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Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social ⋅ 12h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net ⋅ 2d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social ⋅ 3dDavid M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
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*plays “Don’t Fear The Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult on hacked muzak*
…That song fits a little bit too well for these two.
Much as I love the original, I prefer the cover by Ninja Sex Party.
I see you’re a person with great taste in music.
Thanks I just discovered a new band I didn’t know about before.
If you enjoy NSP, you may also want to check out Shadow Academy – the same singer, but serious original music (as opposed to NSP’s covers and comedy).
funny that I just finished reading The Fault in Our Stars and I feel like they would’ve thought Ruth’s costume was fine, idk
monk going out to mow wheat, it’s cool
alt-text: you just love giving yourself extra work or something, Willis
Eh, probably wouldn’t take that much effort. At least with the right wordpress tools.
nah i just edit the tag category and it automatically changes across the website
Up to you Willis!
And by up to you they mean yes.
I’m going to go against the consensus (what a shock) and say no. If it’s universally changed to Billie, that means it isn’t Jennifer in the post-January strips. I feel like it should stay Jennifer until she wants to be Billie again, if ever.
Reading the flashback with it saying Jennifer isn’t terribly confusing. We know who she is.
I’d say only if you can do it for the flashback (and beyond historically) … she’s Jennifer now. Would be interesting from the point of view where she saw her self as Jennifer instead of Billie (like Amber and Amazi-Girl), but other than that … not much help to the readers.
Yeah, don’t worry, if I thought it’d been appropriate, I’d have done it, but I haven’t, so she’s still Jennifer.
I don’t know about Amber or Becky, but Mike would definitely have approved.
That’s not what you use to mow wheat. You use a tool called a cradle. It has the blade of a scythe (a real scythe, with a much longer blade), and attached to the blade are long, light, curved rods to catch the wheat as it is cut. Every few strokes the reaper ties the wheat in a bundle (sheaf) and lays it on the ground to be brought in later.
My mistake, parallel to the blade.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=wheat+cradle&t=newext&iax=images&ia=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-GL67UN5FHZw%2FTeWBev3b6XI%2FAAAAAAAADFs%2FUF1SKJdSONc%2Fs1600%2Fblog531%252B018.JPG
What do you mean, Billie, I think this is the first time we’ve seen Ruth OUT of costume.
Ditch the scythe and shave her head and she can go as a monk.
Hmm, a bald Ruth.. Reminded of MT from Infinity Train, vibes-wise.
Grab a toy lightsaber and you’ve got a passable Jedi
She could go as a clown with the right makeup. That would be even MORE terrifying!
YIKES
Ruth just might take you up on that, Billie.
Also: Yes, Willis, yes you should change the tag back. That is a great idea.
Billie: “We’re each allowed one vice.”
Ruth: “That still leaves murder and you.”
(paraphased, too lazy to look it up)
honestly I don’t think that’s the case. I read Ruth’s face as concern over Billie’s cavalier suggestion of killing her. It speaks to a desire to die and Ruth seems to be trying to not want to die
I think whether the tag is changed should depend on whether the whole story is in flashback-blue. If we burst into full color, then it seems appropriate — it’s a story about Billie. But if we stay in flashblue, then it’s a story about Jennifer’s past.
FTR, when I first heard that Blue Oyster Cult song, I thought that the character telling the story was testifying to a court trying to prove that his girlfriend had committed suicide to frame him for her murder.
Yeah, the weird thing is that YouTube popped that song on just out of the blue on the automatic jukebox, right before I opened up the “dumbing of age” tab.
YouTube scares me. It can read my mind and predict the future. 8-|
Either that or it can just read my mind at the present time.
Welp, I’m an alien parasite, and I say, two can play it that game, YouTube!!!!
BTW to be clear I will only use my powers of mindreading to help people. Not like those bourgeois corporate bloats.
So there’s our confirmation on the timeline for Mike’s death, or at least a severe narrowing of potential speculation down to “pre-Halloween.” The last story pre-timeskip was early October, right? So that’s about a couple of weeks.
Think it was while all those cops were still in the hospital?
When book 10 ended it was roughly October 21st. A little over a week from Halloween, so that gives ten days.
This timeline only works if you believe Mike is really dead and not in witness protection or secretly Booster is disguise which everyone widely accepts to be the truth.
Jennifer is Mike. We know this to be true.
Yeah, Booster’s a classic red herring.
That’s what makes Booster such a great candidate for being Mike in disguise. Since they are obviously a red herring, nobody would expect the truth.
Gods they really need to put the Flag link in a different location because I keep hitting it recently.
But back to what I wanted to say….speaking of, when did we last see Booster?
A little bit of Mike will live on forever in our hearts and moms.
Snf. That is so beautiful.
Though we know in our hearts that Mike is force of nature and as such can never be truly destroyed. One day, when we least expect it, he will show up and continue being Mike with no explanation.
Whenever you see a nickel, always remember that it was probably given to mike to do your mom
Also I know Billie’s heart is in the right place but no one is caring about Ross and Blaine. Mike maybe but his spirit would probably enjoy the reaper.
Mike is in bed with Death’s mom (according to DC comics, that’s either Time or Night, not sure which) as we speak
Death’s mom had nickles?
Time is money!
Woodpeckers are cool.
actually as in in real life lolled
How else would she cross the river styx?
On credit?
I have a customer loyalty card for Charon’s ferry, only 6 more trips to get a spa day at the Elysian Fields resort, and I don’t know how I’m paying for it but apparently I have 4 times so far.
The River Styx does not take American Express.
If you mean the parents of the Endless, their father is Time (Father Time), and their mother is Night (Mother Night).
She is Night, and she certainly won’t give Mike back
Becky does care that Ross is dead, though.
Like, she’s not blind to how awful of a person he was, but Becky was clearly genuinely saddened by his death despite that. She probably knew rationally that ToeDad would never accept her for who she is, but losing the final shred of hope was clearly very painful for her.
You’re absolutely right about Blaine though.
Accidentally hit flag when I meant to hit reply, please disregard that! (Why is there no unflag option.)
But yes I agree. She WANTED to leave things on the double bird-flipping and fuck you from the hospital. She was under no illusions about his awfulness. But the last thing she says to him, ultimately, is ‘tell Mom I’ll be a while’ – while Becky doesn’t believe in Hell to begin with so there’s no judgment implied, it’s still a lot more conciliatory. I think it’s a lot like Joyce’s emotions when she and AG realized what had probably gone down after the kids escaped the basement – they didn’t WANT Ross to have that power over them, but he was still Becky’s dad and a major figure in Joyce’s life, so there WERE complex but positive emotions there and they were harder to put aside now that he was dead. There was a dad Becky wished she had, and he would have been a lot like Ross but more flexible, and that makes it hurt more because it COULD have been achievable someday.
I don’t think any of Blaine’s kids had any real illusions about him changing (MAYBE Faz, maybe, but he seems pretty resigned to it all,) so for them the dad they might imagine as what society says they ‘should’ have had is just a totally different person. But I could still see there being some complicated grief that he wasn’t just a total dumpster fire of a person, he managed to get a body count and traumatize like half Amber and AG’s friends in the process, and he will never really see justice for any of his crimes because Amber at least suspected ‘yeah that was a dirty cop’ and Faz knew Blaine well enough that if he knows the mob stooge thing, he probably figured it out too. (It is a genuine question how much Faz and for that matter Yuri know about the mob thing. But given Stacy knows it doesn’t seem to be a closely-kept secret.) Like, yeah their dad was the worst but was all THIS really necessary? Couldn’t they have gotten a regularly shitty dad, who DIDN’T kill two people?
Nice to see ya cranking out these mega-paragraphs Regs! Always a pleasure!
BTW, I have a question about that. You said you suspected you were an autism-ADHD combo one time? Would you say that in your case, your mega-paragraph powers are from Autism-style stripes, ADHD-style stripes, a little of both or also from some other unnamed ND category?
Don’t have to answer if you don’t wanna, just a point of interest that was bouncing in my head for a quite a while now.
I tend to think of it as primarily autism-based. I’m really detail-focused and had a LOT of training in college on analysis (both literary and legal research and analysis sort of classes,) to apply that skill. When I sort out the more ADHD-based stripes it’s more things like my losing track of time once I’m in hyperfocus or caffeine doing nothing to keep me awake in mornings or the need to keep doing something even when I’m trying to passively watch something. (Real inconvenient when I need to rest my damn arms due to the tendonitis that never ends. Joint hypermobility you are a bongo.)
The hyperfocus is also why I haven’t commented, I set a ‘go to bed’ site blocker on my phone before midnight and have to manually override it so I can try and shift to wake up earlier.
But it’s also, at the end of the day, me trying to sort out things into categories that don’t really exist because I like sorting things even when I recognize it’s arbitrary. My whole brain is as it is, and just because some traits are associated more with autism or more with ADHD doesn’t mean there’s not a LOT of overlap. I can’t actually separate most of them out, it’s just helpful to think of myself as both if my usual executive dysfunction hacks aren’t working. (It’s just that ADHD isn’t the only neurodivergence cluster that overlaps with autism enough that you can’t neatly separate out the traits. Schizophrenia, dyspraxia, learning and intellectual disabilities, having low empathy… we defy neatness. Not everyone has everything but correlations exist.)
Thanks for sharing Regalli!
Re: arbitrary, overlap, defying neatness, totally with you on that! I definitely don’t think of myself as belonging to one category. I see myself as flowing through the neurodivergent worlds like a wildcard, my neurodivergence is fluid a lot like my gender.
My neurodivergent stripes are like tiles on a rubiks cube that shuffles around at random times in a way I have no say over. Depending on which ones “come to the front”, it’s like getting random teams of pokemon or decks of yugioh cards to play with, each with their own advantages and drawbacks, representing the neurodivergences I can be. I can be more autistic one day, more ADHD the next, more of both the next, and some days be neurodivergences that don’t even have names yet!
I want to embrace these labels so I can connect on others here who have similar experiences, and also want to use them in a flexible way that reflects this way I am. I’m neurofluid, and right now I’m a sleepy autistic ADHD girl.
Becky will put on her Wacky Becky mask so she doesn’t have to show how badly she’s hurting.
Ross and Blaine sucked– a lot– but that doesn’t mean Becky and Amber aren’t still grieving. Grief is messy and frustrating.
Well, Becky is grieving, at least. I think Amber’s probably feeling bad for other reasons.
I’d believe that if they didn’t have a strip together talking about how they didn’t care about essentially this exact thing. People treating them with unnecessary care out of social expectation for grief they didn’t feel for their fathers. They both knew their dads were assholes and even if they were mourning didn’t need or want the soft treatment.
Which strip are you thinking of for that? That’s not quite my interpretation of any of the ones that I’m seeing.
Also, this is different than what you said in your original comment and what I responded to, so…
It’s like 3 strips or more right around the time news of Blaine getting cop killed but maybe I misinterpreted your comment in the first place. I at least took the strips as them agreeing that people trying to make sympathetic gestures for them was white noise cause they’re gonna just grieve in their own way.
My main point being not that Amber and Becky don’t care about their dads but that they wouldn’t want be people acting differently because of it. I didn’t articulate that well with my first comment mostly for the sake of brevity. Maybe I;lol do better next time getting my thought out.
Found it! This one and the two that follow:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/04-is-a-song-forever/rentacop/
I think this one? Amber hasn’t seemed terribly sad about her dad, the kidnapping and Mike’s death are probably what’s weighing on her mind
I do agree that there’s a good possibility that this costume wouldn’t trigger Becky and Amber over the deaths of their fathers and that, if it did, it could be forgiven. Just the idea of “no one is caring about” them may not be true.
They probably wouldn’t be, but they could be. It’s not worth taking that chance.
Exactly.
That strip was more ‘You’re totally allowed not to feel sad, but feelings are messy and can change because this situation sucks. They might not, but if they do, you’re allowed to feel sad while also feeling relieved and angry at him for sucking so much, let them be messy.’ (And honestly given the timing, I think it was as much Becky talking from the experience of her mom’s death. She didn’t have time to really process Ross, and while she loved Bonnie I could see there being some bitterness that Bonnie attempted suicide and Becky found her unconscious and she died in the hospital, probably over a long enough time the initial shock had worn off. Not a pleasant experience.)
And regardless I think EVERYONE’S reaction to Mike, Becky and Amber especially, WOULD make it a bit more raw than usual, especially since he died in the last week and a half. Since Mike’s death is wrapped up in Blaine and Ross and the kidnapping trauma, I can see it bringing out the more complicated parts of Becky and Amber’s feelings about their terrible kidnapping dads who killed him. (Technically I think Ross was only an accomplice. Also technically, Mike threw himself off to take Blaine down. They still went up that fire escape trying to kill two kids.)
You can 10000% grieve for the parent that you never had.
Like the old song goes:
“Woe is me, I am so homesick.
But it ain’t that bad
‘Cause I’m homesick for the home I never had.”
Mike is going to show up at the party as death anyways, no reflection in the mirror.
Also I just flagged your post by accident trying to hit Reply, I’m sorry! I’m sure Willis will notice I fucked up.
…well there goes my “Mike finally succumbed to his injuries on Halloween” theory.
Also, that last line… ouch.
Yeah, but AU where he does die on Halloween and for some reason they all rush to the hospital and Ruth is wearing…that.
The problem with that is that is something Mike would LOVE.
Mike died on the day before Halloween, just to screw up your theory.
Also he had your Mom. For a nickel.
Panels 2 and 3 have very good Ruth Faces.
Ya also have a thing for faces obscured behind hoods except for eyes and possibly mouths?
Not especially, no. A good expression is a good expression, even ones with minimal detail.
Yeah! One could even argue that a big part of why they’re good is because of minimal detail!
Nah, I prefer when there’s a certain threshold of detail. Too little and it’s harder to read.
Yes, but too much, and it becomes creepy. Hence, the uncanny valley.
(BTW to those who read this please don’t make an uncanny Ruth human meme thing. IM SERIOUS)
A fuckin’ what? No idea what that is.
You know how some internet humans and / or AIs botched up Mr Incredible’s face? That’s it.
I’m not even remotely familiar with that, I don’t keep up with Online Stuff. Is this a request to make a weird picture of Ruth? If it’s not, I don’t think anybody was thinking of doing that, so you brought attention to it, which would potentially tempt somebody to be rude and do it anyway. If it is, you could just say so outright.
Actually the opposite. I’m gonna make you something with Ruth maybe, and hopefully you’ll like it!
Vaguely ominous. Got no idea what you could be talking about, tbh.
Need sleep. C U in morning, maybe.
Are you asking about the uncanny valley?
If so, the uncanny valley is when an image of a human is very close to being realistic, but not quite there, so it feels uncannny and wrong, and for some people outright scary. The valley is different for different people, but a prime example of the uncanny valley for a lot of people is the characters in The Polar Express
It presents a great evolutionary psychology question of “why do we have a fight or flight response to something that is almost, but not quite human?”
Anyone else getting Mr Popo vibes from Ruth’s hooded face?
“Pecking order, maggots!”
I mean, I’d like to think Ruth wouldn’t wear blackface…
Oh, and that’s not the intention I got from this. It’s all shadows here, clearly.
Yep. I hide my face behind shadows with this hoodie all the time. Between my social anxiety and dysphorias, just makes me feel better.
That’s a solid monk costume tho
Or even a jedi!
She could be a Jawa if she borrows the Amazi-Belt™.
Utini!
Wild guess: Billie’s DMing with Asher on Instagram or whatever the hell college kids use in that first panel.
OK so Mike didn’t kick the bucket the day off Halloween. Going to rule that fan theory out.
Yeaaaahhhhhh, I feel like that would’ve been called a ‘too soon’ moment.
I think the reaper is a common enough Halloween costume that it could be forgiven. It would be like being mad someone dressed as Santa on Christmas because someone died during the winter holiday season. It is too soon, but you’re likely to see someone dressed like this on Halloween.
I feel like it would be ‘too soon’ if she was like ‘get it? because death stalks our dorm floor!’
Or if she carried around a balloon with Mike’s face on it.
hey, no spoilers for Ethan’s costume >:(
I don’t think that’s quite on the same level. It’s not just the seasonal timing, but also how related the costume is to the incident. Santa costumes when someone dies in winter are fine because Santa has nothing to do with those deaths anyway. Whereas Death/The Reaper IS directly involved in people dying, and thus could easily invoke (painful) memories of that. (Similar to how it’d be awkward to come in a fireman costume days after someone loses a relative in a fire)
You’re right that it is a common costume, but it’d still be in bad taste given the circumstances. And while it probably could/would be forgiven, (avoiding) the blame isn’t the important thing here. It’s about not needlessly hurting the people who are grieving.
^ Also, some random on the street will probably hurt a lot less than someone you know and are on friendly enough terms to invite to your Halloween party.
Maybe she is gonna wear Billie’s cheerleader outfit and that starts the Big Fight?
….. holy shit that’s not out of the realm of possibility.
Meh change scythe to crossbow learn Spanish.
Murmur “cerebro cerebro cerebro” and you are good to go
You know what’s scarier?
A Toronto Maple Leafs uniform, complete with stick and maskA Purdue jerseyA Kentucky jerseyDressing up as MaryDressing up as JoyceI can’t think of any terror professors they haveObjectively changing the tag back to Jennifer
♪ Life’s no fun without a good scare ♪
♪ That’s our job but we’re not mean ♫
yes change it back to Billie. It’s before her rebrand
This will end well. I just know it.
Literally not a single thing could go even slightly wonky.
I can’t imagine this costume actually being a problem, but I guess it might be considered especially inappropriate for the RA to wear this year
the emphasis being on that of all people, it’s the RA is wearing it
“Kill me any time”
Ah, so Ruth is biding her time
“Fear not the reaper”
Say Robbie, still up for voicing some cast members in my upcoming fan-game?
Fabulous, hilarious, AND ironic!
Sorry that was meant to be a reply to Thakuro below.
Now taking bets on who’s now going to show up in a Grim Reaper costume just to frustrate Ruth. My bets are on Becky.
Ugh, the worst thing about this comment section is the inability to edit or delete your own comments. I posted this and then immediately realized I should have said, “my money’s on Becky;” Saying “bets” twice in as many sentences is just bad writing.
Fabulous, hilarious, AND ironic!
Watch it be Becky AND Amber AND Mike.
(Yeah, commented in the wrong place the first time.)
Hold on, did you both seriously fuck up initially when trying to respond to this comment? Alright, now NO ONE ELSE DO IT, we’ve hit rule of threes.
Above and below, too. We surround you with our incompetence.
Watch it be Becky AND Amber AND Mike.
I’m confused. It’s tagged “Jennifer,” but this was clearly when she was Billie.
…Can’t tell if didn’t read alt-text or is just fucking with us.
genuine question; can you read the alt-text on mobile? ’cause I’ve never figured it out and thus other people might have that problem
Yes, you just tap the space below the comic, to the side of the buttons.
Below the strip, click on the white space to the right of the double right arrow.
Raven’s comment sat there for 30 minutes, and I finally answered it only to be ninja’d.
Well played, Yumi.
If that mattered, the old strips would have changed separately.
Watch as Becky or Amber shows up in a reaper costume
Foreshadowing?
Foreshadowing.
Ohh. What happened at Halloween is that Ruth killed Billie. I see, I see.
/jokes
I’m looking forward to the fun bits before it all goes badly! Life is sunshine and rain clouds.
That would explain why Jennifer has actually been Mike all along.
See how well it all fits!
(I thought I made this comment before, but maybe it wound up someplace random.)
“I’m the death of relationships”
The death of humans takes on human form. The death of insects takes on insect form. etc.
Does the death of relationships take on the form of a relationship?
Hey look, Ruth is dressed as their ship.
oh wow, I completely forgot I look EXACTLY like Billie pre rebrand, I just got hit in the face with this memory that completely slipped my mind as if it was a fucking frying pan
You forgot what you look like?
Not everyone looks at themself frequently.
Also it’s been a minute since we’ve seen Billie as opposed to Jennifer. They probably forgot what she looked like.
Basically the same, except for the ponytail and wardrobe?
I forgot how SHE used to look like, it’s been like 2 years since I’ve seen her old design
Ten strips later: “But you promised!”
…but Helloween is all about death, Billie.
It’s like non-alchoolic beer. Or decaffeinated coffe. Pointless.
Eh, some people drink it for flavor
Mix a little death in with your drink for flavor? I can see the attraction. But not for me, thanks. I like a little bitter-sweet now and then, but not the hard stuff.
I had a long correspondence with a cartoonist once on how to make “sadness chips”. You can make flavorless puffed rice chips out of rice flour pretty easily — they sell mixes for that and then you can dehydrate or crisp them in a toaster oven / air fryer. So it’s just a question of flavoring. McCormick sells all types of flavors, but you might need something more specialized. To me, sadness tastes like cheap menthol cigarettes, rain, stale cheap black coffee, vinegary red wine, and bitter acidity, like bile — maybe the flavor of a copper penny or something acrid and sharp like wintergreen. I wonder if you used a more specialized flavoring (like they make with Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans) if you could mix these flavors together, and if they would taste like sadness.
Hey now some of those things make me feel relaxed and happy. The smell of rain sure as help makes me feel good!
*sure as hell
Damn typos
Sure as help works in context, too.
A flavor can be sad, nostalgic, bittersweet, and comforting, all at the same time. Some harder alcohols have that type of flavor or smell. It just depends on the emotional/memory association with those tastes and flavors.
I love the smell of rain, too, but people can love things that are painful and cold and lonely and dangerous. Like rain can be, sometimes. Even when it’s enchanted and brings rainbows. Ruth and Billie loved what was painful and lonely and dangerous to them.
Decaff has caffeine, just not enough for mood swings. Works for me!
I’m not sure if saying to Ruth that “she can kill her any time she wants” was just a joke or a scary signal that Bill still think they have a suicide pact. Ruth’s expression could be disappointed because she can’t use her costume or worried for the implication.
I think it’s supposed to be flirtatious but Ruth seems concerned.
Or intrigued!
Billie could mean “kill” as in, “slay me with your red hot loving.”
ah, so the breakup was because Billie didn’t like Ruth’s costume, mystery solved, and there will be no traumatic or heart breaking revelations later in this storyline!
Liar.
As great as Ruth’s outfit is, Jennifer (or Billie, whatever name she’s using at this point in time) has a valid point. On the plus side, all she needs is a red lightsaber and she’d make a great Sith.
Nah, nope, ya lost me there, sorry.
The Grim Reaper is ALWAYS an appropriate Halloween costume. ALWAYS.
I have the feeling that she will wear it any day, and the only thing which makes it a “costume” is her picking up the scythe today.
Billie’s got a point, but at the same time it is Halloween, dressing up in spooky costumes (and getting free candy) is the main point of the holiday these days.
I’d say keep the tags as Jennifer.
tbf neither amber nor becky’s dads were a big loss
“All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is deconsecrated…”
YoU ReAp WhAt YoU sOw
la petite mort
In this country, it’s always “too soon”.
oh my god, i just got to this panel of Joyce and Walky. LMAO
http://www.itswalky.com/comic/jason-you-didnt-get-a-costume/
i love reading Roomies/Its Walky at the same time as DoA