed. Her conversation with Walky about simplicity versus complications (I’d link it, but I’ve been throwing around a lot of links lately and I’m starting to feel like I’m abusing the power) just made me start thinking that getting together with Ruth might have been on her mind for quite some time now. But I fully take your point- even if there’s some truth to my theory, it would have just been one of a hundred contributing factors to a fairly stressful semester.
And apparently I can’t get through one long post about my thoughts without sacrificing a sentence to the gods of broken english. Pardon my grammar.
Well, there’s enough messy aspects to their relationship to keep anybody up at night:
Uncertainty: Billie knows Ruth is attracted to her on at least some level and may try to act on it again. Added problem: whichever part of Billie chose to kiss Ruth back isn’t necessarily opposed to the idea.
Guilt: Though Ruth insists otherwise, I wouldn’t be surprised if Billie still feels responsible for Ruth holing up in her room for two days and nearly drinking herself to death.
Worry: Ruth has ongoing issues with depression, as well as some unspecified family drama going on in the background, either of which could flare up at any moment.
[My guess on that front: Her grandfather currently controls her and Howard’s share of their parents’ estate, and she has to kowtow to him in order to keep her tuition money flowing. Inheritance law in Ontario would have given her her share when she turned 18, but there might have been extenuating circumstances, especially given her relocation to the US.]
In addition, Billie now knows Ruth might also be wrestling with questions around her sexual orientation, since she didn’t identify as bi up until the point she tried to make a pass at Billie. Ruth seems to have come to terms with that fact, but Billie doesn’t know that yet.
Tension: Even though Ruth and Billie now get along, there’s still that tension you get when somebody who was physically and emotionally abusing you just days ago suddenly switches gears and tries to play nice.
On the other hand, as an alcoholic, Billie’s probably gotten used to going to sleep buzzed. It might just be that old habits die hard.
Its true.
And to be fair there is some evidence to support the idea that Billie has been cheating on going sober all along- she wasn’t getting sick the way Ruth was over these last 3 days, although she claimed to be. I’m assuming Billie is being honest with her sobriety over those days mostly because of that off-hand comment she blurted out to the front desk lady about being sober for three d-no months. I figure if she was gonna make that kind of slip of the tongue it anyway it wouldn’t coincide with what she was telling Ruth unless it was true. But I’ve been wrong before and I’m certainly guilty of *wanting* to believe in Billie.
The tragic thing about addictive behavior is that it often has to do with other things in your life you don’t want to deal with, things that will creep back in with a vengeance while your struggling with ending the addictive behavior. I don’t know yet if that’s the case with either Ruth or Billie, but it has been a worry of mine for awhile.
Unless what she started to tell Asma was just repeating the lie she’d gotten used to telling Ruth each day, before she realized she had to revise it for this audience. Say something often enough, and it starts to become your reality, even if you know it’s not true.
I want to believe in Billie, too, but I’m not sure I can.
Well, looks like your mistrust was well-placed.
…fuck.
As someone that’s made so many well-meaning promises and told so many well-meaning lies and just waited for them to backfire, all I have to say is:
I’m so sorry. I love you, but I’m so sorry that I’m not who you need me to be.
Seriously, this cut to the quick like no other comic ever has. A few songs I’ve heard recently hit home, too, but this…just…I was already having a rough night…I’ll dig up a song quote:
“This is to anyone out there that’s listening
From everyone that ever let you down and went missing
Lovers, parents, best friends, and siblings
Sometimes life conspires to make liars of good men”
Disaster incoming in 3…2…1…
There we go.
Well, at least Walky/Dorothy got somewhere or we’d be pretty much batting zero. And maybe Amber’s mom and Joe’s dad, but, well.
I consider it likely that in the long run, the alcohol level of Ruth and Billie will assimilate but the process won’t be pretty, and there are a lot of options for the storywriter to make us unhappy.
Great opportunity for a cliffhanger right here, but we’ll probably see Ruth taking the uniform with her for now. Or actually worse, leaving it there.
I love that time moves so slowly in this comic that she still tastes like alcohol after drinking in October
Well, that was over quick.
NNNNNOOOOOOOOO. Damn.
And then all the ships just got ruined in all the comics all at once. Damn it.
*claps* *giggles*
Neither person could deserve this more, of course it’s unfortunate real life isn’t so conclusive.
Would anyone mind linking me the comic where we find out she’s still on the sauce? Everyone’s been talking about it and I don’t remember it happening
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/nightnight/
Thank you, kind stranger!
Yesterdays comic – “Yes! Yes yes yes! Wooohooo!”
Today’s comic- *gasp* “No!!! Noooooo!!!” *head desk*
FGZHERGTKEZJFZGF AAAAAARGH !
Damn You Willis ! (throws fit in the air)
How dare you be such a jerk ? You already did the exact same thing last year : taunt the ship, have them kiss then … “N-No, Fuck Off” !
…. why does it still hurt as much the second time ?
This calls for an international damning:
إلعنك، ويليس
будь ты проклят, Уиллис
Maldita sea, Willis
!לעזאזל אתך, ילס
Kirottu Willis!
B..but don’t you want these (_Y_)
…it’s delicious!
Billie, you said it was Snapple!
Say it, Willis. I dare you to say it:
“Endings have to be earned.”
I did not have a drink until into my thirties and even then it was only one salude. Can Ruth taste the alcohol from the previous night or did Billie sneak a drink during Amber’s fight?
YESSS! EAT IT!
I think that’s probably not happening in the immediate future.
Hah! Knew it!
oops…can’t say I didn’t see that coming.
So many people saw this coming, Willis. You’re almost getting almost… predictable.
Does this mean no performing of sexes?
That was a sad moment. I could see it resolving in a handful of ways, some posted above, so I’ll reserve my “Damn you, Willis!” until I feel it’s appropriate. Definitely enjoying the emotional roller coaster, though.
So, after a night’s sleep, the following thought occurred to me…
I’m guessing that Billie’s slip-up was more then just the one bottle, then?
At one time, she was proud to be three
monthsdays sober, so she initially was making an effort.The only time we saw her drinking was just the previous night, which (correct me if I’m wrong). And since it is now night time again, about a whole day has passed since then.
In that time, one would hope that Billie would have brushed her teeth at least once. But even failing that, it is quite likely she’d have had at least one good meal since then (we do see her having lunch with Walkie), possibly more.
Not being a big drinker myself, nor having dated any big drinkers, exactly how long does the taste of alcohol linger in one’s mouth? Especially if possibly brushing and definitely eating has occurred in the interim?
What I’m getting at is… Since the taste is still in her mouth, can we assume that she’s had a more recent drink, then? Perhaps guilt over the first drink, especially in light of Ruth’s kind gesture of fixing the Dragons uniform, also combined with her own uncertainty over her own feelings towards Ruth… I’m guessing she may have done more drinking today?
I was about to say, “God, I hope Ruth doesn’t burst into Billie’s room and find bottles everywhere!” But then I remembered, she’d have been in there already leaving the IU Uniform… But anyway, while I am sure there will be some hurt, please please please please let the follow up to this be a serious conversation, and not angry storming off followed by a year’s (real world time) of tension with no resolution!
Oops… Ignore the “which (correct me if I’m wrong).” That was from an earlier version of that sentence, which I forgot to remove in the revision! (Pity there’s not a way to edit one’s comments…)
Well, it’s been a couple of hours since we last saw her, and I don’t think she was expecting Ruth to ambush her in her own room. (She also had to watch Walky and Dorothy engage in nauseatingly cute PDA, which would definitely warrant drinking.) I could easily imagine Billie keeping a flask around her person for “emergencies” like this.
Gosh dangit Billie.
I now see either a lesbian hatefuck porno… Or no porno.
Well, I’m still (hopefully not foolishly) optimistic that things can be salvaged here… But in the worst case scenario, maybe we can still have “Ruth (and/or) Billie Performs a Masturbation.”
No… On second thought… At this point, unless they do something together, anything else would just kind of be sad and unfulfilling…
Not sure if I mean for the characters, or for us…
At least we can always rely on the law of excluded middle.
It was called.
Wait! That’s how my saliva naturally tastes like! Because I’m drunk on life!
I love how almost everyone was ready to crucify Danny, who genuinely meant well but screwed up because of things he didn’t know, and yet almost everyone is trying to find an excuse and explanation for Billie, who had all the information in the world and still screwed up simply because it was the easiest way out. I guess boobs make a difference. I for one hope for some serious backlash.
I personally never was in on the Danny hate. (I like him! I hope things work out well with him and Amber.)
As far as Billie and Ruth… They both have problems, and there was definitely going to be some shit at some point. My own personal frustration isn’t that it happened, but how it happened. Right smack in the middle of their first consensual kiss. Really? Damn you, Willis!
Billie was clearly already racked with guilt over having fallen off the wagon again. Even if it delayed the much coveted kiss, I wish she could have confessed herself. Ruth could have still been pissed, we could have still gotten drama, but at least it would have put Billie in a stronger position for the eventual aftermath.
Now, the best we can hope for is damage control. I said above, and I’ll repeat it here: I really hope, even if it starts as an angry argument, this leads into a conversation, and doesn’t just end with Ruth storming off and an additional year or so (real world time) of unresolved hurt and tension between the two of them…
I reckon people make too much out of the first kiss. I’ve had some mighty awkward first kisses that led to a series of many more kisses, each better than the previous one. If everything works out in the end, you just think back to your own stupidity and laugh at it. If it doesn’t work out, you’re not laughing whether you kissed or not.
Besides, Billie really needed this one to be painful. She had great chance to not screw up and she threw it away.
I think it’s less people wanting that first kiss to be ideal and more people, well, not wanting to wait half a year or more for a resolution to this latest relationship bomb. After Ruth first kissed Billie, the story didn’t shift back to them for four months – heck , it took three months just to get Billie and Ruth back in the same room after Billie ran off back in November. That’s the downside of having a large cast of characters and an ultra-decompressed narrative.
I am sorry if I sound silly but I think Billie deserves this. She is forceing someone to change while she is changeing squat.
How is Billie changing squat? If anything, Billie is trying to change herself more then she’s trying to change Ruth.
The only change she’s trying to impose on Ruth is giving up alcohol. And that is one she’s trying to do herself, as well. She was successfully dry for three days. Yes, Billie slipped up. But for Billie and Ruth, alcohol is an addiction, it was almost inevitable that one of them would slip up at some point. One can only hope that Ruth recognizes this, and gives Billie the support she needs to get back on the wagon.
But in addition to that change, Billie is making a rather big change in herself by questioning just what sort of person she might be attracted to, don’t you think?
So what exactly does Billie deserve here? Not saying Ruth doesn’t have a right to be angry about this… but I just hope that anger is channeled into support (“How dare you? I thought we were doing this together! If you want any more kisses, I better not taste that on you again!”) and not rejection (“How dare you! I thought we were doing this together! I never want to see you again!”).
Message from the future: you’re absolutely right.
Honestly? Total bias. I find Billie a more interesting person than Danny. She started off extremely flawed and remains so, but has evolved as a character and has shown more depth and redeeming qualities as the series has gone on. Danny…well, look. There’s nothing wrong with Danny. He’s a nice guy, if a little oblivious. Pretty inoffensive as far as characters go. Certainly hasn’t done anything worthy of condemnation aside from finding a way to blindly walk further and further into a rising shitstorm and not realize it until it exploded all around him (which, if you take Dorothy’s breakup into account, is the second time this has happened to him over a girl). I totally have no objection if you like the guy- to me he’s just kinda milquetoast as a character. At least at the present moment. There was a time I thought Billie was just a stuck-up bongo who was hating on “nerds” due a highschool dynamic that no longer even applied to her. I thought Ruth was a demented bongo who liked to abuse her power as an RA. Sarah was another standoffish bongo, Joe was a big dumb jock, and similar uncharitable knee jerk reactions. But they’ve all grown as the series continued, and I expect them to keep on growing. Danny is showing promise in this area, and I feel like he’s gonna have some major evolution happen right around the corner. But for now he’s one of the least interesting characters to me, so I think I grade him on a different scale from a character who’s flaws and struggles I’ve seen more of and can empathize a little better with.
I judge Danny more harshly than Billie, because Billie has tried to do something really hard to change herself (seriously, she’s a drug addict; giving that up isn’t easy) for someone that she really has no reason to care about, and faltered and is wracked with guilt about it, and about Ruth continuing to treat her like she hasn’t failed, because she’s afraid to tell Ruth straight out that she faltered – though she has hinted at it with the “I don’t deserve this”.
(At least I’m hoping she actually tried. I will be much more angry with her if it turns out that she’s just been lying to Ruth about it the whole time.)
Danny, on the other hand, was ignorant of important and relevant facts, knew that he was ignorant, was fucking things up and hurting someone he purported to care about because he was ignorant, and, far from trying to rectify his ignorance, which he had the raw information to do if he was willing to put it together, he was acting all holier-than-thou about making the wrong decisions because of his willful ignorance. And he would still be ignorant if Amazi-Girl’s mask hadn’t literally fallen off right in front of him. About the only thing you can say for the dude is now that he’s had his face rubbed in the consequences of his actions, he’s realized that he fucked up.
Yer kiddin’, right? Danny’s boring, Billie’s not. I suspect all antipathy ultimately goes back to this. Regardless, I don’t really care about whether they ‘meant well’ (both did, fyi), and what information did Billie have that makes her immune to her addiction? Meh. I’mma enjoy what’s happening, but that’s because I love watching drama in fictional relationships, not because I’m some horrible person – same reason I enjoyed it for Danny.
FYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
CK
Okay, no. The word you are going for is “fuck”. Adding more letters to it is illegal and will not improve your Scrabble score.
It won’t get him/her to Mornington Crescent.
Billie: ” Hello – Mouthwash!”
Ruth: “Oh Yeah, that would explain the minty freshness”
(Makeouts continue)
All hail The God-Author! Praise the ineffable Ways of the Willis!
Only Noah’s Narrative Arc can survive Ship Sinking, fools!
Repent, and thou shall be given Gay Lesbian Make Outs! Persist, and your hopes will fall into Development Hell!
I enjoy that the alt-text is like a meta-comic all by itself. This is what the internet was made for. (Oh, and porn, also.)
!!!!!!!!!!
Curse you, Willis!!!
Now I know how Darth Vader felt when he found out Padmé was dead…
Ack.
I don’t even ship it and this hurts.
“You taste like alcohol.”
Next Panel: “I LOVE IT.”
*makeouts continue*
“You taste like vodka.”
“You taste like orange juice!”
*Screwball*
I knew this was coming, but it’s still tough to see it play out. OTP in peril. Sigh.
Only one possible remark…
DAMN YOU, Willis!!!!!!
Not surprised.
Why not make this into a porno…
I legit wonder if Willis ever get’s tired of fucking with peoples emotions? Well I guess if he did he’d be out of a job.
Gah! I hate it when i miss a day and have to backtrack. Seeing the reaction before the actual action kinda ruins things.
Let’s be real for a moment here. I’m counting roughly 300 commenters who seem legitimately upset about this development; why?
Would you prefer if Billie continued to lie to Ruth and failed to fight her addiction just so they could play at love?
Did you think nothing would come of it? That Billie would suddenly stop being alcoholic and get all better without Ruth ever finding out?
Within the realm of plausibility, this is the best thing that could have happened. Win or lose, Billie and Ruth’s relationship just got real. Maybe Ruth is going to jump off the wagon and they spend the rest of their lives resenting each other and drunkenly wallowing in the bitter ashes of what could have been or maybe Ruth is going to break Billie’s femurs and then help her and over time their relationship is strengthened with mutual respect and trust and they have hundreds of fat children and live happily ever after but at least they’re not going to compromise.
It’s like Tom Waits said, “You must risk something that matters.”
I think it’s beautiful, and meaningful.
Broken people need love too!
+1
Betray’d!
You fixed the last button, thank you Sir Willis, wasn’t expecting such a fast repair.
Just as Billie was there for Ruth earlier in this strip when Ruth drank herself into a stupor, now perhaps it is Ruth’s turn to be there to blow away Billie’s smokescreen about her drinking. By holding a mirror up to each other it will give them the opportunity for them see another viewpoint of their difficulties with alcohol, and through mutual assistance perhaps they will both end up confronting and defeating their problems.
Sorry for being totally off topic, but I never looked at your avatar until just now and always thought it was Fry from Futurama riding a bicycle. Man was I way off.
*never looked closely at your avatar
I am spoiled by “Edit” buttons
Nope, I am also a fan of Jimmy Buffett, whose followers are commonly referred to as “Parrotheads”. So, a parrot with a straw hat on a bicycle.
http://www.noooooo.info/ Cragalanch doesn’t care if he did a preemptive “Damn you Willis!” Yesterday. DAAAAAAMN YOOOOOOOOU WIIIIIILLIIIIIIIS!
Also, CRAGALANCH TOTALLY CALLED IT!
DUM DUM DUM! http://www.dramabutton.com/
Naturally.
Okay, Billie, let’s run through some possible responses and rate each of them:
1 ) “No, YOU do.” BUZZ! Wrong
2 ) “Gimme a break. How was I to know we were gonna end up frenching tonight? If I’d known, I would’ve brushed my teeth first.” BUZZ! Wrong
3 ) “I spit on your cheerleader gift! PTUI!” BUZZ! Wrong
4 ) “I know. I fucked up. I let myself down, and I let you down. There’s no excuse for it. You have every right to be pissed off at me. I’m pissed off at myself too. I’d understand if you wanted nothing to do with me again. Or at the very least not to kiss me any more. But I still want to kick this thing, and I know you do too, so can we start again? As friends?” DINGDINGDING! We have a winner!
(Yes, I know, even saying the right thing wouldn’t automatically, magically make it all okay from Ruth’s perspective. But owning up, without minimizing or excusing it, is still the right thing to do here.)
5) ‘Of course I do, I’m so pickled from years of binge drinking, it’ll be months before I don’t taste like a martini.’
DING! Winner!
So Willis is talking about drawing a new porn on Twitter… So maybe Billie and Ruth are gonna bone like a dinosaur exhibit after all? Hopefully it’s canon…
Nah, this one involves Robin and Leslie from Shortpacked. You can see the title page on Tumblr.
Dammit. I mean, fuck yes lesbians, but also dammit.
“Yeah, well . . . so do you!”
That was unexpected, but in retrospect should have been very expected
I don’t remember seeing Billy drink at all recently in the comic though, I even went through her tag but the most recent thing I’ve seen was the coke from her conversation with Walky. Was it off screen?
Gaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!
All the chronic rightness was just a dream.
Unless they decide to handle it together.
Would Willis let them do that?
(yeah, sure)
SO many people called this.
“It’s just Listerine. Now let’s get to the sexin’!”
And another thing….shouldn’t it be SmoochaDRAMA?
DAMN YOU FORESHADOWING!
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/younger/
In spite of the interruption of lesbian licky-style makeouts, I approve of this drama!
You should have told her yourself, Billie.
Ohh no.
And there it is
it’s 70% of her body still.
Yesssss, drama.
Yes, I’m shipping these two and want them to have to suffer a little before they get their happy ending. That’s not THAT weird, is it? I <3 Drama XD
…In fiction. I successfully avoid it in real life XD
In soviet fiction, real life succesfully avoids you!
Billie performs an angst.
(fixes popcorn)
I always thought I was stronger then this, but this page was too much… DAMN YOU WILLIS!!!!!!!!!!
(optional: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!)
Willis, if you cut from this to something else entirely I will be able to do nothing but fret until you get back to these two but please, please, please don’t do it.
Sigh ok people lets pack up the party hats and go home.
DAMN YOU WILLIS!!!!!
Damn you, Willis! (x)
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7uzvyxFFg1r98tmw.gif
Woooooooooooooooooooow
saw this coming day one.
yaay?
Licky-style!
“Lips that have touched alcohol must never touch mine,” quoth the Anti-Saloon League in the 1900’s. That would seem to apply in this instance; albeit a touch hypocritical on Ruth’s part … still.
Hi! New reader over here.
I am not fluent in English so I could sound a bit weird (if a lot, is my brain) Also my apologies for the bestgramialities.
Amazing comic. I just spend like 25 hs along two days working the archive.
IMO great art and colours, wonderful palette, lovely characters and hooking plots. Dialogues and characters are believable and personalities are well designed.
Beside that I felt touched by the stories, specialy with some character’s burdens.
Also lots of fun and insight in the comments
I want to congratulate the artist for such great comic, thank you for share it, I straight added it to my very short list of web comics I am reading.
In short: new fan over here
I will be reading but for a while quietly. Or maybe not
DAMMIT!!!
DAMN YOU WILLISS!!!
Also, I love this comic. Started this week from the beginning. It’s my favorite now, by far.
Uh-oh, here comes the DRAMAAAAAAAA!
*Grabs popcorn* Ooooh, this gonna be goooood!
Argh. I was so happy, now I am so bummed.
Partially because same-gender relationships are so under-represented in any media I consume but also because I love these two characters I was so hoping this’d turn out well. Not that I’ll suggesting every portrayal should pretend everything always works out well, that’d be bad, just… feeeeeeeeeeeeeeels.