I ship it too, but I didn’t want it to happen like this…
Curse you Willis! Even when you give me what I want, you taint it with a sense of doom and foreboding!
This can only end in tears D:
Oops, don’t copy and paste, kids. The website final output used some alternate Unicode quote marks instead of U+0022/ascii 22 … looks like it was U+201D aka RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
So when I pasted it in, the parser had to do crazy unicode kung-fu on it.
That would be good if they were about to have a 5 panel drinking montage but not now, come on people we need to reference some love songs that fit the mood better and don’t use drunken love come on people your better than that.
“I want to reconcile the violence in your heart
I want to recognise your beauty’s not just a mask
I want to exorcise the demons from your past
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart”
Agreed….Save for what is really bringing them together like this and what they sound like they’re planning to build their partnership around….That’s just dark…If disturbingly realistic.
Dom will always be the king. Even if he gets locked in a lead lined coffin and sank to the bottom of the sea for subjecting us to more SGD Trackball or Pipe Cleaner theater.
1a) Like Catullus already said, “Lord” is pretty low on the hierarchy whether you’re talking modern day use (a Baron) or historical. An Archduke is second to a king. Knave is more complicated due to the various definitions, but all of them would be wrong regardless.
Actually, I’m hoping that Willis means there will be no Slipshine of this scene. Which is a lot less sexy after the fuck-upedness of its lead in. Honestly, I don’t think a Slipshine of the sex that is about to happen would be very pleasant.
I still hope there will be a Ruth/Billie Slipshine, but maybe give them a few weeks (or a timeskip) to reach a point where we don’t need to be all “get help” about their relationship.
However, I AM wondering who will be the next Slipshine if not them. Willis said (if I recall correctly) that the next one would come from DoA, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what couple he’d portray.
maybe a sequel to dorothy/walky?
or jason/sal?
willis clarified that he never said the m/m slipshine would come next, which makes me think that it’s not danny/ethan after all, though it’s possible
Don’t get your hopes up about them getting help in regards to what led to their relationship.
Multiple generations of entire families have been built on this kind of drama-monger crap. Don’t get me started on the prevailing misconception that making a well-to-do living in a nice suburban neighborhood will serve as a warding talisman from that lesser known, unpopular side of reality!
I think it’s not so much that she’s pale as it is that she has a different skin tone from Ruth.
I mean, she’s still pale, but that’s not why she looks weird next to the ginger.
I don’t think YHWH is a good choice for Joyce a a main squeeze, for one thing, he’s way older than she is and besides, the fact that he knows everything about her thanks to his omnipresence makes him kind of a stalker, so no, YHWH is not a good match for Joyce.
Besides, it’s already been done, and Mary didn’t really enjoy the outcome. The whole “My son was crucified with two thieves” bumper-sticker thing never took off.
Plus I don’t think dating jesus would work out I mean first he would be WAY to perfect her and plus he loves everyone equally so she won’t be that special.
Yeah, no — that would add the whole ‘incest’
thing on top of the whole ‘Proud parent of a socialist son’ and ‘Occupy money changers’ cart stickers thing.
I don’t think age would be a problem as long as it’s with the “Ethan with long hair and a beard” great-abs Jeezy that’s on all the artwork & statues. And as long as the “squeeze” part involves actual squeezing. Joyce REALLY doesn’t want to be part of a virgin birth scenario.
Yeah, I don’t think she’ll be the one suggesting therapy, which is what they really, REALLY need. But I think if she’s still worried and keeps pressing it to someone else – Walky I mentioned, but possibly also Sarah come to think of it – that can at least get it into Billie’s head that people care about her, people who aren’t “poison”. From there… Well, I’ve got no idea where things would go from there, but if it keeps their heads above water, then good. And Billie’s been a catalyst for Ruth, if anyone’s able to get her help who’s there day-to-day, it’s going to be her.
Actually, a chat with a well-trained clerical type (and you’d be surprised how much mental health training people in seminaries get if you don’t know it for other reasons) might also work. Mostly, what these two need is…help. Lots and lots of help.
And Joyce is fortunately willing to go to other denominations if she can’t find her specific brand of fundamentalism, so there is hope there. (Granted, Joyce needs some serious help too. /shivers over the Dream Sequence)
In a very real sense, priests and other religious figures are the ones who performed most psychiatric and/or counseling functions before we had separate, secular professions for those.
And yes, THERAPY ALL AROUND for this cast, please.
The list of people who we don’t think need therapy in Dumbing of Age:
– Joe
– Sierra
– Maybe Dorothy
– Probably Dina
– Possibly Carla, Malaya and Roz, we really haven’t seen enough of them to say one way or the other
Just because it hasn’t screwed you over yet doesn’t mean it doesn’t have it’s flaws. It’s worked for me 98% of the time but then one day it randomly messed up.
Moral Orel’s one of my favorite shows ever. It’s so disturbing and dark at times near the end, it’s hard to believe it played everything for laughs early on. Brilliant show.
It’s not a real thing, as far as I know. Cadbury Cream Egg cereal is an invention in Shortpacked! whose legendary multi-day sugar benders often caused… interesting effects.
as described in shortpacked, you dump a bunch of cadbury cream eggs in a bowl and add milk. so in theory you could make it and eat yourself, probably modulo some puking.
Now it’s time, I fear to tell
I’ve been holding it back so long
But something strange deep inside
Of me is happening
I feel unlike I’ve ever felt
And it’s making me scared
That I may not be
What I think I am
What of us? What do I say?
Are we both from a different world?
‘Cos every breath that I take
I breath it for you
I couldn’t face my life without you
And I’m So Afraid
There’s nothing to comfort us
What am I?
If I can’t be yours
Well they did in chapter 10, and got pretty low in 13 but rebounded remarkably from that. Right now I don’t know how they are after Col Glass shredded MM’s armor.
‘Til the last panel, it looked like it might be a soda bottle, and I was waiting for Billie to take a chug and then be all, “*pppssssht* Bleh! That’s root beer!”
And Ruth to be, “Well, yeah. That’s why I throw it away. I buy it because it reminds me of home, but, seriously, Barq’s bites. Now can we get back to the part where everyone becomes lesbians?”
But what about Danny x Ethan? I’d say they could be a nice thing, assuming they work it out in the right way – of course, they probably aren’t, but still.
That’s an interesting use of the word “ship,” given the word’s origins as describing what relationships fans want to see. It looks like the term ship has evolved to mean what fans want to see in a particular story. It’s very cool to see how language evolves over time. =)
My heart is breaking in a splintery, shreddy, catastrophy kind of way. Why does it have to happen like this?? Isn’t poison sometimes the antidote to poison?
1. YAY! BILLIE AND RUTH ARE GETTING BACK TOGETHER!!!
2. This is quite possibly the most heart-wrenching, spirt-killing, and absolutely feel-inducing way for it to happen. Willis, I both applaud and curse you
Yes they are getting back together in what could be the worst possible way, short of doing it in the lounge area during parents weekend. But that was last week, so given the circumstances this is about as bad as they can get at the moment.
There is no slipshine. It’s a myth. It doesn’t exist. You see Sensedog, you’re finally at the age that we can tell you that things like Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Slipshine are just stories parents tell their kids about.
btw, feel free to put this on the doa tumblr or something
I don’t have a personal account, so I can’t really put them up anywhere anybody can see them myself
And I handed you a drink of the lovely little thing
On which our survival depends
People say friends don’t destroy one another
What do they know about friends?
Billie and Ruth are having sex. Billie broke into her RA’s room, saw her perched on the edge of the wagon, decided to jump off with her and now the two of them are having sex to commemorate their death spiral.
Yes, yes…it could be seen as a big bottle of steak sauce, I thought. MY GOD, NOW WE KNOW, RUTH *IS* GETTING SAUCED! Just not in the way we all thought….
As above, I’m going to have to disagree.
Ruth/Billie would be an incredible Slipshine.
However, this scene, with the tears and beer, it just… too messed up. Willis’s other Slipshines are all about fun, healthy relationships. I think we’ll need to wait until Billie and Ruth work out their issues some before they will be ready for Slipshine.
Yeah…I had been shipping these two for a long time, but this isn’t exactly a healthy basis for a relationship. I wouldn’t want them going back to hating each other, understand. They could be friends or [insert acceptable substitute for AA here] buddies, but getting emotionally and sexually intimate would, at this point, just fuck them up even more.
I must concur with Tamar here, and not because we share a life (such as it is), a home and an I.P. address. At first we were excited about this pairing because it reminded us of Penny and Aggie (Agenny 4ever! Woo!) but nah, even at its nadir the Penny/Aggie dynamic was never as toxic as this.
Besides, I’m never going to forgive T. Campbell for that last frame in the epilogue. I want it to succeed, damn it, and he’s left us hanging for years!
Heh. Well, given that the active fandom was about evenly divided between shippers and anti-shippers, I think that indeterminate final panel was the best way to end it. It allows the anti-shippers to imagine that Penny and Aggie have another date or three, realize they’re better as friends after all, and enjoy this friendship. At the same time, it allows the shippers to imagine that they go on another date or three, realize that after all they were meant to be, in eternal hawtness, amen.
Which is exactly why I need someone to break into Ruth’s room, pry them apart with a crowbar, and ship them off to opposite ends of the country. They can meet up again four years later when they’re out of college and have both separately and successfully gone through AA.
Over in Shortpacked, the two strongest relationships are the ones that started out the most unhealthy. Maybe Willis just likes pairing really screwed up people?
Also could someone remind me how Ruth is a destructive person? Only Billie’s past misdeeds are coming to mind right now. It’s just this seems a bit like saying that Batman and the Joker are essentially the same.
Although deconstructing this has become an interesting subtext of Willis’s strip.
ruth is 1) an alcoholic, 2)
generally depressed about her current life circumstances (dead parents, forced to move away from her home country,)
3) depressed that her alcoholism is making her a lot like the person who got her parents killed (as evident with her having now fallen for a drunk driver)
and 4) she uses her scary persona to drive people away from herself, probably because she doesn’t think she can have friends (hell, the first time she tried to open up to billy was a total disaster.
I think it’s because Ruth and Billie have had more development in their relationship. We’ve yet to see where Ethan and Danny might go, and the fact that Danny was thinking of kissing Ethan was the drama in that situation. But in this situation the drama is Ruth and Billie deciding to spiral downward together, sealed with that kiss–which might be one reason why they kissed and Ethan and Danny didn’t. I don’t believe it’s Willis trying to be biased against one-gendered pairing or another; I believe it’s a storytelling-related thing.
The situations aren’t really equivalent though. Billie and Ruth already have somewhat of a romantic history, rocky and uncomfortable though it may be, so it isn’t completely new ground for them; meanwhile, Danny and Ethan are both afraid of their latent attractions, and not really willing to take the initiative, especially given they’re both already in other relationships (well, maybe not Danny, depending on how things play out).
I nominate this as fanon, because then we’d have two canonical ships, Dorky and Worthless. I’m still trying to think about what the name for inevitable Ethan + Danny ship will be.
they should be thematically appropriate, right?
I think “dangal” works, since willis dangled it right in front of us and snatched it away almost immediately
;B
3 comments is too much, but now I’m curious; WHAT is this couple even going to be like? I’ve never seen this in webcomic form (I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with it now). Like the next most accessible example in my mind of this in fiction is Grushenka and Dmitri from The Brothers Karamazov or just about any Fitzgerald couple.
HAH! 3 comments is nothing. I typed up 40 comments on the “Danny discovers he’s bi” strip.
This couple is literally just a downward spiral. That’s it. Both people in it know that it’s completely self-destructive, but they feel too depressed to care.
I was going to make a long-winded, unfortunate statement regarding today’s comic, but your six words, IST, sum it up perfectly. It also makes me so goddamned sad.
If I recall correctly, I left a comment on a previous comic stating how Billie cheated on Ruth with alcohol (kinda reversed here but I’ll take it) to which someone replied that there would be a threesome between Billie, Ruth and booze… I think that guy and I may have been psychic…
Fuuuuuck. My last relationship was pretty much like this (minus the alcoholism). I often half-joked that we were both broken inside and that’s what made us work together. But it wasn’t a really healthy relationship, and I never should have entered into it. This isn’t going to end well for Billie and Ruth either, I think.
On a more positive note, thank you so much Willis for the alt-text. Bisexual representation is so important to me, and I’m sure many many other bisexual readers of your feel the same way. You’ve really been hitting it out of the park with this comic, especially lately. My thanks and kudos.
Is Ruth bi? I don’t think, even in the original Roomies comic, she really showed any overt attraction to Danny. She sort of played more a mentoring and nuturing role while idealizing Danny like many others in that strip but I never really picked up on Romanic undertones, except maybe as an explaination for why she put so much effort into him.
Poorly phrased on my part, I was sort of trying to respond both with the point that I don’t recall Ruth overtly showing attraction to any guy (to my memory) and to the statement that there was a “Wierd Love Triangle” and I ended up blurring the two together.
I say “weird love triangle” because they were all involved with each other at one point except for danny and ruth
didn’t really know how else to phrase it
weird love trio? /shrugs
Can you say ‘tragic flaw?” children? Sure, I knew you could. Can you say ‘Codependent, self-loathing, alienated, alcoholics?’ Yeah, I didn’t think you could either.
While I can understand not wanting to make a sex comic featuring two emotionally wrecked ladies, or maybe just another lesbian comic so soon, I dunno, your reasons are your own; can I keep my hopes up for an incredibly awkward comic of Ethan and Danny?
It’s like they’re holding a bad decision party and everyone’s invited. I’m half waiting for Ethan to burst in and propose to Joyce while Danny makes out with Amber’s dad in the background.
Well, that went to roads i didn’t expect. I had this crazy idea that the drama was going to a close, and then here we have a earth shattering drama exploding everyone to the dead of space!
:(((
the strangest part is I’m okay and saddened by this . Seeing them via slipshine in this state just feels like you walked in on something super private you know?
That’s what I’ve been mulling over. If she’s talking about the sex, that’s a pretty douchey thing to say. It feels even more wrong on some deeper level that I’m having trouble defining. Like she’s been patiently waiting in the friendzone for Billie to come to her. Is that too conspiracy theoristy?
As much as I know that this can’t end well, this relationship is so deliciously fucked up. It’s like their emotional damage is an erogenous zone for them.
Well put. I was struggling to find the right expression. This relationship may be in the same taxonomic order as Shortpacked’s most epic of hate-fucks, but it is a very different species.
Impressive. I was wondering if Willis was going to have Ruth accept Billie’s frantic, panicked help as a slap in the face to us RuthxBillie shippers, by giving us what we wanted in the most terrible way possible. I did not, however, expect something this harsh and sickening; it’s more like a kick in the stomach.
Hell that doesn’t even look like beer, from the shape, size, and colour it looks like she’s pulling straight from a bottle of JD which is soooooooo much worse. When you can’t even be arsed to pour hard liquor into a glass, excluding mickeys, you are low.
So there’s no Slipshine at the moment… fine. How much would it take to bribe you to do one???
Seriously, though: I think it would be possible to do an intensely emotional, thematically consistent, and story-advancing series of strips following this that happened to involve graphic erotic activity (aka fucking). And I think we all agree Willis could pull it off. The problem with having it as a Slipshine is that that would label it as porn, and decency won’t let him doing it in-story, which is where it would belong. Ah well.
That being said, I’m calling their shenanigans getting interrupted by the discovery of the Whiteboard Dingdong Bandit.
A Billie/Ruth Slipshine might be appropriate at this point, but I think it does the characters a great disservice to have their inebriated, despair-fueled make-out session turned into… depression porn?
A Slipshine featuring their alternate universe counterparts during their hook-up in Roomies! seems a happier choice.
My favorite couple got together… and it’s painful and hollow. Yikes. I would honestly join Slipshine just for a scene between these two, but not like this… not like this…
“Most Holy will bless your child and teach you a valuable lesson about life at the same time.
Bless you.”
*throws baby*
“The valuable lesson is that you can get what you want and still not be very happy.
You’re welcome.”
BILLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!! You were doing so well! You finally stuck up for someone who cares about you. Then you had a horrible blast from the past, and I’ve been hoping you might manage to keep it together… But no, it just explodes even harder. I just really hope she finds help from somewhere. Even if it’s just leaning on Walky and Joyce, she needs to find some support that isn’t just a relationship founded on mutual self-loathing.
I just wonder where Ruth can find her support. We haven’t really seen her building any friendships other than maybe Ruth, and her brother lives pretty far away. Maybe Billie will be able to get enough of a leg to stand on to bring Ruth into her slowly building group of friends.
Meanwhile, Shortpacked Leslie (and maybe DoA Leslie, too) suddenly finds herself extremely turned on and doesn’t know why.
No Slipshine? No problem! Substance abuse combined with codependent emotional train wrecks is my exact fetish. This strip definitely gets the job done!
I could see it! Gods, what a dark, twisted, frustrated individual you’d have to be, though. An imagination so vivid, so magnificent and yet, because of that, so very, very vulnerable. No porn created by another mind could match the erotic richness your own private fantasies can provide…in fact, seeing such lesser porn poisons the well, so to speak, utterly ruining those actors/characters/cartoons/whatever for you, for all time, trapping you in recurring visions of a lesser human’s fantasy.
Only works that haven’t been tainted by pornography can satisfy you, and you dream of a world where the opposite of rule 34 holds sway.
That is some supervillain origin shit right there. Crom help us all.
So, despite both of them being in dire need of counseling I think this is way hot. Not just because of the impending sexy time, but for the intense feels. The only bad splotch is the booze. Which is kind of the point I guess.
I wonder if it is, since sexual contact began BEFORE the consumption of alcohol? I mean, it’s quite clearly rape-y, and weirdly enough that’s NOT the saddest part of the whole thing, but can it be said to be rape if canoodling begins before drinking?
I would have to say yes, and it surprises me because I didn’t think of it before, but given that the standard is “frequent and enthusiastic consent”, once the alcohol begins to work, the further consents are no longer possible (impaired state of judgement makes consent impossible).
There, that’s better. Also, it’s not like Indiana, the state of Rupert “Gotta keep your babies that are the product of rape!” Murdock, will pass any progressive laws regarding rape. Our legislators would laugh any measure that helps women out of the house.
I don’t think so. IMHO, this falls well within ‘yes means yes’. Both participants are sober at the start, and both participants clearly consent — Billie makes a pass, and Ruth reciprocates…enthusiastically. They’ve clearly consented to a three-way.
As a recovering drug addict/alcoholic, this is really really sad to watch. They’re both sweet people, they’re just sad and lonely and don’t know how to fix themselves. They want to know how, but the easier path of let’s get shitfaced keeps on getting in the way.
I spent more than half my life just getting fucked up on one drug or another and being poison, ruining everything i touched. It took so goddamn long to realize that I wasn’t poison, the shit i drank and smoked and snorted every day was the poison. I wasn’t ruining everything i touched on my own, I was ruining everything I touched because I had one priority, and that was more drugs. I lost friends. I killed relationships and I hurt everyone who cared about me, just like these two. I want to have high hopes for their futures, but given that it took me fourteen years to get what I needed to stop, I can’t help but think that poor Ruth and Billie are in for some very tumultuous, painful times.
Your writing and storytelling never cease to impress, Mr. Willis. I hope that the future has more pleasant things in store for these two confused sweethearts than mine did when I was 18.
I am aware of the fact that this isn’t currently a healthy relationship, but I can’t help but find these two adorable. Even if this page is kind of a kick in the feels.
I was listening to Halestorm’s “Familiar Taste Of Poison” earlier, and in the middle of it somehow my mind focused on today’s comic. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it fits this relationship all too well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZOmtPR_MTU
I just wanted to say thank you for actually stating that some characters are bi!It’s nice to see actual well developed people whose identity doesn’t revolve around their sexuality, and bi characters are really important to me to have so thank you! On another note, I’m having a lot of feelings over this story arc. I ship them, but they are feeding into the worst parts of each other? but I feel like they could be healthy for each other? I don’t know. feelings.
We will sail the seven seas, striking fear into the hearts of the living, and weirdness into their boners, until we find a way to lift the terrible curse that has befallen us. Yarrrrr!
Or more typical they will get fixed/cured of their bad habits by breaking up and going out with some “good” guys later?
I rather can’t see this Billie/Ruth relationship work outside bad drama result since both parties are too much broken to support other one in right way.
Okay. Good news is that the ship has officially launched. The bad news is it was not launched on the sea so much as via a powerful catapult manned by a crew who didn’t particularly care what direction they were flinging it in. God only knows where it will end up.
The comment chains in this are so long….
And as a lurker viewer, i saw this downhill spiral weeks ago. And I kept yelling at the screen for it to get better.
Is this better???
I’m glad this scene isn’t getting a Slipshine. On the one hand, yeah, Billie’s saying that Ruth doesn’t have to be alone in her misery, and it’s good to have someone, but at the same time, they’re both feeling rotten, and the booze is going to depress them even further. Here’s hoping these two get the help they need, and it’ll be easier for them if they have each other.
I agree. On one level, this is SO emo. “We’re both POISON” Why? Because they faced some things in life, and incorporated alcohol into their psyche? It’s not a great decision, but people do it because it eases the pain. But seeing themselves as fundamentally broken?
I’m not even saying “no people, let alone young college students would ever think things this damaging”. Quite the contrary, it’s believable. I’m just more wondering- WHY? Why does anyone see themselves as so broken?
Most of us want to see ourselves as exceptional. And of course, from inside, our own pain is the pain felt most keenly. SURELY NO ONE ELSE HAS FELT THIS BAD IN THE HISTORY OF EVER.
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Appropriate soundtrack
NO CAMACHRI
Yes Camachri
This was going to happen and we all wanted it to. I ship this so hard, harder then a walky/billie pair
I ship it too, but I didn’t want it to happen like this…
Curse you Willis! Even when you give me what I want, you taint it with a sense of doom and foreboding!
This can only end in tears D:
This is on my list of the music I’ll play when I finally get lucky. If she’s the right girl for me she will stick around.
You wear the monkey outfits from that video when romancing her, right? How else is she going to know how much you mean it.
If she loves me she’d be wearing one too!
I believe your link is broken. I fixed it for you.
…
Well played, sir.
I dunno, for some reason This one seems to fit it more for me.
BANJOS WILL NEVER BEAT BRITISH MEN IN MOKEY SUITS! HAHAHA!
British?
Or perhaps
I will never figure out these html tags.
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL9O0B0gzZE
(no spaces) your text for the link
… and the website interpreted that as a link tag anyway. I fail at failing.
do you use the html tag with a href and title?
Yeah, that and the greater-than/less-than brackets. Make sure to use quotes around your link as well. (and it seems like titles can’t have spaces)
<a href=”http://www.example.com” title=”hover text”>Linked text</a>
Let’s see if the website turns “& lt ;” and “& gt ;” into tags…hope not, broken parser if so…
ah, much better.
And what that looks like in action
Linked text
what in the… why did it punycode it? that should have been ASCII compatible…
Oops, don’t copy and paste, kids. The website final output used some alternate Unicode quote marks instead of U+0022/ascii 22 … looks like it was U+201D aka RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
So when I pasted it in, the parser had to do crazy unicode kung-fu on it.
this should be better:
Linked text
That would be good if they were about to have a 5 panel drinking montage but not now, come on people we need to reference some love songs that fit the mood better and don’t use drunken love come on people your better than that.
It’s not exactly a love song this drinking song fits the mood for me.
oh my god you have triple broken my heart all over again with this gaaaaaaaaahhhhh what have you doooone
like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pQ8mJMv5nxE
or, perhaaaaps
She’s never never gonna give her up.
Well it’s you and me and BOBBY V!
I am favoring this right now.
“I want to reconcile the violence in your heart
I want to recognise your beauty’s not just a mask
I want to exorcise the demons from your past
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart”
Hello there, dropped link.
Here.
Though, on reflection, it might be too functional.
needs moar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK7bwIVrQFs
or even https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA
Here’s a Playlist of all the songs linked, or at leats when I made the list PLaylist Here
Wait lets try this again PLaylist Here
here’s the fixed link!
(yours had an extra quotation mark on the end)
and while we’re at it, here’s my contribution to the list
If anyone is up to keep adding; I think this suits the mood of the comic; http://youtu.be/aIM-Se42QU4
Let’s drink whiskey an’ do it all night long
Let’s Get Drunk & Get It On
Thanks a ton it was my first try
You are doing an excellent service for us all.
Nothing like the classics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8
OUCH. DAMN. TRUE.
(You know, I have no idea how I’ve actually never seen the video for this.)
I don’t know if there’s a better “fuck you” comeback in a duet then
“I could’ve been someone” / “Well, so could anyone.”
Thankyou for your link if its broken. I was looking for swing music and you made my day.
This strip is really beautiful by the way!
awwww
Agreed….Save for what is really bringing them together like this and what they sound like they’re planning to build their partnership around….That’s just dark…If disturbingly realistic.
Ruth says what we’re all thinking.
except to the comic commentary |=( DAMN YOU, WILLIS
Head them off at the pass? I hate that cliche.
Yeah, but would you pass up the opportunity for giving a head joke like that? It would be unforgivable.
/begrudgingly applauds
The bad news: Platypus beat me to the Blazing Saddles reference
by seven hours.The good news: The Blazing Saddles reference didn’t go over my head! (also, lots of sleep)
Eventually.
Well done!
No Slipshine yet, you mean. You’re an Internet Pornlord after all; you have a reputation to keep up. 😉
He’s not a Pornlord yet. A porn-archduke maybe. More likely a porn knave.
I move that we dub Willis a Knight of the Porn Table. Who’s with me?
I wouldn’t wanna eat off that table.
But it gets pizza deliveries all the time!
Tto be fair, no one ever eats the pizza
Strictly speaking though, an archduke holds more power than a lord by a pretty substantial amount.
Considering kings can and do get called “my lord”, I wish to dispute that claim…
THROUGH TRIAL BY COMBAT
The Page of Porn.
What of SGD (Shirt Guy Dom) the legendary webcomic pornking!?
Dom will always be the king. Even if he gets locked in a lead lined coffin and sank to the bottom of the sea for subjecting us to more SGD Trackball or Pipe Cleaner theater.
1a) Like Catullus already said, “Lord” is pretty low on the hierarchy whether you’re talking modern day use (a Baron) or historical. An Archduke is second to a king. Knave is more complicated due to the various definitions, but all of them would be wrong regardless.
1b) I can’t wait for that last sentence to backfire on me if Willis ever starts using a Jack playing card outside of card games.
2) Feel free to nitpick when in 2014 he should be considered an Internet Pornlord but it’s probably too late.
Actually, I’m hoping that Willis means there will be no Slipshine of this scene. Which is a lot less sexy after the fuck-upedness of its lead in. Honestly, I don’t think a Slipshine of the sex that is about to happen would be very pleasant.
I still hope there will be a Ruth/Billie Slipshine, but maybe give them a few weeks (or a timeskip) to reach a point where we don’t need to be all “get help” about their relationship.
However, I AM wondering who will be the next Slipshine if not them. Willis said (if I recall correctly) that the next one would come from DoA, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what couple he’d portray.
maybe a sequel to dorothy/walky?
or jason/sal?
willis clarified that he never said the m/m slipshine would come next, which makes me think that it’s not danny/ethan after all, though it’s possible
Ken/Arnold, obvs
I was kind of hoping the next slipshine would open on this scene… before cutting to (and staying at) Joe’s latest orgy.
I know I like my porn guilt free. All the other scenes began light heatedly, but after that heart wrenching scene it just wouldn’t feel right.
I’d say there’s a fair amount of hate in a epic hatefuck.
*hate and guilt
Don’t get your hopes up about them getting help in regards to what led to their relationship.
Multiple generations of entire families have been built on this kind of drama-monger crap. Don’t get me started on the prevailing misconception that making a well-to-do living in a nice suburban neighborhood will serve as a warding talisman from that lesser known, unpopular side of reality!
By “a few weeks” you mean comic time, right? That means we’ll see Slipshine of these two in… uh… next summer, give or take?
You don’t really understand how pale Billie is until you see her that close to a ginger.
Is she still hungover or ?
nah she’s just really pale I think
I think it’s not so much that she’s pale as it is that she has a different skin tone from Ruth.
I mean, she’s still pale, but that’s not why she looks weird next to the ginger.
Sad.
This is somehow both touching and depressing.
Congrats Willis.
god I know I am dyyyyyyying
And then the two Poisons collide and form an antidote! Or an even more potent poison. I’m a bit rusty on my toxicology!
Then the entire room, no the entire dorm became a toxic bio hazard.
Usually it takes a little longer into the quarter for that to happen, but not much.
They should be careful then. Someone might end up a Sandwich
Then it turns out they just made a baking soda volcano
CAMPUS FULL OF SUDS
Best comment!
I’m so sorry
……..Nope. Can’t apologize. No amount of repentance will ever make up for subjecting us to…whatever the hell that was.
what the fuck
What the actual fuck is that
haha that’s like a terrible version of The Stuff
[which is already terrible, so CONGRATULATION]
… Yeah, nope, this is gonna get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
Come on, Walky and your emotional support! Come on, Joyce and your unfailing concern! Let’s get one of these ladies into therapy!
Joyce never makes anything better. She’s always gotta involve her main squeeze Jeezy in everything.
“Main squeeze”?
The Ten Commandments declare you can have no other squeezes more main than him.
I don’t think YHWH is a good choice for Joyce a a main squeeze, for one thing, he’s way older than she is and besides, the fact that he knows everything about her thanks to his omnipresence makes him kind of a stalker, so no, YHWH is not a good match for Joyce.
Besides, it’s already been done, and Mary didn’t really enjoy the outcome. The whole “My son was crucified with two thieves” bumper-sticker thing never took off.
Plus I don’t think dating jesus would work out I mean first he would be WAY to perfect her and plus he loves everyone equally so she won’t be that special.
But he’d be a very generous lover. He’d always be the Second cumming.
Not sure Joyce is “that into” poly, what with Him loving the whole world and everything…
So… Joyce’s Slipshine would be a bunch of praying and abstinence?
Yeah, no — that would add the whole ‘incest’
thing on top of the whole ‘Proud parent of a socialist son’ and ‘Occupy money changers’ cart stickers thing.
I don’t think age would be a problem as long as it’s with the “Ethan with long hair and a beard” great-abs Jeezy that’s on all the artwork & statues. And as long as the “squeeze” part involves actual squeezing. Joyce REALLY doesn’t want to be part of a virgin birth scenario.
And that you should not covet thy neighbor’s squeeze.
That’s right. Get thine own Difford/Tilbrook album.
+1 ancient popculture nut shot!
Yeah, I don’t think she’ll be the one suggesting therapy, which is what they really, REALLY need. But I think if she’s still worried and keeps pressing it to someone else – Walky I mentioned, but possibly also Sarah come to think of it – that can at least get it into Billie’s head that people care about her, people who aren’t “poison”. From there… Well, I’ve got no idea where things would go from there, but if it keeps their heads above water, then good. And Billie’s been a catalyst for Ruth, if anyone’s able to get her help who’s there day-to-day, it’s going to be her.
Actually, a chat with a well-trained clerical type (and you’d be surprised how much mental health training people in seminaries get if you don’t know it for other reasons) might also work. Mostly, what these two need is…help. Lots and lots of help.
This is going to be so sad.
Could work, yeah.
And Joyce is fortunately willing to go to other denominations if she can’t find her specific brand of fundamentalism, so there is hope there. (Granted, Joyce needs some serious help too. /shivers over the Dream Sequence)
In a very real sense, priests and other religious figures are the ones who performed most psychiatric and/or counseling functions before we had separate, secular professions for those.
And yes, THERAPY ALL AROUND for this cast, please.
The list of people who we don’t think need therapy in Dumbing of Age:
– Joe
– Sierra
– Maybe Dorothy
– Probably Dina
– Possibly Carla, Malaya and Roz, we really haven’t seen enough of them to say one way or the other
That’s the name for the last DoA storyline ever.
soooo many feels right now
I was wondering how you were going to keep that couple interesting AND consummate the romantic tension at the same time. I should have seen this coming. Willis, you sly dog you. This world’s getting interesting.
I agree.
Dang, that was funnier when your quote was blank. also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRP6egIEABk
(I love Moral Orel)
I was originally linking to that! What the hell XD
I know! The sites stupid. I just wanted to post it so other people could see :3.
We’ve been at the Mountain Goats, but here’s another interpretation about what this all feels like to them.
(I love The Sopranos)
The site’s not stupid if I can look up a basic “how to link things in html” and it’s worked every time.
Just because it hasn’t screwed you over yet doesn’t mean it doesn’t have it’s flaws. It’s worked for me 98% of the time but then one day it randomly messed up.
Moral Orel’s one of my favorite shows ever. It’s so disturbing and dark at times near the end, it’s hard to believe it played everything for laughs early on. Brilliant show.
Wow that’s bleak.
Let’s get SLIGHTLY less bleak, then!
Then they eat Cadbury Cream Egg cereal and everything turns out fine, right? RIGHT?!
wait is that a thing?
WHERE CAN I BUY IT I WANT SOME
It’s not a real thing, as far as I know. Cadbury Cream Egg cereal is an invention in Shortpacked! whose legendary multi-day sugar benders often caused… interesting effects.
as described in shortpacked, you dump a bunch of cadbury cream eggs in a bowl and add milk. so in theory you could make it and eat yourself, probably modulo some puking.
You make it yourself. Unwrap some Cadbury Cream Eggs, fill bowl, pour on milk.
And if you don’t have alien-enhanced metabolism you go into a diabetic coma and die, or just get really sick. Either one will work.
*plays L’Trimm’s “Grab It” on the Muzak*
Now it’s time, I fear to tell
I’ve been holding it back so long
But something strange deep inside
Of me is happening
I feel unlike I’ve ever felt
And it’s making me scared
That I may not be
What I think I am
What of us? What do I say?
Are we both from a different world?
‘Cos every breath that I take
I breath it for you
I couldn’t face my life without you
And I’m So Afraid
There’s nothing to comfort us
What am I?
If I can’t be yours
No, Ruth and Billie, Spinnerette has already proven that drunken college-girl makeouts are a bad thing.
Are you referring to Spinny and Mecha Maid? I thought they hit rock bottom already.
Well they did in chapter 10, and got pretty low in 13 but rebounded remarkably from that. Right now I don’t know how they are after Col Glass shredded MM’s armor.
I’m sure Spinny will be able to convince Dr. U to do something. I mean, he’s nothing if not altruistic (if incredibly radical).
“No one can understand us but the demon drink, kiss me you fool!”
MELODRAMA OVERLOAD
-ABORT- -ABORT- -ABORT-
…not how I hoped they would get together, but perhaps good may come of it yet?
we’ll see, the morning after is likely to a powderkeg of regret and recriminations.
All we need now is for Ruth and Billie to join up with Joyce and Ethan and you can have a truly fucked up foresome.
is that tedd? tell me that’s tedd.
Yes, yes it is girl-type Tedd.
Oh come let not….on second thought ya let’s see what they think about this.
What in heaven’s name is a Foresome?
It’s where you have to use at least a strong 3 wood.
Did a little birdie tell you that?
Yes and also it is better to call out FORE as to avoid causing too much injury.
I usually call this out in a regular session, even if I’m alone.
That or “TIMBER!”
You have to warn people.
TIMBER! is best used when your Viagra wears off. 😛
If you shout TIMBER when your Viagra wears off you are packing WAY too much wood.
It’s helpful to keep the putts under control.
It’s like a foursome, but you never get past foreplay.
Been saying this for weeks but JUST FUCK ALREADY
That is clearly not a good idea now.
Good idea, no but somehow that reason won’t stop them.
You would be amazed by the healing properties of a good bang. It could also backfire and make it worse but SCIENCE!
I’m vaguely saddened to have direct confirmation of what’s in the bag, people thinking it was a dildo was hilarious.
What? It’s obviously a dildo, just one filled with some amber liquid that Ruth is drinking.
Man, people really DON’T know anything about toys. tch. Don’t even know they fill them with liquid for effect!
They don’t even recognize a belt hook when they see one!
My partner and I, on the first few panels: “It kinda looks like an iced coffee there. Maybe… maybe?”
Alas no.
‘Til the last panel, it looked like it might be a soda bottle, and I was waiting for Billie to take a chug and then be all, “*pppssssht* Bleh! That’s root beer!”
And Ruth to be, “Well, yeah. That’s why I throw it away. I buy it because it reminds me of home, but, seriously, Barq’s bites. Now can we get back to the part where everyone becomes lesbians?”
…Hooray?
I want to be like hell yes finally but this is all to sweet and to sad.
This isn’t why we can’t have nice things; this is Willis making us realize that we never really had nice things to begin with.
But what about Danny x Ethan? I’d say they could be a nice thing, assuming they work it out in the right way – of course, they probably aren’t, but still.
Amber?
That’s the part that won’t let it work out.
I ship Amber with getting all her stuff sorted out.
That’s an interesting use of the word “ship,” given the word’s origins as describing what relationships fans want to see. It looks like the term ship has evolved to mean what fans want to see in a particular story. It’s very cool to see how language evolves over time. =)
Yeah, I’ve never linked a song in the comments before, but I’m finding this rather cathartic right now.
http://youtu.be/RFswe9_GkjI
This bodes poorly.
This is so not good…
My heart is breaking in a splintery, shreddy, catastrophy kind of way. Why does it have to happen like this?? Isn’t poison sometimes the antidote to poison?
Okay. Two things:
1. YAY! BILLIE AND RUTH ARE GETTING BACK TOGETHER!!!
2. This is quite possibly the most heart-wrenching, spirt-killing, and absolutely feel-inducing way for it to happen. Willis, I both applaud and curse you
Yes they are getting back together in what could be the worst possible way, short of doing it in the lounge area during parents weekend. But that was last week, so given the circumstances this is about as bad as they can get at the moment.
Excuse me, that was last week “in comic time” I think IRL it was sometime after the Kent State incident but before Nixon resigned.
Really, REALLY wish I could thumb this up
Called it last night. Bless Your Dear Heart, Willis
This is exactly what I wanted, but…
It’s all wrong. I don’t want to want it anymore.
Damn you, Willis. I hope they live through the year at least.
Damn you, Willis. I hope they live through the year, at least.
Oh, lord. This is…not going anywhere good. This is so not going anywhere good.
(Not to mention, sober sex is better sex.)
But everyone knows “Watching cartoons” sex is the best sex.
I thought you pretty much needed to be at least buzzed in order to be intimate (and not just in a sexy sorta way)?
or maybe my parents are just that messed up I dunno
Not always. There’s no shame in having a few drinks and having sex. After all, it lowers your inhibitions.
Man, maybe it makes me a terrible person that I’m not even kind of sad or worried.
I’m sure it’s something else that makes you a terrible person. (Kidding, kidding…)
Remember when this relationship used to be messed up because Ruth was a bullying asshole towards Billie?
It’s still messed up but in a whole new fucked up way. 😀
This is so depressing. 🙁
Willis says that there is no Slipshine. However, he could change his mind in the future.
Because, money.
There is no slipshine. It’s a myth. It doesn’t exist. You see Sensedog, you’re finally at the age that we can tell you that things like Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Slipshine are just stories parents tell their kids about.
Whoa. Dude. My mind is blown!
Still, money.
Exactly! they are all Erotic Fanfiction!
Oh jeez.
The saddest and simultaneously most beautiful thing I’ve seen all month.
THE FEELS! they hurt so freaking very much right now!!!
f UCK
also, apropos of nothing, I made billie and ruth shirts in animal crossing
(also joyce’s monkey master shirt)
those are adorable i love them
yay, I’m glad <:
btw, feel free to put this on the doa tumblr or something
I don’t have a personal account, so I can’t really put them up anywhere anybody can see them myself
just kidding! made a tumblr
Oh man, the Monkey Master shirt is the best!
Request for a Dina hat.
idk, does new leaf let you make normal, non-conical hats?
because if so, I need to make a dexter hat to go along with the monkey master shirt
You can make beanies, yeah. I should upload my Dina hat sometime, actually.
… Well, there’s my incentive to catch up in Animal Crossing.
sweet! I’ll get started tomorrow, since the able sisters are closed for the day
So, then I uploaded it.
Aw! Adorable job, Kerry!
Oof.
And I handed you a drink of the lovely little thing
On which our survival depends
People say friends don’t destroy one another
What do they know about friends?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRP6egIEABk
There is no slipshine.
Billie and Ruth are having sex. Billie broke into her RA’s room, saw her perched on the edge of the wagon, decided to jump off with her and now the two of them are having sex to commemorate their death spiral.
There better be no Slipshine.
Mountain Goats. Nice.
I only posted this comment because my last comment linking to that song seemed not to have gone through. It has now so I look like a goon.
There will be fanart though, there will fanart….
There already is. Although, technically, it’s of the original Roomies scene rather than this one.
Kissin’ ladies and drinkin’ steak sauce!
Yes, yes…it could be seen as a big bottle of steak sauce, I thought. MY GOD, NOW WE KNOW, RUTH *IS* GETTING SAUCED! Just not in the way we all thought….
Didn’t even unscrew the top.
Might have bitten it off.
needs to have a slipshine. this would be the best!
As above, I’m going to have to disagree.
Ruth/Billie would be an incredible Slipshine.
However, this scene, with the tears and beer, it just… too messed up. Willis’s other Slipshines are all about fun, healthy relationships. I think we’ll need to wait until Billie and Ruth work out their issues some before they will be ready for Slipshine.
Not even Beer, that looks to be whiskey or bourbon.
Thank christ there’s no Slipshine for this. Tears are a TERRIBLE masturbatory lubricant.
Hey, sometimes misery orgasms are the best orgasms.
…Don’t judge me.
Yeah…I had been shipping these two for a long time, but this isn’t exactly a healthy basis for a relationship. I wouldn’t want them going back to hating each other, understand. They could be friends or [insert acceptable substitute for AA here] buddies, but getting emotionally and sexually intimate would, at this point, just fuck them up even more.
I must concur with Tamar here, and not because we share a life (such as it is), a home and an I.P. address. At first we were excited about this pairing because it reminded us of Penny and Aggie (Agenny 4ever! Woo!) but nah, even at its nadir the Penny/Aggie dynamic was never as toxic as this.
Besides, I’m never going to forgive T. Campbell for that last frame in the epilogue. I want it to succeed, damn it, and he’s left us hanging for years!
Heh. Well, given that the active fandom was about evenly divided between shippers and anti-shippers, I think that indeterminate final panel was the best way to end it. It allows the anti-shippers to imagine that Penny and Aggie have another date or three, realize they’re better as friends after all, and enjoy this friendship. At the same time, it allows the shippers to imagine that they go on another date or three, realize that after all they were meant to be, in eternal hawtness, amen.
I still ship these two like woah!
Which is exactly why I need someone to break into Ruth’s room, pry them apart with a crowbar, and ship them off to opposite ends of the country. They can meet up again four years later when they’re out of college and have both separately and successfully gone through AA.
Over in Shortpacked, the two strongest relationships are the ones that started out the most unhealthy. Maybe Willis just likes pairing really screwed up people?
Basically everyone in Willis’s comics is really screwed up, so if there are going to be relationships at all, it’s kind of a requirement.
(“in Willis’s comics” may be an unnecessary addition to that sentence.)
Also could someone remind me how Ruth is a destructive person? Only Billie’s past misdeeds are coming to mind right now. It’s just this seems a bit like saying that Batman and the Joker are essentially the same.
Although deconstructing this has become an interesting subtext of Willis’s strip.
ruth is 1) an alcoholic, 2)
generally depressed about her current life circumstances (dead parents, forced to move away from her home country,)
3) depressed that her alcoholism is making her a lot like the person who got her parents killed (as evident with her having now fallen for a drunk driver)
and 4) she uses her scary persona to drive people away from herself, probably because she doesn’t think she can have friends (hell, the first time she tried to open up to billy was a total disaster.
wow, that was some bad formatting -_-.
She also like, uses physical force against people (including when, you know, kissing Billie!!!) …. So no, Ruth isn’t a fucking saint here.
Here’s hoping they don’t become a drunken whirlwind of self pity.
So we get a girl on girl kiss, but just a week ago we shied away from a boy on boy kiss?
I think it’s because Ruth and Billie have had more development in their relationship. We’ve yet to see where Ethan and Danny might go, and the fact that Danny was thinking of kissing Ethan was the drama in that situation. But in this situation the drama is Ruth and Billie deciding to spiral downward together, sealed with that kiss–which might be one reason why they kissed and Ethan and Danny didn’t. I don’t believe it’s Willis trying to be biased against one-gendered pairing or another; I believe it’s a storytelling-related thing.
The situations aren’t really equivalent though. Billie and Ruth already have somewhat of a romantic history, rocky and uncomfortable though it may be, so it isn’t completely new ground for them; meanwhile, Danny and Ethan are both afraid of their latent attractions, and not really willing to take the initiative, especially given they’re both already in other relationships (well, maybe not Danny, depending on how things play out).
^ Yes, a better phrasing of what I was trying to say.
I’m sure we’ll get an m/m kiss at some point
hopefully it’ll be in cheerier circumstances
Billie wants free booze 😛
And free…(can’t do it, I can’t you know what fuck it) Boobs
They want to be free! </Largo>
I’ll probably lose my ruth/billie* fan club card for this but thank god there is no slipshine. I ain’t ready for that shit.
*rullie? Bith? My money is on Ruthingsworth.
Worthless.
(I went there.)
I nominate this as fanon, because then we’d have two canonical ships, Dorky and Worthless. I’m still trying to think about what the name for inevitable Ethan + Danny ship will be.
I’m not certain, but it’s gotta end in -cox, all agreed?
Siecox would probably be appropriate
Well, I was actually kind of thinking “Dangel,” but I’m not wedded to it.
they should be thematically appropriate, right?
I think “dangal” works, since willis dangled it right in front of us and snatched it away almost immediately
;B
“Siecox,” because they sie each other’s cox
okay I’ll stop now I’m sorry
Ethanny. I thought that one was easy.
ethanny’s not a word tho V:
Neither is “Dangal”. My suggestion at least sounds like a name. 😛
but it sounds like a word
I think you win. Your prize is more sorrow.
*applause*
Goddamit, Ruth, you were doing so well… Goddamit, Billie. Goddamit you two poor poor broken souls.
3 comments is too much, but now I’m curious; WHAT is this couple even going to be like? I’ve never seen this in webcomic form (I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with it now). Like the next most accessible example in my mind of this in fiction is Grushenka and Dmitri from The Brothers Karamazov or just about any Fitzgerald couple.
HAH! 3 comments is nothing. I typed up 40 comments on the “Danny discovers he’s bi” strip.
This couple is literally just a downward spiral. That’s it. Both people in it know that it’s completely self-destructive, but they feel too depressed to care.
Billie/Ruth/Booze OT3!
This is like in Monster, when somehow they managed to make Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci making out creepy instead of hot.
This just makes me goddamned sad.
I was going to make a long-winded, unfortunate statement regarding today’s comic, but your six words, IST, sum it up perfectly. It also makes me so goddamned sad.
If I recall correctly, I left a comment on a previous comic stating how Billie cheated on Ruth with alcohol (kinda reversed here but I’ll take it) to which someone replied that there would be a threesome between Billie, Ruth and booze… I think that guy and I may have been psychic…
horray for them? Idk how to feel bout this…
Fuuuuuck. My last relationship was pretty much like this (minus the alcoholism). I often half-joked that we were both broken inside and that’s what made us work together. But it wasn’t a really healthy relationship, and I never should have entered into it. This isn’t going to end well for Billie and Ruth either, I think.
On a more positive note, thank you so much Willis for the alt-text. Bisexual representation is so important to me, and I’m sure many many other bisexual readers of your feel the same way. You’ve really been hitting it out of the park with this comic, especially lately. My thanks and kudos.
yesssss
I am so pleased that every member of the original roomies weird love triangle thing (?) is bi
Is Ruth bi? I don’t think, even in the original Roomies comic, she really showed any overt attraction to Danny. She sort of played more a mentoring and nuturing role while idealizing Danny like many others in that strip but I never really picked up on Romanic undertones, except maybe as an explaination for why she put so much effort into him.
in order to be attracted to dudes, you have to want to fuck danny
Poorly phrased on my part, I was sort of trying to respond both with the point that I don’t recall Ruth overtly showing attraction to any guy (to my memory) and to the statement that there was a “Wierd Love Triangle” and I ended up blurring the two together.
Edit: And I just remembered Ruth’s Origin Story à la Roomies.
Aaaaaaand, I feel like an idiot.
I say “weird love triangle” because they were all involved with each other at one point except for danny and ruth
didn’t really know how else to phrase it
weird love trio? /shrugs
Indeed. Thanks, Willis, for your continuing policy of bi representation. ^^
People want a Slipshiine to THIS?
Let them be sober and wanty instead of depressed and needy – THAT I want Sliphshined.
Exactly – I want a Ruth/Billie Slipshine, but not THIS one.
House Willis
“Not Like This
Never Like This”
You see, people? You see what your shipping hath wrought?!
Be careful what you ship; you just might get it.
*starts shipping Ethan/Danny HARDER*
(yes I know that it will most likely end in flames but DAMMIT I LOVE IT WHEN THINGS END IN FLAMES)
I am glad I’m not the only one who thinks that Tragedy or bad decisions are a reason to hate a comic or its characters here.
Hate a twisted and bittersweet comic? What are you doing here?
Can you say ‘tragic flaw?” children? Sure, I knew you could. Can you say ‘Codependent, self-loathing, alienated, alcoholics?’ Yeah, I didn’t think you could either.
wait what?
I am so ambivalent about this in the true sense of the word.
While I can understand not wanting to make a sex comic featuring two emotionally wrecked ladies, or maybe just another lesbian comic so soon, I dunno, your reasons are your own; can I keep my hopes up for an incredibly awkward comic of Ethan and Danny?
No Billie, not like this, NOT LIKE THIS!!!!
Fuck fuck fuck I want to cry. I love them (particularly Billie) but this just makes me sad in stupid, gut wrenching way. Fuck.
Update: read this bit of the storyline and am now literally crying fuck
Welcome to “The David Willis Effect.”
*is rocking back and forth in a corner, curled up in a ball*
damn you, Willis…
These girls are just completely messed up, arent they? I hope there is a good ending to their story.
I am not sure if I like this, or would have liked it more if they both threw the bottle to the floor or out the window.
Out the window, where it can hit *rolls* Sarah.
Matrix Not Like This.gif
Yes, that’s all I can muster right now.
Guys, no.
It’s like they’re holding a bad decision party and everyone’s invited. I’m half waiting for Ethan to burst in and propose to Joyce while Danny makes out with Amber’s dad in the background.
…nope nope nope nope nope
I can’t deal when someone is willingly suppressing their sexuality
A world of NO
This is just freak’in sad.
Grats Mr. Willis, you didn’t let me down. I wanted this ship.
To bad you had to add the bottle.
It would have been horrible without the bottle. This is gut-wrenching.
Probably for the best that this isn’t a Slipshine. It would be the kind of porn that would make me want to cry.
Well, that went to roads i didn’t expect. I had this crazy idea that the drama was going to a close, and then here we have a earth shattering drama exploding everyone to the dead of space!
:(((
this actually took a while to hit me, emotionally, and I just…
wow…
fucking…
dlkl;gfds
I know exactly how you feel
gawd I just hate reading this thing I didn’t think it would go so badly
I mean, just… Ruth taking out the alcohol just…
“Lust or lust not. There is no Slipshine” So sayeth the Willis.
the strangest part is I’m okay and saddened by this . Seeing them via slipshine in this state just feels like you walked in on something super private you know?
Jeez, it’s not like all of Willis’ Slipshines are private moments or anything
Holy hell. I think we’re only a Faye Whitaker away from the ultimate alcohol fueled misery-climax.
use of the word “climax” intentional?
But there are no man-bits for either of them to headbutt and throw up on.
Yay?
In other news, we can now have a joint funeral. That’s always nice.
I have waited for this moment for a long time…the moment where I can finally post this song in the comments and have it be relevant. Beauty.
post this song in the comments and have it be relevant. Beauty.
It had to happen eventually. It was gonna happen eventually. Ruth meant in the last panel about both the liquor and the sex, I’m sure of it.
That’s what I’ve been mulling over. If she’s talking about the sex, that’s a pretty douchey thing to say. It feels even more wrong on some deeper level that I’m having trouble defining. Like she’s been patiently waiting in the friendzone for Billie to come to her. Is that too conspiracy theoristy?
That’s why I think she’s only talking about the booze.
I am simultaneously for and against this. My feels are torn.
As much as I know that this can’t end well, this relationship is so deliciously fucked up. It’s like their emotional damage is an erogenous zone for them.
Well put. I was struggling to find the right expression. This relationship may be in the same taxonomic order as Shortpacked’s most epic of hate-fucks, but it is a very different species.
Mike and Amber actually turned out mostly okay, so… I still have hope?
*slow clap*
Impressive. I was wondering if Willis was going to have Ruth accept Billie’s frantic, panicked help as a slap in the face to us RuthxBillie shippers, by giving us what we wanted in the most terrible way possible. I did not, however, expect something this harsh and sickening; it’s more like a kick in the stomach.
I’m happy….but this is a Dave Willis comic…something has to ruin this…
I GOT IT! It’s all a dream sequence! Ruth’s drunken sleeping fantasy! …or Billie’s nightmare…Or something. Pre-Emptive ‘Damn you Willis!’
….ruin? This is a horrible development, they just went ‘we’re poison, fuck it let’s self-destruct together.’
and Ruth decided to start drinking her beer again, it’s just so…
Hell that doesn’t even look like beer, from the shape, size, and colour it looks like she’s pulling straight from a bottle of JD which is soooooooo much worse. When you can’t even be arsed to pour hard liquor into a glass, excluding mickeys, you are low.
That is one Sexy last panel ….
Poor girls.
Hmm, a torrid homosexual love affair fueled by bourbon, with heavy Canadian influence. When do they start managing a trailer park in Nova Scotia?
Yes..you can touch each other..damn it!!Drop that booze!Drop that booze!Way to ruin the moment.
Also,Ruth is so beautiful!!!
So there’s no Slipshine at the moment… fine. How much would it take to bribe you to do one???
Seriously, though: I think it would be possible to do an intensely emotional, thematically consistent, and story-advancing series of strips following this that happened to involve graphic erotic activity (aka fucking). And I think we all agree Willis could pull it off. The problem with having it as a Slipshine is that that would label it as porn, and decency won’t let him doing it in-story, which is where it would belong. Ah well.
That being said, I’m calling their shenanigans getting interrupted by the discovery of the Whiteboard Dingdong Bandit.
Testify bruddah/sistah! May Willis the damned hear us now! Hallelujah!
A Billie/Ruth Slipshine might be appropriate at this point, but I think it does the characters a great disservice to have their inebriated, despair-fueled make-out session turned into… depression porn?
A Slipshine featuring their alternate universe counterparts during their hook-up in Roomies! seems a happier choice.
And their glasses go “clink” as they mash their faces together.
My favorite couple got together… and it’s painful and hollow. Yikes. I would honestly join Slipshine just for a scene between these two, but not like this… not like this…
I feel like the only one who finds this to be adorable.
you find self-loathing adorable?
In some situations, apparently. T_T
JFC what could possibly make you think this is adorable?
WHAT ISN’T ADORABLE ABOUT SELF-DESTRUCTION
except everything
This is hot…..that is all…
Perfect gravatar man.
So hot and yet so, so wrong.
I give it a week before they hate each other.
An in-comic week? Good, that means we get a whole year of this ship
Uhhhhh….so…what is the closest thing to killing someone without killing them in a fictional story and it still make sense? David Willis?
Hiatus.
Is there room for two in that handbasket?
“Most Holy will bless your child and teach you a valuable lesson about life at the same time.
Bless you.”
*throws baby*
“The valuable lesson is that you can get what you want and still not be very happy.
You’re welcome.”
Cerebus fistbump!
/goes back to “thoughts” for… reasons
/hits last strip to check out the comments
/is faced with this fucking strip again
/DIES A MILLION DEATHS
‘KAY YUP, WENT BACK AND READ ALL THE BILLIE/RUTH STRIPS, OFFICIALLY TEARING UP NOW
Now is that powerful storytelling or what.
Well, that went faster than expected. And now we have a drama hyper-hurricane in the dorm D:
The Perfect Storm
Word.
This can only end badly, but screw it. LET’S RIDE THIS DRAMA NUKE TO HELL, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!
I like how Billie holds the bottle, and then Ruth does and they both seem more focused on that than each other. Sums up the whole relationship really.
: (
I haaaaaaate
What does that spell? E-N-A-B-L-E-R. Yup, it’s gonna be a long & bumpy road.
– My subconscious is weirdly turned on by the phallic imagery in the 2nd panel, though.
Are they happy now? Are they sad? I don’t know how to feel about this. All I know is it’s fairly depressing…
Dang it. How can someone be so touching and so horrifying at the same time? 🙁
*something
KISSING! Finally!
I mean, it’s probably not healthy, but God knows they both need love. :'(
Im conflicted on which of these to use as my gravitar
Also thanks for the heads up willis
Although damn you willis u know we want that shit
BILLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!! You were doing so well! You finally stuck up for someone who cares about you. Then you had a horrible blast from the past, and I’ve been hoping you might manage to keep it together… But no, it just explodes even harder. I just really hope she finds help from somewhere. Even if it’s just leaning on Walky and Joyce, she needs to find some support that isn’t just a relationship founded on mutual self-loathing.
I just wonder where Ruth can find her support. We haven’t really seen her building any friendships other than maybe Ruth, and her brother lives pretty far away. Maybe Billie will be able to get enough of a leg to stand on to bring Ruth into her slowly building group of friends.
Meanwhile, Shortpacked Leslie (and maybe DoA Leslie, too) suddenly finds herself extremely turned on and doesn’t know why.
Oops, “sort of Billie” not “maybe Ruth.”
Oooo — SP! Leslie *would* like this film, wouldn’t she? She said as much.
Here in DoA, I’m afraid that Daisy plays that role. She would definitely Google this strip.
I’ll say it too: Dammit Willis! Seeing these two get together was NOT supposed to be a sad moment! X-(
No Slipshine? No problem! Substance abuse combined with codependent emotional train wrecks is my exact fetish. This strip definitely gets the job done!
If it exists, there is a fetish of it?
What if my fetish is the absense of a Slipshine?
win/win?
(lose/lose)
I could see it! Gods, what a dark, twisted, frustrated individual you’d have to be, though. An imagination so vivid, so magnificent and yet, because of that, so very, very vulnerable. No porn created by another mind could match the erotic richness your own private fantasies can provide…in fact, seeing such lesser porn poisons the well, so to speak, utterly ruining those actors/characters/cartoons/whatever for you, for all time, trapping you in recurring visions of a lesser human’s fantasy.
Only works that haven’t been tainted by pornography can satisfy you, and you dream of a world where the opposite of rule 34 holds sway.
That is some supervillain origin shit right there. Crom help us all.
So, despite both of them being in dire need of counseling I think this is way hot. Not just because of the impending sexy time, but for the intense feels. The only bad splotch is the booze. Which is kind of the point I guess.
Is it too much if I say that those two are big drama queens?
There is no Slipshine there is only Zuul
Dammit, Guy… why must you take everything from me!?
Damn… you… Willis…?
I might not hate the phrase “head them off at the pass” but Harvey Korman in Blazing Saddles is the first thing I thought of when reading that.
How did she get the cap off the bottle with only one hand?
That’s just what I was wondering.
Maybe she used her teeth.
They’re lucky that this is not happening in California. That’s pretty much a rape happening right there, from what that new law passed in California says. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/29/us-usa-california-sexcrimes-idUSKBN0GT0U920140829
I wonder if it is, since sexual contact began BEFORE the consumption of alcohol? I mean, it’s quite clearly rape-y, and weirdly enough that’s NOT the saddest part of the whole thing, but can it be said to be rape if canoodling begins before drinking?
I would have to say yes, and it surprises me because I didn’t think of it before, but given that the standard is “frequent and enthusiastic consent”, once the alcohol begins to work, the further consents are no longer possible (impaired state of judgement makes consent impossible).
So yes, in a certain sense, this is a rape.
Do I have to get a gravatar to change that picture? Seriously Joe isn’t exactly the image of “sober discussion about rape”
There, that’s better. Also, it’s not like Indiana, the state of Rupert “Gotta keep your babies that are the product of rape!” Murdock, will pass any progressive laws regarding rape. Our legislators would laugh any measure that helps women out of the house.
I don’t think so. IMHO, this falls well within ‘yes means yes’. Both participants are sober at the start, and both participants clearly consent — Billie makes a pass, and Ruth reciprocates…enthusiastically. They’ve clearly consented to a three-way.
The booze doesn’t get to decide one way or the other, even if it is the most important participant.
Damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it.
But what do you really think?
In the future movie adaptation, I can imagine Ruth being played by Sean Bean.
But willis isnt going to kill her off though…
Ohhhh dear. :c This can’t end well.
On a better note: ‘but the vast majority of them are actually bi’ is officially my favorite alt text ever.
Probably best there’s no Slipshine for this. I mean the past few Strips have been about ho fucked up this whole thing is.
It’s self destructive to both of them and that’s not sexy it’s just upsetting.
As a recovering drug addict/alcoholic, this is really really sad to watch. They’re both sweet people, they’re just sad and lonely and don’t know how to fix themselves. They want to know how, but the easier path of let’s get shitfaced keeps on getting in the way.
I spent more than half my life just getting fucked up on one drug or another and being poison, ruining everything i touched. It took so goddamn long to realize that I wasn’t poison, the shit i drank and smoked and snorted every day was the poison. I wasn’t ruining everything i touched on my own, I was ruining everything I touched because I had one priority, and that was more drugs. I lost friends. I killed relationships and I hurt everyone who cared about me, just like these two. I want to have high hopes for their futures, but given that it took me fourteen years to get what I needed to stop, I can’t help but think that poor Ruth and Billie are in for some very tumultuous, painful times.
Your writing and storytelling never cease to impress, Mr. Willis. I hope that the future has more pleasant things in store for these two confused sweethearts than mine did when I was 18.
This page hits just a little too close to home. Heh… ouch.
I am aware of the fact that this isn’t currently a healthy relationship, but I can’t help but find these two adorable. Even if this page is kind of a kick in the feels.
… Damn you Willis?
Aaah college, that wonderful time in a persons life where they find their true love to be the same gender and extremely alcoholic.
“Pulling the booze out of the paper sack” is now my favorite new euphemism for getting laid.
No slipshine…. because they are slipshining their way through the main comic.
I was listening to Halestorm’s “Familiar Taste Of Poison” earlier, and in the middle of it somehow my mind focused on today’s comic. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it fits this relationship all too well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZOmtPR_MTU
Hey, remember how not long ago, a bunch of people were cheering Alice on for calling Billie “poison” and saying she destroys people’s lives?
Good to know that sort of thing never backfires and makes everything worse, huh?
It is the opposite of the age-old “my hands can touch everything except themselves.”
I’m in agreement with Ruth. It was all going to happen eventually. And I’m a sucker for twisted and bittersweet. But damn you Willis anyway.
This is not the ship I wanted. This ship reeks of booze and melodrama.
But hey, a ship’s a ship, right?
Lots of ships are launched by smashing booze across the hull…
I…I love what you did there. 🙂
I just wanted to say thank you for actually stating that some characters are bi!It’s nice to see actual well developed people whose identity doesn’t revolve around their sexuality, and bi characters are really important to me to have so thank you! On another note, I’m having a lot of feelings over this story arc. I ship them, but they are feeding into the worst parts of each other? but I feel like they could be healthy for each other? I don’t know. feelings.
I…
I appreciate the plot progression and character development in this moment, but I feel so sad that they both are at this point.
The Billieruth breaches the surface once again…
…as a horrifying, disfigured ghost ship!
We will sail the seven seas, striking fear into the hearts of the living, and weirdness into their boners, until we find a way to lift the terrible curse that has befallen us. Yarrrrr!
*drops eye*
*puts it back in*
Wait, she’s been buying Johnnie Walker and throwing it out? Goddammit, Ruth, if you’re going to do that, at least go bottom-shelf.
Sorry. Sometimes I’m practical about the wrong things.
… Damn it guys. I wanted you to get together but not like this! *pain in heart*
This will end in double suicide won’t it?
Or more typical they will get fixed/cured of their bad habits by breaking up and going out with some “good” guys later?
I rather can’t see this Billie/Ruth relationship work outside bad drama result since both parties are too much broken to support other one in right way.
Willis is trying to avoid “typical”, I think. Why even bother if it’s predictable?
Ugh, teenagers are so melodramatic.
Okay. Good news is that the ship has officially launched. The bad news is it was not launched on the sea so much as via a powerful catapult manned by a crew who didn’t particularly care what direction they were flinging it in. God only knows where it will end up.
This by the by is MY theme music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpwCJzPlz8k
The comment chains in this are so long….
And as a lurker viewer, i saw this downhill spiral weeks ago. And I kept yelling at the screen for it to get better.
Is this better???
Becuase if not, whhhhyyyyyyyy….?
So at what point do the unkillable badasses break into the room? And do they bring popcorn, or more whiskey?
Wow, Danny make-outs got more comments than Billie and Ruth hooking up.
Things just keep getting weirder and weirder.
This is the saddest lesbian makeout I’ve ever seen.
What if Sarah has to do that thing again
Before this comic, I was still naively clinging to the delusion that their relationship might be more like this.
fuckin finally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMXyd91Zl5A
It just sounds fitting.
I’m glad this scene isn’t getting a Slipshine. On the one hand, yeah, Billie’s saying that Ruth doesn’t have to be alone in her misery, and it’s good to have someone, but at the same time, they’re both feeling rotten, and the booze is going to depress them even further. Here’s hoping these two get the help they need, and it’ll be easier for them if they have each other.
I agree. On one level, this is SO emo. “We’re both POISON” Why? Because they faced some things in life, and incorporated alcohol into their psyche? It’s not a great decision, but people do it because it eases the pain. But seeing themselves as fundamentally broken?
I’m not even saying “no people, let alone young college students would ever think things this damaging”. Quite the contrary, it’s believable. I’m just more wondering- WHY? Why does anyone see themselves as so broken?
Most of us want to see ourselves as exceptional. And of course, from inside, our own pain is the pain felt most keenly. SURELY NO ONE ELSE HAS FELT THIS BAD IN THE HISTORY OF EVER.
Well, that escalated quickly.
What’s Slipshine?
WHAT… NO SlipShine?!?!? sigh!!! ok imagination, do your job!!!
And then you realize that the bongoiest two girls in the comic were picked to be lesbians.
This is one of the sexiest threesomes I have ever seen and one of the things involved lacks genitalia
I cried when i read this one. I was also hoping that someone would suggest this song in the comments. http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=XXmlJQN5Pm8
YET!