I don’t drink, but that % in there still makes my eye twitch. (Reason: 100 proof is 50% alcohol. 100% alcohol is 200 proof. 100% proof is ??? head explodes.)
BRAVO! Time for a new thread! MATCH THE PHOTO WITH THE PERSON IN THE DORM ROOM! Everyone has to play! Only 8x10s permitted, and for the shy (Joyce) time to introduce her to MD 20/20!!!
I think it might be safer for both parties if the ship evacuates all passengers and gets torpedoed.
The only thing I can see at this point is an iceberg.
Prolly my ex-roommate who was a passive-aggressive bongo, so I passively-aggressively pasted all kinds of offensive artwork all over my side of the room [like “someone puking” kind of offensive, not quite to dicks]
Oh, man. I never had that sort of roommate when I roomed with a someone. All I had was this really mutually awkward thing going on with this other dude and I that essentially came down to neither of us caring about the things the other liked but being far too polite to say it. He’d talk about Tennis to me and I’d talk about D&D to him and we’d smile and nod and not know what the HELL the other guy was talking about.
This relationship drove me to drinking 24 cans of soda in a day, once.
The way Ruth jumps so quickly back and forth between anger and a sense of calm makes me worry.
I know that some of it is for the sake of a punchline, but I’m worried that it’s something Ruth can’t get a handle on, and I’m afraid it might completely spill over onto Billie in the worst way sooner or later.
It’s only worrisome if she genuinely switches between calm and angry. Here it just looks like one emotion is genuine and the other is a facade. Not sure which one though.
Oddly, I don’t see her toggling between angry and calm in this strip. She starts out moodily reflective and hesitantly opening herself up, and gets an iota more annoyed when Billie made her annoying comment. Where do you see the anger?
(And in the strips immediately preceding this, she’s been annoyed and snarky, not toggling in and out of passive calm. Watch her eyebrows.)
You’re forgetting the part where Billie was already struggling in an unfamiliar environment and not doing well, and Ruth has added on to the pile: sexual assault, attempted suicide, and guilt tripping. Billie needs help, and Ruth is too wrapped up in her own problems to do anything but blame Billie for not saving her properly. She’s put too much on Billie, and they both need third parties.
This exactly. Add to it all that she actually developed reciprocal feelings for Ruth, only to have that rug pulled from under her, she’s really not in a good place right now.
(It also doesn’t help that her best female friend is an adorable fundie who couldn’t deal maturely with all this homosexual stuff. Speaking of which, it also doesn’t help that the only friend she’s made at college is Joyce.)
Yup. It’s a smorgasbord of self-loathing. Tempered currently with the uneasy hope that maybe something will go right and trying to put on a good face which will ultimately collapse as soon as Ruth decides she’s had enough and bolts.
This, so hard. I mean it’s fiction so they’ll probably not need a counselor, but jeez, even here, fucking Walky’s intervention was necessary for someone to feel better.
The worst of the storms have passed for now. Prepare for cast off from harbor, me hearties! We need to make port with our spicy wares* if we’re to fix this ship and make it home! And keep an eye out for the next sign of enemy ships or storms, as is we’ll be lucky to limp back. BUT LIMP BACK WE SHALL.
*Not spices, it’s porn. Of women who love women. By women who love women. The porn may look like spices I guess, since it’s more reliable money. But a gal can dream.
These two have possibly the most complex and fascinating relationships in all of the dozen or so webcomics I’m reading right now. Every time they interact, some new facet of their personalities is revealed.
“I love to deal with all my terrible shit while sober. You’re a fuckin’ hero.”
That reminds me. I remember reading somewhere that people on antidepressants sometimes stop taking them because of the feeling of complacency that the medicine imposes. Sadness and despair may be painful, but at least they’re genuine, and so they could be preferable to the medicated state.
For some people, anyway. I’ve read that it happens, but I don’t know how frequently, and I imagine a lot of people can still benefit from antidepressants. Wonder how Ruth would react– would she prefer the medicated state enough to roll with it, or would it ring too close to alcoholism for her to be comfortable with it?
Being on anti depressants myself, it hasn’t quite happened to me. Although it doesn’t quite sound right to me since, again just in my own experience, depression is a lot less like being sad and more of just being empty. I’d honestly prefer to be sad because then you at least feel something. With depression it’s more like you feel numb to everything. And the misery just comes from being all empty and shit
Paxil was some scary shit. Obviously, it doesn’t do that to everybody, but at the time the fact that I could feel my heart pounding if I put my hand over it was the only thing keeping me from thinking I was having a heart attack. Body chemistry is weird.
Did a little more research. There are several different types of depression, and many do have “sadness” listed among the symptoms- but not all of them. (My own flavor does include sadness, and does closely resemble one of the types on the list moreso than the others, so at least now I can put a name to my own problems.) Learn something new every day, I suppose.
…now I wonder if Ruth’s abrupt mood swings mean she’s bipolar. But Ruth could also be doing it on purpose to terrify people around her for her own amusement, and I don’t think I’d put that past her.
… It could be both. Weaponized depression. Dear gods. We must never allow this concept to fall into the wrong hands. Tumblr could destroy the damn world with it.
Again, I think that there’s some confusion between what is being felt and what is being expressed, at any given moment.
(Also, humans are capable of feeling more than one thing at a time.)
Very complex situation here between these two. My favorites I think.
I know how Ruth feels, I’d rather face my terrible shit when sober. The other way doesn’t work for me. Grief and depression is real, if you can work through them without artificial help, do it. You’ll be better off.
Ruthless is gonna make it. Billie has a long way to go. But, just maybe Ruth just gave her a handle, she cares enough not to want to hurt Billie that badly again. So Billie knows she not totally unloved – hated right now for lying-but not unloved. Go get help Billie, join AA, stay sober, then go talk to Ruth. She will probably be there. She’s too damn mean to go elsewhere.
Eh, it’s still sad that Ruth won’t take the extra step to actually help Billie with her alcohol problem instead of taking it personally. She can wisecrack about Billie being a hero, but she totally called Billie her only hope.
The ship is very very interesting but also so very unhealthy. Take for instance that Ruth thinks they’re on their way to having a relationship while Billie thinks they’re on their way to getting sober together. The confusion there….not good.
On the other hand, dealing with other people’s bullshit leaves less time to wallow in your own. Never underestimate the value of a good displacement activity.
For all the talk about Billie and Ruth making up by making out, or having sex on Walky’s bed, I think I’d be quite satisfied if they just got far as apologizing and giving each other awkward-but-heartfelt hugs.
Awww. I’ve had some problems with some recent storylines but this one was genuinely well written. It’s set up so we think they’ll have a blowout but instead we get this.
It’s sad when (in real life) two people who care about each other cannot step even slightly out of their shell to admit that they do. They don’t have to hook up or love each other but even the slight support they can give the other can make life more bearable. I’ve seen this occasionally and it’s sad.
I am a 4 Dimensional Being from the Void between Worlds; 3 Dimensional Beings can not comprehend my true form…
“I am Kra’ul Pfwimtz Sheykhon! Look on my works & despair! I am a Demagogue of the Undying Grudge, exacter of Petty Vengeance, and Master of Chaos. I shall drive a Wedge between the Thinker & the Believer, and within Faiths & Philosophies, sowing the seeds of discord to my heart’s content.
Apparently the way to sow discord and drive a wedge between faith and philosophy is by capitalizing like Winnie the Pooh.
Also, the Youtube channel says something about 4 arms, which might mean Kra’ul hits the SHIFT and CAPS keys more often than a binary-handed primate from a dimension between the voids (i.e. humans).
The fifth panel does something with perspective that I’ve never seen a webcomic do before. If there are Oscars for “Best Webcomic Perspective Drawing in a Single Panel” then this one wins.
. . . And She’s back.
and she’s not happy!
That’s what makes her back.
And better than ever!
Hopefully.
“YOU JUST MADE MY LIFE MORE MISERABLE BY TAKING AWAY MY BEER GOGGLES”
And the worst part is, Billie’s still smokin’ without them. A cruel cruel world we (she) live(s) in.
“Would it help if you could enjoy it with a hot asian girlfriend? Almost better than booze, amiright?”
Equally intoxicating.
Half-Asian, half-intoxicating
Lite Billie-Beer.
Is Billie more of a bitter or a stout?
She is increasingly stout, and quite bitter about it.
+1
Haha, love it X3
50% alcohol, by volume.
half asian half beer?
100% proof.
I don’t drink, but that % in there still makes my eye twitch. (Reason: 100 proof is 50% alcohol. 100% alcohol is 200 proof. 100% proof is ??? head explodes.)
My work here is done. 🙂
And refreshing.
More like toxic in the current configuration.
The tricky part is convincing your friends that your Canadain girlfriend is real. 😛
I- It really is, isn’t it? Avenue 51 jokes aside, would anyone believe RUTHLESS likes anyone, much less enough to date them?
It does stretch the limits of imagination somewhat doesn’t it?
That it does, yeah.
It’s a dangerous notion, but Grace dares to entertain it.
That’s because Grace and Mandy are wonderful people.
Her name is Alberta, she lives in Vancouver,
She cooks like my mother and sucks like a Hoover.
This is one hell of a leaky ship.
It’s salvageable, it’s always salvageable.
It needs a lot of plugs, butt plugs in particular.
BRAVO! Time for a new thread! MATCH THE PHOTO WITH THE PERSON IN THE DORM ROOM! Everyone has to play! Only 8x10s permitted, and for the shy (Joyce) time to introduce her to MD 20/20!!!
I think it might be safer for both parties if the ship evacuates all passengers and gets torpedoed.
The only thing I can see at this point is an iceberg.
If we are lucky, the iceburg contains the Avatar. 😀
If this ship ends on an Iceberg, would that be Billy on the Rocks?
No, it’d be a chilly Billie on the rocks.
I think this ship needs a few more months at drydock before launching.
Where all the orifices and even the tiniest cracks get properly handled by real craftsmen?
oh, my poor babbies 🙁
I like Ruth when she is honest about her feelings.
To bad when she is its just, “shit life sucks.”
That slowclap. (At least, it’s a slowclap in my head)
So the secret to keeping Ruth sober is to print out like a hundred Billie faces and stick them all over her room. This plan is foolproof.
I’ve seen many pranks of this. It never gets old.
About as foolproof as painting a prison pink. . .
The orgasm face is on the wall behind the bedside table, so it’s the last thing she sees before she takes off her glasses for bed.
So wait, sad Billy is Roadblock?
We need another test: does sad Billie speak in rhyme?
“Your personal life’s such a loss
But don’t give in and hit the sauce!”
“I know we said we both would quit,
But I’m actually a big fat hypocrit.”
“You stole my Dragons, I stole your booze,
I think in the end, we both just lose.”
That sounds like a meeting between Tryion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryan.
So I’m totally in favor of it.
Who’d be who?
Hell, who wouldn’t want a hundred Billie faces stuck all over their room?
Prolly my ex-roommate who was a passive-aggressive bongo, so I passively-aggressively pasted all kinds of offensive artwork all over my side of the room [like “someone puking” kind of offensive, not quite to dicks]
Oh, man. I never had that sort of roommate when I roomed with a someone. All I had was this really mutually awkward thing going on with this other dude and I that essentially came down to neither of us caring about the things the other liked but being far too polite to say it. He’d talk about Tennis to me and I’d talk about D&D to him and we’d smile and nod and not know what the HELL the other guy was talking about.
This relationship drove me to drinking 24 cans of soda in a day, once.
A hundred of any face stuck over the walls would end up looking creepy.
someone would walk in and be all, “um, are you stalking someone…?”
someone would walk in and be all, “um, are you stalking someone…?”
Ruth: “it’s… complicated.”
creeped-out person: “sure…”
Are you implying someone would stop at Billie’s FAAAAAAAAAAAACE?
Happy Billie your someone’s hero now stop moping around.
Ruth Needs a Hero!
But we don’t need another one.
In her own way Billie’s helping someone.
My uncle has a great shirt that says “I’m not useless – I can be used as a bad example!”.
I think that would be a great motto for Billie.
The way Ruth jumps so quickly back and forth between anger and a sense of calm makes me worry.
I know that some of it is for the sake of a punchline, but I’m worried that it’s something Ruth can’t get a handle on, and I’m afraid it might completely spill over onto Billie in the worst way sooner or later.
Do you not know what a Tsundere is?
Ruth has a lot more TSUN and less dere.
Ruth needs her Tsun side like a vampire needs blood
It’s only worrisome if she genuinely switches between calm and angry. Here it just looks like one emotion is genuine and the other is a facade. Not sure which one though.
That’s Ruth’s secret. She’s always angry.
RUTH: *suddenly punches Danny out of frame*
Oddly, I don’t see her toggling between angry and calm in this strip. She starts out moodily reflective and hesitantly opening herself up, and gets an iota more annoyed when Billie made her annoying comment. Where do you see the anger?
(And in the strips immediately preceding this, she’s been annoyed and snarky, not toggling in and out of passive calm. Watch her eyebrows.)
Oh I see the slow and rugged but steady reveal.
This calls for a round of Sprite for the teetotal out there – and also since it rhymes with spite.
Now Kiss.
*smushes both dolls together*
*pulls them apart*
um, wait, I forgot!
*rule 63’s the both of them first*
*kissy kissy kissy fun pretend times*
Yotomoe, get on this.
… Okay, both of you, go see a counselor.
Separately, or together, or both, I don’t care just DEAR GOD YOU NEED HELP THAT IS NOT EACH OTHER.
That’s an understatement
what? how did you get that out of this strip? this is a positive development for once.
I think it’s more of a reaction to Ruth and Billie in general.
You’re forgetting the part where Billie was already struggling in an unfamiliar environment and not doing well, and Ruth has added on to the pile: sexual assault, attempted suicide, and guilt tripping. Billie needs help, and Ruth is too wrapped up in her own problems to do anything but blame Billie for not saving her properly. She’s put too much on Billie, and they both need third parties.
This exactly. Add to it all that she actually developed reciprocal feelings for Ruth, only to have that rug pulled from under her, she’s really not in a good place right now.
(It also doesn’t help that her best female friend is an adorable fundie who couldn’t deal maturely with all this homosexual stuff. Speaking of which, it also doesn’t help that the only friend she’s made at college is Joyce.)
That’s one of the things that has driven her into her current state of self-loathing. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/stall/
Yup. It’s a smorgasbord of self-loathing. Tempered currently with the uneasy hope that maybe something will go right and trying to put on a good face which will ultimately collapse as soon as Ruth decides she’s had enough and bolts.
This, so hard. I mean it’s fiction so they’ll probably not need a counselor, but jeez, even here, fucking Walky’s intervention was necessary for someone to feel better.
Counselors exist in fiction now! 😀 Blame Jeph Jaques.
You mean Jeph Jerkphace? We blame him for everything, here.
Slow claps all around.
The worst of the storms have passed for now. Prepare for cast off from harbor, me hearties! We need to make port with our spicy wares* if we’re to fix this ship and make it home! And keep an eye out for the next sign of enemy ships or storms, as is we’ll be lucky to limp back. BUT LIMP BACK WE SHALL.
*Not spices, it’s porn. Of women who love women. By women who love women. The porn may look like spices I guess, since it’s more reliable money. But a gal can dream.
These two have possibly the most complex and fascinating relationships in all of the dozen or so webcomics I’m reading right now. Every time they interact, some new facet of their personalities is revealed.
“I love to deal with all my terrible shit while sober. You’re a fuckin’ hero.”
That reminds me. I remember reading somewhere that people on antidepressants sometimes stop taking them because of the feeling of complacency that the medicine imposes. Sadness and despair may be painful, but at least they’re genuine, and so they could be preferable to the medicated state.
For some people, anyway. I’ve read that it happens, but I don’t know how frequently, and I imagine a lot of people can still benefit from antidepressants. Wonder how Ruth would react– would she prefer the medicated state enough to roll with it, or would it ring too close to alcoholism for her to be comfortable with it?
Being on anti depressants myself, it hasn’t quite happened to me. Although it doesn’t quite sound right to me since, again just in my own experience, depression is a lot less like being sad and more of just being empty. I’d honestly prefer to be sad because then you at least feel something. With depression it’s more like you feel numb to everything. And the misery just comes from being all empty and shit
Again, just my experience. Everyone is different
That pretty much sums up my experience too.
I know that feel.
The only thing I know that people might not like about their medication is if it lowers their blood pressure, making them lethargic.
In my case it was because it made me feel like my heart was being crushed in a vice, and not in a metaphorical way.
I didn’t know that could come from antidepressants. Scary.
Paxil was some scary shit. Obviously, it doesn’t do that to everybody, but at the time the fact that I could feel my heart pounding if I put my hand over it was the only thing keeping me from thinking I was having a heart attack. Body chemistry is weird.
I’m better now (on both counts) at any rate.
Did a little more research. There are several different types of depression, and many do have “sadness” listed among the symptoms- but not all of them. (My own flavor does include sadness, and does closely resemble one of the types on the list moreso than the others, so at least now I can put a name to my own problems.) Learn something new every day, I suppose.
…now I wonder if Ruth’s abrupt mood swings mean she’s bipolar. But Ruth could also be doing it on purpose to terrify people around her for her own amusement, and I don’t think I’d put that past her.
… It could be both. Weaponized depression. Dear gods. We must never allow this concept to fall into the wrong hands. Tumblr could destroy the damn world with it.
What abrupt mood swings?
Again, I think that there’s some confusion between what is being felt and what is being expressed, at any given moment.
(Also, humans are capable of feeling more than one thing at a time.)
I dunno, she seems to be surly and antisocial pretty much 24/7.
Very complex situation here between these two. My favorites I think.
I know how Ruth feels, I’d rather face my terrible shit when sober. The other way doesn’t work for me. Grief and depression is real, if you can work through them without artificial help, do it. You’ll be better off.
Ruthless is gonna make it. Billie has a long way to go. But, just maybe Ruth just gave her a handle, she cares enough not to want to hurt Billie that badly again. So Billie knows she not totally unloved – hated right now for lying-but not unloved. Go get help Billie, join AA, stay sober, then go talk to Ruth. She will probably be there. She’s too damn mean to go elsewhere.
Improvments, somwhat. Yaaaay!
Ruth is playing hardball here. Will it be enough for Billie to let the next bottle remain the next for good?
It’s a sad and wonderful world.
Is it me or is this whole exchange very cute?
Eh, it’s still sad that Ruth won’t take the extra step to actually help Billie with her alcohol problem instead of taking it personally. She can wisecrack about Billie being a hero, but she totally called Billie her only hope.
Now to quote rooster teeth:
“fight fight fight, kiss kiss kiss”
D’AWWW. That was so freakin’ adorable! In a passive-aggressive way ^^
Why cant Billie just say that she is sober too since Ruth found her drinking? Would be interesting ^^
Um, she is clearly hung over. And lying about not drinking is what caused this mess in the first place.
Two nights ago, she was so drunk that Amber had to help her to bed. I think we can assume she went on a bender last night, too.
The ship is very very interesting but also so very unhealthy. Take for instance that Ruth thinks they’re on their way to having a relationship while Billie thinks they’re on their way to getting sober together. The confusion there….not good.
I’ve lost track: what terrible shit is Ruth dealing with in this universe?
Her parents got killed by a drunk driver, and she’s spiraled into becoming a drunk herself
And she’s surrounded by idiots, and (being RA) is contractually obligated to put up with their drama.
I have to wonder what she was thinking signing up to be an RA. Dealing with other people’s bullshit is pretty much the job description.
On the other hand, dealing with other people’s bullshit leaves less time to wallow in your own. Never underestimate the value of a good displacement activity.
And has been kissing a drunk driver.
As someone who found this comic two days ago and just finished reading the entire thing… I look forward to the updates! 🙂
For all the talk about Billie and Ruth making up by making out, or having sex on Walky’s bed, I think I’d be quite satisfied if they just got far as apologizing and giving each other awkward-but-heartfelt hugs.
That’s right, you’re a big hero, and we’re gonna hold a parade in your honor.
I get to drive the float, and Ethan is in CHARGE OF CONFETTI!
Awww. I’ve had some problems with some recent storylines but this one was genuinely well written. It’s set up so we think they’ll have a blowout but instead we get this.
I’m probably the only one who feels this way,but I don’t think these two are gonna end up together.
Ruth in the third panel… so insanely cute. Just had to say it.
It’s sad when (in real life) two people who care about each other cannot step even slightly out of their shell to admit that they do. They don’t have to hook up or love each other but even the slight support they can give the other can make life more bearable. I’ve seen this occasionally and it’s sad.
Wow, her Sarcasm’s So Thick, you’d Need a Diamond Tipped Drill to Pierce it, but I’m Hoping they’ll be Able to Work out their Issues Together.
Why are you capitalizing everything but articles, pronouns, and prepositions?
According to Kra’ul’s Youtube channel:
I am a 4 Dimensional Being from the Void between Worlds; 3 Dimensional Beings can not comprehend my true form…
“I am Kra’ul Pfwimtz Sheykhon! Look on my works & despair! I am a Demagogue of the Undying Grudge, exacter of Petty Vengeance, and Master of Chaos. I shall drive a Wedge between the Thinker & the Believer, and within Faiths & Philosophies, sowing the seeds of discord to my heart’s content.
Apparently the way to sow discord and drive a wedge between faith and philosophy is by capitalizing like Winnie the Pooh.
Also, the Youtube channel says something about 4 arms, which might mean Kra’ul hits the SHIFT and CAPS keys more often than a binary-handed primate from a dimension between the voids (i.e. humans).
Someone did their Research, & yet Despite Knowing What you Know, you Still Decided to Mock me…
Ouch, right in the feels!
Reality’s a bongo
The fifth panel does something with perspective that I’ve never seen a webcomic do before. If there are Oscars for “Best Webcomic Perspective Drawing in a Single Panel” then this one wins.
Your stupid FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE! 😀
Correction: MY stupid faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace
Wait, did Ruth just go back to calling Billie fat in the last panel?