*cheers* Go Ruth! I was hoping that this conversation was going to happen for Amber but I wasn’t sure just who it would be nor where or when. Ruth . . Ruth is a good choice I think.
self-destructive recklessness, definitely. I don’t think suicidality.
There’s definitely a big element of the first in the whole Amazi-Girl thing. You could argue it’s a death wish channeled into a theoretically useful direction maybe.
I do think she could have broken that chokehold, or at least given it a good try, but seeing this get called out reinforces my take on that whole fight ending sequence. Amber got what she needed out of that fight with her little moment of triumph – she proved to herself she could handle Sal and that she could do so without resorting to Amazi-Girl or giving in to the kind of rage that she unleashed on Blaine and Ryan. That she could stop.
After that she didn’t need to fight. The “end it” was for Sal. Readiness to die, not suicidal desire.
Yumi
That’s still some level of suicidality, in my opinion, but more than that, it’s still something Ruth might assess for, which is what I was saying.
thejeff
Yeah, I just don’t think it’s the kind of suicidality Ruth’s likely to be thinking of. Not the kind she’s familiar with.
Indeed. Ruth suspects that Amber deliberately lost that fight because she was hoping Sal would kill her (to end her misery, not because she wants Sal to go to jail or some such.)
However, in an alternate universe I relish the thought of Ruth going, “But first, I must challenge you to a contest of pugilism as honor dictates!”
Yeah I kinda wish Willis gave us a better idea of where exactly they are… On closer inspection, though, I can see that Amber’s in her room and Ruth has edged inside and is going to close a physical door to give the two of them privacy rather than close a figurative door on their conversation… Took me a minute. ?
For Amber to commit Suicide by Sal, wouldn’t Sal have to actually, you know, try to kill her?
According to Wikipedia on chokeholds, unconsciousness takes a few seconds and death takes several minutes. Unless Amber thought Sal was capable of murder, and wanted to murder her enough to actually do it, why would Amber expect to die rather than wake up twitching a minute later?
Wikipedia points out that Judo uses chokeholds frequently, and they basically never result in death. That makes it seem like, yes chokeholds are dangerous, but they’re not attempted-murder dangerous unless the person applying them is very incompetent or actually murderous.
Needfuldoer
I can see how Amber could believe both of those things. Sal was the Big Bad in her mental origin story comic book.
Emily
Amber’s also pretty deluded and seems to take a good chunk of her understanding of how violence works from fiction.
Drunk Mike
Despite her delusions she would have to have a realistic understanding of violence to fight as effectively as she does.
thejeff
Part of this conflict is between “realistic violence” and “dramatic comic strip violence”.
If we’re projecting realistic understanding of violence onto this world, Amber’s understanding derived from fiction may actually be a better guide.
This is fiction. She’s a super-hero. She has a good understanding of how violence works in this fiction – she knows she can beat up multiple larger opponents, she knows a guy with a knife isn’t a real threat to her. She gets in fights for stress relief. She knows she can get in fights on moving vehicles, though she’d much rather not.
None of this is realistic. A realistic understanding of violence would clearly show that she died or was crippled a long time ago.
Luna
On the other hand, while in the chokehold, Amber flat-out told Sal to ‘end it’, which does have a suicidal insinuation to it. Even if realistically it wouldn’t have likely killed her, that doesn’t mean she knew that, and certainly doesn’t mean she didn’t want it to.
Drunk Mike
Maybe she meant for Sal to end it with a neck snap? That would be a movieesque way to end things, tying into her delusions.
Small Block Chevrolet, most commonly in reference to the Gen III 350 that found its way into everything before the LS took off. (Ah the LS, the Game Genie of engines.)
Amber’s view of justice is seriously fucked up. Perhaps she thinks that if Sal kills her, they’ll be even. Sal will have avenged the stabbing with a fair fight, and Amber gets to inflict psychological trauma on her adversary!
That being said, I hope you’re right about Ruth being the one to finally get through to Amber. I noticed how similar they were after Ruth tried to help after Blaine showed up on Freshman Family Weekend. But Amber was too elusive and flighty, and Ruth wasn’t persistent enough. But now the stakes are higher, so the gloves are coming off.
No, it’s that Amber thinks that Sal beating her is inevitable. Amber did not believe that the rivalry was winnable. She was just trying to stay functional, turn her brokenness to something good, in the meantime.
Sal wasn’t a PERSON for her. Sal was an ADVERSARY. And Amber hated/hates herself too much to think that she’d actually win in a fight with her nemesis, so the only way things could go down is that she loses. That’s why it was so confusing and exhilarating to win, even momentarily. She was expecting to make a sacrifice play. But, hey, life isn’t a story.
I’d almost forgotten about that until Ruth brought it up again, but I really hope this conversation goes well. Honestly, Ruth is either one of the best or worst people for Amber to talk about this to… and I’m hoping for the “best” option. I mean, she understands what it’s like to have suicidal feelings, and hopefully that kind of understanding will help Amber. (On the other hand, this could also go horribly for either/both of them.)
“I think you could have gotten out of the chokehold, now that I know you moonlight as a superhero*. I’m worried that you stayed in a potentially lethal situation because you wanted to die.”
the part i don’t understand is that i’m reading ruth’s tone as angry, or at least stern in an unhelpful way. am i misreading this?
BBCC
I know you’re trying to figure this out, but please don’t mention future strips. Willis has asked us not to do that, as a courtesy for people reading through for the first time.
You should only ask this of people who know how not to damage your larynx in the process. A martial artist should know, because you usually get taught to do choke holds to compress the arteries and at all costs avoid putting pressure on the larynx. At least if the martial art in question in invested in not killing or permanently damaging your opponent, that is.
thejeff
It’s merely a convenience that learning how to avoid putting pressure on the larynx also teaches you how to put pressure on the larynx – just the do that bit you were taught not to do.
198 thoughts on “Community service”
Ana Chronistic
“ok fine I could TOTALLY have broken that choke hold”
“Excellent! Just checking”
Doctor_Who
“I froze because I couldn’t decide whether to follow it up with a Randy Savage Elbow Drop, or an Undertaker Tombstone Piledriver.”
“Hmmm, understandable.”
HeySo
“I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t you just take their femur and beat them with it?”
Clif
I could have totally beaten Blain to death with his femurs.
BBCC
Yep, I knew that arc wrapped up a little too cleanly. This’ll be FUN!
Not for Amber, but for me. And I appreciate Ruth trying as an RA. <3
William Leonard Reese Jr.
*cheers* Go Ruth! I was hoping that this conversation was going to happen for Amber but I wasn’t sure just who it would be nor where or when. Ruth . . Ruth is a good choice I think.
Deathjavu
They can trade notes on how to deal with abusive guardians.
In my imagination, this involves Ruth is writing furiously in a notebook “beat the shit out of them” and underlining it several times.
Schpoonman
I think that’s the one Ruth presents with a disclaimer like she did when she spoke to Amber about her father’s hospitalization.
I’m TOTALLY for it, though. I give zero shits that Clint needs a cane, the fucker started it and someone needs to finish it.
Danielle
ruth, dont
Yumi
Don’t assess a resident’s potential level of self-destructive recklessness/suicidality?
Danielle
i was reading the situation wrong
MatthewTheLucky
No, I concur, this is Ruth challenging Amber to a fight before their team-up.
LeslieBean4Shizzle
Were you? I’m still thinking Ruth intends to test Amber’s ability to break out of a choke hold by putting her into a choke hold.
Whether that leads to what Yumi just said or not, I have no idea.
Yumi
I don’t think that makes a lot of sense, and I don’t think it fits with the shift in Ruth’s expression, personally.
Lokitsu
I agree- the OLD Ruth might have tried that, but not anymore (I hope).
huttj609
Yeah, she ain’t gonna try to choke Amber here as a test.
thejeff
self-destructive recklessness, definitely. I don’t think suicidality.
There’s definitely a big element of the first in the whole Amazi-Girl thing. You could argue it’s a death wish channeled into a theoretically useful direction maybe.
I do think she could have broken that chokehold, or at least given it a good try, but seeing this get called out reinforces my take on that whole fight ending sequence. Amber got what she needed out of that fight with her little moment of triumph – she proved to herself she could handle Sal and that she could do so without resorting to Amazi-Girl or giving in to the kind of rage that she unleashed on Blaine and Ryan. That she could stop.
After that she didn’t need to fight. The “end it” was for Sal. Readiness to die, not suicidal desire.
Yumi
That’s still some level of suicidality, in my opinion, but more than that, it’s still something Ruth might assess for, which is what I was saying.
thejeff
Yeah, I just don’t think it’s the kind of suicidality Ruth’s likely to be thinking of. Not the kind she’s familiar with.
Bicycle Bill
“Assuage myself of some fears.”
Does that mean, “Try you on for size?”
BarerMender
No, it means Ruth is afraid Amber wants to die.
Zaxares
Indeed. Ruth suspects that Amber deliberately lost that fight because she was hoping Sal would kill her (to end her misery, not because she wants Sal to go to jail or some such.)
However, in an alternate universe I relish the thought of Ruth going, “But first, I must challenge you to a contest of pugilism as honor dictates!”
Roger
Woah Whiplash. what the hells happening
Doctor_Who
Ruth is being a responsible RA.
Poofdepoof
Yeah I kinda wish Willis gave us a better idea of where exactly they are… On closer inspection, though, I can see that Amber’s in her room and Ruth has edged inside and is going to close a physical door to give the two of them privacy rather than close a figurative door on their conversation… Took me a minute. ?
Stephen Bierce
Politics & Poker, Politics & Poker
Played for a pot that’s mediocre…
CleverTrousers
IDGI.
SBC?
AeromechanicalAce
Ruth suspects Amber was trying to commit Suicide by Sal during their fight.
She’s probably right.
Yumi
I mean…
Chris Phoenix
For Amber to commit Suicide by Sal, wouldn’t Sal have to actually, you know, try to kill her?
According to Wikipedia on chokeholds, unconsciousness takes a few seconds and death takes several minutes. Unless Amber thought Sal was capable of murder, and wanted to murder her enough to actually do it, why would Amber expect to die rather than wake up twitching a minute later?
Wikipedia points out that Judo uses chokeholds frequently, and they basically never result in death. That makes it seem like, yes chokeholds are dangerous, but they’re not attempted-murder dangerous unless the person applying them is very incompetent or actually murderous.
Needfuldoer
I can see how Amber could believe both of those things. Sal was the Big Bad in her mental origin story comic book.
Emily
Amber’s also pretty deluded and seems to take a good chunk of her understanding of how violence works from fiction.
Drunk Mike
Despite her delusions she would have to have a realistic understanding of violence to fight as effectively as she does.
thejeff
Part of this conflict is between “realistic violence” and “dramatic comic strip violence”.
If we’re projecting realistic understanding of violence onto this world, Amber’s understanding derived from fiction may actually be a better guide.
This is fiction. She’s a super-hero. She has a good understanding of how violence works in this fiction – she knows she can beat up multiple larger opponents, she knows a guy with a knife isn’t a real threat to her. She gets in fights for stress relief. She knows she can get in fights on moving vehicles, though she’d much rather not.
None of this is realistic. A realistic understanding of violence would clearly show that she died or was crippled a long time ago.
Luna
On the other hand, while in the chokehold, Amber flat-out told Sal to ‘end it’, which does have a suicidal insinuation to it. Even if realistically it wouldn’t have likely killed her, that doesn’t mean she knew that, and certainly doesn’t mean she didn’t want it to.
Drunk Mike
Maybe she meant for Sal to end it with a neck snap? That would be a movieesque way to end things, tying into her delusions.
Kyrik Michalowski
I wish I had a picture of Marlin saying, “It’s like he’s trying to speak to me, I know it.”
I get idgi but what does sbc stand for?
TheStranger
“Suicide by cop” is my guess.
Yumi
That makes a lot more sense than “Southern Baptist Church.”
motorfirebox
Surreptitious bouncing cattle, obvs.
BarerMender
Significant booty call
Needfuldoer
Small Block Chevrolet, most commonly in reference to the Gen III 350 that found its way into everything before the LS took off. (Ah the LS, the Game Genie of engines.)
Woomy
They’re losing me
Kern Wallace
Ruth, stop projecting your asphyxiation fetish on to others.
C.T Phipps
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one.
Yotomoe
One could say she’s affixed to asphyxiation
Schol-R-LEA
And now I have this bizarre image of the choke hold turn into erotic asphyxiation. That would be bad for everyone.
BigDogLittleCat
Ruth saw it too. Amber wanted Sal to kill her. I think – hope – only because she wanted to die, not because she wanted to ruin Sal’s life.
Maybe Ruth will be the one who can reach Amber. Fingers crossed.
AntJ
Amber’s view of justice is seriously fucked up. Perhaps she thinks that if Sal kills her, they’ll be even. Sal will have avenged the stabbing with a fair fight, and Amber gets to inflict psychological trauma on her adversary!
AntJ
That being said, I hope you’re right about Ruth being the one to finally get through to Amber. I noticed how similar they were after Ruth tried to help after Blaine showed up on Freshman Family Weekend. But Amber was too elusive and flighty, and Ruth wasn’t persistent enough. But now the stakes are higher, so the gloves are coming off.
Jamie
No, it’s that Amber thinks that Sal beating her is inevitable. Amber did not believe that the rivalry was winnable. She was just trying to stay functional, turn her brokenness to something good, in the meantime.
Sal wasn’t a PERSON for her. Sal was an ADVERSARY. And Amber hated/hates herself too much to think that she’d actually win in a fight with her nemesis, so the only way things could go down is that she loses. That’s why it was so confusing and exhilarating to win, even momentarily. She was expecting to make a sacrifice play. But, hey, life isn’t a story.
foamy
Clearly Ruth plans to hire Amber as a contract hitman.
Needfuldoer
She already knows where the femurs are, that’s half the training right there.
lilyliv --> ian livs
I’d almost forgotten about that until Ruth brought it up again, but I really hope this conversation goes well. Honestly, Ruth is either one of the best or worst people for Amber to talk about this to… and I’m hoping for the “best” option. I mean, she understands what it’s like to have suicidal feelings, and hopefully that kind of understanding will help Amber. (On the other hand, this could also go horribly for either/both of them.)
tim gueguen
Actually Ruth wants to confirm they both had the same sifu, Captain Kung Fu
Deanatay
I DO envision Ruth as channeling Ving Rhames/Cobra Bubbles in this comic.
“I’m the one they call when Things Go Wrong. And Things, have Gone VERY Wrong here.”
*casually yanks open nailed-down door*
DarkoNeko
From one person seeking death to another.
kitty
what is she saying exactly
Yumi
“I think you could have gotten out of the chokehold, now that I know you moonlight as a superhero*. I’m worried that you stayed in a potentially lethal situation because you wanted to die.”
*from Ruth’s perspective
Keulen
Oh good, so that was what Ruth meant. I wasn’t entirely sure because her wording confused me a bit.
alice
the part i don’t understand is that i’m reading ruth’s tone as angry, or at least stern in an unhelpful way. am i misreading this?
BBCC
I know you’re trying to figure this out, but please don’t mention future strips. Willis has asked us not to do that, as a courtesy for people reading through for the first time.
Lily
What is going on?
Sam
Ruth thinks Amber remained in the chokehold on purpose, with a hope, however vague, that it would result in her death.
C.T Phipps
So Ruth is asking for some auto-erotic asphyxiation? Cool. Safe, sane, and consensual.
Yumi
If it’s auto, doesn’t that mean another person’s not doing it?
Like, I have a lot of thoughts on this comment, but that’s the one I’m going with.
LeslieBean4Shizzle
If she’s asking for it to be done to her by another person, it wouldn’t be “auto” anything. It would simply be “erotic asphyxiation”.
CJ
You should only ask this of people who know how not to damage your larynx in the process. A martial artist should know, because you usually get taught to do choke holds to compress the arteries and at all costs avoid putting pressure on the larynx. At least if the martial art in question in invested in not killing or permanently damaging your opponent, that is.
thejeff
It’s merely a convenience that learning how to avoid putting pressure on the larynx also teaches you how to put pressure on the larynx – just the do that bit you were taught not to do.
Yotomoe