So she should keep it secret from Ruth and if it blows up Ruth gets into more trouble for not knowing what was happening?
Who should Billie be loyal to, Becky whom she barely knows and but finds aggravating or her girlfriend Ruth?
Really, she doesn’t realise she has much reason not to tell Ruth. Is she even aware of how dire Becky’s situation is? If she says she’s “visiting from another school,” she probably doesn’t know that Becky doesn’t have another school to go back to, and assumes it really is just a little visit. Telling Ruth isn’t malicious, here.
Please, the girl’s been Tedd’s lab assistant forever now. That changes a person. Literally. Several times a day, even.
I wonder, can her spell let her access fictional situations? If she’s watching TV (or reading a webcomic) when she casts, can she use the screen as a doorway into the story and act within it? Her scenarios are already fictional setups, however accurate they may appear. Moving another level away from reality seems possible once she gets the hang of things. If so, her new trick is a fan fiction writer’s dream come true.
based on the way it was described she can control the entire simulation, theoretically it would work like lucid dreaming allowing her to alter anything she wants, if she had enough practice theoretically she could create such a fantasy (though still frozen in time) but It would be more about designing a set to look like the story then actually entering the story. I imagine her putting all her friends in costumes and setting them up in a fantasy location similar to how Dan portrays internet conversations (except everyone but sarah is afk XD) since there is limited time to set up and enjoy such a scenario though, she would need to get really good at altering her surroundings instantly (possibly basing it on a picture and letting her subconscious do a lot of the work) of course the practical use of the simulation is for spying, (such as being able to check someones pockets or see what someones written in a not or journal without having to worry about being noticed. if she alters the entire simulation, I think certain things (especially things she was unaware of before) might still be around but the fantasy might be more a distraction and will alter the accuracy of the simulation
TLDR; she would be able to alter it as if lucid dreaming but it might cause inaccurate findings making the spell less usefull
I think in actuality this will be more about angst, as she might start using the spell to spy on her friends (unintentionally) and will find out things shes not supposed to know and may not want to tell them the truth. Dan prides himself on predictable sitcom drama.
Accuracy isn’t really a requirement when used for entertainment purposes, though. And she can let the NPCs in her sims act autonomously, which for fictional scenarios would probably be guided by her subconscious. Might actually be an interesting therapy tool when running that way.
Occurs to me EGS Sarah getting addicted to running fantasy sims could “solve” the ambient magic issue just by virtue of her chain-casting so many times a day she siphons away most of the excess power. Pandora said she eats a noticeable chunk of it with every cast. Works great until somebody/something comes looking for the person being a power hog. 🙂
That would be a great solution, but she uses up all the power in one area when she casts a spell. She’d have to find another area, one where no one will bother her while she casts it and which still has the ambient energy, to cast it again.
she is still susceptible to burnout, (wonder what color her hair would be XD) so yeah use of the magic might help deplete the excess energy but it would probably deplete her own energy as well…
its possible she might be able to animate such a scene as well, if she had the fantasy figured out in advance (or as suggested it was based on an existing story her subconcious might be able to let the similation create a scenario, but it seems like this would take up not only a lot of energy but it would push her mental abilities since she would have to consider tons of variables subconciously but be able to picture them accurately without mistakes. (like Sarah and Nanase trying to change there heights and missing the mark) though I could be wrong, she has godlike powers within the simulation so its possible that with a little practice it will be easier then that. still while it might be fun to make her own fantasy worlds that she could role play in and I could see how that would be addictive, I don’t think that would be the main purpose of the power within the comic, not that I know exactly what Dan has planned (though I imagine it may include characters being transformed) so we will just have to wait and see
hey an excuse to talk about EGS litterally just caught up on EGS and EGS NP last night, I didn’t sleep for 2 nights o_o whoever introduced me to that series I don’t know if I want to smack them or hug them, or just transgender them…
Remember, Joyce and company don’t know who Billie is dating (and Joyce is assuming its a guy). And Billie probably doesn’t know all the details about Becky’s situation (i.e. open-ended visit).
So Billy’s blabbing to Ruth is probably more due to a lack of some information, rather than maliciousness.
Also, everyone acts like it would be the end of the world for Becky to be evicted. Yes, it would be a challenge, but it’s only really terrible if they send her to her parents. If it just forces her to go to a shelter and start moving her life forward then it’s actually a good thing she be narc’d on.
I find the commenters assumption that it would be a big deal to have a non-student crashing with you really baffling. My freshman year of college, my best friend wasn’t a student at my university. When my roommate got mono, I had a spare bed in ,u room and she would sleep there most weeknights. My RA didn’t give a damn,
I just don’t think she’d care. She doesn’t want people putting themselves in danger and she doesn’t want them reflecting poorly on her. Becky’s presence does’t threaten either of those things.
Is the “you useless Bisexual” thing some sort of meme? I first noticed it when Danny was talking with Dorothy and I brushed it off as generic Danny hate. Seeing it in regards to Billie suggests there is something more behind it.
It’s from tumblr, actually! Someone once told a story in which they messed something up and their friend shouted “TIFFANY YOU USELESS LESBIAN”. It became sort of a thing, especially in all caps.
Googling, it’s definitely a thing (seems to be restricted to Tumblr, mostly)…looks to have originated as a reaction to a couple of screenshots from Free!, but that might just be the most reblogged use of the meme, not the origin.
Hey, just because I’m a redhead doesn’t mean I’m plotting something. I mean I am plotting conspiracies and the like but that’s unrelated to having red hair. (Though this post will be more pointless if my gravatar changes from a sneering Ruth).
Could be also, but i was thinking of the 1950s, when Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn — who may have been closeted — went after gays in the US govt as much as Reds, and got Ike to sign an order barring gays from federal jobs, and more people were fired for being Lavender than Red. if youve seen the movie Julie and Julia, theres a scene in which a Witch Hunting Goon from DC has come over to Paris and asks Julia Childs husband, who’s in the State Department, if hes a homosexual. That kind of thing.
I was kinda seeing it as too depressed to appreciate her efforts.
It reminds me of funks I’ve been in where I was just too depressed to really have the energy to care, and that’s what I see in Ruth.
Or maybe she’s just waking up and I’m over analyzing everything
She does care, she’s just depressed. When you’re depressed, you don’t enjoy the things you normally enjoy and life becomes very dull, among other things.
“It’s all in your head”
I’m gonna take this conversation in a radically different direction (as the person who started it I have the right to do so shaddup >.<#)
Yes it is all in your head but so is everything else, including the outside world. I mean you don't actually know the world you just know your experience of the world.
And although we trust are sense to be accurate we know they often are not.
So although it's unlikely your experience of the world is wholly inaccurate it's equally doubtful that it's fully accurate as well
So not only is it all your head, you're trapped there.
Sorry I just find this idea fascinating…
What Meghan said but with the added distinction that things being all in your head =/= being in control of what is in your head.
Shit’s hard man. And even if you can get around it you have to get around it about every damn day of your life. It’s like a bridge is out in the map of your brain and everyone else just says to flipping FLY over the gap instead.
It is short and snappy but sadly leaves the other person no wiser than when they said the stupid thing to begin with, thereby solving nothing aside from giving yourself smug satisfaction that you are unable to fully enjoy due to the aforementioned depression blunting all your feelings.
…Well, maybe the other stupid person might finally leave you alone after being insulted, so that might be kind of a small win.
Cmon, its like when you tell people with broken legs to get up and dance, same thing. Why should folks with psychological injuries get special coddling?
I find it odd that, at a college so apparently heteronormative as to apparently not understand bisexuality, there’s a concern that people will find out they’re in a relationship if they hang around each other too much (specifically Mary–I don’t see how she could leap to this specific conclusion, leading her sheltered life). I understand Billie being caught in Ruth’s clothes the next morning is problematic, but they can pass off most of this interaction as becoming friends. Friends have sleepovers, especially if one friend is an authority figure potentially helping another friend, a known alcoholic, with her issues by keeping an eye on her over weekends winkwink.
I don’t think Mary’s as sheltered as Joyce, to be honest. Brainwashed, probably. Also, maybe this is just my opinion, but sneaking in and out of the room of a person–an authority figure, no less–that you only met a month ago and are openly antagonistic with… that’s suspicious.
That’s true–Mary is clearly more comfortable talking about pre-marital pregnancy. And I agree it’s suspicious, but I just don’t think “lesbian lovers” is the first assumption people with a heteronormative mindset will make
There’s been a lot of dread about their relationship being found out by Mary, but I agree, that probably isn’t what she’s thinking of. OTOH, this is a dry campus, and Mary may well suspect that the two of them are getting drunk together (which they are) – those bottles have not always been disposed of very secretly. That’s just about as bad for both of them. Billie’s already got that DWI on her record, and Ruth as an RA is supposed to know better and is in deep trouble if she’s caught giving alcohol to a minor.
Hmmm, fair point. Still hard to get evidence of short of a public meltdown or catching them in the act, though. Whereas the boozing gets Ruth and Billie in just as much trouble and is way easier to prove.
The opposite is also true. I had a buddy in college who just up and decided to move out of our door to a different one. I thought it was because he didn’t like his roommate (apparently the guy was a Dana) and so was leaving because of that. I just thought he should try and get into a dfiferent room int he same dorm because then he’d be able to keep hanging out with everyone. Then on the final day he’s moving the rest of the stuff he pulled me into a different room with the RA and let me know that he had moved so that they could date. I knew he had been bi, but had no clue about the RA. Dude was a good guy though. Sadly my first friend, the one who was moving, is also a rampaging narcissist so it didn’t end great.
Yeah, sometimes what looks like a clever room change turns out to be an epic fail. There was a year where I swapped rooms to live with the guy who was dating the roommate of my own girlfriend. Seemed like a great idea, right? Two couples, two rooms, easy privacy. Within two weeks my new roomie broke it off with the gal he’d been dating and impregnated some girl from another dorm. I got to deal with his angry ex, my girlfriend who was pretty doubtful about me all of a sudden, and his understandably unhappy new lass. At least I had the room mostly to myself after the abortion – he pretty much moved to her dorm for months after that.
Actually, Mary strikes me as one of the girls who converts to fundamentalist Christianity from an atheist background as opposed to someone raised in the faith.
They DO understand Bisexuality.
That’s the problem here.
Ruth is the R.A.
Billie is her charge. Ruth isnt allowed to sleep with , OR worse have relationships with her students. She could fired and lose her job.
NO, Mary isnt sheltered. She’s actually quite quite worldly and just scornfully judgemental .
Yeah, even an entirely consensual relationship is a serious ethics violation under every RA contract I’ve ever seen. They could sidestep it easily enough if Billie just requested a room swap to some other RA’s dorm/floor/wing before getting caught out, but that wouldn’t be tragic enough, would it?
That would only happen if the comic were called “Everyone Is Smart and Makes Good Rational Decisions Age” and not “Dumbing of Age”, to paraphrase Willis.
Actually, most of the characters we’ve seen discussing bisexuality and who are *not* bi don’t seem to have a good grasp on the concept. Becky and Danny are prime examples, and Dorothy is even a little hesitant talking about it. Only Billie has displayed a very clear understanding, which makes sense because she has known that she’s bi for awhile.
I understand why they don’t want people finding out, I never indicated that I didn’t, I just really doubt that it’s the first assumption people will jump to. Most straight people will project their own mindset and assume two straight friends unless it gets super obvious, and I just don’t see it at the super-obvious point yet.
And sorry, but Mary isn’t worldly. Maybe sheltered was a bit too strong of a characteristic to assign, but she certainly isn’t open-minded, and that had to be due to some degree of sheltering.
You really don’t have to be sheltered to be a judgmental asshat. Like… at all. The graphic descriptions of anal sex you sometimes hear from homophobes are second in detail only to erotic fanfic. They know, they just hate.
Mary doesn’t have to have a good grasp of what bisexuality is in order to suspect Ruth and Billie to be in a relationship. She knows that gay people are out there, and has seen Billie sneak in and out of Ruth’s room. Like she doesn’t want to be seen. And she’s the kind of person to assume the interpretation of a situation where others are evil sinners who have fallen short of the grace of God. As opposed to sheltered Joyce who assumes the best in people.
People have differing hobbies. Some folks like scale models. Others like flying kites. And some of us spend time suspecting everyone around us of mischief and malice.
Oh no. Oh no. Because now Ruth will see Becky being around… and around… all the time… this cannot end well. Nothing ends well. I’m waiting in fear to see what terrible thing happens at the party.
I feel like Ruth, except instead of being suspicious of everyone, it’s suspicious of Willis and of anything that looks happy.
I can’t imagine Dina and Becky at all.
I mean Dina is just so quite and blends into the woodwork
And Becky is so loud and she nukes closets from orbit
…Then again you know what they say about opposites.
Aaaand just like that, there goes Becky’s cover. I don’t remember if Joyce asked her to keep it a secret though. Becky was pretty much flaunting herself to everybody at the time.
There is a bit of that vibe, isn’t there? Maybe it was a gift from the other RA and he’s secretly in love with Ruth? I’ve seen Trekkies give weirder gifts when courting. 🙂
Maybe I got lucky. But I lived in dorms for 2 1/2 years of college and I never had an R.A. who cared what we did, unless there was the smell of weed. Pretty much saw them 3 times per year each.
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BILLIE YOU FUCKING NARC
BILLIE YOU FUCKING ‘HOLIC
am i doing it right
Why wouldn’t she tell her girlfriend?
Because she’s now put her girlfriend in the uncomfortable situation of having to possibly evict Becky from the building if she wants to keep her job?
So she should keep it secret from Ruth and if it blows up Ruth gets into more trouble for not knowing what was happening?
Who should Billie be loyal to, Becky whom she barely knows and but finds aggravating or her girlfriend Ruth?
Really, she doesn’t realise she has much reason not to tell Ruth. Is she even aware of how dire Becky’s situation is? If she says she’s “visiting from another school,” she probably doesn’t know that Becky doesn’t have another school to go back to, and assumes it really is just a little visit. Telling Ruth isn’t malicious, here.
Definitely not malicious. A bit careless, though.
She doesn’t have a reason to be careful. Billie’s not aware of Becky’s situation.
I’m with Ringo here.
Nor any responsibility to be careful, keeping Becky is Joye’s project, so she has to be the one to water, feed her and keep her form being impounded.
Next strip: Ruth finds Becky loitering in the hallway and wheelclamps her. Joyce has to pay a fine to get the clamp removed.
Surely that would be Carla getting the wheelclamps, wouldn’t it?
We would all do so many things differently if we were in these characters’ shoes but with the knowledge we have from watching all of them at once.
Oh, I agree with you completely on that.
But it’s still a rotten thing to do to Becky, so of course the commenters are going to take issue with it.
thats why i read these comic, everyone sees the same comic yet there are so many different opinions and all based of everyones own experiences
Its brilliant
Billie has no clue that Becky is homeless.
^ This.
^ that
it like this and that and this an ah
^ and the other thing
I@d assume that Bille thinks Ruth will just do whatever she wants but square it with her masters as best she can.
GOSH BILLIE DONT JUST NARC ON EVERYONE
Now she has something in common with Sarah.
Harsh.
It isn’t “narc”ing if she doesn’t know Becky is actually living with Joyce atm. Billie has no clue about Becky’s actual situation.
But it is narc-ing if she tells Ruth about a prty Joyce probably shouldn’t be having in the dorms.
“She’s been around.”
Nice subtle implication there. Looks like Billie wants Ruth to blackmail Becky so the next slipshine will be amazing.
And now I cannot shake the idea that EGS Sarah reads Slipshine. Extra disturbing considering what her mark does.
…noooooo. Your mind, out the gutter.
Please, the girl’s been Tedd’s lab assistant forever now. That changes a person. Literally. Several times a day, even.
I wonder, can her spell let her access fictional situations? If she’s watching TV (or reading a webcomic) when she casts, can she use the screen as a doorway into the story and act within it? Her scenarios are already fictional setups, however accurate they may appear. Moving another level away from reality seems possible once she gets the hang of things. If so, her new trick is a fan fiction writer’s dream come true.
based on the way it was described she can control the entire simulation, theoretically it would work like lucid dreaming allowing her to alter anything she wants, if she had enough practice theoretically she could create such a fantasy (though still frozen in time) but It would be more about designing a set to look like the story then actually entering the story. I imagine her putting all her friends in costumes and setting them up in a fantasy location similar to how Dan portrays internet conversations (except everyone but sarah is afk XD) since there is limited time to set up and enjoy such a scenario though, she would need to get really good at altering her surroundings instantly (possibly basing it on a picture and letting her subconscious do a lot of the work) of course the practical use of the simulation is for spying, (such as being able to check someones pockets or see what someones written in a not or journal without having to worry about being noticed. if she alters the entire simulation, I think certain things (especially things she was unaware of before) might still be around but the fantasy might be more a distraction and will alter the accuracy of the simulation
TLDR; she would be able to alter it as if lucid dreaming but it might cause inaccurate findings making the spell less usefull
I think in actuality this will be more about angst, as she might start using the spell to spy on her friends (unintentionally) and will find out things shes not supposed to know and may not want to tell them the truth. Dan prides himself on predictable sitcom drama.
Accuracy isn’t really a requirement when used for entertainment purposes, though. And she can let the NPCs in her sims act autonomously, which for fictional scenarios would probably be guided by her subconscious. Might actually be an interesting therapy tool when running that way.
Occurs to me EGS Sarah getting addicted to running fantasy sims could “solve” the ambient magic issue just by virtue of her chain-casting so many times a day she siphons away most of the excess power. Pandora said she eats a noticeable chunk of it with every cast. Works great until somebody/something comes looking for the person being a power hog. 🙂
That would be a great solution, but she uses up all the power in one area when she casts a spell. She’d have to find another area, one where no one will bother her while she casts it and which still has the ambient energy, to cast it again.
she is still susceptible to burnout, (wonder what color her hair would be XD) so yeah use of the magic might help deplete the excess energy but it would probably deplete her own energy as well…
its possible she might be able to animate such a scene as well, if she had the fantasy figured out in advance (or as suggested it was based on an existing story her subconcious might be able to let the similation create a scenario, but it seems like this would take up not only a lot of energy but it would push her mental abilities since she would have to consider tons of variables subconciously but be able to picture them accurately without mistakes. (like Sarah and Nanase trying to change there heights and missing the mark) though I could be wrong, she has godlike powers within the simulation so its possible that with a little practice it will be easier then that. still while it might be fun to make her own fantasy worlds that she could role play in and I could see how that would be addictive, I don’t think that would be the main purpose of the power within the comic, not that I know exactly what Dan has planned (though I imagine it may include characters being transformed) so we will just have to wait and see
hey an excuse to talk about EGS litterally just caught up on EGS and EGS NP last night, I didn’t sleep for 2 nights o_o whoever introduced me to that series I don’t know if I want to smack them or hug them, or just transgender them…
It took me three days to marathon everything when I first found it. Addictive to a degree matched only by DoA.
A problem only compounded by the sketchbook and newspaper sections.
NEXT THING YOU KNOW SHE’LL BE BLOWING UP INNOCENT DRUG DEALERS AND DOGS
Oh wait, wrong NARC.
When the fuck did Ruth get the nickname “Narc”?
Re; Billie being a ‘Narc’…
Remember, Joyce and company don’t know who Billie is dating (and Joyce is assuming its a guy). And Billie probably doesn’t know all the details about Becky’s situation (i.e. open-ended visit).
So Billy’s blabbing to Ruth is probably more due to a lack of some information, rather than maliciousness.
come on, haven’t you watched sports on the telly and yelled at the players even though they can’t hear you because yay release of violent tension
Or shouted sports referees because they doesn’t have the benefit of a bird’s eye view over the action like your TV screen provides
Also, everyone acts like it would be the end of the world for Becky to be evicted. Yes, it would be a challenge, but it’s only really terrible if they send her to her parents. If it just forces her to go to a shelter and start moving her life forward then it’s actually a good thing she be narc’d on.
Like Becky has any idea what’s going on or that she shouldn’t tell Ruth.
What did I miss that makes her a “bad person” for offhandedly mentioning it to Ruth?
I find the commenters assumption that it would be a big deal to have a non-student crashing with you really baffling. My freshman year of college, my best friend wasn’t a student at my university. When my roommate got mono, I had a spare bed in ,u room and she would sleep there most weeknights. My RA didn’t give a damn,
http://www.rps.indiana.edu/doc/AtoZGuide.pdf
3. Occupancy of a room is limited to the residents assigned to that room.
The room will be used only as living space.
per the ACTUAL school’s dorm rules
[also remember that Ruth is NOT known for not giving a damn]
I just don’t think she’d care. She doesn’t want people putting themselves in danger and she doesn’t want them reflecting poorly on her. Becky’s presence does’t threaten either of those things.
Right. and that’s dependent on the RA giving a damn.
BILLIE YOU USELESS BISEXUAL
Don’t be so orientationist! 😛
You’ll thank her when she’s keeping Ruth distracted during the party.
Is the “you useless Bisexual” thing some sort of meme? I first noticed it when Danny was talking with Dorothy and I brushed it off as generic Danny hate. Seeing it in regards to Billie suggests there is something more behind it.
I’ve been wondering, too. It doesn’t seems particulary funny.
It’s from tumblr, actually! Someone once told a story in which they messed something up and their friend shouted “TIFFANY YOU USELESS LESBIAN”. It became sort of a thing, especially in all caps.
I always read it was a play on the old SNL news skits with Jane Curtin and Dan Akroyd, but that’s just me.
“Jane you ignorant slut” closely followed by Jane ripping her blouse open. Classic SNL bit from the early years.
Googling, it’s definitely a thing (seems to be restricted to Tumblr, mostly)…looks to have originated as a reaction to a couple of screenshots from Free!, but that might just be the most reblogged use of the meme, not the origin.
“That’s racist.” *+1 Sin ding*
Everyone is suspicious. Did you see Rachel? She’s hiding something.
She’s hiding a whole ‘nother Rachel is what. We can’t have two Rachels! It’ll make the cast page confusing!
She’s too pretty to be a good person.
Nothing more suspicious than a redhead… errr wait…
Ruth’s new hobby is Billie
Crack is cheaper… 😛
Pretty sure Billie is cheaper. She will occasionally pay YOU when you date her.
“Have a twenty.”
It’s more like she’ll pay you *not* to date her. And by “date her,” she means “be anywhere in her sight.” (I’m looking at you, Becks.)
Dunno, there’s some pretty cheap alcohol out there. Can’t say whether it’s safe (a relative term when it comes to ethanol), but it’s cheap!
It’s kind of an open ended visit.
Ruth’s hobby, raving paranoia. She’d have been right at home during the 1950s.
Especially since she’s Canadian. She could have accused people left and right of socialism, and had a very good success rate.
Of course, that decade wasn’t exactly noted for tolerance of non-heterosexual relationships, so perhaps I’m wrong.
(Cough) Roy Cohn (cough)
Would she be protesting at CCF conventions?
Young, college educated, non-traditional sexuality, I’m pretty sure she’d be part of the “Red Menace”.
At the moment, she’s just a ginger menace.
Just being a ginger was grounds for suspicion. But that’s always been true. Can’t trust redheads. 🙂
Hey, just because I’m a redhead doesn’t mean I’m plotting something. I mean I am plotting conspiracies and the like but that’s unrelated to having red hair. (Though this post will be more pointless if my gravatar changes from a sneering Ruth).
You could use Galasslo and it’d still work!
Fools, you will not know what I am planning until it is too late!
“Lavender Menace”
That would be Tedd from EGS, wouldn’t it?
Could be also, but i was thinking of the 1950s, when Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn — who may have been closeted — went after gays in the US govt as much as Reds, and got Ike to sign an order barring gays from federal jobs, and more people were fired for being Lavender than Red. if youve seen the movie Julie and Julia, theres a scene in which a Witch Hunting Goon from DC has come over to Paris and asks Julia Childs husband, who’s in the State Department, if hes a homosexual. That kind of thing.
This is going to get funny
Taking out the trash? Who knows what’s in there.
Having a party? How many drugs are being taken?
Eating cake? Aren’t you chewing a little too loudly?
Ruth: “Becky sounds hot. Any chance she’s into girls?”
Billie: “I guess we’ll never know.”
That’s the real mystery isn’t it?
If there’s one thing Becky is known for, it’s being mysterious about her sexual preferences.
http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-sarcasm-i-get-it-now-see-at-the-time-i-thought-your-jokey-manner-was-just-the-way-you-were-jon-stewart-269959.jpg
+ 1 internets.
I honestly think she may be a question mark on the Kinsey scale
She totally denies it!!
Looking menacingly down at each other is how these two say hello
God this just makes me sad.
Billie’s trying to be a good girlfriend by bringing Ruth some food, but Ruth just couldn’t care less..
I’m not sure what you’re implying, but I think it’s more about the fact that she’s depressed than that she doesn’t appreciate Billie’s efforts.
I was kinda seeing it as too depressed to appreciate her efforts.
It reminds me of funks I’ve been in where I was just too depressed to really have the energy to care, and that’s what I see in Ruth.
Or maybe she’s just waking up and I’m over analyzing everything
I think you’re right. It reminds me friends who’ve been depressed. Barely eating or sleeping, apathetic, uninterested in doing anything. …Yep. :/
Ah, was wondering if I was the only one that noticed that she… probably won’t eat it at all.
I mean, seriously, I wish eating *cold* burgers on no one.
…I was assuming another reason for lack of appetite, tho.
But…but I like cold hamburgers…
She does care, she’s just depressed. When you’re depressed, you don’t enjoy the things you normally enjoy and life becomes very dull, among other things.
Understatement of the millennium.
And gods, I hate it when people tell me to just cheer up.
I know, right? What’re you going to say, “gosh, I didn’t think of cheering up! I’ll do that right now, oh boy I feel so much better”
My usual response is “Holy shit, why didn’t I think of that?”
“It’s all in your head.”
Yes. Perhaps that’s because there’s nothing in yours.
“It’s all in your head”
I’m gonna take this conversation in a radically different direction (as the person who started it I have the right to do so shaddup >.<#)
Yes it is all in your head but so is everything else, including the outside world. I mean you don't actually know the world you just know your experience of the world.
And although we trust are sense to be accurate we know they often are not.
So although it's unlikely your experience of the world is wholly inaccurate it's equally doubtful that it's fully accurate as well
So not only is it all your head, you're trapped there.
Sorry I just find this idea fascinating…
What Meghan said but with the added distinction that things being all in your head =/= being in control of what is in your head.
Shit’s hard man. And even if you can get around it you have to get around it about every damn day of your life. It’s like a bridge is out in the map of your brain and everyone else just says to flipping FLY over the gap instead.
Which is why you can be wrong about what youre looking at but not about what you see.
On the other hand, what we see is what the Universe looks like when we look at it.
And, finally, we all live in our own little worlds, inside our heads, but some of them are more congruent with each other than others
Meghen TWE you gave me an excuse ..uh, reason to propagate 3 of my very favoritist memes. Bless you, for you have made my day!
So I guess the way to cure yourself of depression is to discover that you are The One and overthrow The Matrix
Gordon, I’ll be sending you royalties on that line every time I use it. It’s too good to leave on the comments “floor” . . .
It is short and snappy but sadly leaves the other person no wiser than when they said the stupid thing to begin with, thereby solving nothing aside from giving yourself smug satisfaction that you are unable to fully enjoy due to the aforementioned depression blunting all your feelings.
…Well, maybe the other stupid person might finally leave you alone after being insulted, so that might be kind of a small win.
Aww… sad kitty-face grav + that comment took all the fun out of it for me. Le sigh.
Cmon, its like when you tell people with broken legs to get up and dance, same thing. Why should folks with psychological injuries get special coddling?
“Why don’t you just stop having cancer?”
“have you tried not being a mutant?”
I find it odd that, at a college so apparently heteronormative as to apparently not understand bisexuality, there’s a concern that people will find out they’re in a relationship if they hang around each other too much (specifically Mary–I don’t see how she could leap to this specific conclusion, leading her sheltered life). I understand Billie being caught in Ruth’s clothes the next morning is problematic, but they can pass off most of this interaction as becoming friends. Friends have sleepovers, especially if one friend is an authority figure potentially helping another friend, a known alcoholic, with her issues by keeping an eye on her over weekends winkwink.
I don’t think Mary’s as sheltered as Joyce, to be honest. Brainwashed, probably. Also, maybe this is just my opinion, but sneaking in and out of the room of a person–an authority figure, no less–that you only met a month ago and are openly antagonistic with… that’s suspicious.
That’s true–Mary is clearly more comfortable talking about pre-marital pregnancy. And I agree it’s suspicious, but I just don’t think “lesbian lovers” is the first assumption people with a heteronormative mindset will make
There’s been a lot of dread about their relationship being found out by Mary, but I agree, that probably isn’t what she’s thinking of. OTOH, this is a dry campus, and Mary may well suspect that the two of them are getting drunk together (which they are) – those bottles have not always been disposed of very secretly. That’s just about as bad for both of them. Billie’s already got that DWI on her record, and Ruth as an RA is supposed to know better and is in deep trouble if she’s caught giving alcohol to a minor.
No, the relationship is what she’s suspicious of: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/dvr/
Hmmm, fair point. Still hard to get evidence of short of a public meltdown or catching them in the act, though. Whereas the boozing gets Ruth and Billie in just as much trouble and is way easier to prove.
The opposite is also true. I had a buddy in college who just up and decided to move out of our door to a different one. I thought it was because he didn’t like his roommate (apparently the guy was a Dana) and so was leaving because of that. I just thought he should try and get into a dfiferent room int he same dorm because then he’d be able to keep hanging out with everyone. Then on the final day he’s moving the rest of the stuff he pulled me into a different room with the RA and let me know that he had moved so that they could date. I knew he had been bi, but had no clue about the RA. Dude was a good guy though. Sadly my first friend, the one who was moving, is also a rampaging narcissist so it didn’t end great.
*out of our dorm. ARRGGHHHH no EDIT!!
Yeah, sometimes what looks like a clever room change turns out to be an epic fail. There was a year where I swapped rooms to live with the guy who was dating the roommate of my own girlfriend. Seemed like a great idea, right? Two couples, two rooms, easy privacy. Within two weeks my new roomie broke it off with the gal he’d been dating and impregnated some girl from another dorm. I got to deal with his angry ex, my girlfriend who was pretty doubtful about me all of a sudden, and his understandably unhappy new lass. At least I had the room mostly to myself after the abortion – he pretty much moved to her dorm for months after that.
Actually, Mary strikes me as one of the girls who converts to fundamentalist Christianity from an atheist background as opposed to someone raised in the faith.
“born again [religion]” tend to be the most extremist lunatics.
Saul/Paul?
They DO understand Bisexuality.
That’s the problem here.
Ruth is the R.A.
Billie is her charge. Ruth isnt allowed to sleep with , OR worse have relationships with her students. She could fired and lose her job.
NO, Mary isnt sheltered. She’s actually quite quite worldly and just scornfully judgemental .
Yeah, even an entirely consensual relationship is a serious ethics violation under every RA contract I’ve ever seen. They could sidestep it easily enough if Billie just requested a room swap to some other RA’s dorm/floor/wing before getting caught out, but that wouldn’t be tragic enough, would it?
That would only happen if the comic were called “Everyone Is Smart and Makes Good Rational Decisions Age” and not “Dumbing of Age”, to paraphrase Willis.
Actually, most of the characters we’ve seen discussing bisexuality and who are *not* bi don’t seem to have a good grasp on the concept. Becky and Danny are prime examples, and Dorothy is even a little hesitant talking about it. Only Billie has displayed a very clear understanding, which makes sense because she has known that she’s bi for awhile.
I understand why they don’t want people finding out, I never indicated that I didn’t, I just really doubt that it’s the first assumption people will jump to. Most straight people will project their own mindset and assume two straight friends unless it gets super obvious, and I just don’t see it at the super-obvious point yet.
And sorry, but Mary isn’t worldly. Maybe sheltered was a bit too strong of a characteristic to assign, but she certainly isn’t open-minded, and that had to be due to some degree of sheltering.
You really don’t have to be sheltered to be a judgmental asshat. Like… at all. The graphic descriptions of anal sex you sometimes hear from homophobes are second in detail only to erotic fanfic. They know, they just hate.
How come they know so much? Either they are reading way to much porn or invested a lot of energy in finding out. 😏
me thinks the homophobes protests too much 🙂
Mary doesn’t have to have a good grasp of what bisexuality is in order to suspect Ruth and Billie to be in a relationship. She knows that gay people are out there, and has seen Billie sneak in and out of Ruth’s room. Like she doesn’t want to be seen. And she’s the kind of person to assume the interpretation of a situation where others are evil sinners who have fallen short of the grace of God. As opposed to sheltered Joyce who assumes the best in people.
People have differing hobbies. Some folks like scale models. Others like flying kites. And some of us spend time suspecting everyone around us of mischief and malice.
Well Billie, you probably just led Ruth to know too much about Becky. Good job.
*hanna from octopus pie voice* I’M the narc!
Looks like Ruth might find out about Becky if she decides to drop by the party.
*plays Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” on the Muzak*
Oh no. Oh no. Because now Ruth will see Becky being around… and around… all the time… this cannot end well. Nothing ends well. I’m waiting in fear to see what terrible thing happens at the party.
I feel like Ruth, except instead of being suspicious of everyone, it’s suspicious of Willis and of anything that looks happy.
Well on the bright side since time passes so slowly in DOA it’ll probably be like three years before Ruth starts to get really suspicious.
If Beckys gaydar picks up Ru-Bie , then they can have a stalemate,
provided they can keep Mary from finding out about both.
Billie just Danned it up.
Just something I noticed on the Cast page, Becky is ogling Dina, and Amber and Ruth are staring at eachother.
I have New ships.
I can’t imagine Dina and Becky at all.
I mean Dina is just so quite and blends into the woodwork
And Becky is so loud and she nukes closets from orbit
…Then again you know what they say about opposites.
…they annihilate one another in a blaze of hard radiation?
Next Slipshine, David Willis is trying to attract some of that physics-porn crowd.
Mmmm, physics porn. Work that coefficient of friction, baby.
Panel 1: Two objects approach against a black background
Panel 2: All white
Panel 3: Static
I notice you don’t have any objections to AmbRuth.
Nuking a closet from orbit would only be a problem if Dina were hiding behind the closet door.
It doesn’t look like Amber and Ruth staring so much as both of them staring at Sal…
Well that’s because everyones hiding some shit, just stop and let’s recap everything that’s happened up to this point.
You forget about Dina.
Dina hides herself all the time, often by accident.
The Saruyama family must have descended from talented ninjas.
Perhaps. Does she have a summer job as a janitor?
Mang, I love Ruth without glasses even more.
This is strange for me.
I’m still trying to determine who’s the top and who’s the bottom in Ruth and Billie’s relationship. Maybe they take turns.
Just imagine those two with Becky in a threesome. Smokin’!
Is Ruth thinning out?
I wonder if Ruth would willingly throw out Becky when she’s breaking the same rules.
Becky’s an RA banging one of her charges? I seem to have missed a plotline or two.
Aaaand just like that, there goes Becky’s cover. I don’t remember if Joyce asked her to keep it a secret though. Becky was pretty much flaunting herself to everybody at the time.
Oh she did, but by the time Becky spilled the beans, the damage was done. And then Becky had to blow it even more by being Becky.
Wow. Billie is a lot nicer than I would be if someone pulled that Jersey crap on me.
But Ruth being Ruth is part of the attraction for Billie. Remember the “courtship” phase of their relationship.
So, in the end, we’ll never know wether she had to run naked (with socks) throught the hall.
Towels are a thing.
But everyone to their own head-cannon.
(or other portable weapon of mass disruption).
Relatively few ravenous bugblatter beasts on campus, thankfully.
The clothes Ruth’s wearing reminds me of the female uniforms from the original Star Trek.
There is a bit of that vibe, isn’t there? Maybe it was a gift from the other RA and he’s secretly in love with Ruth? I’ve seen Trekkies give weirder gifts when courting. 🙂
And they have Toronto Maple Leafs colors. Maybe the other RA is a Trekkie/Maple Leafs fan 🙂
To me it seems like it was probably just a gift from Howard.
It’s a shirt, shaped like a jersey but, long enough to wear like a short dress. They have them in Wings’ alternate colors near me.
Ruth is a leafs fan. Saying anything about them has provokes her anger.
Everyone acts like I’m a crazy tyrant or something.
“Possibly homosexual. Must investigate further.“
Maybe I got lucky. But I lived in dorms for 2 1/2 years of college and I never had an R.A. who cared what we did, unless there was the smell of weed. Pretty much saw them 3 times per year each.