if you love them all equally, you may need help, say, choosing who to save from a rampaging tibia-stealing monster.
(It ain’t Ruth, she takes femurs, remember?)
If you love them all equally you just start by saving whichever ones are closest and don’t stop until the tibia-stealing monster has taken you out for good, or you’ve saved them all, whichever comes first.
When my mom was in college, living in the dorms, she and her roommate had a cat for a time. And sometimes it would play with the dog the guys down the hall from them had.
One time their pets were playing in the hall, and the RA came by. He was just like, “Hey, so we’re going to have some people touring the building later, so if you could just keep the animals I don’t know about elsewhere…”
My dorm allowed cats (and guinea pigs.) The explanation I was given was that if the college allowed cats, they wouldn’t have to deal with the mice. I don’t know if that was true, though there were indeed mice.
Yeah, and to be fair there are different things Spencer could mean by “class.” Maybe there’s an art class that’s really more of an extracurricular thing, or a religious class, or a meet up of people from a class to do a project or extra credit event. Still, when someone says “class” in a university setting, I definitely jump to the more standard use of the term.
That seems really unlikely, but I guess not impossible? I’ve looked into the schedule of classes at IU before (because of this fucking webcomic), and I don’t recall any with sessions scheduled on Sundays. That said, if Spencer’s in a class with arranged hours, it’s possible that the class arranged to meet on Sundays, or at least this particular Sunday.
Maybe Spencer teaches Sunday school? But then she’d probably call it “Sunday school.”
As a long-time state university employee (thought not in Indiana), I still don’t understand why Billie and Malaya are moving on a Sunday. Saturday? Sure. But Sunday? Is there that much less scrutiny on government employee overtime in Indiana?
This was probably treated as an emergency situation with all the normal limits lifted for expediency. Just looking at this DoA week, Clint just was here Wed and the transfer paperwork filed. We skipped over Thu and Fri, but they were likely spent by someone trying to expoditedly find the best possible match for the room swap and finish processing the paperwork so they could get all four the girls notified late on Friday or early Saturday. Saturday will have been set aside to let them both pack up and finish any requisite business (including anyone contesting any specifics of who moved where). Now it’s Sunday and this move could have waited for tomorrow, but bureaucracy made to hurry is oft very stupid about stuff like that.
Wasn’t any yesterday either till after I pointed it out. I wonder if Willis just forgot about it. He could’ve been uploading a bunch of stuff to the It’s Walky site, where none of them have alt-text.
It is now my birthday, which means a couple things:
1. I realized that people are going to potentially get Facebook notifications and such suggesting that they wish me a happy birthday, and for some people it will be their first time learning that I changed my Facebook name to my preferred name/that I prefer a different name, so I’m a bit stressed out about that.
2. As a birthday present, you should tell me about a favorite memorable moment from this comment section. Bonus points if it involves comments that were basically train wrecks.
the guy who commented basically “i don’t support gay people but billie and ruth are cute” was a pretty top-tier You Came To The Wrong Neighborhood moment
I think Willis described it as like the scene from jurassic park where the cow gets lowered into the raptor pit, but the cow thinks it’s gonna win
Pretty recently, there was this guy going around in the comments, insisting that Ryan was holding something innocent in his hand, instead of a knife. Specifically, his cell phone, which would have been significantly less menacing. Then the guy was proven severely wrong, when it turned out Ryan had, in fact, been pulling out his knife.
As I recall, it’s been a bit of a meme, even this long afterward. The person who had been so adamant seems to be taking it pretty well, so it’s all in good fun.
That was my favorite part too. Specifically, I loved that he said he’d change his avatar to simething humiliating if he was wring, and he did it, the absolute madman. It’s my favorite gravatar to date. “IT’S HIS PHONE.”
While a phone is more innocent between Amber’s ability and the fact that there is only so much Willis will do to his main characters we know he’s not going to get very far with a knife. So while in real life I’d rather someone come at me with a phone, in the comic he could do a ton of damage with a phone but a knife will effectively end his threat.
Fantastically joyous and amazingly jubilant celebration of Yumi’s successful remaining on the planet for another revolution!!!(Using Earth’s relative position at the time of Yumi’s birth as the start/end point and fudging the math for various calender-related reasons!!!)
*Releases a flock of drones, which in turn drop confetti and streamers.*
Woo-hoo!!! Yay!!! I hope your day was fricken’ awesome!!!
That one time Cerberus was educating someone on DID (okay, one of the MANY times that happened) and linked to a Naruto fic with a good portrayal of it. It killed off my denial that I was not in the Naruto fandom…
(to be fair, I only watched a little of Naruto long ago and never read any, and barely knew anything about it UNTIL THE DAMN GOOD FICS STARTED FALLING ON MY HEAD LIKE APPLES ON JUPITER)
Actually any time Cerberus has commented is my favorite tbh
My favorite moment in the comment section was basically any time Cerberus went on a rant, because a Cerberus rant is a good rant. Also, back when Reltzik and Rukduk (back when the latter was Rukdug) both had Walky gravatars and it would look like Walky was doing a one-man Abbott and Costello routine except with more puns.
Fun fact: My autocorrect flags Reltzik and Rukduk, but not Rukdug. I have no idea why.
Just a little over a hundred comments, and a lot of them were made later, but nearly all of them include the word FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE. That meme kept going for weeks in the comment section. And it’s still not quite FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE.
BILLIE!
That cheerleader from old Read who just arrived
Now sex-deprived
But still she is
BILLIE!
From “Billingsworth” is where her nickname’s derived
We feel alive
Now she’s here!
I don’t know any ASL, but if the sign is meant to be for the word “garbage,” that panel’s ASL interaction reads like “we’re not allowed to ask her anything”/”that idea is garbage,” instead of Billie being tossed in the trash, considering what they’re asking out loud in that very same panel. 🙂
i understand that it’s really unusual for natural concurrent use of signing and vocals to occur- there are some Australian Aboriginal groups who use both at the same time and it is of note.
So yea that looks like what’s happening but I am interested to learn more
I took ASL in high school and college, made friends with a lot of the Deaf community at both my schools, was pretty immersed in the culture, and even now, years later, when I haven’t spoken to a Deaf person face-to-face in ages, I still sign when I talk. ESPECIALLY when I’m excited (it’s also great for when I go more or less nonverbal and can sign at people… if the people can understand me, anyway).
Back in the day, there was a prof at University of Houston that was known in certain circles for giving lectures with occasional signed commentary on his lectures that was hilarious. My friend who had signed with family starting as a little girl said it was embarrassing to be the only person in his class suddenly cracking up.
I feel this deeply. I was in Speech with a Deaf friend, our first assignment for the semester was a speech to introduce ourselves to our classmates. He had an interpreter, but decided to vocalize and sign for his first assignment at least. Let me tell you, the things coming out of his mouth were NOT the things his hands were saying. The interpreter was DEEPLY conflicted on whether or not to rat him out. I was trying not to laugh the entire time.
The naughtiness that becomes possible when you have more than one channel of communication…
(In RL we have that with facial expressions, etc; online, with OOC channels for “color commentary” on the RP taking place out in the open.)
My guess is that Beatrice is deaf, but has learned to speak. She’d be signing, because that’s her main, instinctive mode of communication, but speaking on the assumption that Billie is hearing and doesn’t know sign. Nash would be signing to keep her in the loop.
If you go backward, Beatrice used sign language a few strips ago, and when everyone else was talking and not using it, she didn’t say anything. I’m guessing it’s for her benefit. I don’t think she’s completely deaf, so hard of hearing maybe?
But also that the signs in the previous panel aren’t what they’re saying. So it’s like they’re having one conversation with Billie and another with each other?
No judgement here, just that as someone who finds it complicated enough maintaining a single conversation, I’m impressed.
Not entirely true, Nash is signing “True” in the previous panel, which is the main text of her spoken sentence. I do have trouble understanding some of the signs the way Willis illustrates them, so I’m not entirely sure what Beatrice is saying. If I wasn’t rusty, I might get it, but I’m drawing a blank.
That said, Deaf people are very good at holding two conversations at once. It’s incredibly fascinating to watch/listen in when you can speak both and realize what they’re doing. Not that I advocate eavesdropping, I just happen to’ve been in situations before where I noticed it happening and was very intimidated.
Maybe they’re all signers, or they’re learning! I’m just starting to learn, and I find my natural gesticulating easily switches over to any actual signs I happen to know.
Deaf people tend to sign and vocalize simultaneously when speaking to Hearing people who do not know sign. Signing is their usual method of communication, and they do it naturally when in conversation. But, I’m very impressed that Nash is doing it, assuming they’re speaking ASL and not Pidgin Signed English. ASL has a drastically different grammar structure from PSE/English, and it’s a total pain in the ass to try and do both at the same time if you’re not a native speaker. I’ve had a lot of conversations with Deaf friends were they were vocalizing and signing, while I was just signing because I couldn’t do both at the same time.
Okay, so far my accepted headcanons for these new characters are:
Spencer is non-binary
Beatrice is Deaf/HoH
Nash is penpals with Emily from QC
Rose is actually a thief who just fucking walked off with Billie’s stuff
Not disagreeing with your first three headcanons, and your fourth is not incompatible with mine, but my headcanon for Rose is that she is an AU Rose from Something Positive, only in this universe she didn’t die and got her shit together and is now attending IU.
At some point, non-canon AU Rose from SP will meet up with canon Faye from QC in the presence of other DoA characters, and webcomic incest will be achieved. If Bernie from Waiting For Bob and Holly from the original Bobbins are also there, so much the better.
No, you’re not alone. Spencer definitely pings my transceiver and has since the first promo sketches. I’m totally crossing fingers with you for first enby rep in comic.
No-one in Read Hall kept pets (that I can recall), and Sal (again that I recall) never smoked indoors. But drinking was kinda the other half of what got Billie in trouble…
I have to wonder if Spencer has more info on what happened than she’s letting on.
Come to think of it, I wonder if “no pets” is meant to hint about Becky, who was sort-of a “pet” for that floor.
While the connotation of “pet” tends to be ownership, the context leans more towards: “I swear she’s not an unofficial roomate, please let this loophole work?”
Two of the definitions of “pet” are “a pampered and usually spoiled child” and “a person who is treated with unusual kindness or consideration” (per Merriam-Webster). The main connotation is affection, not ownership (consider also: “pet name” (not as “the name of a pet animal” but “an affectionate name for a person”)).
And that’s all that I had in mind. Becky is likable; the residents of Read Hall liked her; the residents of Read Hall tried to hide the fact that she was sleeping there against the rules because they liked her; Becky was the pet of Read Hall in that she was treated with unusual kindness by the residents. She was not owned by anyone in Read Hall.
(I suppose it could be argued that there was more pity involved than affection, but I don’t think there would have been quite as much effort made if there had not been some affection.)
Is there some specific context where “pet” more strongly implies ownership?
I doubt it’s a hint at Becky. That would both be a bit creepy and imply that Chloe (or someone else?) is more competent, informed and sympathetic than I’ve seen any reason to believe.
I want to apologize to Willis for missing his stop at Phoenix Comics. I had to work. To be honest, I would not have been able to buy the latest book right now anyways. I’m beyond broke right now because I had two cars break down a day apart this past month. Will the store still have the book later (you know, for when I have more money than month – sometime in 2018 perhaps)?
Okay, I was mostly away from Wi-Fi for the last few strips, so I could really only leave short comments while I was out and about. Now that I’ve settled for the time being…
Okay, this new dorm is chock-full of apparently upbeat, cute girls of multiple shapes and sizes. In the least creepy way possible, Rose is absolutely my type: a tiny (seriously, she’s like four-foot-nothin’), sturdy-built woman with candy-colored hair, glasses, and a can-do attitude. She seems like someone who can get things done. Again, not in a creepy way. She’s not bald with tattoos (that we know of), after all.
I also noticed the irony in Billie taking off her glasses to make an impression on the new dorm, and then every single person she meets in the first 30 seconds is wearing glasses. It’s a fun tidbit.
She changed her tune quicker than Pandora.
Of course, if it were MY Pandora account, it would be changed to Johnny Cash for no reason, despite whatever genre of music I was listening to.
Ah, the female version of “locker room talk”. Wonder where Willis is going to go with this.
And Willis, I really appreciate what you’ve done with Nash so far. I’ve rarely a hijabi character represented in contemporary media as such a comedic goofball. I noticed the love for Nash in the comments yesterday and I’d like to add that yeah, she’s a great character but also an extraordinary one for how likeable and normal you’ve made her.
yeah, i noticed that about nash too! recently i was looking for refs for writing a muslim oc of mine (i’m jewish, so i really want to represent religious minorities but don’t want to mess anything up) and realized that basically none of the example characters i found were anything like the archetypes my character tended to fulfill, which really gave me a not-so-great vibe. it’s really cool to see a hijabi character represented in a way that breaks the norm somewhat and provides more honestly diverse representation.
In reality, nobody’s posture changes at all from panel 2 onward. And nobody is talking. They’re all just standing there silently while Billie’s pupils dilate. This is the start of her psychotic break, people. Let’s all buckle in and enjoy the ride.
Something very odd is happening here. Nash and Beatrice are definitely communicating behind Billie’s back and they seem to be going to considerable effort to bring out the worst of her personality characteristics. Sometimes, toxicity has a smiling face and I can’t help but wonder if that’s what Billie’s going to learn here.
Oh, Nash, Beatrice? No, Billie didn’t seduce Ruth. Ruth seduced her in a very disturbing way that bordered on grooming.
In the last panel, Nash is signing ‘Awesome’ so I’d guess they’re signing to each other because one or both is Deaf or hard of hearing and they want to be clear with each other.
They’re signing, yes. A couple of the signs (Nash’s ‘awesome’ here, and Beatrice’s ‘hello’ in her first appearance) are pretty clear even without really understanding sign…as well as completely congruent with what they’re saying in English, to address the ‘talking behind Billie’s back’ issue above.
Yup, she feels she can only get that validation and esteem externally and it’s easy for her to put on the mask of Alpha Bongo to try and get that. But it’s not true to her and getting praise for it is just feeding the part of her brain that says she’s nothing without things like that.
So just as soon as we’ve seen Joe take a step in the right direction of not bragging about sexual prowess as a scale of personal accomplishment, another character takes a step back.
Today’s comic reminded me of just how Ruth and Billie started their relationship and I was instantly all “shudder mode”. I sympathise with Ruth for all she’s been through, but damn, she basically stalked and manipulated Billie into being in a relationship with her, and that is still all kinds of NOPE.
So… Maybe it WOULD be for the best if Billie got a complete fresh start here and put Ruth out of her life for good.
Yup. Especially since it… kinda really did fudge up Billie’s start in college. Billie had a rocky start, but without Ruth pulling out the rug under her every time she tried to get shit done I think Billie would have done much better.
Sure, she would have been drunk at kegger party rather than in the murder cave, but she would probably have managed to build a much better social network, and maybe even got some schoolwork done.
Ruth is in a horrible place, but that’s not an excuse (and she doesn’t think it is an excuse). Nope is the right word for the entire mess.
And no, I don’t think Billie is ‘backsliding’ or ‘having the worst in her brought out’. These girls have offered celebration and affirmation of her relationship, and Billie has accepted it and joined in. It’s a good thing for her mental health, it’s a good thing for her relationships.
She is to some extent – the whole last line there is very much a lie and a good match for Billie’s worst side. Boasting about sexual conquest as sexual conquest to boost your social standing isn’t pretty.
How will she reconcile that story when Ruth comes visiting? Or will she keep Ruth away to maintain her status?
Panel 1: I feel like this panel is very worrisome foreshadowing. Like, we know that Billie is an alcoholic who regularly empties out a bottle a night and now she has a roommate who is much more chipper and wants to be more involved in her roommate’s life and an RA who seems to have a lot more spoons for RAing than Ruth did.
Even if she only drinks at Ruth’s, it means she’s potentially in trouble every time she goes home and she’s going to want to go home because she feels loved here and it has amenities her old place didn’t (like AC and less creepy Mary stalking folks). So yeah, that’s a Checkhov’s bottle waiting to happen.
Also, I know some other people are on board, but my transceiver is totally going off for Spencer. Like, the thick bundled sweatshirt/turtleneck wear that hides shape, the using of the more masculine last name, it could all be coincidence, but I feel there’s enough here to start hoping that we’re seeing our first transmasc character.
Panels 2-3: I love how they politely wait until Spencer is out of earshot to immediately start disobeying Spencer’s orders. It’s oddly adorable.
Like, they have just enough respect for Spencer to try and follow the technicality of Spencer’s requests and to not flout them in from of ’em, but not enough to actually hold true and honor that request when Spencer’s not around.
Shit, I think you are right. In Clark wing, Billie was not sticking out because half of the people there are equally messed up (in Walky’s words). But here, where everything is awesome, Billie’s flaws will single her out – especially her alcoholism. That will be tense – and given her crappy self confidence she might very well take the message that she doesn’t belong her, doesn’t deserve happiness. That might be ugly.
The greatest gift any underling can give their boss is plausible deniability. What Spencer can’t hear is not Spencer’s fault.
Panel 4: I love how casual the use of ASL is in this comic and how it operates like it does in life, with friends of folks who use it learning and using it everyday as part of that friendship and the whole conversation they have in the beginning to coordinate their questions is also adorable and very nosy Freshman.
Panel 5: Oof, that feels like it hits home. It’s taken a long time for their relationship to be distanced enough away from it for me personally to be able to cheer for it (I respect other people having different standards for that and fully support someone who just can’t get into them).
And I say all that parenthetical stuff, because this moment really hammers home how fucked up the origin of Billie and Ruth was. Ruth was a violent bully doing everything she could to psychologically destroy and terrorize Billie out of a bunch of misguided and displaced emotions. It’s an abusive and non-romantic start to their story.
Personally, I’d argue they’ve shown a lot since including genuine tenderness, but then in personal life I tend to be a little too eager to try and see the good in partners and let abuse escalate far beyond what it should before finally seeing it*, so that might be a factor here.
*Had a lot of talks with therapists, family, and gf about the ex-fiancee and they kinda all said they saw they were being abusive with me and had been trying to give hints about it for at least a month. So yeah… that was… fun.
But I think there’s a real reason she balks so hard at the question. Whatever they have built, it’s origin is fucked up and Billie is not in denial about that even if sometimes she wonders if that should matter more than it has for her so far.
Like, on the surface it’s perfectly normal and sweet. Her relationship that she has had to keep secret and which has been reacted to violently at times or in ways that are degrading to her (like anyone loving Ruth having Stockholm Syndrome), so having others finding it cute and romantic and something to cheer is very powerful and very needed for her self-esteem.
But I also worry because of how quickly a certain mask comes down here. Like, the Alpha Bongo mask was critical to her survival in HS and was where she pinned a lot of her self-esteem. As long as her crew thought she was awesome and a hero and a badass, then who cares how little she loves herself or how self-destructive her drinking was.
And she hates that mask. She hates the person she’s become in the past when wearing that mask, how easy it was to mistreat people in it, how easy it was to lose herself. It’s not a mask with a positive history for Billie, so seeing her drift more and more into this performative role worries me.
And it especially worries me because it’s setting up another nasty fall from grace. Like, part of her trauma in HS is that she was worshipped by so many and then once her drinking and self-destruction became well-known all the people who hero-worshipped her now hated her once the bloom fell off that rose.
And it feels like her setting herself up for that again. Like Nash and Beatrice seem nice enough, but is Billie going to feel safe letting them see the mess she is inside for fear of losing their approval?
Especially when it leads her to spin this alternate narrative entirely for their benefit. Already the culture is there of lying for approval. Something that fucked her up a lot in HS.
And I like how this is being presented the arc right after Joe’s, so we can draw those parallels very directly about the danger of certain masks that end up affecting who you are and leading to bad paths.
This might just be Billie enjoying some long-missed praise, but it also feels like her starting down a bad path she’ll be regretting in about a week comic time.
I honestly don’t think she hates her alpha-bongo mask. I think she hates the fact that she can’t wear it any longer. Given the choice, I think she would LOVE to be her high-school persona again (as seen for example in her initial interaction with Alice).
So yeah… given half the chance I think she will try to fall right back into old patterns… but I don’t think she will manage it, not with her character growth and Ruth and Joyce and Walky looking out for her.
And THAT will be painful, but this right here I just think is good for her. Billie getting praise for being a sexy, sexy, baaaad girl – that is just praise where it is due.
I think it’s… risky. Very very risky. And not sincere, and not coming from a good place.
Alas, she’s focused right now on “making a good first impression”, and that’s higher priority than being honest. 🙁
Honestly, panel 6 makes me so uncomfortable. Imagine if it was a guy saying that. We’d all come down hard if someone like Joe said that, so why is it ok for a girl to say it?
Very true. For me, I think part of it is that with Billie – with her depression and alcoholism and suicide vigil for Ruth and plummeting situation and overall shitty first weeks in college – I’m willing to let A LOT of crap slide just to see her happy for a few panels.
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“so can I count on you to keep my pet R.A. on the down-low, or”
I thought it was Billie who pet her R.A. on the dow- *vaudeville hook*
“No, petplay doesn’t count as a pet, Beatrice already asked.”
11:08
Odds these two are gonna try to get Billie to seduce their RA now?
I’m way ahead of them
I love them all help
If you have love in your heart for so many, are you really in need of help?
Because Willis is damnable and uses this love to hurt us.
if you love them all equally, you may need help, say, choosing who to save from a rampaging tibia-stealing monster.
(It ain’t Ruth, she takes femurs, remember?)
If you love them all equally you just start by saving whichever ones are closest and don’t stop until the tibia-stealing monster has taken you out for good, or you’ve saved them all, whichever comes first.
Or drink 300 cups of coffee beforehand and save everyone!
Cadbury Cereal. Then you’ll find a way to save them and also probably end up as president of the moon.
There is no help. You’re doomed.
But it’s a fun doom. A pleasant doom. That’s how the doom sneaks up on you.
Dooming of age?
We need more doom like this.
Please don’t mount the Doom
got a ring to drop?
Getting off the wrong foot there Billie, no need to get cocky.
Something about that seems fishy!
You need a strap-on for that.
I want to know more about the “no pets” rule.
When my mom was in college, living in the dorms, she and her roommate had a cat for a time. And sometimes it would play with the dog the guys down the hall from them had.
One time their pets were playing in the hall, and the RA came by. He was just like, “Hey, so we’re going to have some people touring the building later, so if you could just keep the animals I don’t know about elsewhere…”
That seems like how most college rules and RAs worked in my experience.
I don’t remember any cats or dogs, but someone had a ferret.
My dorm allowed cats (and guinea pigs.) The explanation I was given was that if the college allowed cats, they wouldn’t have to deal with the mice. I don’t know if that was true, though there were indeed mice.
My college only allowed fish as pets, but I had a pet ladybug for a while. Because I’m a rebel.
Go you. Lady bugs are good bugs 🙂
They are truly miraculous creatures.
yes they are simply the best!
We were allowed non-aggressive fish.
So no Moray Eel then.
Isn’t it Sunday?
I wandered about that myself. Joyce & Company went to church.
Yeah, and to be fair there are different things Spencer could mean by “class.” Maybe there’s an art class that’s really more of an extracurricular thing, or a religious class, or a meet up of people from a class to do a project or extra credit event. Still, when someone says “class” in a university setting, I definitely jump to the more standard use of the term.
Maybe there’s a new class for RAs on how not to hookup with your residents. “Look, there seems to have been some confusion…”
Maybe she has class the same way Penny has office hours.
Maybe her school has classes on weekends.
Mine does exams on Saturdays.
That seems really unlikely, but I guess not impossible? I’ve looked into the schedule of classes at IU before (because of this fucking webcomic), and I don’t recall any with sessions scheduled on Sundays. That said, if Spencer’s in a class with arranged hours, it’s possible that the class arranged to meet on Sundays, or at least this particular Sunday.
Maybe it’s a spin class or something similarly non-academic?
New RA doesn’t want to deal with things, is all.
Remedial Sunday school?
Time flows differently in Forest Quad.
It’s always a warm Friday evening in August.
So that’s why they need the AC.
It’s Sunday, isn’t it?
Isn’t it Sunday?
I wanted to try and finish those lyrics, but now all I can hear in my head is “War and glory, reinvention, fusion, freedom, her attention”.
You fought and she kissed you
and she loved you and you’re gone.
It’s Sunday, isn’t it?
Here in Forest Quad?
Maybe Spencer teaches Sunday school? But then she’d probably call it “Sunday school.”
As a long-time state university employee (thought not in Indiana), I still don’t understand why Billie and Malaya are moving on a Sunday. Saturday? Sure. But Sunday? Is there that much less scrutiny on government employee overtime in Indiana?
This was probably treated as an emergency situation with all the normal limits lifted for expediency. Just looking at this DoA week, Clint just was here Wed and the transfer paperwork filed. We skipped over Thu and Fri, but they were likely spent by someone trying to expoditedly find the best possible match for the room swap and finish processing the paperwork so they could get all four the girls notified late on Friday or early Saturday. Saturday will have been set aside to let them both pack up and finish any requisite business (including anyone contesting any specifics of who moved where). Now it’s Sunday and this move could have waited for tomorrow, but bureaucracy made to hurry is oft very stupid about stuff like that.
Ohhh Billie. I can’t wait until this version of the rumor gets back to Read…
It’s already spawned there in three different strains. Because gossip.
aww, no alt-text? 🙁
The hovertext is salacious.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Wasn’t any yesterday either till after I pointed it out. I wonder if Willis just forgot about it. He could’ve been uploading a bunch of stuff to the It’s Walky site, where none of them have alt-text.
new alt-text: “and no capes”
And now I have the mental image of Amazi-girl getting sucked into a jet engine.
nnnnnnno keps
geez, with the wavy blue ghost hands! these girls are active!
Better Salacious than Walkyacious.
How about yugilicious?
Goddamn, that’s a throwback. Nice one.
Mmm, Yugi-Os…
Bodacious in the cretaceous, says Dinah.
Hmm, does the rule apply to pats?
It is now my birthday, which means a couple things:
1. I realized that people are going to potentially get Facebook notifications and such suggesting that they wish me a happy birthday, and for some people it will be their first time learning that I changed my Facebook name to my preferred name/that I prefer a different name, so I’m a bit stressed out about that.
2. As a birthday present, you should tell me about a favorite memorable moment from this comment section. Bonus points if it involves comments that were basically train wrecks.
Happy Birthday!
The comments–pretty much all of them–on are pretty hilarious and/or awful.
Sorry, that was supposed to be “Bunk.” At least the link works.
Gotta learn how to do that correctly one of these days.
Holy shit, those went south pretty much right away.
Great, I get to revisit the duck genitalia conversation from that day’s comments right before the Ducktales season resumes.
Privates like a labyrinth
Here in
Duckburg
the guy who commented basically “i don’t support gay people but billie and ruth are cute” was a pretty top-tier You Came To The Wrong Neighborhood moment
I think Willis described it as like the scene from jurassic park where the cow gets lowered into the raptor pit, but the cow thinks it’s gonna win
In the cow’s defense, cows are fucking idiots, so it couldn’t be expected to know any better.
Anyone would need that attitude when being lowered into a pit with a raptor.
Pretty recently, there was this guy going around in the comments, insisting that Ryan was holding something innocent in his hand, instead of a knife. Specifically, his cell phone, which would have been significantly less menacing. Then the guy was proven severely wrong, when it turned out Ryan had, in fact, been pulling out his knife.
As I recall, it’s been a bit of a meme, even this long afterward. The person who had been so adamant seems to be taking it pretty well, so it’s all in good fun.
XD I REMEMBER THAT.
That was my favorite part too. Specifically, I loved that he said he’d change his avatar to simething humiliating if he was wring, and he did it, the absolute madman. It’s my favorite gravatar to date. “IT’S HIS PHONE.”
That was the greatest thing. Not only being a good sport, but managing to do so in a way that was completely hilarious.
Yeah, I admired that guy a lot for that.
Huh. Yeah. Whatever happened to that poster?
Now that I think of it…
I think he pops up pretty frequently, but I’m not sure. When was the last time he posted?
Couldn’t say, I don’t pay a lot of attention to posters (besides Cerb, of course).
While a phone is more innocent between Amber’s ability and the fact that there is only so much Willis will do to his main characters we know he’s not going to get very far with a knife. So while in real life I’d rather someone come at me with a phone, in the comic he could do a ton of damage with a phone but a knife will effectively end his threat.
The Sal is Amazi-Girl meme.
Happy Birthday, Yumi.
I’m now wondering how many “Cellphones” Yumi is getting for her birthday…
I would just like to say, for posterity, that seeing someone wished a happy birthday with that gravatar is vicariously terrifying.
Happy birthday!
Every. Single. Goddamn. Math pun.
That is the most wonderful thread ever.
Happy birthday Yumi!
Happy birthday, good luck on facebook.
It was framed
There was that time when we realized that Willis had installed a text filter that replaced the b-word with “bongos”.
Here, it was this day.
#JocelyneNoir. Every single moment of it.
That and trying desperately to get a funnier joke in than
Onion FurryOrion Fury whenever I can. (No beef, obviously, just for fun.)Also, happy birthday!
<3
NOT HAPPY ENOUGH
Fantastically joyous and amazingly jubilant celebration of Yumi’s successful remaining on the planet for another revolution!!!(Using Earth’s relative position at the time of Yumi’s birth as the start/end point and fudging the math for various calender-related reasons!!!)
*Releases a flock of drones, which in turn drop confetti and streamers.*
Woo-hoo!!! Yay!!! I hope your day was fricken’ awesome!!!
That one time Cerberus was educating someone on DID (okay, one of the MANY times that happened) and linked to a Naruto fic with a good portrayal of it. It killed off my denial that I was not in the Naruto fandom…
(to be fair, I only watched a little of Naruto long ago and never read any, and barely knew anything about it UNTIL THE DAMN GOOD FICS STARTED FALLING ON MY HEAD LIKE APPLES ON JUPITER)
Actually any time Cerberus has commented is my favorite tbh
Happy Birthday! And it’ll all end up all right *supportive hugs if wanted*
My favorite moment in the comment section was basically any time Cerberus went on a rant, because a Cerberus rant is a good rant. Also, back when Reltzik and Rukduk (back when the latter was Rukdug) both had Walky gravatars and it would look like Walky was doing a one-man Abbott and Costello routine except with more puns.
Fun fact: My autocorrect flags Reltzik and Rukduk, but not Rukdug. I have no idea why.
And now it’s not flagging Reltzik. I am confuse
Congrats, and best of luck!
I’m going for a classic: the birth of the very first Dumbing of Age meme. FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE.
Just a little over a hundred comments, and a lot of them were made later, but nearly all of them include the word FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE. That meme kept going for weeks in the comment section. And it’s still not quite FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE.
In ten days, that strip will be seven years old.
*feels old*
I thought femurs predated FAAAAACE.
By about a week and a half, yep
Oh crap.
Happy slightly late birthday greetings. My favourite bit was the dry-erase running joke.
Billie, no…
Billie, yes.
Bilie, maybe?
Billie, please.
Billie, thank you.
Billie: What can I say, except “you’re welcome?”
Billie is not my lover. She’s just some girl who thinks that I am the one
Billie, don’t be a hero.
BILLIE!
That cheerleader from old Read who just arrived
Now sex-deprived
But still she is
BILLIE!
From “Billingsworth” is where her nickname’s derived
We feel alive
Now she’s here!
Not technically a lie, I suppose.
Oh this isn’t gonna end well
Gee, ya think?
I think Billie should probably be more concerned about the no drinking rule than the no pets rule.
Are they peppering their sentences with ASL? (That raise-the-roof motion does mean ‘awesome’, but I don’t know enough to catch the other two signs.)
And the third sign looks like the word ‘garbage’, so maybe it’s like they threw Billie in the trash?
–and by third, I mean second. I can totally count.
I don’t know any ASL, but if the sign is meant to be for the word “garbage,” that panel’s ASL interaction reads like “we’re not allowed to ask her anything”/”that idea is garbage,” instead of Billie being tossed in the trash, considering what they’re asking out loud in that very same panel. 🙂
That sign does seem to be “kick out”!
The first one looks like it’s “true”.
I was thinking that too, but I don’t know enough either.
i understand that it’s really unusual for natural concurrent use of signing and vocals to occur- there are some Australian Aboriginal groups who use both at the same time and it is of note.
So yea that looks like what’s happening but I am interested to learn more
I took ASL in high school and college, made friends with a lot of the Deaf community at both my schools, was pretty immersed in the culture, and even now, years later, when I haven’t spoken to a Deaf person face-to-face in ages, I still sign when I talk. ESPECIALLY when I’m excited (it’s also great for when I go more or less nonverbal and can sign at people… if the people can understand me, anyway).
Back in the day, there was a prof at University of Houston that was known in certain circles for giving lectures with occasional signed commentary on his lectures that was hilarious. My friend who had signed with family starting as a little girl said it was embarrassing to be the only person in his class suddenly cracking up.
I feel this deeply. I was in Speech with a Deaf friend, our first assignment for the semester was a speech to introduce ourselves to our classmates. He had an interpreter, but decided to vocalize and sign for his first assignment at least. Let me tell you, the things coming out of his mouth were NOT the things his hands were saying. The interpreter was DEEPLY conflicted on whether or not to rat him out. I was trying not to laugh the entire time.
The naughtiness that becomes possible when you have more than one channel of communication…
(In RL we have that with facial expressions, etc; online, with OOC channels for “color commentary” on the RP taking place out in the open.)
Inquiring minds want to know — what are Nash and Beatrice signing to each other?
And the commenters who know are all like, snrrk!, learn ASL, dudes.
Ok I’m confused, why are they using sign language and talking?
Marcie has been hanging around a lot. They learned a little and are trying to practice. (I don’t know, but that’s my headcanon.)
My guess is that Beatrice is deaf, but has learned to speak. She’d be signing, because that’s her main, instinctive mode of communication, but speaking on the assumption that Billie is hearing and doesn’t know sign. Nash would be signing to keep her in the loop.
That’s…hmm.
That’s very hmm…
She is deaf, she said so in Shortpacked!
If you go backward, Beatrice used sign language a few strips ago, and when everyone else was talking and not using it, she didn’t say anything. I’m guessing it’s for her benefit. I don’t think she’s completely deaf, so hard of hearing maybe?
Oh, or she can read lips – that would explain why she was off to the side looking in yesterday’s strip.
Practice, most likely. Or maybe somebody on the floor is deaf.
That, or Nash is just flailing around going “yaaaaay!” like she’s Kermit the frog
Someone else commented that when Nash said “friggin’ awesome,” the motion she’s making with her arms is indeed the sign for “awesome”.
But also that the signs in the previous panel aren’t what they’re saying. So it’s like they’re having one conversation with Billie and another with each other?
No judgement here, just that as someone who finds it complicated enough maintaining a single conversation, I’m impressed.
Not entirely true, Nash is signing “True” in the previous panel, which is the main text of her spoken sentence. I do have trouble understanding some of the signs the way Willis illustrates them, so I’m not entirely sure what Beatrice is saying. If I wasn’t rusty, I might get it, but I’m drawing a blank.
That said, Deaf people are very good at holding two conversations at once. It’s incredibly fascinating to watch/listen in when you can speak both and realize what they’re doing. Not that I advocate eavesdropping, I just happen to’ve been in situations before where I noticed it happening and was very intimidated.
Maybe they’re all signers, or they’re learning! I’m just starting to learn, and I find my natural gesticulating easily switches over to any actual signs I happen to know.
BTW, this discussion jogged my memory a bit and I realized we’ve met Beatrice before.
nice catch, ty
Eh, I would’ve noticed if I’d read the chat more closely when she was introduced, Wack’d naturally recognized her immediately.
Awesome!
Interestingly, there she’s apparently mute, not deaf.
Here, she obviously speaks, so I guess she’s deaf?
Deaf people tend to sign and vocalize simultaneously when speaking to Hearing people who do not know sign. Signing is their usual method of communication, and they do it naturally when in conversation. But, I’m very impressed that Nash is doing it, assuming they’re speaking ASL and not Pidgin Signed English. ASL has a drastically different grammar structure from PSE/English, and it’s a total pain in the ass to try and do both at the same time if you’re not a native speaker. I’ve had a lot of conversations with Deaf friends were they were vocalizing and signing, while I was just signing because I couldn’t do both at the same time.
Yyyeaaaah, that no drinking rule is probably gonna be more strictly enforced than in Read Hall.
Probably not really. It’s not like she wasn’t told that when she first moved into Read.
No drinking in the Hall while in public – at most.
When Spencer said to lay off the salacious topics, I thought Nash and Beatrice were about to lay down some steamy Forrest Hall gossip.
Okay, so far my accepted headcanons for these new characters are:
Spencer is non-binary
Beatrice is Deaf/HoH
Nash is penpals with Emily from QC
Rose is actually a thief who just fucking walked off with Billie’s stuff
Not disagreeing with your first three headcanons, and your fourth is not incompatible with mine, but my headcanon for Rose is that she is an AU Rose from Something Positive, only in this universe she didn’t die and got her shit together and is now attending IU.
At some point, non-canon AU Rose from SP will meet up with canon Faye from QC in the presence of other DoA characters, and webcomic incest will be achieved. If Bernie from Waiting For Bob and Holly from the original Bobbins are also there, so much the better.
… i’ve recently started thinking about the name spencer as a possible nb name. i can’t believe this means every single spencer is nonbinary wow
Assuming she’s named the same as in the Walkyerse, Spencer is her last name. Carly Spencer.
Yeah, but she goes by Spencer, at least in this comic, so it’s potentially basically the same as a chosen name.
No, you’re not alone. Spencer definitely pings my transceiver and has since the first promo sketches. I’m totally crossing fingers with you for first enby rep in comic.
ALL ACCEPTED YES
No-one in Read Hall kept pets (that I can recall), and Sal (again that I recall) never smoked indoors. But drinking was kinda the other half of what got Billie in trouble…
I have to wonder if Spencer has more info on what happened than she’s letting on.
Come to think of it, I wonder if “no pets” is meant to hint about Becky, who was sort-of a “pet” for that floor.
There’s something about Becky being called a “pet” that seems a tiny bit sketchy.
While the connotation of “pet” tends to be ownership, the context leans more towards: “I swear she’s not an unofficial roomate, please let this loophole work?”
Two of the definitions of “pet” are “a pampered and usually spoiled child” and “a person who is treated with unusual kindness or consideration” (per Merriam-Webster). The main connotation is affection, not ownership (consider also: “pet name” (not as “the name of a pet animal” but “an affectionate name for a person”)).
And that’s all that I had in mind. Becky is likable; the residents of Read Hall liked her; the residents of Read Hall tried to hide the fact that she was sleeping there against the rules because they liked her; Becky was the pet of Read Hall in that she was treated with unusual kindness by the residents. She was not owned by anyone in Read Hall.
(I suppose it could be argued that there was more pity involved than affection, but I don’t think there would have been quite as much effort made if there had not been some affection.)
Is there some specific context where “pet” more strongly implies ownership?
I doubt it’s a hint at Becky. That would both be a bit creepy and imply that Chloe (or someone else?) is more competent, informed and sympathetic than I’ve seen any reason to believe.
Billie being an alcoholic is in her college record. But they say that to everybody.
I want to apologize to Willis for missing his stop at Phoenix Comics. I had to work. To be honest, I would not have been able to buy the latest book right now anyways. I’m beyond broke right now because I had two cars break down a day apart this past month. Will the store still have the book later (you know, for when I have more money than month – sometime in 2018 perhaps)?
Okay, I was mostly away from Wi-Fi for the last few strips, so I could really only leave short comments while I was out and about. Now that I’ve settled for the time being…
Okay, this new dorm is chock-full of apparently upbeat, cute girls of multiple shapes and sizes. In the least creepy way possible, Rose is absolutely my type: a tiny (seriously, she’s like four-foot-nothin’), sturdy-built woman with candy-colored hair, glasses, and a can-do attitude. She seems like someone who can get things done. Again, not in a creepy way. She’s not bald with tattoos (that we know of), after all.
I also noticed the irony in Billie taking off her glasses to make an impression on the new dorm, and then every single person she meets in the first 30 seconds is wearing glasses. It’s a fun tidbit.
Amber’s 5’5″ (in boots), as stated on this page: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/02-guess-whos-coming-to-galassos/vandals/
Billie and the twins are apparently 5’7″ or so. So that in mind, Rose is definitely taller than four feet. Just something I felt like pointing out. 😛
Those are some pretty fun facts you’ve got, there. Do you have any deep lore on any potential ink any of the characters might have?
Well, Sal has that tattoo of a Tarantagun (from the Walkyverse) on her shoulder…other than that though, I got nothing.
I found it.
I found a canonical, full depiction of Bloodrose.
The mystery, revealed: http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/81429067803/hey-what-about-that-throwaway-goth-semme-member
Wait. They’re using sign language? What are they saying?
They’ve got some filthy, filthy mouths.
Hands. Filthy hands.
“So you ‘seduced’ your RA?”
“Did you ‘kiss’ your RA? On the ‘mouth’?”
“Did you ‘hold hands’? Did you ‘woo’ most vigorously?”
She changed her tune quicker than Pandora.
Of course, if it were MY Pandora account, it would be changed to Johnny Cash for no reason, despite whatever genre of music I was listening to.
Mine always ends up spitting out orchestral versions of pop songs and covers of mad world. I don’t even like Mad World.
FINALLY Billie gets the recognition she deserves.
“I boffed her, all right. Boffed her hot and heavy!”
Ah, the female version of “locker room talk”. Wonder where Willis is going to go with this.
And Willis, I really appreciate what you’ve done with Nash so far. I’ve rarely a hijabi character represented in contemporary media as such a comedic goofball. I noticed the love for Nash in the comments yesterday and I’d like to add that yeah, she’s a great character but also an extraordinary one for how likeable and normal you’ve made her.
Rarely *seen
yeah, i noticed that about nash too! recently i was looking for refs for writing a muslim oc of mine (i’m jewish, so i really want to represent religious minorities but don’t want to mess anything up) and realized that basically none of the example characters i found were anything like the archetypes my character tended to fulfill, which really gave me a not-so-great vibe. it’s really cool to see a hijabi character represented in a way that breaks the norm somewhat and provides more honestly diverse representation.
Yeah, it’s nice to see someone muslim in the sort of Carla role since so often the rep doesn’t allow muslims to be the wacky fun character.
thats a SUPER condensed and cleaned up version of what went down
THAT’S our Cheerleader…!
AAAAAAALPHA BOOOONGO!
Could they BOTH be hearing-impaired/deaf and playing with the newcomer’s head? As a sort of “Welcome to the dorm” gag?
In reality, nobody’s posture changes at all from panel 2 onward. And nobody is talking. They’re all just standing there silently while Billie’s pupils dilate. This is the start of her psychotic break, people. Let’s all buckle in and enjoy the ride.
Something very odd is happening here. Nash and Beatrice are definitely communicating behind Billie’s back and they seem to be going to considerable effort to bring out the worst of her personality characteristics. Sometimes, toxicity has a smiling face and I can’t help but wonder if that’s what Billie’s going to learn here.
Oh, Nash, Beatrice? No, Billie didn’t seduce Ruth. Ruth seduced her in a very disturbing way that bordered on grooming.
In the last panel, Nash is signing ‘Awesome’ so I’d guess they’re signing to each other because one or both is Deaf or hard of hearing and they want to be clear with each other.
Or they just want to know the juicy gossip.
It seems that Beatrice is likely deaf, which explains the signing.
And while Ruth’s “seduction” was certainly disturbing, it didn’t seem at all like grooming to me. More like abuse.
Wasn’t the second sign that for Bullshit? We saw it before with Marcie signing and Sal hoping Billie(?) wouldn’t catch on?
Not quite – similar looking, but slightly different. Someone above translated it to kicking – as in, kicking out. Nash appears to be signing ‘true’.
Ixnay on the hot and heavy-zay.
What’s with the hand signals? (Sign language?)
They’re signing, yes. A couple of the signs (Nash’s ‘awesome’ here, and Beatrice’s ‘hello’ in her first appearance) are pretty clear even without really understanding sign…as well as completely congruent with what they’re saying in English, to address the ‘talking behind Billie’s back’ issue above.
Yeah, hot and heavy. She tripped and landed on her while being drunk more like…
I HATE THOSE STAIRS
https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/911314088122310657
No, Billie, no. You can get that praise without making yourself into a pick-up artist.
…….
…. also, if you need that kind of popularity-based affirmation from total strangers then you don’t deserve it.
Billie is completely on board with the notion that she doesn’t deserve affirmation.
She has the BEST self confidence.
Yup, she feels she can only get that validation and esteem externally and it’s easy for her to put on the mask of Alpha Bongo to try and get that. But it’s not true to her and getting praise for it is just feeding the part of her brain that says she’s nothing without things like that.
*sad nod*
She is a Fallen Queen Bee Cheerleader boss. She desperately craves popularity.
……. wait, now that Malaya’s out of Forest she’s finally able to have pets?
….. I guess we’re going to see Fuckface again.
Sal will not have a say in this.
Agreed. We need Fuckface.
The classic duo.
Who could ask for more?
Watch Fuckface love Sal, the traitor.
(She has a bug tattoo on her arm, which helps).
So just as soon as we’ve seen Joe take a step in the right direction of not bragging about sexual prowess as a scale of personal accomplishment, another character takes a step back.
Huh. Now I kinda wanna learn ASL.
We got a pro of the noddle hands over there !
Today’s alt-text courtesy of Edna Mode.
Today’s comic reminded me of just how Ruth and Billie started their relationship and I was instantly all “shudder mode”. I sympathise with Ruth for all she’s been through, but damn, she basically stalked and manipulated Billie into being in a relationship with her, and that is still all kinds of NOPE.
So… Maybe it WOULD be for the best if Billie got a complete fresh start here and put Ruth out of her life for good.
Yeah, the origin of Billie and Ruth’s relationship is all kinds of nope.
Yup. Especially since it… kinda really did fudge up Billie’s start in college. Billie had a rocky start, but without Ruth pulling out the rug under her every time she tried to get shit done I think Billie would have done much better.
Sure, she would have been drunk at kegger party rather than in the murder cave, but she would probably have managed to build a much better social network, and maybe even got some schoolwork done.
Ruth is in a horrible place, but that’s not an excuse (and she doesn’t think it is an excuse). Nope is the right word for the entire mess.
And the bubble grows larger.
“I came down on her hot and heavy. You could say I ended up facedown in a ditch!”
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/facedown/
HELP THEY ARE ADORABLE
And no, I don’t think Billie is ‘backsliding’ or ‘having the worst in her brought out’. These girls have offered celebration and affirmation of her relationship, and Billie has accepted it and joined in. It’s a good thing for her mental health, it’s a good thing for her relationships.
She is to some extent – the whole last line there is very much a lie and a good match for Billie’s worst side. Boasting about sexual conquest as sexual conquest to boost your social standing isn’t pretty.
How will she reconcile that story when Ruth comes visiting? Or will she keep Ruth away to maintain her status?
Yeah, just ask Sal…
😐
Comic Reactions:
Panel 1: I feel like this panel is very worrisome foreshadowing. Like, we know that Billie is an alcoholic who regularly empties out a bottle a night and now she has a roommate who is much more chipper and wants to be more involved in her roommate’s life and an RA who seems to have a lot more spoons for RAing than Ruth did.
Even if she only drinks at Ruth’s, it means she’s potentially in trouble every time she goes home and she’s going to want to go home because she feels loved here and it has amenities her old place didn’t (like AC and less creepy Mary stalking folks). So yeah, that’s a Checkhov’s bottle waiting to happen.
Also, I know some other people are on board, but my transceiver is totally going off for Spencer. Like, the thick bundled sweatshirt/turtleneck wear that hides shape, the using of the more masculine last name, it could all be coincidence, but I feel there’s enough here to start hoping that we’re seeing our first transmasc character.
Panels 2-3: I love how they politely wait until Spencer is out of earshot to immediately start disobeying Spencer’s orders. It’s oddly adorable.
Like, they have just enough respect for Spencer to try and follow the technicality of Spencer’s requests and to not flout them in from of ’em, but not enough to actually hold true and honor that request when Spencer’s not around.
Shit, I think you are right. In Clark wing, Billie was not sticking out because half of the people there are equally messed up (in Walky’s words). But here, where everything is awesome, Billie’s flaws will single her out – especially her alcoholism. That will be tense – and given her crappy self confidence she might very well take the message that she doesn’t belong her, doesn’t deserve happiness. That might be ugly.
The greatest gift any underling can give their boss is plausible deniability. What Spencer can’t hear is not Spencer’s fault.
I’d be really happy to see a trans man (could not be out enough to change dorms yet) or transmasculine character
Panel 4: I love how casual the use of ASL is in this comic and how it operates like it does in life, with friends of folks who use it learning and using it everyday as part of that friendship and the whole conversation they have in the beginning to coordinate their questions is also adorable and very nosy Freshman.
Panel 5: Oof, that feels like it hits home. It’s taken a long time for their relationship to be distanced enough away from it for me personally to be able to cheer for it (I respect other people having different standards for that and fully support someone who just can’t get into them).
And I say all that parenthetical stuff, because this moment really hammers home how fucked up the origin of Billie and Ruth was. Ruth was a violent bully doing everything she could to psychologically destroy and terrorize Billie out of a bunch of misguided and displaced emotions. It’s an abusive and non-romantic start to their story.
Personally, I’d argue they’ve shown a lot since including genuine tenderness, but then in personal life I tend to be a little too eager to try and see the good in partners and let abuse escalate far beyond what it should before finally seeing it*, so that might be a factor here.
*Had a lot of talks with therapists, family, and gf about the ex-fiancee and they kinda all said they saw they were being abusive with me and had been trying to give hints about it for at least a month. So yeah… that was… fun.
But I think there’s a real reason she balks so hard at the question. Whatever they have built, it’s origin is fucked up and Billie is not in denial about that even if sometimes she wonders if that should matter more than it has for her so far.
*Hugs*
Panel 6: I worry a lot about this panel.
Like, on the surface it’s perfectly normal and sweet. Her relationship that she has had to keep secret and which has been reacted to violently at times or in ways that are degrading to her (like anyone loving Ruth having Stockholm Syndrome), so having others finding it cute and romantic and something to cheer is very powerful and very needed for her self-esteem.
But I also worry because of how quickly a certain mask comes down here. Like, the Alpha Bongo mask was critical to her survival in HS and was where she pinned a lot of her self-esteem. As long as her crew thought she was awesome and a hero and a badass, then who cares how little she loves herself or how self-destructive her drinking was.
And she hates that mask. She hates the person she’s become in the past when wearing that mask, how easy it was to mistreat people in it, how easy it was to lose herself. It’s not a mask with a positive history for Billie, so seeing her drift more and more into this performative role worries me.
And it especially worries me because it’s setting up another nasty fall from grace. Like, part of her trauma in HS is that she was worshipped by so many and then once her drinking and self-destruction became well-known all the people who hero-worshipped her now hated her once the bloom fell off that rose.
And it feels like her setting herself up for that again. Like Nash and Beatrice seem nice enough, but is Billie going to feel safe letting them see the mess she is inside for fear of losing their approval?
Especially when it leads her to spin this alternate narrative entirely for their benefit. Already the culture is there of lying for approval. Something that fucked her up a lot in HS.
And I like how this is being presented the arc right after Joe’s, so we can draw those parallels very directly about the danger of certain masks that end up affecting who you are and leading to bad paths.
This might just be Billie enjoying some long-missed praise, but it also feels like her starting down a bad path she’ll be regretting in about a week comic time.
I honestly don’t think she hates her alpha-bongo mask. I think she hates the fact that she can’t wear it any longer. Given the choice, I think she would LOVE to be her high-school persona again (as seen for example in her initial interaction with Alice).
So yeah… given half the chance I think she will try to fall right back into old patterns… but I don’t think she will manage it, not with her character growth and Ruth and Joyce and Walky looking out for her.
And THAT will be painful, but this right here I just think is good for her. Billie getting praise for being a sexy, sexy, baaaad girl – that is just praise where it is due.
I think it’s… risky. Very very risky. And not sincere, and not coming from a good place.
Alas, she’s focused right now on “making a good first impression”, and that’s higher priority than being honest. 🙁
I mean the want part seems to be true but the only taking I recall is Billie taking an ass kicking from Ruth.
We made out under the dock
We stayed out till ten o’clock
(*signed* tell me more, tell me more)
Honestly, panel 6 makes me so uncomfortable. Imagine if it was a guy saying that. We’d all come down hard if someone like Joe said that, so why is it ok for a girl to say it?
Yep yep yep +1000
Very true. For me, I think part of it is that with Billie – with her depression and alcoholism and suicide vigil for Ruth and plummeting situation and overall shitty first weeks in college – I’m willing to let A LOT of crap slide just to see her happy for a few panels.
And also the fact that her summary is WAY less shitty than what we know ACTUALLY took place.
very late comment, but how?
“They thought I was the one who seduced you.
Now they’re calling me a total badass. Isn’t that a hoot?”
I love Nash’s sweater. I LOVE IT