She seems that way to me too. I think whatever her response, it’ll be done with a lot of compassion and care, which is exactly what she needs right now.
It’s also possible for a sympathetic person, who thinks they are acting with compassion and care but has bad preconceptions or training, to do exactly what would be worst. So it’s entirely possible for Chloe to destroy Ruth and Billie in the next few days.
I don’t think there’s any grounds for destroying Billie here. The only reason it’s against the rules for Ruth to sleep with her is in case Billie has been coerced into this relationship. She’s the protected party here in any case.
Well, to be fair, Billie has been very much coerced into this relationship by Ruth. Including forced kisses and sports watching. She’s in their relation now of her own volition but Ruth totally crossed a number of lines on the way of getting there.
More like, Ruth has tried to coerce her into a relationship, but when that failed spectacularly, Billie started an entirely different one voluntarily.
I just kind of feel like picking nits on this one because… because Ruth was being entirely horrible early on, and should have 100% gotten punished for it, but this just feels entirely different. Billie’s with her DESPITE all her crap, not because of it, you know?
They specifically got rid of the alcohol, Carla and Rachel didn’t know (or at least didn’t seem to blow the whistle) about that one, and nobody will believe Mary now.
Unfortunately, you can be sympathetic and still have to kick someone to the curb as part of your job. I don’t think this lady can just ignore all the crap Ruth has gotten herself into here.
That seems unlikely since doing so kicks Ruth out of the cast. What’s probably going to happen is that Ruth gets removed from her position and stuck in another room, maybe push her into counseling if that’s a thing they can do.
Well I think it’s clear she is fired, but I think pudding maybe someone one who is willing to hide why and help her find something else with a caveat: Ruth (and probably Billie) attend AA and see a therapist. Which since I understand and like Ruth I’d really like to see.
Yeah, AA is a very shame oriented program. It’s all about asking for forgiveness and promising never to drink again and thus living in fear of alcohol. The fears are reinforced by meetings where they talk about alcohol destroyed their lives, they’re basically collectively obsessing over past mistakes which isn’t too healthy. I’ve seen members get absolutely emotionally destroyed at the thought that they might have lost their ten year coin because they took a sip from the wrong cup at a barbecue.
It’s not an organization the promotes a healthy mental state imo.
It’s a deeply flawed organization but it helped my brother get sober after alcohol did destroy his life and also my mother so I can’t really deal with them too harshly. Complete nonfunctionality was their state and violence while they’re happy and productive now.
Honestly, I suspect Ruth would have an easier time quitting booze than Billie. Her root problem is the depression – she’s self-medicating on booze. Get her help with that and I expect she’d be able to stop drinking. Not too easily, she’s got physical withdrawal symptoms, which isn’t good at all, but I doubt she’d have much long term trouble – if she can deal with her other issues.
Billie’s shown much less signs of realizing the drinking is a problem for her and has made no apparent effort to stop – with the deal she originally made with Ruth or probably now.
AA absolutely saved the lives of a couple of friends of mine. I understand that it may not be for everyone, but I can’t think of anything else that has worked as well for the people I know (including the two who tried “moderation” courses and are now dead)
I don’t know the character from any other comics, but her response to hearing Ruth was suicidal was exasperation that an RA had made more work for her. I’m not hopeful.
I don’t think it was exasperation specifically at Ruth, even though she mentioned she thought Ruth was “the one” RA who had her shit together. I read the whole statement as being, “Why can’t I manage to find RAs who have their shit together.” (Chloe, protip: College kids don’t have their shit together, and if they think they do coming in, they find out they don’t by the time they graduate. Good luck.)
This was my thought as well. When she said that, I saw a potential out for Ruth.
IRL, it’s very possible that Ruth would be forced onto medical leave from college entirely. I knew people who had this happen for less. But, plot-wise, I don’t think that’s where this is going.
I also stand by my thought that the RA Manager needs to have better oversight on the RAs. Like you said- they’re college students. They shouldn’t be given that kind of responsibility with just 2 weeks’ training without at least some oversight. Regular check ins. That kind of thing. Like you said- college students don’t have their shit together!
I dont know who that is but i will hope it isn’t an insult. also i just reailzed i was the first post…… how do you like that? i should have waited a little.
I’ve heard of it but not watched it. steven universe sounds like one of those shows i wont love or hate from what little i know. I might end up watching it someday i might not. depends on whats on/what im doing.
sometimes people say i seem easy going and i don’t seem to hate anyone. my response of “i’m to lazy to hate people” seems to get a reaction most of the time.
Silence, as Billie lay with hand firmly comforting her beloved and friend she could only imagine a hope for her, that she would again be well. behind the shut lids of her eyes images of “happier” times swam amongst a sea of optimism and misery. A creek, a whisper, the growing light from the crowded hall brought an ache to her chest, she dared a peek. walking in – shadowing the light – Cloe, the R.A. manager with her blond locks and splash of pudding on her head stood there, her form blocking the crowds view of the scene. Billie lays her head back on the pillow, staring into the ocean of ginger.
“Oh, Ruth” Cloe murmurs
Billie’s chest continues to pound, Ruth lays unmoving as she comes to a single thought. It’s over
And sad at the same time. Not sure what will come from this, but it’s not as if she’ll close her eyes and leave. If she’s a nice gal, and I think she is, she can just relocate one or both of them, and not fire Ruth.
English is basically the elemental carbon of languages. It will fricking bond with ANY vocabulary and do so in the most varied array of structures possible.
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” — James Nicoll
Two big things that have proven to me English is broken: 1) The fact that “All the experiences he had had had had no effect in the end.” is a readable sentence. & 2) Contronyms are words that can mean the exact opposite, like egregious meaning both outstandingly bad, or remarkably good. Puruse meaning to look at something carefully or to read something in a relaxed way. Nonplussed meaning so shocked that you aren’t sure how to react, or completely unperturbed. (One theory of why words like these have both definitions is that people were so sarcastic when using these words that another definition was added)
“Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach.” is a perfectly grammatical German sentence. “Yodaspeak” is no fun in German since word order is mostly arbitrary anyway.
There is a Classical Chinese story called “The Stone Lions” that consists entirely of the syllable “shi”. English is no more broken than any other language.
… that joke really only worked if Chloe was holding Ruth, not Billie. Unless Billie is supposed to be Olaf. Although I suppose Olaf was willing to commit suicide for Anna….
… I’m going to stop this train of thought now.
And now for the 14th (I guess) DOA Battle. (Which takes place during the last one!)
Sal and Ethan leap away from Blaine and skid to their feet.
Sal: Dammit, this guy just doesn’t go down!
Ethan: There’s got to be a way to beat him!
Blaine: There isn’t.
Blaine lifts him metal arm and a ball of energy forms in his palm. He fires it at Ethan and Sal who quickly dodge out of the way.
Sal: Ethan, use GALVATRON!
Ethan leaps into the air.
Ethan: GAL-VA-TRON SMASH!
Blaine lifts his arms up and blocks the attack, a giant explosion consumes both of them, but Blaine looks barely hurt, while Ethan collapses.
Sal: Ethan!
Blaine prepares to kill Ethan, only to see Mike flying towards him, a fist raised.
Blaine: You’re like flies! Why do you persist!? What chances do you have!?
Blaine grabs Mike and tosses him away, before shooting him with his laser cannon.
Carla: HEY BLAINE!
Blaine looks up, to see Carla coming down on top of him with a crowbar. He grabs it and slams her into the ground. Suddenly he’s knocked forward from a kick to the back. He turns around, and sees the exhausted announcer.
Blaine: EVEN YOU!
Dina runs up.
Dina: RAPTOR UNLEASH!
A dinosaur shaped energy field surrounds Dina, as she charges at Blaine. He grabs her by the field’s mouth and holds her at bay. Before blasting through her shield.
Billie and Ruth come at Blaine from separate sides. He grabs them and slams them together.
Joyce looks up from destroying robots and see’s everyone trying to stop Blaine.
Joyce: We have to help them.
Mary: You have to, I am under no obligation, and I fight against him, not with you.
Mary notices a Dina robot behind Joyce.
Mary: Behind you.
Suddenly Other Jacob 2 sticks out of it, it collapses to reveal Sarah.
Joyce: Sarah, you’ve recovered!
Sarah: Enough anyway. How have you been holding up?
Joyce: These things are endless!
Becky runs by kicking at Robots. Walky throws a Sal Robot over Joyce. Roz fires through a Mike robot with her condom hat.
Sarah: Just keep attacking! They are bound to run out eventually.
Joyce looks towards the stadium, and see’s Amber and Danny waking up. Amber’s eyes are back to normal.
Joyce: Danny succeeded!
Blaine: WHAT!
Amber faces towards him.
Blaine: IF I CAN’T CONTROL YOU, I’LL JUST KILL YOU.
Blaine forms a massive energy attack, stronger then any before, and aims it at Amber. A look of horror comes across Ambers face as she’s waits for death.
Danny: NO!
Danny throws himself in front of Amber just before the attack reaches them. Using his body to shield her.
Amber: DANNY!
Amber catches his falling body and holds him in her arms.
Danny coughs and looks up at her.
Danny: Amber?
Amber: Yes?
Danny: You’re going to have to kill twice as many spiders now. I’m sorry, I can’t be there to help. Just promise me, that you’ll keep living.
Everyone looks on in horror as the last breath of life slips from Danny’s lips. Amber carefully lays his body on the ground, and closes his eyes.
Amber: Rest well.
Amber forms her hand into a fist and runs at Blaine.
Amber: BLAAAIIIIINNEEEE!
Blaine attempts to block the attack, only to have his arms shattered…and his torso, as Amber punches through his heart.
Blaine staggers back, he lifts his head towards Amber, and opens his mouth, only to spit at her feet, before dying. His robots collapse.
Sal: Danny…
Amber walks back up to Danny’s corpse carrying her cape. She wraps it around him and carries him of off the ring. She passes by Dina, who takes off her hat and puts it on Danny’s head.
Dina: You’ll need it more.
Joyce: Why, after all he did, and we can’t do anything!
Mary: I might know a way to bring him back.
Joyce: What?
Mary: But before I tell you anything, I want one thing.
Joyce: What.
Mary: A fight, someone strong to prove my strength against. If you win, I’ll tell you everything.
see, you and Chrissy both name good possibilities….but you don’t use the comma!!! and that’s why it’s fucking with me. that and Ruth being slightly bolded.
I personally see it as a “Oh Ruth…you poor thing.” Like “this is a mess” and “you desperately need help” mixed together. Sympathy with just a dash of exasperation and disappointment.
Billie’s look back and return feels like a return to her statement of connection and care. She’ll be here, holding her as she enters her darkest moment and won’t let Ruth push her away. No matter how it goes.
It has been pretty clearly shown she has no power here. She needs to retreat back to her room to sulk and/or regain her strength by feeding on baby orphan tears.
the problem with mary’s situation is that after she finds out that she has no authority, she may do something…..spiteful. something like rat out to one of the higher ups.
She does have a remaining target – Becky squatting in Billie’s old room. Not sure how she can turn that to her advantage from this point, but it’s possible.
Why would BILLIE be out of college over this? She’s done nothing wrong. Ruth might or might not have been taking advantage of her. Billie’s only role to play here is witness/victim.
I have strong doubts about whether Billie’s actually gotten rid of her booze (at least in other than the obvious way). She didn’t before and she hasn’t shown any of the signs Ruth has of drying out.
In all honesty, though, she SHOULD be fired. Because she’s been an horrible R.A., is a violent alcoholic and suffers from depression, and has engaged in a relationship with one of the kids put under her care. Ruth isn’t fit to be an R.A.
Suffering from depression is not a good cause to get fired from anywhere, not even the suicide help line. Just as you shouldn’t be fired if you have cancer or the flu.
She should be. And they’ll find another person to do it, there are more than enough qualified students looking to shave off their room fees. If Ruth is not an RA, she’ll still be a student.
My big question is whether the school will let her stay on campus, or send her home. i knew some people who wet home, and I knew one who left for a few days and returned to school (and also had a suicidal crisis) so i suppose it’s up to the school’s discretion.
Thank goodness Pudding lady seems to be taking a good look at this, not automatically assuming the worse from finding Billy in bed with Ruth. Like maybe she understands that Billy is trying to protect Ruth.
Looks like compassionate help for Ruth is a real possibility. Good.
Mary is toast. Also good.
I meant that as a rough ballpark. I went back looking for a more precise measure, and decided on -654 days, plus or minus a day because of who knows when in the coming 24 hours any given person will read this.
“Well now, I need a model for a character to show up and dispense some much needed wisdom to get this train wreck back on track. Oh, perhaps the woman that had Joyce and Walky just get a set of condoms and move on with their life, showing them there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing. Better make some tweaks too, show that she’s older than them.”
I really like the visual of the light spilling into the room and across Billie’s back. And it looks like Chloe is gonna be sympathetic and not awful and hopefully she’s proactively helpful as well…? Also, the hovertext made laugh out loud, nice Walkyverse reference.
Basically, I like this strip a lot. Probably one of my favourites of this storyline.
There’s something very cathartic about this strip. It’s not happy, but it feels right – both that Ruth is revoked of her position as an RA, and that she can receive love and compassion in spite of it.
I think this is the first time in a long time I’ve felt like things might actually turn out okay for her.
That time at the end of your teens when you realize you’ve spent all your energy running away from an anticipated end of the world. In vain. Because there was no such thing.
I’m going to choose to believe that since, as far as Chloe knows, the Ruth sleeping with Billie thing rumor (no one has given her concrete proof), that Ruth won’t get fired for the fraternization. She doesn’t seem like she would fire Ruth for failing classes due to a deep depression (if she is failing). I remain stubbornly hopeful!
Honestly, failing to let Ruth go at this point would be a major failing on their end. Even if they don’t push on the relationhip with Billie, Ruth is supposed to hold down the fort and help others with their issues in the dorm. She cannot do that if she is a broken down mess. She needs help, not to be responsible for a wing of women.
And tonight, grav roulette gets me Radiah. …. Rhaida?
*checks* Raidah.
RADISH GIRL.
… No, okay, Raidah.
I’m actually curious enough about this name to query the internet. It’s an Arabic word/name meaning leader or pioneer.
Most of us view Raidah as a villain of sorts, but I don’t. She’s definitely an antagonist to Sarah, and she’s got her faults, but she’s not particularly worse than Sarah is. As a person — yes, I’m putting on my judgy face here… she’s a bit better. The two worst things she’s done, to my recollection, are holding an extreme grudge against Sarah and being condescending towards Dina. The latter, while not great, is something that most people do. The former is… perhaps overdone, but is more a case of different perspectives on the same events than right or wrong, though the means by which the feud has been prosecuted seem to be brushing on the line, or outright crossing it, of passive-aggressive bullying. Sarah, in turn, has punched Raidah in the face (which Raidah kinda let slide) and then deliberately tried to woo Jacob, not because she wanted Jacob, but because she wanted to hurt Raidah.
Between the two of them, I think Sarah’s crossed the line more than Raidah has.
I definitely have that angry, refuse-to-bury-the-hatchet streak in me. I overcome it sometimes but it is never far from the surface. Usually I avoid it by staying out of feuds entirely and not exposing myself to situations where I’d get hurt badly enough to develop that kind of grudge. But oh yeah, I can hold on to rage and hard feelings and negative opinions for years and years and years.
I’m not proud of that, but I acknowledge that, so in a way Raidah’s a piece of me.
She’s not a BIG piece of me, though. I can do that, but it doesn’t come up often. She’s a passing fancy, a momentary traveling companion on the journey of life, striding side by side together for a few hours before we part ways, not to meet again for months or years.
So while she’s sometimes an appropriate fit for me, the rarity of the event means that my Grav Roulette search must continue.
Sarah, in turn, has punched Raidah in the face (which Raidah kinda let slide) and then deliberately tried to woo Jacob, not because she wanted Jacob, but because she wanted to hurt Raidah.
Wait, what?
When Sarah tried to woo Jacob, he was not in a relationship with Raidah.
Sarah learning that Jacob dates Raidah starts here. Yes a date, so they are not in a relationship yet.
Only interaction between Sarah and Jacob that could be interpreted as wooing was her putting on a (forced) smile while sitting next to him in class.
This lasted for twenty seconds and when Jacob stated “You seem … a little … different today.”, she answered with “No. No! This is– No! No! No No No No” and left for the chair most far away from him.
Sarah literally says that she’s going to try and break them up because fuck if Raidah gets to have him. This is after she decided that Jacob hated her and wanted nothing to do with her.
I dunno, I think Sarah wins in the better person competition because of how Raidah treated Dina when they first met. Raidah immediately decided “Oh, you’re a little weird? You must be broken and helpless, you poor thing”. Sure, Sarah infantilized her a little too when Becky had plans to smooch her, but when they met, she had no trouble seeing Dina as a person and as a peer.
Plus, she may have just been mad that Becky thought of it first.
I’m waiting for Mary to jump between Chloe and the bed and wave her arms saying “There’s nothing to see here! I’ll take care of this, you can leave now!”
Yeah, at the very LEAST she’s going to get Ruth enrolled in some form of therapy. She might be permitted to keep her job to help insure as few disruptions as possible, but you can’t see that behavior as an employer and simply shrug it off – at least not at a college.
But on the other hand, she wasn’t quite fucked up enough to break past 5 on the Dannometer, so that means she should probably be considered an 8 or 9 by Joe’s standards.
So the dreaded superiors see just how bad Ruth is faring, but they see no alcohol, no bullying, Mary didn’t have time to spew her poison and the relationship with Billie is presented in the form of concerned cuddling.
This might be the best way possible for this situation to resolve. Ruth might get help, she will probably not be kicked out from school and she will not have to run the wing like a tyrant. There is still the grandfather to deal with, but now she has lots of allies and people who care for her.
They see her in bed with a student, though, and it seems impossible that her clashes with Billie not get brought up.
Like, chances are she will just get canned for her depression, but as thejeff pointed out yesterday what went down between her and Billie might need to be revealed in order to make it clear that Ruth wasn’t actually pressuring her into anything.
Yep.
They see her in bed with a student, but they aren’t, like, DOING anything. A lot can be ascribed to overly imaginative rumor-mongers. Besides, the issue is not the fraternization but the abuse of power, and I’d say Billie either already is or at least is going to make it clear this relationship isn’t built on that.
Billie might just end up moved to another floor, the solution that has already been discussed in the comments.
It looks like Chloe is going to be hard pressed not to try to hug all the bad things away. On a practical level, I’m thinking that Ruth is going to be required to attend sessions with an on-campus therapist or something. There’s no question of her keeping the job, though. The ethics breach aside, there has to be a question as to whether she’s emotionally capable of doing the job.
But that’s not a fitness-for-job issue, that’s a healthcare issue. Her record demonstrates that she’s fit for the job (Ruth and Billie didn’t hear Chloe’s assessment of Ruth vs the other RAs, but hopefully the message will get through), which is a pretty strong indication that any incapacity is recent and probably temporary, and that there’s no need to make any permanent decisions.
And if the ethics breach is a consequence of recent pressure (which is extremely plausible, given the conversation with her grandfather that set this whole mess in motion), then the Chloe’s only permanent decision needs to be: “I’m truly sorry for leaving you without proper resourcing and coping tools, once we’ve got you well again let’s make sure we talk more regularly.”
There’s a nasty belief out there in the world that mental illness — long-term conditions, situational depression, whatever — make someone unsuitable for the workforce. That’s simply not the case[1], and what we’ve seen of Chloe so far — ignoring Mary, feeling confident enough in her RA to make sure Ruth’s charges know of that confidence, her admitting in public to her own contribution to the situation, and her immediate sympathetic reaction to Ruth… that’s not someone who’s going to see depression and its consequences (unhealthy coping mechanisms are symptoms well before they’re a moral failing) as a firing offense.
[1] admission for the sake of honesty re biases: I live with CFS and a headache, which every so often throw job-threatening depression into life. So I’m relating to Ruth, here.
OTOH, it’s going to take awhile for Ruth to be capable of doing the job again. Even with therapy and medication. Having depression doesn’t make someone unsuitable for the workplace, as long as they can keep it controlled. Being unable to do their job because they can’t get out of bed does.
Beyond that, her record really doesn’t demonstrate she’s capable of the job. Her record demonstrates she’s capable of covering up problems. Her drinking and depression almost certainly go back long before we find out about them. Her whole approach to being an RA is designed to keep her superiors from looking closely at her. The other RAs go to Chloe for help – maybe for good reason, maybe too often. Ruth doesn’t, not because she’s doing such a wonderful job, but because she needs to keep up that pretense and not give Chloe any reason to investigate. So she runs the floor by fear and force, keeping things quiet. Sometimes she actually tries to help, but that mostly just confuses her charges.
I don’t think she’s as horrible at it as some do, but if Chloe actually talks to the girls on the floor about her general performance rather than just assuming no complaints means good job, Ruth’s going to be in trouble.
This. Ruth needs help, but realistically, whether you suffer from mental illness or not, anyone can get to a point where they are literally unable to do the job. If you can’t even get out of bed, you can’t do your job, which is not at all to say that you should *can’t or never* have one, just that you can’t handle it *right now*. Which isn’t at all to say that people with mental illness are not discriminated against.
I think Ruth will still be a student, but she will definitely be fired because frankly, she was terrible at her job. Additionally, while mental illness and other health conditions are none of anyone’s business, having an employee who repeatedly covers up problems instead of *actually solving* them is not a sign of a good employee.
I’m feeling conflicted. I’m hopeful that things turn out okay for Ruth and Billie, but worried because I know this is a Willis comic. He could be building up our hopes only to dash them later.
The sad part is that even if no sexy times are happening and it could be explained as just comforting someone with depression, it’s still very obvious that Ruth needs help, and they likely wont keep her because of it. 🙁
I don’t think firing someone for being depressed is legal… Imagine if she had a fever so high she couldn’t get out of bed. This is basically the equivalent.
This is what I’ve wanted to say but have had trouble coming up with the right words. If Ruth was physically ill and needed to be hospitalized, wouldn’t the authorities get a temporary R.A. in until Ruth was well enough to fulfill her duties?
Though in Ruth’s case, though, there are things other than her depression that should probably doom her job, such as the on-campus drinking in what was supposed to be a dry dorm, the relationship with a student under her care, and the bullying (though Ruth did imply that the authorities were ok with that as long as she kept order).
pretty sxure if u run out of sick days they can let u go (in the US) this isnt commie europe where if ur ill and dr says you need to take x months off u can take x months fof…
In the US the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 requires 12 weeks of unpaid medical leave for qualifying reasons. Of course, there are conditions and exceptions, so not everyone can get it.
I used it to looks after my parents when I ran out of vacation time. My employer let me use paid sick leave for that, but that may not have been legally required.
I see it more as the firm knowledge that there is nothing she can do or say to Chloe that is more important than trying to make Ruth feel better right there and then.
For the RM, that Ruth isn’t moving or reacting is the key here. If this were a “don’t have sexy time with those under your care”, Ruth would be up and reacting. That Ruth isn’t means that there is a different and bigger issue here. I see exasperation and a little self-recrimination that Chloe didn’t see this happening and now there is more to sort out than if she had seen this earlier. Also that Ruth let this hit rock bottom without confiding in the RM that she was having problems.
But Chloe isn’t a sophomore temporarily in charge of a small group of students, she is a trained actual adult who has probly seen this kind of thing many times. Even a small dorm has as many teens as a high school and she has them 24×7 during a stressful time for them. So drinking alone would not surprise her. Nor sexy times, which are going on every day. Nor even suicidal thoughts. These are things every RA sees and she oversees the RAs.
Chloe is the one who can basically make Ruth get counseling. The commentariat had been calling for someone to get her to counseling, but friends can’t force someone into it, but a boss can make it a condition of employment. This isn’t deus ex machina, but how this would actually work in a college dorm.
Chloe would also be an excellent resource for getting Becky! help and unlike Leslie, she is on hand and would consider that just part of her job. She would be tied into to everything that the school and community can offer. Calling that.
I am not fully convinced that this will end with Ruth’so termination – might be a Canadian thing here but most schools up here would consider the mental illness and mitigating factor aand let Ruth off with a warning as well as some mandatory therapy. I.E., we won’t suspend you from your job if you agree to a number of counseling sessions a week for a period of time and agree to conditions like regular check insurance from RM.
But, then again, might be cultural differences at play here. USians seem convinced that Ruth’s mental health issues are gonna damn her to the RM.
Speaking as a regretfully american individual, the US system for dealing with almost anything is utter crap. Mental issues are something that are regularly condemned here, especially “ambiguous” ones like depression and PTSD. We’re taught all our lives to suck it up, and if we can’t, well clearly it’s our fault and we should be punished for it. You’re talking about a country where rape and abuse victims are blamed and shamed for “inviting” the crimes against them. Psychological issues are often ignored or written off as excuses not to get our sh*t together. It would be awesome if Ruth were kept on with mandatory counseling, but it’s way more likely that unless Ruth offers something that no other RA can provide, her depression will be seen as a chronic attitude problem and she’ll be fired before she can inevitably screw things up.
For me, the question is more “Is Ruth capable of doing the job?”
In the long run, with treatment, most likely. But we need someone here in the dorm this week and counseling isn’t going to provide a miracle cure that’s going to have her ready to support the rest of her floor on Monday.
On top of that, they should look into what’s been going on, how long this has been a problem, etc and realize Ruth really hasn’t actually been doing a good job all year – probably last year either.
Get a replacement RA, get Ruth some help and ideally get her another position where she’s not actually in charge of people and can more easily be checked up on.
This isn’t a comparable situation at all. A fever happens once and then is gone after a week or so. Even with therapy and medication, Ruth is going to repeatedly and unpredictably have bad patches where she is non-functional like she is today, in universe (and was yesterday too, IIRC). This is a long-term affliction and I can’t see her being fully able to do her duties for some time.
The reason she would lose her job has to do with her relationship with Billie, not her mental health issues. She is in a position of power and has a responsibility to ensure the week being of the residents. She cannot impartiality perform her job if she is sleeping with one of the people on her dorm and it can be seen as using your power over someone to influence their decisions.
It’s the same reason my boss would get fired if it was discovered he was sleeping with one of his underlings. It’s a conflict of interests in the eyes of the employer.
She’s a fresher. Such positions are usually restricted to older and ostensibly more mature undergrads who have lived in the residence at least year or two.
I suspect one of an RA’s official jobs is to keep alcohol out of the hands of those under 21, so being an active underage alcoholic sends rather a mixed message.
(Yes this gets into the morass of crime vs disease as well as the morass of ostensibly demanding the impossible while implicitly requiring furtiveness and lying.)
Ruth’s been dealing with depression for a long time and she was doing her job (on top of harassing Billie, I mean), it’s just that things have reached a point where she’s starting to completely break down and is an active suicide risk. If it was something some counseling and meds could fix up it wouldn’t be a problem.
“I’m taking these cookies that the two of you clearly are unfit to cater for. I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve finished cross-examining them. They may get removed from your custody in return for letting you restart from the status quo. I’ll be round with the release papers.”
Best case scenario now: Ruth gets fired (because of course she gets fired) but CARLA is put in charge as the new RA, who then proceeds NOT to lord it over Mary, but lets her know that if she tries any of her crap, Carla will END HER.
Also, (and perhaps this is just me), but to be honest I’m not sure why losing an RA position is a suicide-contemplating-worthy thing, unless I’ve missed something entirely.
“You mean I WON’T be personally responsible for all the idiot things all the people on my floor partake in? This is cause for celebration!”
Like, maybe she enjoys the job, but come on, if she’s not RA then the stress level in her life is going to drop like a rock, and that’s a good thing.
Yeah, that is a blank so far. It might be a Sarah-like situation where the RA position is conditional for her staying in college, but it most likely has to do with her grandfather, who as far as we know is prime shite. He might use failure as an RA as ammunition to pull her out of college or ransom her fee or something abusive like that.
Or there might not even be anything external – it might just be Ruth being unable to face yet another personal failure and not having the mental resources to cope with it.
Because it’s one MORE thing she’s failed at. She doesn’t get that her life has been about even bits triumph and failure, because she’s depressed/traumatized. Her thought process is “I can’t fuck this up TOO!”
It goes back to what she said about her grandfather: she feels like she’s a constant disappointment to him, because he constantly tells her she is. Lose an RA job – whoo, boy, look at the disappointment from grandpa now! Can’t even handle babysitting a bunch of teenage losers like herself! And then he takes it out on her little brother some more.
If she were dead, he wouldn’t even necessarily KNOW she was failing as an RA, just that she died. So maybe he’d take it easier on her brother about it. Maybe, just maybe, he might even go easier yet, afraid that her brother would also kill himself and leave him without grandchildren OR children.
That’s why depression coupled with abuse at home can turn into a super-dangerous spiral, AND why it’d be hard for people like Chloe – who probably don’t know about the abuse – to understand fully what’s going on.
Depression can make the tiniest failure feel like the end of the world. Humans aren’t particularly rational at the best of times, and since mental illness directly interferes with brain functions it makes it that much harder for thoughts to follow rational paths.
It’s a bit like asking “why did that blind guy walk into that table? couldn’t he see it was right there?” (I have in the past asked a blind person to look at something; this stuff is easy to forget 🙂
That’s all true, and besides (a) she might really need the break on her rent & board (b) finding someplace else to live might seem like an unsuperably difficulty right now. When going to the refectory for lunch seems just too hard you’re really in no shape to get a new job and home.
Yep. Also: see suicide rates on college campuses. not enough students are able to deal with failure and rejection, let alone know how to manage disorders which often emerge exactly during those year. Many, like Ruth, also come to school untreated disorders, some purely chemical, some related to previous trauma. Some, like Joyce, come to school and experience trauma and it remains untreated in an attempt to seem “okay” and do well.
This along with tremendous amounts of pressure to “succeed” and please everyone else leads people to equate their own self worth with superficial accomplishments, and is basically a recipe for disaster.
I think Ruth is suicidal because she’s depressed, not because she’s been caught being naughty. And she’s depressed either because of a history of stress with inadequate coping skills or because she inherited bipolar mood disorder, or both — not because she’s about to be fired, evicted, expelled, and deported.
~if only they kneeewwww, what it was like to be yoouuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU~ *tears head off and wears it as a hat*
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maybe its me hoping but i think pudding seems a bit sympathetic.
She seems that way to me too. I think whatever her response, it’ll be done with a lot of compassion and care, which is exactly what she needs right now.
Well it’s not an aha-gotcha-j’accuse moment playing out, so we’re on one of the rightish paths.
It’s also possible for a sympathetic person, who thinks they are acting with compassion and care but has bad preconceptions or training, to do exactly what would be worst. So it’s entirely possible for Chloe to destroy Ruth and Billie in the next few days.
in other words, pudding might be female toedad?
I definitely wouldn’t describe Toedad as sympathetic.
I meant more on the fact that he thought what he was doing was right, and then he screwed everything up
I don’t think there’s any grounds for destroying Billie here. The only reason it’s against the rules for Ruth to sleep with her is in case Billie has been coerced into this relationship. She’s the protected party here in any case.
Well, to be fair, Billie has been very much coerced into this relationship by Ruth. Including forced kisses and sports watching. She’s in their relation now of her own volition but Ruth totally crossed a number of lines on the way of getting there.
More like, Ruth has tried to coerce her into a relationship, but when that failed spectacularly, Billie started an entirely different one voluntarily.
I just kind of feel like picking nits on this one because… because Ruth was being entirely horrible early on, and should have 100% gotten punished for it, but this just feels entirely different. Billie’s with her DESPITE all her crap, not because of it, you know?
“Ruth, you forced a student under your care to watch a Leafs game? BEGONE FROM THIS PLACE.”
“You could have at LEAST made her watch a GOOD team.”
sports games can be good?!?!
Isn’t there a chance Billie’s underage drinking on campus will get out as well, though?
They specifically got rid of the alcohol, Carla and Rachel didn’t know (or at least didn’t seem to blow the whistle) about that one, and nobody will believe Mary now.
Sarah, not Toedad.
Unfortunately, you can be sympathetic and still have to kick someone to the curb as part of your job. I don’t think this lady can just ignore all the crap Ruth has gotten herself into here.
This, thus the very sad look she has here. Ruth’s gonna find her stuff packed with an ad for a cheap apartment complex tucked in.
That seems unlikely since doing so kicks Ruth out of the cast. What’s probably going to happen is that Ruth gets removed from her position and stuck in another room, maybe push her into counseling if that’s a thing they can do.
Unless she and Becky become wacky roommates.
How does it kick her out of the cast? Becky doesn’t even go to Indiana but she’s a main character.
Well I think it’s clear she is fired, but I think pudding maybe someone one who is willing to hide why and help her find something else with a caveat: Ruth (and probably Billie) attend AA and see a therapist. Which since I understand and like Ruth I’d really like to see.
AA, as far as I’ve read, tend to actually make things worse for people…
Yeah, AA is a very shame oriented program. It’s all about asking for forgiveness and promising never to drink again and thus living in fear of alcohol. The fears are reinforced by meetings where they talk about alcohol destroyed their lives, they’re basically collectively obsessing over past mistakes which isn’t too healthy. I’ve seen members get absolutely emotionally destroyed at the thought that they might have lost their ten year coin because they took a sip from the wrong cup at a barbecue.
It’s not an organization the promotes a healthy mental state imo.
It’s a deeply flawed organization but it helped my brother get sober after alcohol did destroy his life and also my mother so I can’t really deal with them too harshly. Complete nonfunctionality was their state and violence while they’re happy and productive now.
well there are alternative chooses of course. I just think Ruth needs to be a cut it out entirely kind of person. With professional help of course.
Honestly, I suspect Ruth would have an easier time quitting booze than Billie. Her root problem is the depression – she’s self-medicating on booze. Get her help with that and I expect she’d be able to stop drinking. Not too easily, she’s got physical withdrawal symptoms, which isn’t good at all, but I doubt she’d have much long term trouble – if she can deal with her other issues.
Billie’s shown much less signs of realizing the drinking is a problem for her and has made no apparent effort to stop – with the deal she originally made with Ruth or probably now.
AA absolutely saved the lives of a couple of friends of mine. I understand that it may not be for everyone, but I can’t think of anything else that has worked as well for the people I know (including the two who tried “moderation” courses and are now dead)
Honestly, I was sure AA was for people who had already hit rock bottom.
Billie and Ruth migbt not be at rock bottom yet, but they’re running out of room to fall.
I don’t know the character from any other comics, but her response to hearing Ruth was suicidal was exasperation that an RA had made more work for her. I’m not hopeful.
She sold Walky and Joyce condoms one time. That’s pretty much her sole contribution to the Walkyverse.
OMG spoil
Really? The next comic was called “Joyce and Walky”. I think the statute of limitations on spoilers is long since passed…
huh, same outfit and everything
[inb4: I was out late hunting a Pokégym that seemed to defy the GPS]
i don’t think that’s how you inb4
I got tired of including “ur not 1st comment!” after that
I don’t think it was exasperation specifically at Ruth, even though she mentioned she thought Ruth was “the one” RA who had her shit together. I read the whole statement as being, “Why can’t I manage to find RAs who have their shit together.” (Chloe, protip: College kids don’t have their shit together, and if they think they do coming in, they find out they don’t by the time they graduate. Good luck.)
This was my thought as well. When she said that, I saw a potential out for Ruth.
IRL, it’s very possible that Ruth would be forced onto medical leave from college entirely. I knew people who had this happen for less. But, plot-wise, I don’t think that’s where this is going.
I also stand by my thought that the RA Manager needs to have better oversight on the RAs. Like you said- they’re college students. They shouldn’t be given that kind of responsibility with just 2 weeks’ training without at least some oversight. Regular check ins. That kind of thing. Like you said- college students don’t have their shit together!
Pudding: adding sympathy to your taste buds!
well since i have a super tongue that would be nice.
I want to see Ethan’s super tongue in actionwell ok i used the wrong term but i meant this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster
In my head, you sounded like Greg Universe, out of the blue.
I dont know who that is but i will hope it isn’t an insult. also i just reailzed i was the first post…… how do you like that? i should have waited a little.
Don’t watch Steven Universe? I recommend it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCdLB9bCtvU
I’ve heard of it but not watched it. steven universe sounds like one of those shows i wont love or hate from what little i know. I might end up watching it someday i might not. depends on whats on/what im doing.
Greg Universe is pretty much the most loving and easygoing fictional parent out there, so not an insult.
sometimes people say i seem easy going and i don’t seem to hate anyone. my response of “i’m to lazy to hate people” seems to get a reaction most of the time.
Ya know, given that that describes the way I feel, maybe I should actually quote you at someone sometime. Nah. . . sounds like too much work.
Silence, as Billie lay with hand firmly comforting her beloved and friend she could only imagine a hope for her, that she would again be well. behind the shut lids of her eyes images of “happier” times swam amongst a sea of optimism and misery. A creek, a whisper, the growing light from the crowded hall brought an ache to her chest, she dared a peek. walking in – shadowing the light – Cloe, the R.A. manager with her blond locks and splash of pudding on her head stood there, her form blocking the crowds view of the scene. Billie lays her head back on the pillow, staring into the ocean of ginger.
“Oh, Ruth” Cloe murmurs
Billie’s chest continues to pound, Ruth lays unmoving as she comes to a single thought. It’s over
It’s over, isn’t it? Isn’t it over?
Oh thank goodness, I’m not the only one who thought this. (I literally started humming the song when I saw the title.)
This was a triumph.
I’m making a note here…
(No idea what song you guys meant, but this one feels appropriately melancholy)
And sad at the same time. Not sure what will come from this, but it’s not as if she’ll close her eyes and leave. If she’s a nice gal, and I think she is, she can just relocate one or both of them, and not fire Ruth.
Dammit, am I the only one who sees ice cream rather than pudding?!
the law of large numbers would say no.
I love that we’re calling her pudding now.
It makes the whole comment thread sound like a pack of Harley Quinns.
Hmmm. “Pack” is not quite the right word.
Flock? School? Horde? Delight?
A Delight of Harley Quinns.
I’m getting close, I can feel it.
Pride of Harley Quinns?
A murder of Harley Quinns. That sounds very appropriate.
a battering of harley quinns
Troupe.
Just noticed Ruth is little spoon.
Same
I applaud you for that joke, not for making it but for doing it at the right time.
Sometimes you just need to be the little spoon.
i…….. want to be A spoon at this point in life. I hope i can prove i am worth being a spoon before to long.
I just want someone to be my jetpack
Better stock on beans then.
Billie is kinda trying to shield Ruth from the world. Especially nice with the light from the opening door. I like it.
Well she was somewhat of a sub in the slipshine comic…
Little spoon is no match for big pudding.
This can only end well. I see no possible bad endings.
DO NOT tempt fate aka Willis.
while we wait for our answer, enjoy this updated Blackmail ship – http://theanonyomusguy.deviantart.com/art/S-S-Blackmail-detail-624838332
Could it be? A reasonable authority figure?
Have her fired at once!
Besides Leslie? And Hank? And the Keeners? And mail-room-lady-downstairs-whose-name-begins-with-A? And Dean McHenry?
Asma.
Not sure what my opinion of the Dean is, but then again it’s because I’ve read It’s Walky! and know what he was like in another universe.
Nope, next strip she chugs a bottle of Jack, climbs into bed and asks if the depressed alcoholic lesbian suicide club can have one more member.
At that point, you’re starting to get into depressed alcoholic lesbian suicide conga line territory.
There’ gonna dance, drink, and bang all night. and in the morning they’re gonna conga off a damn bridge.
:/
There’s hope, yet.
There’s always hope. Pandora sees to that.
Hope, after all, is a four letter word.
Really? I always saw Pandora’s box as a tragedy for the world.
All the bad stuff got out into the world, but hope stayed locked up in her Box.
aka, it will stay in there forever, never making its way out into the world.
Kind of a downer IMO.
Yeah it doesn’t add up.
Nah, it’s about control.
The evils are out of her control, but she still is in possession of hope.
And she as first woman created by the gods represents half of mankind.
So… Chloe still seems like a good guy here, right?
No, she’s presenting more as a good gal.
*abscondifies*
is abscondifies a word?
quite honestly
what even is english
English is basically the elemental carbon of languages. It will fricking bond with ANY vocabulary and do so in the most varied array of structures possible.
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” — James Nicoll
ALLA THIS
+1 for getting the quote right,
+5 for getting the attribution right!
You win six internets!
Two big things that have proven to me English is broken: 1) The fact that “All the experiences he had had had had no effect in the end.” is a readable sentence. & 2) Contronyms are words that can mean the exact opposite, like egregious meaning both outstandingly bad, or remarkably good. Puruse meaning to look at something carefully or to read something in a relaxed way. Nonplussed meaning so shocked that you aren’t sure how to react, or completely unperturbed. (One theory of why words like these have both definitions is that people were so sarcastic when using these words that another definition was added)
“Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach.” is a perfectly grammatical German sentence. “Yodaspeak” is no fun in German since word order is mostly arbitrary anyway.
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo,” is technically a grammatically correct sentence in English.
There is a Classical Chinese story called “The Stone Lions” that consists entirely of the syllable “shi”. English is no more broken than any other language.
Eh, inferred meaning. Coined words are still words.
And yet all I can think of are the cookies on the floor
The poor cookies.
Quick! Bribe Chloe with cookies! THAT WILL WORK!
good bribery cookies: sugar cookies
How about Chocolate Cookies with both Chocolate Chips and Chocolate Coated Toffee Chips?
those are grief cookies
Who needs cookies when Chloe brought pudding?!
dip cookies in the pudding!!
Kinky.
“Oh Ruth, if only there was someone who loved you”
Oh you did NOT just go there.
… that joke really only worked if Chloe was holding Ruth, not Billie. Unless Billie is supposed to be Olaf. Although I suppose Olaf was willing to commit suicide for Anna….
… I’m going to stop this train of thought now.
Ruth does seem to be “Frozen”. But Billie’s “act of true love” may have thawed CHLOE’S heart.
Can’t trust people who put gravy on their French fries.
Let’s not have another discussion on Gravy, I still have scars from the last time.
Ima call her poutine now instead.
DAMN U GUYS FUCK OFF THEY JUST CUDDLING
Cuddle in Peace, Repeat.
Why Chloe look like the mom that work two jobs to feed her kids and she comes home one day to see her eldest child going through a hard breakup.
She’s probably seen that before, depending how long she’s been doing this job.
Thank you for being kind, reasonable authority pudding lady! Even if Ruth gets canned, I want somebody actually positioned to help Ruth in general.
Exactly this.
And Amber, Joyce, and Becky.
Heck, maybe Ruth qualifies for a rehab program after which she can keep her job. More surprising policies are out there.
Spare her pudding boss ladyyyy
Is “Oh, Ruth” the name of her wacky sitcom spinoff?
If walky and Ruth get their own spin off then it’s fair that walky gets one to.
Wait, what?
This is the saddest wacky sitcom I’ve ever watched.
RUthy! I’m HOome!
*sob!*
I can imagine watching it at 2am, slumped in a chair with a beer and continually wiping a tear.
ruth….
I really hope we get genuine understanding, and she gets help, as opposed to a kneejerk reaction.
The end of the comic seems to (in my mind) imply this.
Man, I really do not understand all the people who thought she was going to storm in and start yelling.
I assumed any possibility of that stopped when she heard the word “suicidal”.
And now for the 14th (I guess) DOA Battle. (Which takes place during the last one!)
Sal and Ethan leap away from Blaine and skid to their feet.
Sal: Dammit, this guy just doesn’t go down!
Ethan: There’s got to be a way to beat him!
Blaine: There isn’t.
Blaine lifts him metal arm and a ball of energy forms in his palm. He fires it at Ethan and Sal who quickly dodge out of the way.
Sal: Ethan, use GALVATRON!
Ethan leaps into the air.
Ethan: GAL-VA-TRON SMASH!
Blaine lifts his arms up and blocks the attack, a giant explosion consumes both of them, but Blaine looks barely hurt, while Ethan collapses.
Sal: Ethan!
Blaine prepares to kill Ethan, only to see Mike flying towards him, a fist raised.
Blaine: You’re like flies! Why do you persist!? What chances do you have!?
Blaine grabs Mike and tosses him away, before shooting him with his laser cannon.
Carla: HEY BLAINE!
Blaine looks up, to see Carla coming down on top of him with a crowbar. He grabs it and slams her into the ground. Suddenly he’s knocked forward from a kick to the back. He turns around, and sees the exhausted announcer.
Blaine: EVEN YOU!
Dina runs up.
Dina: RAPTOR UNLEASH!
A dinosaur shaped energy field surrounds Dina, as she charges at Blaine. He grabs her by the field’s mouth and holds her at bay. Before blasting through her shield.
Billie and Ruth come at Blaine from separate sides. He grabs them and slams them together.
Joyce looks up from destroying robots and see’s everyone trying to stop Blaine.
Joyce: We have to help them.
Mary: You have to, I am under no obligation, and I fight against him, not with you.
Mary notices a Dina robot behind Joyce.
Mary: Behind you.
Suddenly Other Jacob 2 sticks out of it, it collapses to reveal Sarah.
Joyce: Sarah, you’ve recovered!
Sarah: Enough anyway. How have you been holding up?
Joyce: These things are endless!
Becky runs by kicking at Robots. Walky throws a Sal Robot over Joyce. Roz fires through a Mike robot with her condom hat.
Sarah: Just keep attacking! They are bound to run out eventually.
Joyce looks towards the stadium, and see’s Amber and Danny waking up. Amber’s eyes are back to normal.
Joyce: Danny succeeded!
Blaine: WHAT!
Amber faces towards him.
Blaine: IF I CAN’T CONTROL YOU, I’LL JUST KILL YOU.
Blaine forms a massive energy attack, stronger then any before, and aims it at Amber. A look of horror comes across Ambers face as she’s waits for death.
Danny: NO!
Danny throws himself in front of Amber just before the attack reaches them. Using his body to shield her.
Amber: DANNY!
Amber catches his falling body and holds him in her arms.
Danny coughs and looks up at her.
Danny: Amber?
Amber: Yes?
Danny: You’re going to have to kill twice as many spiders now. I’m sorry, I can’t be there to help. Just promise me, that you’ll keep living.
Everyone looks on in horror as the last breath of life slips from Danny’s lips. Amber carefully lays his body on the ground, and closes his eyes.
Amber: Rest well.
Amber forms her hand into a fist and runs at Blaine.
Amber: BLAAAIIIIINNEEEE!
Blaine attempts to block the attack, only to have his arms shattered…and his torso, as Amber punches through his heart.
Blaine staggers back, he lifts his head towards Amber, and opens his mouth, only to spit at her feet, before dying. His robots collapse.
Sal: Danny…
Amber walks back up to Danny’s corpse carrying her cape. She wraps it around him and carries him of off the ring. She passes by Dina, who takes off her hat and puts it on Danny’s head.
Dina: You’ll need it more.
Joyce: Why, after all he did, and we can’t do anything!
Mary: I might know a way to bring him back.
Joyce: What?
Mary: But before I tell you anything, I want one thing.
Joyce: What.
Mary: A fight, someone strong to prove my strength against. If you win, I’ll tell you everything.
Joyce: Fine then, I’ll fight you.
Mary: Heh.
Next Time: Can Joyce defeat Mary?
“Becky runs by kicking at Robots.”
A sentence that sounds awesome without the comma that should be in the middle.
The kicking of Robots is how she runs. No feet to ground, just a series of kicks to robots.
I see her doing that sidescrolling beat-em-up head stomp move, then bouncing to the next robot. It’s kinda spectacular.
“Kicking At Robots” would be a good name for a Glasswalker Garou.
That is exactly how I envisioned it.
But with a few spinning kicks thrown in.
It may not matter if Chloe spares Ruth.
Ruth may be flunking her classes.
Up until recently at least she has been in class
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/moron/
I need some good news this week so please let this be a friendly chat and support from a team mom.
that comma is seriously fucking with me, I’ve re-read that bubble in a slightly different tone like 50 times and they all sound possible.
Perhaps you could use the facial expression to narrow them down. Unless that is the narrowed down count.
I see it as a sort of sad, “oh Ruth, I see you need help but my hands are tied” 🙁
I see “Oh Ruth, I should have seen you needed help and now you have made a lot of work for me. {sigh} Let’s start sorting this out.”
Probly not her first rodeo and she sees this kind of thing weekly. My Big Ten dorm had 1000+ teens in one building.
see, you and Chrissy both name good possibilities….but you don’t use the comma!!! and that’s why it’s fucking with me. that and Ruth being slightly bolded.
That’s what I was thinking, too. Not everyone is a villain.
I personally see it as a “Oh Ruth…you poor thing.” Like “this is a mess” and “you desperately need help” mixed together. Sympathy with just a dash of exasperation and disappointment.
Billie’s look back and return feels like a return to her statement of connection and care. She’ll be here, holding her as she enters her darkest moment and won’t let Ruth push her away. No matter how it goes.
Even if she not always holding her, she’ll never let her go.
The frightened look in her eye when she turns is heartbreaking. Like she’s also holding on to assure herself that Ruth is still breathing.
I feel like there’s almost a look of “Help?” as well. Almost like this feel of Billie thinking “she’s too far gone and I don’t know what to do.”
Their relationship is… not good, but moments like these make it so difficult not too root for them and want them together.
Billie doesn’t care anymore, just like a cat huddling against her sad human.
Human sad. Make human not sad anymore.
Not be sad. Sad no good. Be happy. Happy good. Have purrs. Purrs good.
Is Chloe wearing glasses because he’s missing her nose bridge.
She’s wearing two monocles.
just like this comment is missing an “s” in she…..-_-
Her eyebrows knocked it off. Happens all the time around here.
Yesterday she’s clearly wearing glasses and clearly has a nose bridge. I think she absorbed it into her face.
Comments like this make me wish this site had a comment rating system
(You’d get two thumbs up if that’s unclear)
So, Chloe is here to give us hope of a reasonable authority. Who is going to crush said hope?
There’s still Mary around, butI hope she won’t do something bad.
It has been pretty clearly shown she has no power here. She needs to retreat back to her room to sulk and/or regain her strength by feeding on baby orphan tears.
the problem with mary’s situation is that after she finds out that she has no authority, she may do something…..spiteful. something like rat out to one of the higher ups.
She does have a remaining target – Becky squatting in Billie’s old room. Not sure how she can turn that to her advantage from this point, but it’s possible.
Willis will be the one to crush it
For it is his to crush
As is always the case.
…well, I mean… she is probably still going to fire her.
The reasonable authority should also crush that hope.
Dessert is served.
double layered cake
…pfft. I just realized who this was.
“So… Is there room for one more?”
“You issued the twin matresses, you only have yourself to blame. … also, Billie here’s a major lardo. So no.”
“Oh, Ruth. (sigh) Seriously? The Leafs?“
Go Leafs?
No wonder she’s depressed and borderline suicidal.
*Ruth jumps up from bed with a broken bottle in hand.” I’LL DEFEND THE LEAFS TO MY GRAAAAAVE!
Chloe: “There, good for another few weeks”
Hey, d’y’know why Hamilton’ll never get a hockey team?
Because then Toronto will want one.
The long-term repercussions, I can’t imagine.
*Que Roy Orbison*
I was thinking Loverboy but you beat me fair and hands down.
R.E.M. – Everybody Hurts.
It’s over, isn’t it…
i was fine/with the men who would come into her life now and again/i was fine/cause i knew/that they never really mattered until you
Don’t know what ‘it’ is, but Ruth in the dark alone is over.
Mary’s blackmail is over.
Walky pretending nothing was going on with Billie is over.
Maybe Ruth’s job is over and maybe not. Maybe Ruth and Billie are over and maybe not. Maybe they are both out of college and maybe not.
Why would BILLIE be out of college over this? She’s done nothing wrong. Ruth might or might not have been taking advantage of her. Billie’s only role to play here is witness/victim.
A huge component of their relationship is underage drinking.
On a dry campus, too.
Yes, but the whistle hasn’t been blown on that part, Ruth got rid of all evidence and nobody will believe Mary now.
Even if it does come out, it’s all going to be pinned on Ruth as the authority figure anyway, probably?
I have strong doubts about whether Billie’s actually gotten rid of her booze (at least in other than the obvious way). She didn’t before and she hasn’t shown any of the signs Ruth has of drying out.
Isn’t it? Isn’t it over?
Just because she CAN be fired doesn’t mean she WILL be fired.
I do not think they have anyone to replace her.
In all honesty, though, she SHOULD be fired. Because she’s been an horrible R.A., is a violent alcoholic and suffers from depression, and has engaged in a relationship with one of the kids put under her care. Ruth isn’t fit to be an R.A.
She does, however, need support and a therapist.
Suffering from depression is not a good cause to get fired from anywhere, not even the suicide help line. Just as you shouldn’t be fired if you have cancer or the flu.
It’s allowed to suffer from depression.
It is NOT okay for it to affect your job.
That is not, but the response to getting too sick to work is to give them sick leave so they can go to a DOCTOR.
She should be. And they’ll find another person to do it, there are more than enough qualified students looking to shave off their room fees. If Ruth is not an RA, she’ll still be a student.
My big question is whether the school will let her stay on campus, or send her home. i knew some people who wet home, and I knew one who left for a few days and returned to school (and also had a suicidal crisis) so i suppose it’s up to the school’s discretion.
I want to pick this up but I’m not sure the rest is applicable?
You won and she chose you
And she loved you and she’s gone
(it fits in the most depressing way)
We’re on the ruuuuuuuun
wait no
Thank goodness Pudding lady seems to be taking a good look at this, not automatically assuming the worse from finding Billy in bed with Ruth. Like maybe she understands that Billy is trying to protect Ruth.
Looks like compassionate help for Ruth is a real possibility. Good.
Mary is toast. Also good.
I hope it turns out okay.
It’s okay, she can visit her home country for affordable antidepressants.
So how long before this all crashes and burns? 2, 3 strips?
-300 strips?
If I did my math correctly. (Not including Patreon or Slipshine.) That puts us right about here:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/rulingout/
So… Umm… Yeah, I’ve got nothing.
I meant that as a rough ballpark. I went back looking for a more precise measure, and decided on -654 days, plus or minus a day because of who knows when in the coming 24 hours any given person will read this.
Yeah, that’d be the one.
“Well now, I need a model for a character to show up and dispense some much needed wisdom to get this train wreck back on track. Oh, perhaps the woman that had Joyce and Walky just get a set of condoms and move on with their life, showing them there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing. Better make some tweaks too, show that she’s older than them.”
Pudding Lady!
“Well fuck it all.”
Pudding lady, pudding it all to right!
theory: ruth is still at this very moment the most-together RA Pudding Lady has
She was afraid she would find a Star Trek marathon in there.
But thankfully, Ruth has yet to succumb to the Dark Power… 451
once they start trekking there’s no dragging them back out
If that theory is true, how comes this University hasn’t burned down already?
lots of fire drills
I really like the visual of the light spilling into the room and across Billie’s back. And it looks like Chloe is gonna be sympathetic and not awful and hopefully she’s proactively helpful as well…? Also, the hovertext made laugh out loud, nice Walkyverse reference.
Basically, I like this strip a lot. Probably one of my favourites of this storyline.
Chloe: *Sigh* We’re going to have to get out a whoooole lotta paperwork for this one, aren’t we. And the Counseling Center.
There’s something very cathartic about this strip. It’s not happy, but it feels right – both that Ruth is revoked of her position as an RA, and that she can receive love and compassion in spite of it.
I think this is the first time in a long time I’ve felt like things might actually turn out okay for her.
That time at the end of your teens when you realize you’ve spent all your energy running away from an anticipated end of the world. In vain. Because there was no such thing.
I’m going to choose to believe that since, as far as Chloe knows, the Ruth sleeping with Billie thing rumor (no one has given her concrete proof), that Ruth won’t get fired for the fraternization. She doesn’t seem like she would fire Ruth for failing classes due to a deep depression (if she is failing). I remain stubbornly hopeful!
Honestly, failing to let Ruth go at this point would be a major failing on their end. Even if they don’t push on the relationhip with Billie, Ruth is supposed to hold down the fort and help others with their issues in the dorm. She cannot do that if she is a broken down mess. She needs help, not to be responsible for a wing of women.
And tonight, grav roulette gets me Radiah. …. Rhaida?
*checks* Raidah.
RADISH GIRL.
… No, okay, Raidah.
I’m actually curious enough about this name to query the internet. It’s an Arabic word/name meaning leader or pioneer.
Most of us view Raidah as a villain of sorts, but I don’t. She’s definitely an antagonist to Sarah, and she’s got her faults, but she’s not particularly worse than Sarah is. As a person — yes, I’m putting on my judgy face here… she’s a bit better. The two worst things she’s done, to my recollection, are holding an extreme grudge against Sarah and being condescending towards Dina. The latter, while not great, is something that most people do. The former is… perhaps overdone, but is more a case of different perspectives on the same events than right or wrong, though the means by which the feud has been prosecuted seem to be brushing on the line, or outright crossing it, of passive-aggressive bullying. Sarah, in turn, has punched Raidah in the face (which Raidah kinda let slide) and then deliberately tried to woo Jacob, not because she wanted Jacob, but because she wanted to hurt Raidah.
Between the two of them, I think Sarah’s crossed the line more than Raidah has.
I definitely have that angry, refuse-to-bury-the-hatchet streak in me. I overcome it sometimes but it is never far from the surface. Usually I avoid it by staying out of feuds entirely and not exposing myself to situations where I’d get hurt badly enough to develop that kind of grudge. But oh yeah, I can hold on to rage and hard feelings and negative opinions for years and years and years.
I’m not proud of that, but I acknowledge that, so in a way Raidah’s a piece of me.
She’s not a BIG piece of me, though. I can do that, but it doesn’t come up often. She’s a passing fancy, a momentary traveling companion on the journey of life, striding side by side together for a few hours before we part ways, not to meet again for months or years.
So while she’s sometimes an appropriate fit for me, the rarity of the event means that my Grav Roulette search must continue.
Sarah, in turn, has punched Raidah in the face (which Raidah kinda let slide) and then deliberately tried to woo Jacob, not because she wanted Jacob, but because she wanted to hurt Raidah.
Wait, what?
When Sarah tried to woo Jacob, he was not in a relationship with Raidah.
Sarah learning that Jacob dates Raidah starts here. Yes a date, so they are not in a relationship yet.
Only interaction between Sarah and Jacob that could be interpreted as wooing was her putting on a (forced) smile while sitting next to him in class.
This lasted for twenty seconds and when Jacob stated “You seem … a little … different today.”, she answered with “No. No! This is– No! No! No No No No” and left for the chair most far away from him.
This counts as wooing now?
Sarah literally says that she’s going to try and break them up because fuck if Raidah gets to have him. This is after she decided that Jacob hated her and wanted nothing to do with her.
Yeah, and then she does essentially nothing about it. Lots of talk, no action.
Depends if Tsundere is a thing in DoA.
Probably.
I dunno, I think Sarah wins in the better person competition because of how Raidah treated Dina when they first met. Raidah immediately decided “Oh, you’re a little weird? You must be broken and helpless, you poor thing”. Sure, Sarah infantilized her a little too when Becky had plans to smooch her, but when they met, she had no trouble seeing Dina as a person and as a peer.
Plus, she may have just been mad that Becky thought of it first.
This is one of the most beautiful strips I’ve seen for this comic in a while.
Well done, Willis. Well done.
This all happened because she’s a Leafs fan. She should know better
Is this the 9001st strip?
I’m waiting for Mary to jump between Chloe and the bed and wave her arms saying “There’s nothing to see here! I’ll take care of this, you can leave now!”
Jumping between Billie and Ruth ? She gonna get mauled.
Her remains will be found on the outskirts of town inside multiple different packs of wild dogs.
Yeah, at the very LEAST she’s going to get Ruth enrolled in some form of therapy. She might be permitted to keep her job to help insure as few disruptions as possible, but you can’t see that behavior as an employer and simply shrug it off – at least not at a college.
The pudding on Chloe’s head glistens in the light.
She’s actually just disappointed in Ruth’s taste in Hockey teams.
I mean, I liked the Maple Leafs. But I could actually win as them on NHL ’98 for the N64.
“Oh Ruth, you could have done so much better. Clearly this one is a fat, nonpopular EX-cheer leader.”
Wow no please read the roomo-o
“Did you not read Mr. Rosenthal’s app? She’s clearly only a six.”
But on the other hand, she wasn’t quite fucked up enough to break past 5 on the Dannometer, so that means she should probably be considered an 8 or 9 by Joe’s standards.
Please let this be sympathy and not exasperation. Please…
So the dreaded superiors see just how bad Ruth is faring, but they see no alcohol, no bullying, Mary didn’t have time to spew her poison and the relationship with Billie is presented in the form of concerned cuddling.
This might be the best way possible for this situation to resolve. Ruth might get help, she will probably not be kicked out from school and she will not have to run the wing like a tyrant. There is still the grandfather to deal with, but now she has lots of allies and people who care for her.
They see her in bed with a student, though, and it seems impossible that her clashes with Billie not get brought up.
Like, chances are she will just get canned for her depression, but as thejeff pointed out yesterday what went down between her and Billie might need to be revealed in order to make it clear that Ruth wasn’t actually pressuring her into anything.
Yep.
They see her in bed with a student, but they aren’t, like, DOING anything. A lot can be ascribed to overly imaginative rumor-mongers. Besides, the issue is not the fraternization but the abuse of power, and I’d say Billie either already is or at least is going to make it clear this relationship isn’t built on that.
Billie might just end up moved to another floor, the solution that has already been discussed in the comments.
It looks like Chloe is going to be hard pressed not to try to hug all the bad things away. On a practical level, I’m thinking that Ruth is going to be required to attend sessions with an on-campus therapist or something. There’s no question of her keeping the job, though. The ethics breach aside, there has to be a question as to whether she’s emotionally capable of doing the job.
But that’s not a fitness-for-job issue, that’s a healthcare issue. Her record demonstrates that she’s fit for the job (Ruth and Billie didn’t hear Chloe’s assessment of Ruth vs the other RAs, but hopefully the message will get through), which is a pretty strong indication that any incapacity is recent and probably temporary, and that there’s no need to make any permanent decisions.
And if the ethics breach is a consequence of recent pressure (which is extremely plausible, given the conversation with her grandfather that set this whole mess in motion), then the Chloe’s only permanent decision needs to be: “I’m truly sorry for leaving you without proper resourcing and coping tools, once we’ve got you well again let’s make sure we talk more regularly.”
There’s a nasty belief out there in the world that mental illness — long-term conditions, situational depression, whatever — make someone unsuitable for the workforce. That’s simply not the case[1], and what we’ve seen of Chloe so far — ignoring Mary, feeling confident enough in her RA to make sure Ruth’s charges know of that confidence, her admitting in public to her own contribution to the situation, and her immediate sympathetic reaction to Ruth… that’s not someone who’s going to see depression and its consequences (unhealthy coping mechanisms are symptoms well before they’re a moral failing) as a firing offense.
[1] admission for the sake of honesty re biases: I live with CFS and a headache, which every so often throw job-threatening depression into life. So I’m relating to Ruth, here.
OTOH, it’s going to take awhile for Ruth to be capable of doing the job again. Even with therapy and medication. Having depression doesn’t make someone unsuitable for the workplace, as long as they can keep it controlled. Being unable to do their job because they can’t get out of bed does.
Beyond that, her record really doesn’t demonstrate she’s capable of the job. Her record demonstrates she’s capable of covering up problems. Her drinking and depression almost certainly go back long before we find out about them. Her whole approach to being an RA is designed to keep her superiors from looking closely at her. The other RAs go to Chloe for help – maybe for good reason, maybe too often. Ruth doesn’t, not because she’s doing such a wonderful job, but because she needs to keep up that pretense and not give Chloe any reason to investigate. So she runs the floor by fear and force, keeping things quiet. Sometimes she actually tries to help, but that mostly just confuses her charges.
I don’t think she’s as horrible at it as some do, but if Chloe actually talks to the girls on the floor about her general performance rather than just assuming no complaints means good job, Ruth’s going to be in trouble.
This. Ruth needs help, but realistically, whether you suffer from mental illness or not, anyone can get to a point where they are literally unable to do the job. If you can’t even get out of bed, you can’t do your job, which is not at all to say that you should *can’t or never* have one, just that you can’t handle it *right now*. Which isn’t at all to say that people with mental illness are not discriminated against.
I think Ruth will still be a student, but she will definitely be fired because frankly, she was terrible at her job. Additionally, while mental illness and other health conditions are none of anyone’s business, having an employee who repeatedly covers up problems instead of *actually solving* them is not a sign of a good employee.
Those of you saying this might be the end of Mary:
Mary was given point blank confrontation by Carla and still holds to the belief that gays are evil.
I feel like everyone should act as nice as possible towards Mary. This will either
A. Prompt an eventual heel face turn.
And/or
B. Drive her insane as she try’s to figure out what their planning (despite them not planning anything)
Uh, but they are. More is not possible.
“…if only somebody loved you”
I’m feeling conflicted. I’m hopeful that things turn out okay for Ruth and Billie, but worried because I know this is a Willis comic. He could be building up our hopes only to dash them later.
Something will obviously happen when Billie receives the Leafs dress. The question is what.
I’m guessing sex.
The sad part is that even if no sexy times are happening and it could be explained as just comforting someone with depression, it’s still very obvious that Ruth needs help, and they likely wont keep her because of it. 🙁
I don’t think firing someone for being depressed is legal… Imagine if she had a fever so high she couldn’t get out of bed. This is basically the equivalent.
This is what I’ve wanted to say but have had trouble coming up with the right words. If Ruth was physically ill and needed to be hospitalized, wouldn’t the authorities get a temporary R.A. in until Ruth was well enough to fulfill her duties?
Though in Ruth’s case, though, there are things other than her depression that should probably doom her job, such as the on-campus drinking in what was supposed to be a dry dorm, the relationship with a student under her care, and the bullying (though Ruth did imply that the authorities were ok with that as long as she kept order).
I should’ve edited before posting. I didn’t mean to say “though” twice in the same sentence.
pretty sxure if u run out of sick days they can let u go (in the US) this isnt commie europe where if ur ill and dr says you need to take x months off u can take x months fof…
how the hey did that o get between those fs?
In the US the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 requires 12 weeks of unpaid medical leave for qualifying reasons. Of course, there are conditions and exceptions, so not everyone can get it.
I used it to looks after my parents when I ran out of vacation time. My employer let me use paid sick leave for that, but that may not have been legally required.
Oh, Ruth. That’s not sleeping with Billie.
“I mean, ten points for trying, but clearly you two don’t understand how lesbian sex works.” *cracks knuckles* “School is in session.”
i awkard looled
Billies “NOPE, MINE” stance is adorable.
I see it more as the firm knowledge that there is nothing she can do or say to Chloe that is more important than trying to make Ruth feel better right there and then.
I see it also as a ‘you can’t make me leave her’ sort of thing. Defiant/protective.
For the RM, that Ruth isn’t moving or reacting is the key here. If this were a “don’t have sexy time with those under your care”, Ruth would be up and reacting. That Ruth isn’t means that there is a different and bigger issue here. I see exasperation and a little self-recrimination that Chloe didn’t see this happening and now there is more to sort out than if she had seen this earlier. Also that Ruth let this hit rock bottom without confiding in the RM that she was having problems.
But Chloe isn’t a sophomore temporarily in charge of a small group of students, she is a trained actual adult who has probly seen this kind of thing many times. Even a small dorm has as many teens as a high school and she has them 24×7 during a stressful time for them. So drinking alone would not surprise her. Nor sexy times, which are going on every day. Nor even suicidal thoughts. These are things every RA sees and she oversees the RAs.
Chloe is the one who can basically make Ruth get counseling. The commentariat had been calling for someone to get her to counseling, but friends can’t force someone into it, but a boss can make it a condition of employment. This isn’t deus ex machina, but how this would actually work in a college dorm.
Chloe would also be an excellent resource for getting Becky! help and unlike Leslie, she is on hand and would consider that just part of her job. She would be tied into to everything that the school and community can offer. Calling that.
I am not fully convinced that this will end with Ruth’so termination – might be a Canadian thing here but most schools up here would consider the mental illness and mitigating factor aand let Ruth off with a warning as well as some mandatory therapy. I.E., we won’t suspend you from your job if you agree to a number of counseling sessions a week for a period of time and agree to conditions like regular check insurance from RM.
But, then again, might be cultural differences at play here. USians seem convinced that Ruth’s mental health issues are gonna damn her to the RM.
Speaking as a regretfully american individual, the US system for dealing with almost anything is utter crap. Mental issues are something that are regularly condemned here, especially “ambiguous” ones like depression and PTSD. We’re taught all our lives to suck it up, and if we can’t, well clearly it’s our fault and we should be punished for it. You’re talking about a country where rape and abuse victims are blamed and shamed for “inviting” the crimes against them. Psychological issues are often ignored or written off as excuses not to get our sh*t together. It would be awesome if Ruth were kept on with mandatory counseling, but it’s way more likely that unless Ruth offers something that no other RA can provide, her depression will be seen as a chronic attitude problem and she’ll be fired before she can inevitably screw things up.
For me, the question is more “Is Ruth capable of doing the job?”
In the long run, with treatment, most likely. But we need someone here in the dorm this week and counseling isn’t going to provide a miracle cure that’s going to have her ready to support the rest of her floor on Monday.
On top of that, they should look into what’s been going on, how long this has been a problem, etc and realize Ruth really hasn’t actually been doing a good job all year – probably last year either.
Get a replacement RA, get Ruth some help and ideally get her another position where she’s not actually in charge of people and can more easily be checked up on.
The good news is that she’s only been R.A for a few weeks. As seen when Ruth went on that talk show.
Imagine if Ruth had a high fever and wasn’t capable of getting out of bed.
She would likely be incapable of doing her job for some more time even after getting help in that case, too.
Would firing her be the logical, ethical and/or legal solution here?
This isn’t a comparable situation at all. A fever happens once and then is gone after a week or so. Even with therapy and medication, Ruth is going to repeatedly and unpredictably have bad patches where she is non-functional like she is today, in universe (and was yesterday too, IIRC). This is a long-term affliction and I can’t see her being fully able to do her duties for some time.
The reason she would lose her job has to do with her relationship with Billie, not her mental health issues. She is in a position of power and has a responsibility to ensure the week being of the residents. She cannot impartiality perform her job if she is sleeping with one of the people on her dorm and it can be seen as using your power over someone to influence their decisions.
It’s the same reason my boss would get fired if it was discovered he was sleeping with one of his underlings. It’s a conflict of interests in the eyes of the employer.
Somehow, Billie and Ruth will be allowed to stay together so that Becky has a place to live….or some sort of room opening occurs.
Is there any reason Billie can’t be appointed as an RA?
She’s a fresher. Such positions are usually restricted to older and ostensibly more mature undergrads who have lived in the residence at least year or two.
And Billie, a drunk, is grossly unsuitable.
If, as some are arguing and as I at least partly agree, depression shouldn’t be a reason to keep someone from the position, should alcoholism?
I suspect one of an RA’s official jobs is to keep alcohol out of the hands of those under 21, so being an active underage alcoholic sends rather a mixed message.
(Yes this gets into the morass of crime vs disease as well as the morass of ostensibly demanding the impossible while implicitly requiring furtiveness and lying.)
Not to mention actively giving alcohol to Billie.
Ruth’s been dealing with depression for a long time and she was doing her job (on top of harassing Billie, I mean), it’s just that things have reached a point where she’s starting to completely break down and is an active suicide risk. If it was something some counseling and meds could fix up it wouldn’t be a problem.
“I’m taking these cookies that the two of you clearly are unfit to cater for. I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve finished cross-examining them. They may get removed from your custody in return for letting you restart from the status quo. I’ll be round with the release papers.”
I wonder if Ruth’s sheets are nice.
Best case scenario now: Ruth gets fired (because of course she gets fired) but CARLA is put in charge as the new RA, who then proceeds NOT to lord it over Mary, but lets her know that if she tries any of her crap, Carla will END HER.
Also, (and perhaps this is just me), but to be honest I’m not sure why losing an RA position is a suicide-contemplating-worthy thing, unless I’ve missed something entirely.
“You mean I WON’T be personally responsible for all the idiot things all the people on my floor partake in? This is cause for celebration!”
Like, maybe she enjoys the job, but come on, if she’s not RA then the stress level in her life is going to drop like a rock, and that’s a good thing.
Yeah, that is a blank so far. It might be a Sarah-like situation where the RA position is conditional for her staying in college, but it most likely has to do with her grandfather, who as far as we know is prime shite. He might use failure as an RA as ammunition to pull her out of college or ransom her fee or something abusive like that.
Or there might not even be anything external – it might just be Ruth being unable to face yet another personal failure and not having the mental resources to cope with it.
Because it’s one MORE thing she’s failed at. She doesn’t get that her life has been about even bits triumph and failure, because she’s depressed/traumatized. Her thought process is “I can’t fuck this up TOO!”
It goes back to what she said about her grandfather: she feels like she’s a constant disappointment to him, because he constantly tells her she is. Lose an RA job – whoo, boy, look at the disappointment from grandpa now! Can’t even handle babysitting a bunch of teenage losers like herself! And then he takes it out on her little brother some more.
If she were dead, he wouldn’t even necessarily KNOW she was failing as an RA, just that she died. So maybe he’d take it easier on her brother about it. Maybe, just maybe, he might even go easier yet, afraid that her brother would also kill himself and leave him without grandchildren OR children.
That’s why depression coupled with abuse at home can turn into a super-dangerous spiral, AND why it’d be hard for people like Chloe – who probably don’t know about the abuse – to understand fully what’s going on.
Depression can make the tiniest failure feel like the end of the world. Humans aren’t particularly rational at the best of times, and since mental illness directly interferes with brain functions it makes it that much harder for thoughts to follow rational paths.
It’s a bit like asking “why did that blind guy walk into that table? couldn’t he see it was right there?” (I have in the past asked a blind person to look at something; this stuff is easy to forget 🙂
That’s all true, and besides (a) she might really need the break on her rent & board (b) finding someplace else to live might seem like an unsuperably difficulty right now. When going to the refectory for lunch seems just too hard you’re really in no shape to get a new job and home.
Yep. Also: see suicide rates on college campuses. not enough students are able to deal with failure and rejection, let alone know how to manage disorders which often emerge exactly during those year. Many, like Ruth, also come to school untreated disorders, some purely chemical, some related to previous trauma. Some, like Joyce, come to school and experience trauma and it remains untreated in an attempt to seem “okay” and do well.
This along with tremendous amounts of pressure to “succeed” and please everyone else leads people to equate their own self worth with superficial accomplishments, and is basically a recipe for disaster.
I think Ruth is suicidal because she’s depressed, not because she’s been caught being naughty. And she’s depressed either because of a history of stress with inadequate coping skills or because she inherited bipolar mood disorder, or both — not because she’s about to be fired, evicted, expelled, and deported.
Chloe: “Ruth, I’m sorry we didn’t notice this sooner. Can you tell me about what’s happening?”
Ruth: “Mary.”
Chloe: “Whelp.” *Chucks Mary out the window*
Probably not going to happen, but we can have hope. ^^; (Easiest way for Willis to dash it, right?)
~if only they kneeewwww, what it was like to be yoouuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU~ *tears head off and wears it as a hat*
And now, in a twist of Willis-ness, Mary becomes the new RA and her true reign of terror begins.
Proving things can ALWAYS get worse.
Joyce and Becky arrive and conclude that there must have been a time travel shift.