This coming weekend is San Diego Comic-Con International! I’ll be at the usual booth 1330, right in the smack middle of the Webcomic Pavilion. Come see me Wednesday night through Sunday!
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This coming weekend is San Diego Comic-Con International! I’ll be at the usual booth 1330, right in the smack middle of the Webcomic Pavilion. Come see me Wednesday night through Sunday!
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Crumpling the door decal is really somber.
“That’s it?”
“What! That’s like two years’ worth of stuff!”
Someone else reads ‘Sabrina Online!’. Yay!
I forgot to read this month’s strips. Ol’ Zig had an epithany.
I’d forgotten about that comic. Used to read it all the time. Now, I’m focused entirely here and on “Stand Still, Stay Silent.”
read, more like? then it became ZigZag Online
I always wanted Sabrina to cameo in Shortpacked. With her being a toy collector it seemed like a fun idea to just have her check the store one random day looking for the newest Transformer.
And have Ultra Car make fun of her Amiga obsession.
And Ninja Rick think she was someone from that old comic… Ninja High School? 😛
http://images.yuku.com/image/png/2f1255649daa32dbd9923fa9053dfb757224bfe.png
Sabrina as a human in the short “Remote Possibilities”. I bet she showed up there in a crowd and we just didn’t notice her.
I have never seen that short before. Thanks for the heads up!
Yay! Becky has a bed!
I am overcome by the symbolism!
I wonder if Sal will notice the difference…
That would require normal sleeping habits.
What are those?
They really should have asked her about all this first, shouldn’t they
Yes, but it’s violating the rules in a minimally harmful way that’s guaranteed to piss off the authority figures. Sal will most likely approve.
I can see Sal acting this way.
As long as Becky doesn’t start borrowing her jackets without asking, I think she’ll be fine with it.
I’m more worried about Billie. Giving up her room? Trashing her beloved Dragons banner? It could just be growth, but I worry she’s tearing up too many of her roots. Hoping it works out for her.
I can’t really picture Sal caring much, other than maaaybe being worried about what will happen if/when Billie’s relationship fails.
Probably should have asked Ruth, too.
This. I’m guessing this is going to make it that much harder for Billie and Ruth to keep their secret. (Seems kind of reckless of Billie, IMO.) That, and Billie will eventually have to spill the beans about Becky to Ruth if Ruth notices Billie not even trying to keep up their charade.
I’m with Sarah. There’s no way this ends well.
Sal wont notice or just wont care, now Ruth on the other hand might get mad but i think Billie will just use it to have angry sex.
I predict lots of agnry sxe in the very near future when Ruthie learns of the consequences to this decision. xD
go dragons… :/
Going, going… gone!
Billie is now officially a Leafs fan
So I guess the next time Billie and Ruth are having sex and Ruth switches places with her she’d be turning over a new Leaf?
I’ll just see myself out.
Make like a tree and leaf
Perhaps you should branch out from comedy into other areas?
No, it’s “Make like a tree and get outta here”! You sound so stupid when you say it wrong!!
If he wants your opinion, I’m sure he’ll ASH you for it, OAK-ay?
I spent a good thirty seconds trying to figure out why you’d brought a Pokémon pun into this…
I’m gonna take a break from our typical pun shennanigans and say I know your feels, Meghan. I am somewhat sad too.
Are we already closing in on the storyline ending montage of everyone in bed? I really don’t know, I forget when the last one was.
COMIC.
Stop being sad.
Comic: “YOUR NOT MY DAD! YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT DO!!!”
Well my dad can beat up your dad!
“Something like that”? Methinks Billie just wants to leave this old life behind.
One way or another
How to make two redheads happy at the same time.
After alcohol, that’s Billie’s specialist subject!
If that’s movin’ up then I’m….Movin’ Out!
I’ve got the old man’s car
Let him polish the fenders first. 😉
Did he trade in a Chevy for a Cadillac?
I’ve got a jazz guitar.
This fills me with dread and I don’t know why.
I do. Drunken lesbian suicide pact.
No no no SEXY lesbian suicide pact sheesh
Who says sexy and drunken have to be mutually exclusive?
When Billie’s involved, it’s always a potent cocktail of the two… as Ruth can testify
“Everything the light touches.” From the Lion King.
Billie’s room is dark…
There’s a few violations of housing contracts happening right now. Bad things on the horizon, methinks.
If only someone had an in with the RA. If you know what I mean.
No but yeah this isn’t going to end well. Otoh that tends to be a given in this comic, so there’s that?
Yes, the question isn’t really if things are going to go wrong, but more when and how exactly they are going to go wrong.
And also “how severely will they impact the characters that we like?”
No offense, but that’s kinda basically my ground state attitude towards the comic as a whole.
Uuh yeah I was referring to the comic as a whole.
Bear in mind that Ruth isn’t the ultimate authority in this situation. If anyone higher up the chain finds out about this, there’s nothing she can do.
And if her relationship with Billie comes to light as a result of that (which it very well might), she’d presumably be fired.
If the higher ups get word of anything Ruth has done she’s screwed.
She can physically and mentally abuse her residents but she can’t date them? The higher ups have some strange rules here.
Generally speaking, at least in the US, having a romantic or sexual relationship with anyone that you have authority over is super-sketchy, because it’s very hard to draw the line between romance and coercion (IE “do this or I will make your life hell”).
As a result, a lot of organizations will prohibit it, or at least have very strict rules.
I’ve been expecting a major ‘dorm assignment musical chairs’ for a while. There are a few events that need to happen first, mostly settling Becky’s position so that she can legitimately stay at Indiana State rather than be a ‘sheltered vagabond’.
I, personally, think that Joyce living in Sal’s dorm would be funny, as would Amber being with Sarah.
Yeah, things could turn out pretty bad for Ruth, depending on how the administrators respond to her. She’s a borderline-suicidal alcoholic and, depending on how they interpret Billie’s story, they might decide that Ruth seduced her for her own reasons (if anything, the converse is true). That could be game over for Ruth’s RA gig whilst Billie gets her academic credits docked and maybe has to redo Freshman Year if her parents are willing to let her stay at that college but otherwise is free and clear.
I think Amber and Dorothy would make a pretty sensible choice for roomies. Maybe Sarah and Sal too, as they both prefer to keep themselves to themselves quite a bit.
Not sure about the rest of the room assignments though… 🙂
Dorothy and Sarah. “Study time!” “OK.”
Is there a precedent for Becky’s eye doing that?
Lesbian magic?
I knew it was real!!!!
Remember that this is a world where eyebrows can levitate.
She does it here http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/kinsey/, as well as yesterday, but the intensity def has gone up.
It’s not just her eye doing it; it’s also her freckles. She’s clearly a magical space munchkin.
Protective coloration. Like those moths with eye structures on their wings, Becky has an eye shaped coloration on her hair. Only… it’s where her actual eye is, so it’s very *good* protective coloration. Presumably evolution is still working out the bugs.
for some reason the ‘Bosom Buddies’ theme song is playing in my head now.
And for all of you too young to know what that is, use Google or You Tube. Early Tom Hanks fare.
Truly a one-season wonder.
And the theme song was Billy Joel’s “My Life”, IIRC.
Two seasons. [/pedant]
For some reason inspired to point out that since the phrase is a play on “one hit wonder”, if the second season wasn’t any good then calling it a “one season wonder” is still fair.
Like, it’s not that “one hit wonder” bands never produced any other music, it’s that they only ever produced one hit song.
“but what about that shadowy part?”
“the shadowy parts belong to Ruth. you must never go there.”
Unless your name is Jennifer Billingsworth
Aww you beat me to the joke.
“A femur graveyard is no place for a young prince.”
I doubt Sal will mind much one way or another. Also, I actually think her crumpling the Dragons pennant is probably a good thing, since it’s at least her letting go of her cheerleaders days. That Jennifer Billington wasn’t who she wanted to be anymore.
I dunno I don’t get so much a “I’m movin on with my life” vibe so much as a “I’ve given up” vibe.
Yeah, especially building on her refrain of how she is toxic that she’s been saying to Ruth. It’s crumpling away happy memories of exploration and meaning something albeit in a not sustainable way and completely surrendering to a spiral that not only probably will end badly but will probably leave Billie in a much worse position after it does.
After all Billie has now a) completely moved in with her lover, b) put all her self-esteem in on the NRE-infused relationship she has started, c) has decided said relationship is her last chance at love, and d) has now clearly decided to sever all ties to her old life and devote herself to this one. It’s dangerously co-dependent and that’s a lot of stress to throw on a Ruth that is already mentally circling the drain of her depression-fueled self-destruction spiral.
Ok, to quote Willis, those 2 are dangerously near “someone get this girl to a doctor yesterday” territory. And, ya, how tenuous their situation seems is worrisome. The only thing that I don’t agree with is that I don’t think that the banner crumpling comes from a dark place. I think it’s like when she told her high school friend that she “[didn’t] want to be that Billie anymore,” and that she’s not ok with how she had been. She is slipping in a dangerous direction, and she will be fragile for a while, but I get the feeling that Ruth plans to try the ‘cold wild turkey’ quit boozing suggestion again. It will be tricky with 2 depressed girls desperately trying to be each other’s rock
I agree with you in theory, but I think Billie’s expression with no eyes in the last panel is meant to be dark, not liberated.
definitely not liberated. it does come from a dark place, just saying it’s not necessarily symbolic of some dramatic leap into the abyss. i do imagine it’ll get better before it gets worse, though
Agreed; I’m expecting a serious crisis with Billie and Ruth, maybe even a brush with death.
– But what about these shadowy parts?
– Those belong to Sal. You must never go there.
*Whispers* You made the joke better than shadowcell
Aw thanks, haha. ^^”
The thing to remember about Walky’s sister is that she’s basically Batman.
Cliff Notes. My mistake.
Sal: The Dark Roomie
Sal 2: The Dark Roomie Sleeps (naked)
The lion sleeps tonight…
A wemmbaway aweembaway aweembaway…
Sal 3: The Dark Roomie Rises…In Time For class…
Unless your name is Jason Chesterfield.
So Billie’s putting her past behind, I guess?
Hope she won’t run into Alice again.
I wonder what Becky’s reaction will be to Sal sleeping “Garden of Eden” style
That depends, what are her and Dina’s views on open relationships? And also, just how straight is Sal really? (I suppose her ‘i won’t do that’ line to Marcie answered that question). Three of the most popular characters would destroy slipshine with awesome!
But in (partial) seriousness, I suppose Becky has already made her intent clear to sample their finest wimmins. And after Dina, how much finer can you get than Sal?
Pretty sure becky wants to consensually sample wimmens.
scientific method! large sample size! dina has to be all for that!
Ummmmm, has anyone told Ruth about this?
I find these last few panels really interesting. On the one hand, it feels like an absolutely positive moment— Billie’s finally letting go of one of the last remaining artifacts of her high school glory, and allowing herself to move into a collegiate mindset. Simultaneously, though, the way she is doing so is on an all-or-nothing gamble that she can maintain a secret relationship founded on a power imbalance.
It’s got me happy and sad at the same time, which I always appreciate.
The Emperor does not share your optimistic appraisal of the situation!
I wouldn’t be very optimistic either if I were the withered corpse of an incompetently sociopathic tyrant.
Or did you mean a different Emperor?
Iiiiii’m reaaaaally worried about Billie right now. I mean, one one hand she seems to be optimistic about her relationship with Ruth if she’s moving out of her dorm, but… Did she discuss this with Ruth first? And her attitude in this strip… I don’t know, I feel like she’s completely given up on… happiness? I don’t know how to explain it. It feels like this one person who’s always cheerful and cracking jokes and stuff and then one day you hear they’ve hung themselves…? I hope my intuition’s wrong.
Yeah, i’m getting a pretty dark vibe from her, and the comment from Becky adds a feeling of grim foreshadowing.
And the white eyes at the end don’t help! I hope there are no trucks in Ruth’s room…
Willis Called “No Deathsies” at the beginning, so that, thankfully is not something about which we need concern ourselves.
it’s the reflect of her glasses.
We all know there’s a significance to a facial expression being hidden behind reflective glasses (or hair bangs or just shadow depending on a character’s appearance).
Somehow I doubt that Billie will upload herself to a computer and try to take over the world.
Eek. I used the wrong email address.
That’s what Willis WANTS you to think!
On a sirius-er note, that might be kinda cool. (I said sirius-er. Not serious.)
Serial Experiments Billie?
Agreed. Taken altogether, her responses have been “I’m… gonna move in with that boyfriend I mentioned.” “Oh things are going well between you?” “Something like that” and then crumpling her dragons banner.
Suddenly worried she’s not actually planning on moving in with Ruth, just on… leaving.
…That gunpowder trail is getting rather long
Don’t worry it’ll start getting shorter soon…
…While making an interesting sound…
…And putting on a light show…
happy 4th of july, huh? ^_^
This is really bad. All it’s going to take is a bad argument between Billie and Ruth:
“You know what, Billie. I don’t want to even look at you right now. Get the fuck out of here, go sleep in your own damn room.”
“Uhhh, I can’t.”
And then the shit hits the fan.
…yeah. The second the NRE fades and they have an argument she can’t seduce her way out of, this is going to burn badly.
But hey, it wouldn’t be an accurate depiction of college if we didn’t have one character making the mistake of mistaking NRE for a solid lifelong foundation.
“NRE”?
Non-refundable Engineering?
Nippon Restaurant Enterprise?
New Renewable Energy?
New relationship energy.
Best case scenario, Billie ends up sleeping in her bed with Becky?
Awesomest scenario: Sal’s bed breaks and she joins them!
Superawesomest scenario: The entrie floor’s beds all break and everyone sleeps in one big room together (and lesbian shenanigans happen).
And Ruth, in a fit of remorse, joins them, briefly doubling the redhead quotient before the reckoning.
I think Becky should get enrolled in some classes or something.
With what money though?
What’s Billie’s pocket money like, I wonder? If history has taught us anything it’s that annoying Billie has lucrative consequences. And I know that doesn’t sound realistic, but I did once know a rich kid who got 1000s a month
…Billie got a terrible idea from hearing Becky’s story and plans to drop out to try to protect Ruth if anyone finds out about them, didn’t she? That’s where my brain’s running anyway.
Quiet, she just might hear you. I suspect that the fourth wall is made of cake because it is quite clearly a lie!
….the last panels hurts.
Panel three is the FUCKING CUTEST!
That last panel might be a sign of progress- she’s moving on. Or it could be horribly depressing. I’m not sure which one!
Even if it were progress, it could be sad… But it has a sense of finality to it, like she might be throwing out the future with the past.
I’m hoping strongly for the former.
I’m worried that having this stopgap in place is going to lead Joyce and Becky to think they no longer need to worry about finding another living situation (a job for Becky will probably still be in the cards as I’m sure she hates being broke and owning nothing but an Anderson hoodie). That “worked out in the end” sounds unpleasantly like whoever’s speaking thinks it’s a solved problem, as if they can’t get into trouble for this.
(Also worried about what Billie’s suggesting she’ll do if/when her volatile relationship ends, but other people have said that already.)
“I won’t be back here.”
“Your boyfriend’s that great, huh? Sounds pretty optimistic.”
“Something like that.”
Am I the only one reading the worst into this? After everything with Billie and Ruth and their resolve to basically not care anymore – to pretty much go down together – this is raising all the red flags. Those last three panels make me go, “D: D: D:”
You’re definitely not the only one. As cute as the 3rd panel is, this strip overall is superworrying. =/
No ones going to die, so says the Willis.
Doesn’t mean no one’s gonna try.
Maybe Becky takes over more than just Billie’s bed. A few hours ago, comic time, Billie was talking about never leaving Ruth’s room. Maybe Becky starts going to Billie’s classes and totally assumes her identity.
And then she’ll skin Billie and wear her. No one notices.
http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/123250940417/october-2 Sal telling Joyce this isn’t a permanent solution? I mean, the “everything worked out in the end” line really sounds like Joyce and/or Becky (whoever said it) think “Problems solved!”.
Nah, she’s totally blushing in front of her massive crush there…
That’s a happier way to look at it. 😀
I wonder if they realize that they’ve just uttered Famous Last Words?
Please, don’t draw Becky’s eye over her hair. It looks terribly creepy.
With all the focus on Becky’s eye, I’d like to point out that Billie’s gone full Gendo in that last panel.
Joyce: “Wow isnt that lucky that the Dean allowed Sally, Billie and a man share a single dormroom in Sin-I mean Premarital hankypan-I mean…”
“I won’t be back here.”
“Your boyfriend’s that great, huh? Sounds pretty optimistic.”
“Something like that.”
………yeahhh i know willis declared that No One Dies, but all i could imagine after this exchange was Becky thinking back on these words after Billie and Ruth’s bodies are discovered a few weeks later. Ominous.
Isn’t a double lovers suicide route considered a classic for girl/girl couple years back in fiction?
In a way it’s quite romantic to let go of this world with a person you love at the same time.
Partially because that was one of the only ways you could get away with writing queer romance. If it ended badly you weren’t giving “your approval” and you couldn’t get accused of promoting queerness and all that.
(And of courrse the whole queer person dies to teach straight person a lesson about life and crap)
“Lionel, I’m so sorry you had to sacrifice yourself keeping the doors open with your rainbow aura while we ran from that lava. You’ve taught us all that gay people are human beings and they burn just like everyone else.”
Geeez, Becky, Overpacked much? How will you ever fit all your stuff in that room.
The Gloom&Doom forcast is high but right now this is a good short term solution. Becky and Joyce get some distance, Sarah get some breathing room, Billie lives with Ruth anyway and Sal gets her own spunky brat to take her mind of Malaya. That’ will show Marcie!
I wonder why Billie’s holding the pennant upside down in panel 5.
So look I have 5 bucks on Billie dropping out after 1 semester.
Are anyone else worried that she’s keeping a sweater that’s basically evidence that she’s not a part of this dorm? We already know that Billie is aware, but if it stays in her possession, it could be discovered by Ruth or worse, Mary. Clothes need to be washed from time to time. Even ones that aren’t used in public.
It could be, like, her mom’s or something. I have a Cambridge Uni sweater, but have I ever even set foot in the UK? Nope. :3 (not for lack of wanting to, mind you)
You can also go to different university’s in sequence. Heck, I have friends that started 2 at the same time and ended up finishing 3. There’s also the more common ‘switched university’ scenario.
Drunk decision making powers activate!
What was that sound? Oh it sounds like the cocking of Chekhov’s gun.
As helpful as Billie is being right now, I’m worried that she’s essentially put Becky on Ruth’s hitlist. It’s one thing if she’s not in her room, but how is she supposed to explain Becky living there?
I know that Becky is being set up for further drama, but I can’t help wishing that someone, anyone, would ask Leslie for advice. They have a lesbian friend who is homeless after coming out to her Fundamentalist Christian family. Maybe they don’t know Leslie had a similar experience, but they do know she was literally teaching a class on the subject.
Honestly, I just miss Leslie.
Yeah. Even without knowing her history, she does seem like someone they could open up to just based on the class she teaches and her open demeanour.
I continue to be annoyed at how dismissive they are about Sarah’s opinions and put everything down to her being a pessimist, rather than thinking that it’s nice that this short-term stop-gap measure dropped into their laps, but maybe she has a point in that they should put some thought into creating and taking responsibility for an actual solution.
Also, she was kind of totally right? She said Becky needed space from Joyce and that it would be better for her if she was living someplace else. Both of which have just been validated, but apparently she was being silly?
I wonder if she’ll point out that this is not a safe long-term solution, or if she’ll remember what happened last time she said something and decide it’s not her problem anymore.
Sarah’s kind of a grumpy pessimist and Joyce doesn’t even want to consider anything that could possibly hurt Becky. So Sarah’s reasonable, yet delivered like a jerky buttface, point that Becky is being hurt by sleeping next to Joyce every night becomes “RAAR GET HER OUT”.
Joyce is keenly aware that she’s in over her head, but she’s doing everything she can to protect Becky. She’s probably not interested in hearing about how it’s a bad idea.
I’m not bothered by the in-universe dismissal of Sarah’s opinions – when you’re down in the trenches, so to speak, it can be hard to see this stuff, especially when you actively don’t want to.
It’s the ‘Sarah’s never right, she can never be right, everything she says is wrong’ in the COMMENTS that bugs me.
I’ve only been here six months now, and also I speak purely anecdotally of course, but I’ve seen very little posts about Sarah just plain never being allowed to be right about anything ever. I’m fairly critical of her myself but I would never go that far.
If anything, I’ve seen way more that she’s allowed to be hurtful to people because of her past issues with Raidah and Dana, and her introversion.
This was a mean way to foreshadow Ruth and Billie breaking up. 🙁
can the dorm keep a pet homeless person?
No. Joyce is risking expulsion by sheltering Becky. Sarah, Dorothy, Walky, Ethan and now Billie might face repercussions if it’s made aware that they’re involved as well.
In my experience, dorms often give rooms to non-eligible eligible-looking folks if you know who’s palm to grease with a few bills’ (and I do mean few, pretty much the cheapest rooms you can find in any major city). That sed, I’m not from the US and ‘dorm security’ is a literal joke here (mostly told by residents).
Only the wealthy elite are allowed such luxuries but then again, Billie is a rich girl, so…
Holy shit, I’ve reached the current ‘end’ of the backlog. Damn. Took me about a 10 days, of which at least 3 have only been reading, but here I am. Time to bookmark and speed dial this glorious comic.
Also: FAAAACE.
Tsk, not enough “A”s, rookie mistake.
Dino and Christian girl Shipping intensifies.