Dina was looking out the door for Carla’s reveal. Not clear what she did after, but if she caught the start and knows the resolution, I’d assume she’s got the basics.
Not likely, since she had to ask Dina what was going on in the hall. If she’d been in the room when the shouting happened next door, she’d have been able to put 2 and 2 together.
She could still be watching Ruth though. Only knowing where she’s being taken would also be cause for concern.
She is debating the pros and cons of jumping out the window currently to escape Dina’s excitement while also avoiding the mass or people gathered in the hallway gossiping over what is going on with Ruth.
Dina is the cutest most precious thing. I wanna see her use those legs on Becky.
Right guys, that’s how the lesbian works, right? [sarcasm if that wasn’t clear]
Great, now I’m convinced that GWS and EGS take place in the same ‘verse.
And All New Issues too by extension, I guess… and that ties in Something Positive, doesn’t it? And didn’t they have ties to Walkyverse, which at some point had a tie to EGS? We’ve come full circle… they were connected all along!
Even if it is forced on her. I can speak from experience that sometimes people only get help because it is kind of forced on them or because they don’t care enough to fight it being given to them.
Yes. If a person lacks the ability to say “No” then whatever is happening is happening without their consent. That isn’t (necessarily) physical force, but it is force.
That said, I think forcefully intervening when someone’s reached the point where they literally can’t take care of themselves is the right thing to do.
yeah. I imagine things would have been different if i wasn’t locked up after i tried to get a game over. I was so like ruth at the time. I actually stayed in my room the entire first day there.
Consent is active, yes. You cannot get passive consent, that’s not how consent works.
However, I remind you that we don’t require the consent of an unconscious drowning person to pull them out of the water and administer resuscitation procedures.
Actually it depends on what you’re talking about. In first aid, as you brought up with the drowning, being unconscious or unresponsive is assumed consent for someone to give you medical assistance. While if the person is alert and responsive they have to indicate you can help them before it’s okay.
On the one hand, Ruth was pretty much in depressive catatonia, so you could make a case for unresponsive.
On the other hand, I’m guessing what we’re missing now is the strips where Chloe pulls up a chair next to the bed and starts talking to Ruth, telling her she’s not fired yet and their first priority is going to be getting her okay, and Billie saying she won’t leave and Chloe going “actually given the current circumstances what Ruth needs most right now is someone to keep an eye on her” or something.
Mary wanted to keep everything between the residents, because she was “winning against” Ruth and to bring an authority figure in would destroy her blackmail leverage.
Rachel texted the RM when she learned Ruth is suicidal.
I.U. has a medical school with a real hospital. So maybe their health services for students aren’t so bad?
The health center at my college was okay. Wait times were long and they kind of tended to under-diagnose things (I was once diagnosed with run-of-the-mill acid reflux, went to a real hospital and found out I had ulcers). But they would give you medication and notes to give to your professors if you needed them.
Can’t speak to how things are at IU, but my school (USF) has a med school as well, and our student health clinic is actually fairly good, comparable to the doctors treating me before I started grad school.
We also have a counseling center that can handle crises (I know this from experience).
So it’s possible that she’ll get the help she needs on campus, or at least they might realize they should send her to a specialist.
As someone who’s worked on a crisis hotline, I’m a bit skeptical about hospitals as well. It seems to me that the amount of help received can vary a great deal by individual staff members, so I hope that Ruth ends up speaking with someone helpful.
I’ve been to hospitals for suicidal ideation and attempts, and yes, they’re incredibly hit and miss, and often do both (eg a long wait with no help other than that you’re not easily able to proceed with dying, but after way too long you get an actually sympathetic doctor)
They’ll most likely take her to the health center first. When I was having a crisis due to depression and anxiety (but not suicidal ideation), I actually went to the physical health center first – my alma mater separates the mental and physical health centers.
In my experience they do ask you if you want to go to the hospital, should they call an ambulance for you, do you have a preference of going to the local one or going home to see your own doctor.
They let me rest on one of the beds for a while, gave me water, and gave me a referral to the mental health center. It was a very calming experience. The physical health center people were very caring.
But I realize my experience is not the same – and I also wasn’t suicidal so it was probably very different for others. I think it depends on the level of crisis. Some just ideate, others are literally in physical danger of hurting themselves. Ruth can’t get out of bed or move much, so I have a feeling they’ll take her to the hospital right after the health center.
My old school had a really good mental health division of the health center. We had actual full time counselors and some of the teachers for the master’s level counseling courses (who all had doctoral degrees in mental health treatment) did some crisis management.
Most cereals are 50% marshmallows, and 50% sugar, and they somehow still manage to find room to squeeze in a hint of actual flavor.
..maybe that’s just a hallucination caused by the excessive amounts of sugar, though. :/
Sarah has now absorbed the commenters and audience. We are all Sarah now, doomed to watch and wait apprehensively, with just enough hope left in our jaded hearts to cry out “Damn You!” to a magnificent world and forces beyond our control.
That sound effect was supposedly created by manually dragging the actual recording tape consisting bongos (and other noises) back and forth (rather quickly) across the playback heads of a tape recorder and then recording that output to another tape!
Joyce and Becky return to find that everyone else has built a giant Becky statue out of wood and are preparing to sacrifice Mary to the Sun Child Ruth, who has fallen into legend despite only being gone for 20 minutes
Damn. I read that first panel and instantly thought of Within the Wires.
Ruth is going to the Health Center to relax. She is given a room. She is alone in the room. Why would there be anyone in the room? Ignore anyone in the room.
That damn podcast in buried in my brain like a tick.
Dina is adorable and all, but after a weekend with her pining for Becky I would make Sarah’s panel five face too.
Ouch, THAT brought back painful memories of doubt to Sarah. Ruth’s secret is out, she will be given the help she needs, but will it be enough, and was it worth it? (in this case I really think it was).
Honestly, up until a few comics ago I thought Sarah was going to be the one to have to intervene to get Ruth help and it was going to be a repeat of her freshman year: she gets someone help because they’re depressed and is accused of causing more harm than good.
Instead, she’s one of the few people who still doesn’t know what’s up with Ruth & Billie.
His central character trait, so far as I can tell, is his lack of initiative. The closest he comes to making a choice on his own (with a few rare exceptions) is either deciding to go along with or put the brakes on something that someone else is doing. When he puts the brakes on, he does a very poor job of articulating why, either to himself or others. He’s easily-led, whether it’s Blaine getting access to Amber through him or Sal unintentionally breaking him and Amazi-Girl up. At the end of the day, Dan does not frame his own choices. (Outing himself to Ethan is the only example to the contrary I can think of.) Instead, he chooses from the options that others allow him.
His reaction to extreme circumstances also leaves something to be desired. It’s primarily one of confusion and delay. His ideal solution, if he could ever implement it, would be to press pause on everything and insist that no one do anything until he understands what is going on and can make a decision. There’s something pretty egotistical about this, like he’s granting himself veto power on the grounds of his own confusion.
The problem is, he’s usually the least-qualified person to make that decision. The guy is OBLIVIOUS. Not only does he fail to pick up so many clues that get dropped, he is also generally ignorant of the larger issues in the world and tends not to think through his beliefs or principles. (Joe highlighted one example of this with the chewing out he delivered after Danny blue-balled Billie. Another example is Danny not even knowing bisexuality is a thing.) Danny is also fairly incurious about the larger world. He neither reflects nor absorbs, and in a way that makes him very self-absorbed. He doesn’t see the larger world. He just sees the lens he views the world through, and doesn’t understand that lens, and doesn’t care to improve on it or see the world better.
With all that said, Danny’s not a BAD person. He isn’t Mary, or one of the awful dads, or Ryan, or Mike. He just wants to live in his own secure privileged comfortable bubble, reading comic books and being comfortable with a girlfriend, and the worst crises in his life are when that bubble is breached — his breakups with Dorothy and Amazi-Girl, discovering he’s bi, and so on.
But overall, his osmium-level density makes him a very bad pick for me. I mean, I’m dense, but at least I try to understand the world about me and broaden my perspective. Danny doesn’t. Not only doesn’t he try, but trying isn’t even on his list of options to reject. That’s just not part of his mindset.
Not very, but I was frequently reexamining my world view, realizing I didn’t fully understand things and trying to learn more, and deliberately seeking out third options.
You say you dislike how Danny simply chooses from options given, yet you don’t seem to take matters into your own hands in this situation (avatar-wise I mean). Perhaps it’s time to make your very own Gravatar account? Or, you know, be Danny.
But that would deprive us of his somewhat interesting monologs. By actively experimenting, he *is* taking matters into his own hands, just not in the way you would prefer.
But also, registering like a good little boy WOULD be taking one of the obvious choices offered to me, while coming up with a quite-unintended workaround like the Grav Roulette is definitely not one of the options that someone intentionally presented.
Also, other reasons, which I’m keeping secret because they’re my planned counter for Willis’s stated intention to ruin everything up once I get a Walky grav, and I’m not enough of a silly monologuer to plainly state my intentions to the enemy like that.
I wish I could say I didn’t relate to Danny. I spent most of my youth doing exactly what Danny does — reacting to the options others gave me, and being oblivious to clues. Socially it was often disastrous, just as it’s been for Danny.
Like Danny, I didn’t go without love, but I didn’t take advantage of the better options that weren’t explicitly presented either.
I didn’t make any attempt to expand my worldview, and so missed out on a lot of growth and fun.
I sincerely hope I’m doing better than that now, but Danny keeps reminding me when I’m not. Keep Danning it up, Danny, so I don’t have to.
I mean, Sal didn’t really have any part in breaking him and Amber up, it’s that Amber freaked out, let Amazi-Girl take the reins, and started treating Danny as a betrayer. Nothing Danny could have done at that point would have really worked because Amber wasn’t ready to listen to him. Plus, Blaine manipulated Danny’s concern for Amber to use him against her. That’s not really his fault either; Blaine came off as a concerned parent to the kid who was running out the door screaming Amber’s name in a panic.
That, and as I’ve sadly had to become aware, it really isn’t uncommon to not know that bisexuality is a thing.
Mostly true on all counts. Here’s why the “mostly” qualifiers are there.
Sal DID plant the idea of Amazi-Girl being at risk of being killed in Danny’s head, and challenged him to stop enabling her. She didn’t do so maliciously, but she did do it, and it was picking that option which destroyed the relationship.
Similarly, Blaine did manipulate Danny, but Danny’s trusting nature and acceptance of options as presented to him is what made it so damn easy.
And it’s not uncommon for bisexuality to be unknown, no, but Dorothy had to say the word, define it, and repeat it before Danny even heard it when his own bisexuality was the active topic of conversation. That’s a Bubble of Obliviousness +2, right there.
One facet of Sarah’s worried face that I have not seen mentioned is that she is worried about Dina. Like with Joyce, Sarah won’t ever be all that soft, but she does look out for Joyce, and may even like Dina a wee bit.
She told Dina outright that Becky may be a rebound after her Joyce encounter failed badly, and being Sarah, didn’t sugar coat it. Dina realized that and said so.
But, Becky and Joyce have had a long (weekend ?) together and things may have changed between them.
Part of Dina’s mania may well be not just her joy at Becky’s return, but her fear of Becky’s having a change of heart.
That’s a potential explanation. I’ve been having trouble understanding Dina’s degree of affection for someone she met… a week ago? This comic time confuses me but yeah seems pretty fast for an “each minute I long for your return” intensity of emotion. Anxiety makes sense as a source of this mania, then
Fun fact! When you’ve generally been seen as, at best, the weird kid who talks about things no one cares about ALL THE DAMN TIME, finding a person who doesn’t just tolerate your company but actively enjoy it and ask you more about your special interest is the MOST WONDERFUL PERSON IN EXISTENCE.
And that’s before taking into account the dating thing. The sheer fact that Becky is interested in dinosaurs with her and WANTS TO KNOW MORE is a landmark in and of itself.
Yeah, Becky’s the one member of the cast who is actively fascinated and enthralled by Dina. Amber and Sarah mean well by her, but they don’t share her interests and have a tendency to try and “help” her out of her problems with social cues, whereas to Becky she’s her rad dinosaur girlfriend.
Still seems like a very quick attachment, regardless of the reasoning. What if she hates the way Becky eats? What if she hates the way Becky picks her nose…. and eats it?
Meanwhile, poor Sarah is as eager to have Joyce back as Dina is for Becky. It’s just that Sarah does things in a different way. She worries about her friends and starts creating scenarios about how their lives could have gone wrong when they were away from her and how she’s supposed to help them out.
If nothing else, I’m betting that Ruth is pretty badly dehydrated after just giving up and lying there for a day or so, so a hospital stay is indicated. What care she gets beyond that is at least partly dependent on what the doctor thinks and what her health insurance will cover.
I am more talking about the whole ‘able to take joy in her special interest, has friends who appreciate her, is not waiting for her partner’s personality to do a 180 towards more maturity before she can be less embarrassed to be with them’. This Dina is much more confident, happy and has a much better support network. No matter what happens in her love life, she won’t ever be as miserable as walkyverse!Dina.
Also, Joyce is straight, so it’s not really a love triangle.
Also, whatever happens with Becky, Dina probably won’t rebound with Mike.
Also, there are no secret aliens wanting to blow up years of her research. That is an important factor, too.
When you have thick hair (or fine hair with more texture), you don’t have to tie it up tightly for it to stay because the ties won’t slip out. Breakage can be avoided. If you mean baldness, that also has to do with hair being pulled tight afaik.
No, Dina’s been with Amber most of the day. She just fought the faux dinosaur Walky for access to her room.
Amber however has left the building. Last we saw, Amazi-girl was glaring at Sal through the door.
Unlike Joyce/Walky, Joyce/Becky can never happen under any circumstance.
Eventually Becky is going to accept that and move on with her life, and I really don’t think that’ll take longer than Becky finding out that Dina feels like a rebound.
1. Oh god, Becky came back, what the hell are we supposed to do?
2. Oh god, Ruth is gone, and she seemed to be sympathetic/oblivious?
3. Oh god, is Ruth okay?
But does Sarah know Becky will be homeless? Sal and Billy know, and some people may make educated guesses if they actually work at putting the pieces together. But its possible most people are oblivious.
Sarah is having too many feels here. Becky is only on the edge of it.
Joyce may or may not be returning to school at all. She may lose her roomie for the second year. She would blame herself for not having helped Joyce more.
Plus she was deliberately not looking at the drama which has now turned to tragedy. Keeping her head down because being involved with a troubled roommate last year brought her nothing but grief. Ruth will remind her of all of that.
A simple looking comic, but with great narrative depth.
It’s silly, but I just noticed. I’m surprised someone who is as precise with language as Dina didn’t say “I shall wait for them here,” indicating her desire to do so, rather than an absolute statement.
I’d talk about how awesome I think Dina is, but I think you guys have that covered.
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Dina learned Excitement!
It’s super-effective!
Wonder how much MP Dina has to keep using it.
It’s a once a day ability that lasts for one hour. It’s a perk of her Archealogist in training prestige class.
she’s CP 151 but her Raptor move takes a lot of meter to fill
PALEONTOLOGIST!
Thank god someone noticed
Fairly certain is a class perk of being the best character
I don’t think she can do it long. It appears she’s already resorted to using flail.
More like it’s stuck!
you can only hide excitement so much sarah. embrace it like dina.
Embrace Dina ?
… I wonder what Sarah’s about to do.
I wonder whether Sarah is looking out the window for Joyce and Becky, or for Ruth?
She just heard the ice cream truck, and she’s wondering if she can catch up to it.
headcannon accepted
My impression was that she was watching Ruth.
I don’t think that Sarah or Dina know what’s going on with Ruth. They were off in another part of the building when all that went down.
read Dina’s reply again.
I think that’s ALL they know: that she’s been taken to the health center. They don’t know anything about why, or about Billie.
For all they know, Ruth could just sprained something while collecting femurs.
Dina was looking out the door for Carla’s reveal. Not clear what she did after, but if she caught the start and knows the resolution, I’d assume she’s got the basics.
So she was.
I guess only Sarah was elsewhere then.
Sarah might have overheard Carla yelling, since Billie, Sal, and Carla were wall-to-wall with Sarah’s room, which by all impressions she was inside.
Not likely, since she had to ask Dina what was going on in the hall. If she’d been in the room when the shouting happened next door, she’d have been able to put 2 and 2 together.
She could still be watching Ruth though. Only knowing where she’s being taken would also be cause for concern.
She is debating the pros and cons of jumping out the window currently to escape Dina’s excitement while also avoiding the mass or people gathered in the hallway gossiping over what is going on with Ruth.
They better return soon before Dina makes a hole in the floor.
Her skillset is more about making holes in the ground, but if the floor’s in the way…
Or pees on the carpet.
Dina is the cutest most precious thing. I wanna see her use those legs on Becky.
Right guys, that’s how the lesbian works, right? [sarcasm if that wasn’t clear]
Yes, it’s exactly like kickboxing.
Do they have competitions and protective garments?
Well… Technically…
I’m so relieved you didn’t end that with a link.
I’m especially excited for this season of Lesbian Lacross.
Or was that Lesbian Macross?
..the internet has ruined me with slash, please send help.
Seeing as how “cross” means violent masturbation where I’m from, this seems quite particular.
“Violent” masturbation?
Ow.
“Vigorous masturbation with no hint of sensuality” might be more accurate.
How about lesbian picross?
Maybe someday the IOC will add sex to the Olympic lineup, like they did in Futurama.
oh my god could she BE more adorable?
maybe if she was hugging a dino plushie.
Soon she will be neck and neck with Chiyo-Chan.
cooking is so fun. cooking is so fun. now its time to take a break and see what we have done.
Oh god what HAVE we done
It’s–It’s an army of sentient cupcake abominations, MORTY.
Yeah. th-th-that’s what you get for messing around with my stuff without permission.
One–one day you’re setting out to make some cookies, th-th-the next you’re bringing about a sentient cupcake apocalypse.
Why cook when there are cereals ?
She can dress up in her tricera-top while singing “I feel pretty”.
Pretty rawr!
set Dina to “vibrate”
Becky is really going to like that function.
although for the sake of censorship that everyone knows the truth about it will be a massage setting.
Hey, massage functions are great for the lower back and shoulder blades, so that’s still a huge plus.
Vibrating back massagers.
Cause we know vibrating massagers are for the back …right?
TMI
that’s tmi? jeez.
GWS
Not sure what that means.
Welp, we went full EGS.
Dina doesn’t even have to turn into a superhero for it.
Great, now I’m convinced that GWS and EGS take place in the same ‘verse.
And All New Issues too by extension, I guess… and that ties in Something Positive, doesn’t it? And didn’t they have ties to Walkyverse, which at some point had a tie to EGS? We’ve come full circle… they were connected all along!
GWS and SP have had direct crossovers, to the point that even cross-verse pregnancy is a thing.
It all ties back to the kid with the snowglobe in St Elsewhere eventually.
My terrier vibrates just like that when she sees a squirrel through the back door. One day she’s going to fly apart.
Well Sarah now has another reason for Becky to come back.
I’M SO GLAD RUTH IS GOING TO BE GETTING HELP
I HOPE BILLIE GETS ON THAT TRAIN TOO HONESTLY
Even if it is forced on her. I can speak from experience that sometimes people only get help because it is kind of forced on them or because they don’t care enough to fight it being given to them.
Is it really forced on her if she lacks the will to protest or resist in the slightest?
I read this comment before the ones you replied to (don’t know why), and holy hell, that’s really a scary thing to read out of context.
Especially because it sounds like a ryan quote out of context
Yes. If a person lacks the ability to say “No” then whatever is happening is happening without their consent. That isn’t (necessarily) physical force, but it is force.
That said, I think forcefully intervening when someone’s reached the point where they literally can’t take care of themselves is the right thing to do.
yeah. I imagine things would have been different if i wasn’t locked up after i tried to get a game over. I was so like ruth at the time. I actually stayed in my room the entire first day there.
I would say forceful intervention is at least a light shade of grey if they’re really at a point where they *need* help to function.
Consent is active, yes. You cannot get passive consent, that’s not how consent works.
However, I remind you that we don’t require the consent of an unconscious drowning person to pull them out of the water and administer resuscitation procedures.
Actually it depends on what you’re talking about. In first aid, as you brought up with the drowning, being unconscious or unresponsive is assumed consent for someone to give you medical assistance. While if the person is alert and responsive they have to indicate you can help them before it’s okay.
On the one hand, Ruth was pretty much in depressive catatonia, so you could make a case for unresponsive.
On the other hand, I’m guessing what we’re missing now is the strips where Chloe pulls up a chair next to the bed and starts talking to Ruth, telling her she’s not fired yet and their first priority is going to be getting her okay, and Billie saying she won’t leave and Chloe going “actually given the current circumstances what Ruth needs most right now is someone to keep an eye on her” or something.
I want that.
Oddly enough, that was how Ross saw things too.
SAME
Reminds me of the fsjal meme.
little sister is on her way home.
Damn it now I’ve got feels all over my squee.
The blueshift of Dina’s legs indicates that she is coming towards us.
Nonono. In these comic’s rules, blue figures indicate flashback. Obviously her legs are moving so quickly that they instigate time travel.
Blue highlight has also indicated sign language, so possibly moving so fast that they blue-shift.
Or maybe they’re trying to convey us a special, terrifying message.
THE GRANDMAS SEE HOW THE DORM TREATS GINGER SNAPS.
THE GRANDMAS ARE DISPLEASED.
Dina’s legs have opened a dimensional tear connecting today’s comic to the one where she and becky kissed for the first time
The residence manager is taking Ruth to the health center…Mary has done well, soon my plans will be complete!
The Billie/Ruth ship plans?
So *did* Mary call the RD (or whatever they call Pudding Lady at this school)? Because if so, that puts her character in a different light.
Mary wanted to keep everything between the residents, because she was “winning against” Ruth and to bring an authority figure in would destroy her blackmail leverage.
Rachel texted the RM when she learned Ruth is suicidal.
I sincerely hope Ruth is actually going to a hospital and not the student health center. Purdue’s student health center was notoriously useless.
I.U. has a medical school with a real hospital. So maybe their health services for students aren’t so bad?
The health center at my college was okay. Wait times were long and they kind of tended to under-diagnose things (I was once diagnosed with run-of-the-mill acid reflux, went to a real hospital and found out I had ulcers). But they would give you medication and notes to give to your professors if you needed them.
Yeah, that’s true, I forget about IU Health being a thing. Hopefully their resources are good.
Can’t speak to how things are at IU, but my school (USF) has a med school as well, and our student health clinic is actually fairly good, comparable to the doctors treating me before I started grad school.
We also have a counseling center that can handle crises (I know this from experience).
So it’s possible that she’ll get the help she needs on campus, or at least they might realize they should send her to a specialist.
As someone who’s worked on a crisis hotline, I’m a bit skeptical about hospitals as well. It seems to me that the amount of help received can vary a great deal by individual staff members, so I hope that Ruth ends up speaking with someone helpful.
I’ve been to hospitals for suicidal ideation and attempts, and yes, they’re incredibly hit and miss, and often do both (eg a long wait with no help other than that you’re not easily able to proceed with dying, but after way too long you get an actually sympathetic doctor)
They’ll most likely take her to the health center first. When I was having a crisis due to depression and anxiety (but not suicidal ideation), I actually went to the physical health center first – my alma mater separates the mental and physical health centers.
In my experience they do ask you if you want to go to the hospital, should they call an ambulance for you, do you have a preference of going to the local one or going home to see your own doctor.
They let me rest on one of the beds for a while, gave me water, and gave me a referral to the mental health center. It was a very calming experience. The physical health center people were very caring.
But I realize my experience is not the same – and I also wasn’t suicidal so it was probably very different for others. I think it depends on the level of crisis. Some just ideate, others are literally in physical danger of hurting themselves. Ruth can’t get out of bed or move much, so I have a feeling they’ll take her to the hospital right after the health center.
They may need to take her there before sending her to the hospital, to confirm that yes it is indeed that serious or something?
(My only personal experience started from a visit to the mental health center of my own accord though, so I don’t really know.)
My old school had a really good mental health division of the health center. We had actual full time counselors and some of the teachers for the master’s level counseling courses (who all had doctoral degrees in mental health treatment) did some crisis management.
Dina, what type of cereal have you been eating, how sugary was it, and how much did you eat? Cause you’re a little hyper right now.
Cadbury cereal?
Smarties cereal
Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs!!!
They’re kind of bland until you add sugar.
And chase it down with an espresso or five.
Smores cereal is real and is about 50% marshmallows so…
Most cereals are 50% marshmallows, and 50% sugar, and they somehow still manage to find room to squeeze in a hint of actual flavor.
..maybe that’s just a hallucination caused by the excessive amounts of sugar, though. :/
Also 80% corn.
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Yum.
Oh god. I’m imagining your Dina avatar as a close up of Ana’s and now it is DRAMATICALLY LESS CUTE
Well, I think the Mountain Dew she’s been drinking with it is probably been a factor
Hm.
Now I desperately want D.Va to somehow be a direct descendant of Dina and Becky. Are there any paleontological digs in Korea?
Definitely. Sugar has been shown repeatedly not to actually make you hyper.
high on Becky
Sarah has now absorbed the commenters and audience. We are all Sarah now, doomed to watch and wait apprehensively, with just enough hope left in our jaded hearts to cry out “Damn You!” to a magnificent world and forces beyond our control.
When the soggies comes the world will need the powers of the Sarah-Collective.
Sarah like “if it’s calm it must mean a storm is coming”
Ruth gets hit by a truck on the way to the health center…
A truck of emotions.
But, she already got run over in her room … by Ultra-car.
Hey, it’s classic Roomies! Sarah. Wonder why she’s more concerned than usual.
She’s worried that Dina might explode from excitement.
Or destroy her chair.
She’s going to wear a hole through the floor and they won’t get their deposit back.
It must feel like a déjà vu to her. She’s probably thinking about her former room mate and hides her fave behind the curtain.
Sarah’s been worried about Joyce trying to “go home again” since she left yesterday. She honestly doesn’t expect Joyce to come back in good shape.
However, Joyce found some support and some good advice at home, even if home isn’t what she remembered.
She may not expect her to return at all. She’s capable of imgaining that possibly.
Mm, right. Thanks for clarifying.
The bongo drum noise used to mimic running in the Hanna-Barbera cartoons would be appropriate in Panel five.
I keep expecting the chair to rise from the floor.
That sound effect was supposedly created by manually dragging the actual recording tape consisting bongos (and other noises) back and forth (rather quickly) across the playback heads of a tape recorder and then recording that output to another tape!
Why are we talking about bongos? Mary’s not in today’s strip.
Cool!
I just tried reading your comment back-translating “bongo” as usual. It gets weird.
Dina’s face will get stuck that way if she’s not careful.
She survived her attempt at the triangle smile, she’ll be okay.
Gah!
Sorry, I had a flash of memory.
Gaaahhhh
Cue Mike to slap her on the back.
Yeah I’d probably try to hide behind the curtain too if I saw that.
Happy stimmy Dina gives me life.
Awww stimmy Dina! I know that I do that *exact* thing that she was doing there, but I never made the connection that we both stim 🙂
Panel five is EXACTLY a thing I do with my legs when I’m excited about something.
I’ve been looking forward to this strip ever since panel four was first previewed.
Indeed. Excited happy stimming because the person who actually seems to get and accept her is coming back.
Joyce and Becky return to find that everyone else has built a giant Becky statue out of wood and are preparing to sacrifice Mary to the Sun Child Ruth, who has fallen into legend despite only being gone for 20 minutes
Add Ruth is the Remover of Femurs, and I will bring the wood.
Bow chicka bow-wow
Which is why a propitiatory sacrifice is necessary.
I wonder what would’ve happened if it was 30 minutes.
Holy war between the Orthodox Femurists and the Reformed Ruthians. Carla is happily selling catapults to both sides.
How giant are we talking?
152′ 6½” tall, I’m thinking.
Ok, give me a week. Where is it going?
have you ever seen The Wickerman?
Damn. I read that first panel and instantly thought of Within the Wires.
Ruth is going to the Health Center to relax. She is given a room. She is alone in the room. Why would there be anyone in the room? Ignore anyone in the room.
That damn podcast in buried in my brain like a tick.
Still like this parallel between DoA and It’swalky that’s going on.
According to Sarah, everything is an offputting thing to be smiling about.
In this instance, though, she’s actually right.
Dina is adorable and all, but after a weekend with her pining for Becky I would make Sarah’s panel five face too.
Ouch, THAT brought back painful memories of doubt to Sarah. Ruth’s secret is out, she will be given the help she needs, but will it be enough, and was it worth it? (in this case I really think it was).
I didn’t even think of that. Of course Sarah would be having roommate-related flashbacks.
I’m just really glad it wasn’t Sarah who had to step in this time.
I’m not sure Sarah knew about Ruth’s situation. She’s been pretty uninvolved with Ruth and Billie.
Honestly, up until a few comics ago I thought Sarah was going to be the one to have to intervene to get Ruth help and it was going to be a repeat of her freshman year: she gets someone help because they’re depressed and is accused of causing more harm than good.
Instead, she’s one of the few people who still doesn’t know what’s up with Ruth & Billie.
You probably won’t see this but I love your avatar
And now Billie will be away when Becky shows up and snuggles into “her” bed.
The drama has been put off for another few hours at least.
and becky will assume it is dina in her half asleep state
Oh God I’m dying of adorableness
Me too. Or is the word “adinable”?
Tonight, Grav Roulette has given me Danny.
I…. do not relate to Danny.
His central character trait, so far as I can tell, is his lack of initiative. The closest he comes to making a choice on his own (with a few rare exceptions) is either deciding to go along with or put the brakes on something that someone else is doing. When he puts the brakes on, he does a very poor job of articulating why, either to himself or others. He’s easily-led, whether it’s Blaine getting access to Amber through him or Sal unintentionally breaking him and Amazi-Girl up. At the end of the day, Dan does not frame his own choices. (Outing himself to Ethan is the only example to the contrary I can think of.) Instead, he chooses from the options that others allow him.
His reaction to extreme circumstances also leaves something to be desired. It’s primarily one of confusion and delay. His ideal solution, if he could ever implement it, would be to press pause on everything and insist that no one do anything until he understands what is going on and can make a decision. There’s something pretty egotistical about this, like he’s granting himself veto power on the grounds of his own confusion.
The problem is, he’s usually the least-qualified person to make that decision. The guy is OBLIVIOUS. Not only does he fail to pick up so many clues that get dropped, he is also generally ignorant of the larger issues in the world and tends not to think through his beliefs or principles. (Joe highlighted one example of this with the chewing out he delivered after Danny blue-balled Billie. Another example is Danny not even knowing bisexuality is a thing.) Danny is also fairly incurious about the larger world. He neither reflects nor absorbs, and in a way that makes him very self-absorbed. He doesn’t see the larger world. He just sees the lens he views the world through, and doesn’t understand that lens, and doesn’t care to improve on it or see the world better.
With all that said, Danny’s not a BAD person. He isn’t Mary, or one of the awful dads, or Ryan, or Mike. He just wants to live in his own secure privileged comfortable bubble, reading comic books and being comfortable with a girlfriend, and the worst crises in his life are when that bubble is breached — his breakups with Dorothy and Amazi-Girl, discovering he’s bi, and so on.
But overall, his osmium-level density makes him a very bad pick for me. I mean, I’m dense, but at least I try to understand the world about me and broaden my perspective. Danny doesn’t. Not only doesn’t he try, but trying isn’t even on his list of options to reject. That’s just not part of his mindset.
Well hey, uh, it could be worse.
(Also: how aware of the nuances of the wider world were you at age 18? Be honest.)
Not very, but I was frequently reexamining my world view, realizing I didn’t fully understand things and trying to learn more, and deliberately seeking out third options.
Danny… doesn’t do these things.
You say you dislike how Danny simply chooses from options given, yet you don’t seem to take matters into your own hands in this situation (avatar-wise I mean). Perhaps it’s time to make your very own Gravatar account? Or, you know, be Danny.
But that would deprive us of his somewhat interesting monologs. By actively experimenting, he *is* taking matters into his own hands, just not in the way you would prefer.
Partly what Clif said.
But also, registering like a good little boy WOULD be taking one of the obvious choices offered to me, while coming up with a quite-unintended workaround like the Grav Roulette is definitely not one of the options that someone intentionally presented.
Also, other reasons, which I’m keeping secret because they’re my planned counter for Willis’s stated intention to ruin everything up once I get a Walky grav, and I’m not enough of a silly monologuer to plainly state my intentions to the enemy like that.
I wish I could say I didn’t relate to Danny. I spent most of my youth doing exactly what Danny does — reacting to the options others gave me, and being oblivious to clues. Socially it was often disastrous, just as it’s been for Danny.
Like Danny, I didn’t go without love, but I didn’t take advantage of the better options that weren’t explicitly presented either.
I didn’t make any attempt to expand my worldview, and so missed out on a lot of growth and fun.
I sincerely hope I’m doing better than that now, but Danny keeps reminding me when I’m not. Keep Danning it up, Danny, so I don’t have to.
I mean, Sal didn’t really have any part in breaking him and Amber up, it’s that Amber freaked out, let Amazi-Girl take the reins, and started treating Danny as a betrayer. Nothing Danny could have done at that point would have really worked because Amber wasn’t ready to listen to him. Plus, Blaine manipulated Danny’s concern for Amber to use him against her. That’s not really his fault either; Blaine came off as a concerned parent to the kid who was running out the door screaming Amber’s name in a panic.
That, and as I’ve sadly had to become aware, it really isn’t uncommon to not know that bisexuality is a thing.
Mostly true on all counts. Here’s why the “mostly” qualifiers are there.
Sal DID plant the idea of Amazi-Girl being at risk of being killed in Danny’s head, and challenged him to stop enabling her. She didn’t do so maliciously, but she did do it, and it was picking that option which destroyed the relationship.
Similarly, Blaine did manipulate Danny, but Danny’s trusting nature and acceptance of options as presented to him is what made it so damn easy.
And it’s not uncommon for bisexuality to be unknown, no, but Dorothy had to say the word, define it, and repeat it before Danny even heard it when his own bisexuality was the active topic of conversation. That’s a Bubble of Obliviousness +2, right there.
Dina reminds me of my cat, Docky, when he gets really excited watching the birdies and buggies outside. He vibrates and chirps.
Your cat… chirps?! RECORD IT FOR POSTERITY (and post it on YouTube)!
One facet of Sarah’s worried face that I have not seen mentioned is that she is worried about Dina. Like with Joyce, Sarah won’t ever be all that soft, but she does look out for Joyce, and may even like Dina a wee bit.
She told Dina outright that Becky may be a rebound after her Joyce encounter failed badly, and being Sarah, didn’t sugar coat it. Dina realized that and said so.
But, Becky and Joyce have had a long (weekend ?) together and things may have changed between them.
Part of Dina’s mania may well be not just her joy at Becky’s return, but her fear of Becky’s having a change of heart.
That’s a potential explanation. I’ve been having trouble understanding Dina’s degree of affection for someone she met… a week ago? This comic time confuses me but yeah seems pretty fast for an “each minute I long for your return” intensity of emotion. Anxiety makes sense as a source of this mania, then
Fun fact! When you’ve generally been seen as, at best, the weird kid who talks about things no one cares about ALL THE DAMN TIME, finding a person who doesn’t just tolerate your company but actively enjoy it and ask you more about your special interest is the MOST WONDERFUL PERSON IN EXISTENCE.
And that’s before taking into account the dating thing. The sheer fact that Becky is interested in dinosaurs with her and WANTS TO KNOW MORE is a landmark in and of itself.
Yeah, Becky’s the one member of the cast who is actively fascinated and enthralled by Dina. Amber and Sarah mean well by her, but they don’t share her interests and have a tendency to try and “help” her out of her problems with social cues, whereas to Becky she’s her rad dinosaur girlfriend.
Still seems like a very quick attachment, regardless of the reasoning. What if she hates the way Becky eats? What if she hates the way Becky picks her nose…. and eats it?
Then she would be a very superficial person. Well, if she thought that was break-up material.
I’ve never gotten that vibe out of her. She sees through the superficial bullcrap.
So excited that you just can’t hide it.
Dina’s about to lose control and she thinks she likes it.
Dina… stahp being so cute!
Meanwhile, poor Sarah is as eager to have Joyce back as Dina is for Becky. It’s just that Sarah does things in a different way. She worries about her friends and starts creating scenarios about how their lives could have gone wrong when they were away from her and how she’s supposed to help them out.
If nothing else, I’m betting that Ruth is pretty badly dehydrated after just giving up and lying there for a day or so, so a hospital stay is indicated. What care she gets beyond that is at least partly dependent on what the doctor thinks and what her health insurance will cover.
Actually, that’s a pretty normal thing to be smiling about, in context 9_9 granted, I think neither Sarah nor Dina are in on it.
OH MY GOD DINA IS ADORABLE
and… I’ve been reading joyce and walky… I mean the entire thing on the original site… and… DINA DINA DINA DINA I AM SO HAPPY SHE’S ALRIGHT HERE
She had the bad luck to fall for someone who still has it bad for Joyce, though.
I am more talking about the whole ‘able to take joy in her special interest, has friends who appreciate her, is not waiting for her partner’s personality to do a 180 towards more maturity before she can be less embarrassed to be with them’. This Dina is much more confident, happy and has a much better support network. No matter what happens in her love life, she won’t ever be as miserable as walkyverse!Dina.
Also, Joyce is straight, so it’s not really a love triangle.
Also, whatever happens with Becky, Dina probably won’t rebound with Mike.
Also, there are no secret aliens wanting to blow up years of her research. That is an important factor, too.
That’s it. I’m Dina.
Dina, mentally reliving kissing becky
No really, how has Sarah’s hair lasted this long if all she does is put it in a ponytail every day??
When you have thick hair (or fine hair with more texture), you don’t have to tie it up tightly for it to stay because the ties won’t slip out. Breakage can be avoided. If you mean baldness, that also has to do with hair being pulled tight afaik.
Why wouldn’t it? When mine was long (it’s more like Becky’s, now) I had to tie it up because it was compulsory at my school.
For a lot of people, pulling your hair back damages it. Too much strain on the strands.
By having tough hair? Lots of people, myself included, leave their hair in a ponytail 90% of the time.
wow Dina’s elating with such joy and happiness… It’s gonna be a real twist of the knife when Willis burns this relationship to the ground
Willis, thou shalt not hurt Dina!
Which universe do you live in and what comic are you reading?
Eeeeeee! She’s so happy! 😄
I’m with Sarah on this one.
Connect Dina to a treadmill, and you can charge your mobile phones.
So happy for Dina …
but …
Now that Dina’s in Joyce’s room, Amber is left unsupervised.
Uh-oh.
Her and Sarah only just got back to the floor. Amber’s been unsupervised for a while now.
Definitely nothing at all to worry about there.
No, Dina’s been with Amber most of the day. She just fought the faux dinosaur Walky for access to her room.
Amber however has left the building. Last we saw, Amazi-girl was glaring at Sal through the door.
Well, most of the morning. It’s maybe 10ish at this point, since Mary was heading to church.
But, yeah, Amber’s checked out again for Amazi-Girl, unless she comes back soon.
Becky might find other uses for this sort of behavior…
In several more years of comics or so. Maybe
I remember in the old Walkyverse Dina dating Walky for a while even though (due to Walkertron and Joystick) it seemed obvious he was meant for Joyce.
Whereas Becky doesn’t seem to be fated for Joyce, I feel a bit of a parallel that her paramour’s affection for Joyce is going to make Dina sad again.
A Walkyverse Dina from an alternate dimension ended up with Walkyverse Becky though.
Unlike Joyce/Walky, Joyce/Becky can never happen under any circumstance.
Eventually Becky is going to accept that and move on with her life, and I really don’t think that’ll take longer than Becky finding out that Dina feels like a rebound.
So is Sarah’s worried face:
1. Oh god, Becky came back, what the hell are we supposed to do?
2. Oh god, Ruth is gone, and she seemed to be sympathetic/oblivious?
3. Oh god, is Ruth okay?
4. All of the above?
5. But wait… there’s more!
Becky is coming back with no place to stay and there will be a new RA who will probably be aware of being watched to make up for ignoring Ruth.
But does Sarah know Becky will be homeless? Sal and Billy know, and some people may make educated guesses if they actually work at putting the pieces together. But its possible most people are oblivious.
Sarah is having too many feels here. Becky is only on the edge of it.
Joyce may or may not be returning to school at all. She may lose her roomie for the second year. She would blame herself for not having helped Joyce more.
Plus she was deliberately not looking at the drama which has now turned to tragedy. Keeping her head down because being involved with a troubled roommate last year brought her nothing but grief. Ruth will remind her of all of that.
A simple looking comic, but with great narrative depth.
I like that Sarah told Dina that smiling about someone being taken to health center was offputting. If only someone could tell Mary…
I doubt Mary is smiling right Nyo.
Dina as The Flash.
That would certainly explain a few things…
She then vibrates her molecules into the Walkyverse and meets Dina Sarazu.
The Dina of Two Worlds.
She drank from the X-treme mug!
She would have had to drink ALL of the X-TREEEM MUG™ — twice! — to get like that.
:3
“You’re gonna tire out and take a nap in like, an hour, right?”
“In my excitement, I consumed 1.8 times my normal sugar cereal intake.”
“Auuugh…”
Dina senses tingling!
… so Becky is definitely approaching.
And I can finally comment. Wow. Amazing story, just read everything these last Days
Happyflappy Dina is awesome. 😀
(hi Dina is me when I get excited)
It’s silly, but I just noticed. I’m surprised someone who is as precise with language as Dina didn’t say “I shall wait for them here,” indicating her desire to do so, rather than an absolute statement.
I’d talk about how awesome I think Dina is, but I think you guys have that covered.
Actually, “will” indicates desire, while “shall” indicates obligation.
Dina is very precise.