371

Dawdled
Posted on May 15, 2017 by David M Willis

371 thoughts on “Dawdled”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    was it this one?!?

    1. Ana Chronistic

      not Shanna Erixon?

      1. TachyonCode

        This is either a reference to Guilded Age or Fans, can’t decide which. Fuggin’ multiverses…

        1. TachyonCode

          Fans!Shanna makes more sense, but GA!Shanna would probably be more likely to fit in in the dumbiverse. Hmm…

        2. MatthewTheLucky

          Here’s a thing to consider: the cast of Fans once helped out Semme, in a canonical story. This means that Guilded Age, Fans, It’s Walky, and this universe are all canonically coexistent within a multiverse (not to mention at least 10 other long runners).

        3. T Campbell

          This was fun to wake up to!

    2. DarkoNeko

      Oh.

    3. Cholma

      I miss ol’ “See-Lid” and friends!

    4. Cayo-Ser

      I actually knew someone named Ceilidh. It’s pronounced the same as “Kaylee” and is Gaelic for “party”.

    5. John

      Yay, I’m not the only one whose first reaction was, “Wait, Ruth dated Ceilidh’s brother?”

    6. jimbotherisenclown

      Let’s hope referencing Avalon High isn’t enough to curse Dumbing of Age to end the same way.

    7. Tapio Peltonen

      Oh, an Avalon refence out of the blue. Appreciated.

    8. Roborat

      Man, that brings me back, I loved that comic.

      1. Vincent

        Same. Recall being baffled by the text-only ending novel.

  2. Doctor_Who

    There are times when it’s not only permissible to beat up the elderly, it’s a public service.

    1. Brute

      there’s no like button so ?

    2. Commander Clash

      I’d enjoy kicking that cane put from under him just to see how fast he’d hit the ground. It would be immensely satisfying and it cannot be deemed as a charge of assault because no attack was made on the person.

      1. Liliet

        what the fuck

  3. Lielac

    “She will forget about you”? More like “You will forget about her [I order you to]”. I reaaaaally want to punch Sir in the face.

    1. A5PECT

      I thought it was supposed to be the latter line, until I realized how much colder the former is.

      1. A5PECT

        I mean, you could go so far as to say it’s…

        Ruthless.

        1. Deanatay

          So, you’re saying we now know where Ruth gets it from.

    2. bryy

      Sir is a Grade A Asshole. First, the way he talks about his own daughter like an object, then his son-in-law like a parasite, and then Ruth herself as if she is garbage. Now he’s gloating that Billie will forget her.

    3. AeromechanicalAce

      Clint. His name is clint. Or whatever prejorative you wish to call him. “Sir” implies respect, which he doesn’t deserve in the slightest.

      1. Travestyhat

        Seconded.

      2. zoelogical

        if we call him mr. sir it can be a pejorative reference to a character from Holes

        but then again that just might be confusing

        1. Minotaur

          In Dutch, polite forms are used as distancing devices. I imagine calling somebody `Sir` could serve that purpose too, even if the distancing device you´d really want to use is a catapult…

        2. zoelogical

          lol yes

          unless like. the distance is the point. which i feel like it is with this dude

        3. Shadlyn Wolfe

          This! I didn’t grow up in the South, so “Sir” and “Ma’am” were not part of my vocab til I came to Texas and discovered that they are a great way of getting people to smile at you for basically saying “I can’t be bothered to know/remember your name, you mean so little to me. Sir.”

      3. phlebas

        Clint after the popular lettering failure?

        1. Schol-R-LEA

          I can definitely see Ruth saying “Don’t be such a Clint!”

        2. Pablo360

          They named that pejorative after him.

        3. Pablo360

          What you thought it was an anatomical reference? That’s just convergent linguistic evolution.

      4. Positron

        The comments for this plot line have been using capital-S-Sir sarcastically to emphasise his obsession with authority and his insistence on that title in the strip. With the right tone terms of endearment can easily be made to be insults, see “lady”.

      5. Touchfuzzy

        I agree with calling him Clint, because Sir also has certain implications in certain circles that makes it additionally squicky and uncomfortable for me to read in the comments.

    4. Reltzik

      Nonono.

      “You will forget about her, I order you to,” offers a degree of agency and the ability to defy and rebel. It makes Clint a mere authority figure.

      “She will forget about you” defines a hopeless reality in which Ruth has no agency. It makes Clint a prophet and a foreteller of truth, and his words have a power beyond mere command.

      1. Bicycle Bill

        “She will forget about you” is indeed a reality but to assign the quality of hopelessness to it is incorrect.  As people cycle in and out of our lives (and we cycle in and out of theirs) individuals will be forgotten, crowded out of our conscious memory by new people, new experiences, and fresher memories.  For example, if you’re more than ten years past your HS graduation, try this little personal test.  Think back to how close you were to your classmates. But can you clearly remember every member of your graduating class?  How about all of your teachers?  Heck, can you even remember all the people you may have dated during your high school career?  

        It’s inevitable, it’s a certainty, it’s a fact of life; but it is not ‘hopeless’.

        1. Reltzik

          Well, no. But I was trying to depict the immediate emotional impact upon Ruth by Clint when contrasting the “command” versus “statement of reality” interpretation of that statement, rather than a more objective analysis of how people come in and out of our lives.

      2. Fart Captor

        I think you’re completely correct.

        He doesn’t ask. He doesn’t even give orders. Instead he simply states what will happen.

        He’s not making a prediction. He’s implying that this is what he expects to happen and that there will be consequences if his expectations are not met, while at the same time trying to stomp down any thoughts Ruth might have that things might go otherwise.

        He wants to absolutely crush any tiny sense of agency Ruth might have, as well as any hope of escape from what he has decided will be.

  4. nobodybasically

    Ciaran Hinds, of Game of Thrones fame?

    1. -Sentinel-

      He also played Julius Caesar on HBO’s Rome.

  5. Nonagon

    Something something Robert Paulson.

  6. Rezby

    Ahhhhh, faans! reference. Man, that was a great crossover back in the day. <3

    1. Pylgrim

      Nowadays it’s known as a Guilded Age reference. Which is just to say, you should read Guilded Age if you haven’t.

      1. 3oranges

        Shanna Cochran exists in both, but is “My name is Shanna Cochran” significant in both?

  7. Emperor Daniel

    So Mr. Hughes doesn’t care whether or not Ruth is in a relationship with a girl so much as he doesn’t want her to have any relationships?

    1. Kris

      Probably has to be someone he’s screened and approves of first.

    2. Sam

      I would say that is an accurate observation, yes. He doesn’t like things that could give Ruth even the tiniest feeling of empowerment.

    3. Kernanator

      Of course he doesn’t want her in a relationship. That make her think that she’s *gasp* worth something outside of him.

    4. Anonononon

      Yup. Can’t have anything in the way of her success. Especially since if she succeeds or fails it is a direct reflection of him as a person. /sarcasm

    5. Reltzik

      I’m imagining him as having Ruth’s life planned out. Maybe EVENTUALLY she’ll be allowed (required) to marry. Probably kids too. He might even give her the task of finding the spouse rather than assigning one to her, especially since that gives her an opportunity to fall below his standards with her selection.

      But right now? Right now is not the right time in his schedule.

    6. Pylgrim

      He should put that in a business card. “Not a bigot, merely a control freak.”

      1. SgtWadeyWilson

        Right under the bit that goes: “Punch me, I’m horrible.”

    7. EvolutionistX

      I’ve known a lot of parents like that. Pretty much no one meets their standards.

  8. Kris

    But Billie has functioning legs right? She just walk to visit Ruth anytime right? Moving her is virtually pointless right?

    1. John

      I mean, it’s not like she’s using the room she’s got now. She’ll just have a room in a different hall to not sleep in ’cause she’s in Ruth’s bed.

      (Complicates things for Becky, though.)

      1. Norah

        Becky hopefully will be able to stay at Leslie’s, now that Robin has left.

        1. Reltzik

          But….

          …. but that would mean everything’s working out just fine.

          …

          … I don’t trust it. That’s not Willis’s M.O.

        2. Needfuldoer

          He’s got an entire Payless worth of shoes to drop.

        3. Wack'd

          That’s not a problem, Ruth can just mount them on her wall.

    2. Anowan

      Pointless to break their couple, not pointless to the administration ! Ruth was not supposed to involve herself in a romantic relationship with one of the girls she took care of. (You probably know that. Sorry.)

    3. C.T Phipps

      Clearly, Clint is going to make her continued term at the college dependent on staying away from Ruth as a “medical danger.”

  9. TimeLoss

    I get that punching him would just make everything so much worse. But with each appearance of Clint it is getting harder to not want to see just that.

    1. Reltzik

      Just imagine him stepping on a bunch of rakes.

      1. Needfuldoer

        And now Clint has Kelsey Grammer’s voice in my head. Thanks for that…

      2. Vulcanodon

        I dunno, Sideshow Bob is a comical character. Nothing funny about Clint.

  10. Adj

    “Out of sight, out of mind.”

    Oh yes, that’ll work. Because forbidding two people in love has worked famously well in the past.

    Sir, perhaps there’s a little play by Shakespeare you should read?

    1. (((Mkvenner)))

      Titus andronicus?

      1. Reltzik

        Oy. Not that one. That one was downright gastly.

        …….

        …

        ..

        .

        *flees for dear greek-root-punning life*

    2. Emperor Daniel

      That play ended with the two of them committing suicide. Not a path we want Ruth to be taking.

    3. Sam

      Yes over here, it is called ‘Everybody Dies’. Because why would people make sound decisions when they can just kill or die instead.

      1. Pinkie

        I thought that was Romeo and Juliet?

        1. Rukduk

          It’s also MacBeth, Hamlet, Othello,pretty sure The Merchant of Venice,…you see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

        2. Deanatay

          In Shakespeare’s day, calling a show a ‘tragedy’ basically meant ‘all the main characters die in interesting ways’.

          So, like Game Of Thrones.

        3. DinaWho

          And a comedy meant that there was a wedding at the end!

        4. Reltzik

          Now bad things are going to happen to the entire cast!

          WHY DID YOU HAVE TO NAME THE SCOTTISH PLAY???

        5. Reltzik

          I mean, yes, bad things are ALREADY happening to the entire cast.

          BUT FROM NOW ON IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!

          >:[

          ….

          😀

    4. C baker

      A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

    5. Mordecai

      Two lovers, forbidden from one another?
      Billie may have to dig some sort of Secret Tunnel to get to Ruth.

      1. Mr. Bulbmin

        SECRET TUNNEL! SECRET TUNNEL!

        Fun fact: That was actually my first episode of A:tLA.

    6. zoelogical

      A Winter’s Tale?

  11. itsaboo

    It’s somewhat of an achievement to Willis that he’s only, like, my third least favourite character.

    1. Doctor_Who

      We should put him, Blaine, Ross, and Ryan in a room together to settle this matter.

      Then blow it up. Matter settled.

      1. chris73

        Add Mary and Robin to that little lot and see who comes off as worse

        Or maybe split it into two groups, those that have committed actual physical violence and those that haven’t

        1. chris73

          Could actually add Ruth to that group as well

        2. Suitora

          And Danny and Amazi-girl.

        3. Anonononon

          Eh Robin has at least shown some signs that a decent person might be in there somewhere.

        4. Chris Phoenix

          Yes, she has. She has, multiple times, acknowledged that she has decent impulses – in order to inform the person that she might act decent toward that she is actively trying to suppress those impulses.

          Robin is a shitty person, and knows it, and cultivates the shittiness.

        5. chris73

          If you want to go down that path Ross cares about Becky, Clint is looking after Howard and Mary cares about peoples souls (well maybe not)

        6. Pat

          None of those are true, though.

          It’s also not true that Robin has shown any signs of being a decent person, but that’s beside the point.

        7. Emily

          Robin hands down just by sheer scope of influence. The others are evil on a personal level with a small victim pool whereas Robin contributed to a systemic evil that harmed entire populations.

      2. zoelogical

        i put odds on clint beating up blaine and ross, trying to mentor ryan, and getting his ass charmed off by robin

        meanwhile mary tries to play as charming but mostly just comes off as slimy and spends most of the time glaring at robin in a corner

        ryan tries to hit on mary but being stuck in the small room can’t reasonably pursue it so he goes for the long game (oh god)

        ross and mary actually get along great, they have so much in common

        blaine also tries to mentor ryan but forgot he had faz in his pocket, who scares everyone off. faz tries to make friends with ryan. he and mary and ryan form the most awkward third wheel party ever, where faz is more explicitly gross but ryan is the more ill-intentioned

        blaine probably ends up getting along well with clint on the basis of patriarchy. and everyone decides to turn clint beating up blaine and ross as a beautiful memory b/c that shit was glorious and there are worse ways to get a bloody nose

        1. zoelogical

          robin, fyi, is the literal belle of the ball, she gets along with everybody (except mary, who hasn’t forgiven her for the gay thing; and then ross, when he finds out about the gay thing) through a combination of charm and ridiculousness that is literally overwhelming. then she starts bouncing off the walls when she gets bored and starts. to. lose it.

          she grabs markers out of her pen and starts drawing moustaches on people. she gets as far as ryan until she stops

          meanwhile faz is considering the pros and cons of changing his name to aide

        2. zoelogical

          listen: faz is not a boy with a lot of options but he wants to Get Out. if robin is that train he will jump on and hold tight and hope for the best and be really weird about it, because that’s who he is. but he’ll be, like, reasonably competent. maybe not DC-level competent but reasonably competent for a kid who’s never been to college and isn’t getting paid in anything but lint. (he ate the lint. it was cherry flavored.)

          anyways after a point blaine and ross and clint and ryan form a White Dudes Club on one side of the room. which leaves robin and faz, and then mary to one side. mary gets out her sketchbook and starts drawing. robin asks her to draw her like one of her anime girls, with the big honkers. “no,” mary says, and draws a picture of one of her anime girls praying to jesus for redemption from her big honkers. they are vaguely melon-shaped.

          the men ask ryan how he got that scar on his face. he explains that he got beaten up – by, like, a bunch of guys in masks, and a baseball bat, and he didn’t get their license plate but he got stitches. blaine and clint team up to show him how to throw a punch. ross is still in his neck brace so he looms ominously but supportively. they tell locker room jokes under their breath so the girls (and faz) don’t hear, most of which have a sexual tenor. faz is mostly relieved to be away from blaine so he doesn’t question his excluded masculinity.

          clint is, actually, weirdly charmed by robin, and starts talking to her about how she needs a man in her life, and wouldn’t it be easier to run for office with a veteran by her side, and how he’s retired but he’s thought about public life more than once too, and how many years has she been in office? isn’t that surprising for such a pretty young thing. he is putting the moves on her and if robin were a straighter woman she would maybe fall for it. but she is not, and she can smell someone trying to control her from a mile away, so she flutters her eyes and flirts and gives him nothing while promising everything. if he votes for her, bee tee dubs.

          what clint sees is someone erratic enough to need someone stable in their life, and whoever that stable person is is someone who could control them – like, robin’s base mental state is prime for gaslighting, even if she uses it to gaslight more often than not. SO.

        3. zoelogical

          faz admires mary’s anime girls. mary tries to save him from his sins – i OKAY IM DONE I CAN NOT I CANT WHY. WHY AM I HERE. WHAT IS THIS. WHO ARE THESE UNPLEASANT PEOPLE

        4. Reltzik

          Too late. You’re already down the rabbit hole. The only way out now is to write the fanfic.

          (Meaning, put it down on paper, since it’s already clearly in your head.)

        5. zoelogical

          gdi

          my brain is a literal warren of rabbit holes

      3. Reltzik

        I was thinking immurement. Blowing them up is either too swift or, if Hollywood is to be trusted, a good sign that at least one of them will survive and come after us for revenge.

        1. Mr. Bulbmin

          I suggest feeding them all enough sleeping pills to knock them out for a few hours, chaining them together in a log cabin, then immolating said cabin. That way, they wake up just in time to suffer, but without the requisite time to even vaguely escape.

      4. Wack'd

        Nuke the room from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

  12. Raen

    Ciaran?

    …did he have a sister…?

    1. fillerusername

      Ruth’s bi.

      1. Meta

        I think OP is referencing the fact that Ciaran is the name of Ceilidh’s brother in the comic Avalon High — there’s a link in Ana’s comment above — but I’m not sure.

        1. John

          Avalon was also located roughly where Kaladar, Ontario is in our world.

          (I have kicking around somewhere a picture of the Tim Horton’s in Kaladar that I took on a trip through one time because I figured it was the closest real-world equivalent to the one Deirdre worked at in Avalon.)

    2. Sam

      Ruth is bisexual. She mentioned having this boyfriend in the past. She also said to Billie at one point that they found out she liked girls together.

  13. Shiro

    But then Billie, for all intents and purposes, moves in with Ruth, right? Because Spite and also because love?

    I just hope Clint won’t use this as a reason to tighten his grip and do, like, random inspections or anything…

    1. Shiro

      Also, the last panel gives me great hope. A small rebellion.

  14. Some1

    I like to think that Howard has been slowly but surely planning his revenge

    1. tim gueguen

      Frankly I’m a bit scared Howard will end up killing the old man at some point. Sooner or later Clint will push the wrong buttons, or Howard will figure certain things out.

      1. Dean

        Unless Howard has been slowly poisoning the old man all along.

        1. Rukduk

          …Given is penchant for GoT consumption, I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided he wanted to pull a Grandma Tyrell on Sir. Which is concerning because that would mess with Howard so much. However, if it was just switching pills in Sir’s medicine cabinet, I feel it would be very hard to prove.

      2. Schol-R-LEA

        What, like how the accident their parents had was nothing of the kind?

    2. foamy

      Notice how Howard is very studiously avoiding looking at this? That’s not obliviousness or absentmindedness. That’s classic avoidance behaviour.

      I don’t think he’s the idiot he plays, at all. He and Ruth really need to talk.

      1. thejeff

        Emphasized by Clint saying “Out of sight, out of mind” in that panel.

      2. nightsbridge

        I think Ruth knows how shitty gramps makes his life already . . .

        1. Schpoonman

          That’s not what Foamy meant. Howard is actively (however minutely) subverting Clint. He buries his head in GoT to escape. Clint’s horrible words have less of an effect if they’re bounced off Natalie Dormer’s rack and into the wind.

          Ruth doesn’t seem to be aware that Howie CAN help himself. Moreover, he could help Ruth (eventually) in a full flight from Clint. Howard has some growing to do, but the two of them could TOTALLY help improve each other’s lives, they just need to communicate some more.

          That, or Billie makes an appeal to her father, he dumps a few truckloads of cash in Ruth’s direction, and she gets fully emancipated while Clint fucks off sideways off a cliff and into the black hole that claimed the Event Horizon.

        2. foamy

          Sure. Ruth has no idea, though, if Howard knows how shitty Clint is making her life, or why, or if Howard even wants Ruth to be the martyr for him, etc.

          Or, at least, I can’t recall any time we’ve been shown that she does.

  15. Fart Captor

    This dude needs to be sucked into some kind of hell dimension through a gateway the size of a pinhole located in his lower intestine.

    1. Ragnarok101

      Too quick. The gateway needs to lead to a lesser hell, whereupon once every imaginable torture has been completed while still leaving him alive, the process shall be repeated with a greater hell. And so on and so forth, until such time as his mind fractures utterly and there is nothing left to scream.

      1. Fart Captor

        Well, the inability to die is a handy feature that comes standard in any reputable hell dimension.

      2. foamy

        You’re trying too hard.

    2. zoelogical

      is that what a kidney stone is

      1. Vulcanodon

        Damn right. First one of those I had, I thought; “No wonder ancient people believed in demons”

        1. zoelogical

          this is literally everything i have ever heard about kidney stones

    3. Kryss LaBryn

      How about–guys, how about we just turn him into a background character in a sitcom that has nothing to do with him at all?

      Like, it’s the story of Howard and Ruth and their relationships and antics, and Clint is just this hilarious, grumpy old grandpa living in the attic who, like, plots these major, awful machinations–except nobody, nobody takes him seriously at all, for even one minute. He says something like, “Chloe, Billie needs to stop seeing Ruth right now and also Ruth needs to keep doing this awful job she hates,” and everyone’s just like, “Ha ha, oh, Grandpa Clint!” [sad trombone] and they just pat him on the head and completely ignore him.

      And because everyone (including the police, if he tries to call them in) just see him as this harmless, semi-senile, crazy old man, he is rendered utterly impotent. He has no power over anyone, no influence over anyone, and he can tell everyone just what he wants them to do and threaten them as much as he likes, and it doesn’t matter to anyone. He’s too old and weak to even whack someone with his cane effectively.

      Like, just completely stripped of power and influence, and transformed from this villainous bastard into this powerless laughing-stock that no one takes seriously for a minute.

      That would simultaneously be so freeing for Ruth and Howie and everyone else; and so completely awful for him. Just, every time he tries to make the world work the way he wants, all he gets is condescension and head pats. He becomes completely irrelevant and impotent.

      “Aw, Grandpa Clint!” *canned laughter*

      “The Devil cannot abide to be mocked.”

      His rage-tears would be delicious.

      1. Krys Brynhildr

        The trouble is that grumpy old men who are abusive control freaks and still mobile are hard to lock in attics.

        Especially if they have some level of anger management issues. Maybe doubly so if they’re starting to get to the age where their ability to exert control is starting to slip, or feel like they have to compensate for their own health issues by doubling down on the temper and abuse.

        I mean, yeah I’m sure quite a few people would prefer a completely impotent Grandpa Clint who was stashed away somewhere both out of sight and mind, but even though I didn’t live close enough to my grandparents to witness most of the abuse my grandmother’s husband put her through, it maybe drives in the point that such an abrupt happy end is probably too little like reality to occur in the Dumbiverse.

        Unfortunately.

  16. Wack'd

    Trying to focus on the bright side here: first non-Patreon Asma appearence since March of last year!

    1. emusam

      Asma is now a witness to Clint’s abusiveness. Asma might also directly report to Chloe as an employee in that building. At the very least, she knows who she is. Given Chloe’s demonstrated respect for Ruth’s privacy, Asma might know a lot about the situation.

  17. Yumi

    ♫ You’re the jerk, jerk, jerk of the week!
    You’re a jerk and it’s your week.
    You really outdid yourself,
    Like a crazy super jerk.
    You’re probably a big jerk every week, but this week,
    You’re the jerk of the week! ♫

    1. Stephen Bierce

      I was going to play some Dire Straits but you beat me fair and square.

  18. Owlmirror

    It’s a perfectly cromulent Irish name.

    https://www.behindthename.com/name/ciara10n

    1. Emperor Daniel

      “Alternate spelling: Kyran. Meaning black.”

      Wait a second . . . Kyran . . . Kyren . . . Kyloren . . . Kylo Ren fell to the dark side . . . it all fits!

      1. zoelogical

        and finn means white

        :oooooo

    2. Krys Brynhildr

      Also the name of a female character from Dark Souls oddly enough.

      I mean not the first time Japan has gender swapped a name, but my first thought was to that and thinking it was a feminine name due to that.

  19. Pigeon Pollyx

    who’s ciaran again?

    1. fillerusername

      From the context of the conversation I’m guessing Ruth’s ex.

    2. Emperor Daniel

      Ruth’s ex-boyfriend, apparently. She mentioned she had one once.

    3. Sam

      Ruth’s ex-boyfriend that she mentioned having before but didn’t mention the name of before.

    4. Bicycle Bill

      Ciarán or Ciaran (Scottish), pronounced KEER-ən or KEER-awn, is a Gaelic male given name.  It means “little dark one” or “little dark-haired one”

      1. CJ

        Also spelled Kirian in some places.

        1. Schol-R-LEA

          Like Darkover… oh, wait, kirian is something else entirely there. Though, given Ruth’s drinking…

        2. CJ

          the last thing she needs is something breaking down her mental barriers.

  20. Passchendaele

    Huh, green eyes around sir, even if mostly when not looking at him. not odd or anything.

    and I imagine Howard’s looking for a computer screen or cellphone with GoT on it. I’m still a bit suspicious his hesitation to leave from what unspecified thing he was doing is for some kind of oncoming bombshell, maybe to screw over Sir. That would be nice, although it’s still a 95% chance he was doing something GoT-related.

  21. Keulan

    How does Clint not realize that even after Billie is moved to another dorm, she can just walk to Ruth’s dorm whenever she wants?

    1. fillerusername

      He underestimates Billie’s devotion and he undervalues Ruth’s importance.

      1. Halpful

        and let’s hope it stays that way until the escape plan is complete.

    2. Tarmaniel

      He’s probably assuming Bille was only attracted to Ruth because Ruth had power over her, and now that Ruth doesn’t anymore Bille will quickly find someone who isn’t a “weak, pathetic pile of mental problems.”

      Hell, this sentiment is common enough in real life that even normal, non-abusive people often say it. “A filthy rich ex-cheerleader? Oh fuck stop deluding yourself she’s out of your league and you know it.”

      1. fillerusername

        Oh yeah. I’m also assuming he’s thinking Billie was only into Ruth out of “convenience” as well. Someone like Ruth couldn’t possibly be worth a short walk across campus >:(

    3. Eukie

      It’s less about what is real, and more about what he can use to batter Ruth’s fragile ego into submission. Telling Ruth her girlfriend will stop loving her if they stop seeing each other regularly reinforces the idea in Ruth’s mind that she’s unlovable, which keeps her mentally ill and unable to stand up to Clint.

    4. Nico

      He doesn’t have to actually believe what he’s saying in order for it to hurt Ruth. He might understand, conceptually, that the physical distance between Ruth and Billie isn’t actually great enough for it to pose any obstacles to their relationship. But as long as he implies to Ruth that an inconvenience such as being in different dorms will make Billie no longer want to put in the effort to be with her, he’s accomplished his objective: demeaning Ruth, reinforcing his control over her, providing “proof” of her undesirability and worthlessness.

      1. Sam

        ^This.

        It also why some abusers are ‘insanely jealous’. But usually they don’t believe their ridiculous claims, they just make them to put their partner on edge and to isolate them from people they aren’t fond of as it stops feeling worth the effort to hang out with someone when you always come home to an argument afterwards.

        1. nightsbridge

          Luckily, Billie has put Ruth on guard to the shit he’s pulling right now.

    5. Reltzik

      Because other people are lesser people. They’re simpleton automatons that follow simple rules. They have minimal attention spans and reduced ability to deviate from Clint’s plans for their life.

    6. PyrrhusDuAekillhus

      He’s not saying she can’t. He’s saying she won’t. Which is either him being a dick, him correctly noticing that the relationship is crazy toxic codependence between two unreliable and unprepared people (it’s obvious enough that I wouldn’t put figuring it out in ten seconds past him) or both.

      1. Bagge

        It’s also a VERY thinly wailed threat.

        “This is how things will be. If they are not, you will answer for it.”

      2. Fart Captor

        Ignoring the fact that their relationship has shown signs of becoming not just less codependent and toxic, but an actually healthy, positive thing, Gramps has never even met Billie before and has absolutely nothing to base that assessment on.

        And as Bagge noted, it’s not just an order, but a threat. The “…or else” is left unspoken because Ruth knows damn well from experience that its there.

        Not to mention that “unreliable and unprepared people” basically describes every teenager alive.

    7. Temperaryobsessor

      If he can convince Ruth that having to walk a short distance to see Ruth will be enough to make Billie lose interest when having to actively hide the relationship wasn’t or even plant enough doubt in Ruth’s mind it could cause Ruth to self sabotage and that could be enough to make some people drift away.
      Also notice how he says that they agreed Billie has bean a distraction, when they’ve clearly said not a distraction conflict of interests which we will fix so they can continue dating if they want.

  22. Owlmirror

    Wikipedia sez Kaladar is way the hell out in unincorporated county in Ontario.

    Should it ring any bells, besides being pretty damn remote?

    1. Emperor Daniel

      Ruth said she had a boyfriend when she lived in Canada. This Ciaran fellow would apparently have been him.

    2. DinaWho

      My guess is this means they were a couple back before Ruth and Howie got moved back to the States.

    3. Kamino Neko

      It’s…maybe an hour’s drive from Kingston or Peterborough. A little further to Ottawa.

      And, since we know Ruth grew up in Ontario, one assumes that’s where she spent most of her life.

      1. Kamino Neko

        …the phrase ‘not that remote’ is supposed to come before that ellipsis.

    4. Eukie

      If I recall correctly, it’s a community that has been built where the fictional city of Avalon, where the webcomic ‘Avalon’ (which crossed over with It’s Walky! once) was set – which is also where Ruth lived before her parents died.

    5. John

      I suspect it’s an Avalon reference. The fictional town of Avalon was located roughly where real-world Kaladar is. And “Ciaran” was the name of the seldom-seen older brother of Ceilidh MacFarlane, the main character of Avalon.

      (Though Avalon in the Dumbiverse is apparently in Tennessee, because Sal’s boarding school uniform is totally an Avalon High uniform.)

      1. StClair

        agreed on all parts but the last:
        you realize that many boarding schools share uniform designs and/or suppliers?

        1. Reltzik

          Apparently there’s a Catholic school in Kentucky with the same uniform. (Too lazy to link.)

    6. foamy

      I dunno if it’s really that remote; it’s three hours or so out from Toronto, and an hour from Kingston. We’re not talking somewhere buried in the Territories, or Northern Ontario, or even the B.C. Interior or Superior’s North Shore.

  23. Irredentist

    There we go, that’s what I’m talking about! So proud of you Ruth!

  24. BBCC

    Okay, so, whacking him with a cane is not good enough.

    Launch the bastard into the sun.

    1. Reltzik

      Nah. Not only would his death be too quick, but he’d set about seven dozen records in the process and be glorified in the history books.

      Drown him in a septic pond.

      1. JBento

        But he’s ALREADY shit. 8/

        1. Schpoonman

          So no one will be able to tell what happened. They’ll just say “Huh, level’s a little higher today.”

        2. JBento

          Probably the only time Clint ever made the level of anything rise.

        3. Reltzik

          Nonsense.

          I’m sure he’s already raised hundreds of blood pressure levels.

      2. BBCC

        The record thing is only true if someone can prove it. Kinda hard when everything is ashes or melted by the sun.

  25. DinaWho

    I’m wondering if Asshole Gramps might have contacted Ciaran and threatened him to make sure they lost touch, and whether he might try to pull something similar with Billie.

    1. fillerusername

      Oh I’m sure he had a hand in however that relationship ended.

      1. fillerusername

        But I think he might have just made Ruth end things.

        1. Norah

          I wouldn’t be surprised. And then when Ciaran eventually found another girlfriend, Gramps probably gloated to Ruth “See, he didn’t care about you! He’s got another girlfriend. If he really cared about you he wouldn’t have found someone else.”

        2. Bicycle Bill

          Would someone please tell Katherine (Katie Barefoot) for me that I have not yet found anyone else — mainly because I knew it would be a waste of time looking?

    2. C baker

      Oooh, possible. Because he’s a controlling asshole.

    3. Felgraf

      … ahaha that’s going to backfire AMAZINGLY if he tries that on Billie.

      Her spite would be so strong it would be able to take *physical form*.

      1. StClair

        I believe those are called Stands.
        or patroni patronuses [sic].

        1. Cephalo the Pod

          “Behold my Stand, VIKING DEATH MARCH”

      2. Reltzik

        Oh pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.

      3. Kryss LaBryn

        So… I assume there’s an app that will automatically record all incoming calls? Because having him call Billie up and threaten her if she doesn’t stay away from Ruth and for her to end up with a recording of it would be so fantastic, you guys.

  26. C baker

    1. Asshole.
    2. She’s going to another building on the same campus, not another town in another country.

  27. admiralnoob

    Get Amazi-girl to kick his ass. She’s dealt with two abusive dads already. I’m just glad Joyce’s father is ironically the most decent one so far

    1. Deanatay

      “Dads. Why does it ALWAYS have to be dads?”

  28. zoelogical

    “she’s a distraction” motherFUCKER

  29. MapleAmber

    Betting he offers Billie money to stay away from Ruth and Billie will Ben like “Jerk, I already get that from my dad, piss off or I will hit you with your cane”

    1. tim gueguen

      It would be quite funny if the old man suddenly freaks out when he finds out she’s a Billingsworth.

      1. JBento

        “Haha, MY rich privilege has more 0s than your rich privilege.”

      2. Bagge

        “Bongo, I’m a Billingsworth.

        *Beat*

        “Ruth, how comes you have not introduces me to this girl earlier? I blame you for any and all shortcomings of your relationship.”

  30. Drakkin the Alien

    he, 15 years down memory lane… that time thay guy tried to break Shanna’s mind and failed, i loved her. If i remember it right, i found out about faans while browsing the KoTDT webstrips… then binged on faans archives for a week (i did close to no work that week… lucky me, nobody noticed… 😛 ) … and in the middle of that binge on faans i found out about the crossover with its Walky… hooked up since. Thanks for the last 15 years of adventures, Willis, sir, i have enjoyed them a lot.

  31. Sam

    There are three ways you could take what Sir is saying:

    1) You are worthless. This girl will lose all care for you the moment you are out of her sight (this is really messed up because this is commonly a genuine fear for people with borderline personality disorder and dependent personality disorder). The moment it takes effort, she will give up on you and choose to forget you.

    2) You will forget about this girl. I am commanding you to end your relationship. She is a distraction and only a fleeting one anyway, she’ll leave you one day just like your ex-boyfriend and forget all about you.

    3) A lovely mix of one and two because why not be the worst person possible when you know you can get away with it.

    1. PyrrhusDuAekillhus

      It’s also possible that the guy has had such a shit life or is just so bad at dealing with other people that he thinks what he’s saying is supposed to be reassuring.

      I know, all adults are monsters in DoA etc, but actually some of the stuff he’s done has more of a feel of a parent not understanding that depression becomes a medical condition past a certain point and is trying to “deal with it” and just screwing up massively. Setting strict conditions and basically making it easier to continue functioning normally than to lie in bed all day actually can fix the symptoms in the short term… without helping the underlying issue, but still. Essentially, he’s pulled this “step in and take over” when she’s had depressive fits in the past, and as far as his observations were concerned it seemed to “work”, so now he might think it’s helping.

      I mean, note that he’s not exhibiting the same forceful behavior to the kid without depression issues.

      (None of this is mutually exclusive with him being a jerk or even abusive, of course. Abusive parents are usually good parents or trying to be ninety percent of the time, which is part of why it’s a difficult thing to detect and handle.)

      1. thejeff

        Wait. What?
        ” Abusive parents are usually good parents or trying to be ninety percent of the time”?
        Sometimes they may claim they’re being good, but saying “I’m doing this for your own good” isn’t actually good.

        And not all adults in DoA are monsters, but there does tend to be a focus on those who are because drama. Clint clearly is. Go back and read that shift when they left Chloe’s office again.
        There is no trace of well intentioned (grand)parent who just doesn’t know how to handle the screwed up Ruth here.

      2. Fart Captor

        How the hell do you read viscously throwing how much he hates that she reminds him of her dead father as “not understanding depression”? Did you just forget about that, or have you been reading a different comic entirely?

        1. Tan

          It sometimes seems like every time there’s someone in the comic who’s an awful person truly showing their awfulness, there’s always that moment of some people saying ‘Well, at least now no one can deny that this person is genuinely awful and we’re not just reading into things…’ and someone else says ‘Challenge accepted.’

        2. Fart Captor

          To be fair, they did make a point of acknowledging that he is in fact horrible.

          It’s more that they ended up minimizing the significance of some of the particular ways he is a horrible shitbag. I want to give the benefit of a doubt and chalk it up to not remembering certain details or maybe drawing parallels to their own experience with someone not quite as utterly nasty as Clint, but god damn.

      3. 3-I

        So, like, do you have to do warmup stretches before you reach like this, or does it just come naturally?

      4. Sam

        Go read ‘Why Does He Do That?’ by Lundy Bancroft.

        Don’t try to tell me Clint is well-intentioned ever again because well-intentioned people do not use your empathy for your sibling to emotionally trap you into a position where you feel your only option is obedience.

        Abusers are not particularly more prone to having had bad lives than anyone else, people that have had bad lives are not excused for their abusive behaviour any more than anyone else, not being good with people in not an excuse for abusive behaviour, and no, ‘90%’ of abusive parents are NOT good parents or trying to be, good parents do not purposefully abuse their children/grandchildren in the first place.

        1. Halpful

          90% this, but with the caveat that, well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I doubt clint is one of them, but people *can* do incredibly shitty and/or abusive things still thinking that they’re doing good. 🙁
          And again, that doesn’t excuse it. It means that good intentions do not make one immune to being abusive.

      5. Jaime

        I am NOT defending Sir here or even all of PyrrhusDuAekillus’ claims, but the “cycle of abuse” IS a thing for some people.

        This doesn’t mean we have to “feel bad” for Sir or stop hating him. Nor does it mean that he is well-intentioned. But I personally would be interested in hearing about his own personal background and what has made him the abuser he is. I know I’m a rose-coloured-glasses humanist, but I believe that no one is “born evil.” IMHO, what people experience shapes them into the people they are.

        I’m sorry to resort to personal anecdotes here, but in some of my previous comments I’ve mentioned that my mom grew up in a terribly abusive environment. Her father, like Sir, was physically, mentally, and emotionally abusive. Yet mom has told me that her father suffered *incredible* abuse from his own parents. When he was a young child (6 or 7), he was forced to go chop wood during blizzards and wasn’t allowed back in his house until he had gathered enough (my mom’s family lived in a rural area). He was routinely beaten until he was close to death. His mother signed the papers allowing him to join the military when he was 16; this was during WWII and he served as a paratrooper. He was captured by the Germans and sent to one of the camps as a POW. My mom said he would NEVER talk about what happened to him and what he saw there.

        Does this mean we can “excuse” him for abusing my mom and her siblings? H3LL NO!!!! But, IMHO, it means that there were “reasons” (NOT excuses) for why he became the person he was. Whatever we learn about Sir in the course of this narrative, I’m not going to excuse him because he is a horrible person. However, there are reasons why people become who they are.

        My mom is now a pretty esteemed doctor of psychology; she has said that most people believe they have good reasons for what they do. The key word here is “believe.” Sir’s (and other abusers’) reasons are messed up and wrong and terrible – and it makes me sad that Sir and so many other tyrants *cough*Trump*cough* don’t have insight into the fact that their so-called reasons are indeed so wrong. 🙁

  32. JessWitt

    Even if Clint is using Howard as a pawn to keep Ruth in order, what good will that knowledge do Ruth?

    1. zoelogical

      can’t play the game until you know there’s a game being played

  33. Fallingivy

    I feel a little hope at her last expression: she’s pissed, she’s resentful, but she doesn’t look broken. When she says Ciaran’s name, she looks pained and miserable, but when she adds: ‘her name is Billie’, she gets some fight back in her eyes. That, and she says: “Her name IS Billie,” which to my hopeful shipping heart is an implication that she intends to keep the relationship going in the present instead of consigning it to the past.

    1. Bicycle Bill

      The eyes don’t seem to change that much — it’s all in the eyebrows.  But then Willis also draws one short little line to indicate how Ruth’s mouth has tightened and now those five short, quiet words in the last panel speak volumes.

  34. Master of Chaos... Yeah, I chose that

    A). It’s funny how serious people take this comic with its fictional characters. Like, hilarious. To be fair, I take what I love seriously too so…

    B). Guess this is as place as any to ask. I’m sure someone else has asked and this has been debated- Why aren’t RAs allowed to pursue relationships now? Is it just with single sex dorms or is it the same with mixed ones?

    1. Shiro

      Many of us here personally identify with these fictional characters, you know, because things like abuse aren’t just fictional.

    2. Bix902

      Ruth could certainly date any college student she wanted…except for the ones that she’s supposed to be giving guidance and aid to.

      She is in a position of power over Billie, but she wouldn’t be if Billie gad a different R.A.

    3. TheKelliestKelly

      RAs at IU (or at least this version of the college) are prohibited from romantic relationships with their residents because of the power imbalance. I know at my own college it is at the very discouraged; I don’t know if it’s actually disallowed. I’d have to ask one of my former RA friends.

    4. Stella

      Depending on the campus rules, RAs have a degree of authority over their dormmates. So, in my school, RAs were in charge of resolving roommate conflicts, enforcing room inspections for contraband (not only drugs / alcohol, but also stuff in violation of fire safety codes, weapons, that kind of thing).

      Similar to rules in workplaces that managers cannot date people they supervise. In essence, it is to avoid favoritism as much as possible. So, if an RA dated (or, to be fair, was bffs with) a student she supervised, the RA may be tempted to not enforce room inspections, side with that student over their roommate in conflicts, and in other ways use their power unfairly.

      Now, obviously, sometimes favoritism happens regardless. But, since dating has an officialness that close friendship doesn’t, dating can be regulated by a campus or company while friendship can’t.

      This was true of all dorms at the school I went to, which had both single-sex and co-ed dorms, as well as dorms categorized by major categories.

      1. Commander Clash

        It was kind of like that for me at Bible college. The RAs had that power but rarely ever used it. The only time I ever say my RA use his power is when he caught some curfew violators and sentenced them to “Breakfast Club”. Which involves them being up at 7 AM for a week and having breakfast at the cafeteria

      2. Liliet

        I think the much more important part is that an RA can use their power to coerce people under their authority into intimacy they’re not comfortable with. See: the start of the Billie/Ruth relationship (before Billie hid in Ruth’s closet and overheard the conversation and the whole dynamic change that came around that event).

    5. Stella

      Also, like…you obviously like this comic enough to read it all, and it’s pretty long! I mean, over a thousand pages, right? So, what’s the deal with making a point of saying, essentially, that you LIKE it a great deal, but you aren’t one of those dorks who LOVE this comic, and aren’t they hilarious?

      I mean, come on. There are people who would think you’re some kind of lame nerd just for reading a comic on the internet instead of reading “real literature” (or playing sports, depending on who’s talking). But you’re going to make fun of other people who are enjoying the same thing in a different way?

      1. StClair

        as I often end up saying in STO,
        “You’re/we’re playing a game about Star Trek, we’re all fuckin’ nerds here.”

        1. neeks

          I once had a coworker who mocked another coworker for playing Pokemon and I was like dude, you and I just had a conversation about Minecraft, I don’t think you’re allowed to call HIM a nerd.

      2. CoMa

        Actually, especially reading THIS specific comic I feel so much more educated because all the serious topics in both comic and comment section, and resulting discussion going on down here. It’s amazing. (I thought this fit here)

        But to the point: No one should belittle another persons interests. A friend of me loves to read fanfictions – and some of them are written so well they could very well be published as books, if they weren’t about another author’s characters. And most of the time people belittling something like that (the ones I met) are the ones that watch Reality-TV or soap operas that can be good, but can also be very bad. Though I want to say there’s nothing wrong with that too. But it’s also not exactly considered high culture. What I meant to say is: everyone’s different and so are their interests. As long as they are healthy for them (and not exactly harming someone else, meaning they are relaxing, stress-relieving, fun, etc.) I think nobody has any right to criticise someone else for their (in their opinion) “nerdy” or “not-real” interest.
        Additionally, one can also like both kitschy romance novels and Shakespeare, as well as mind-less action movies and indie-ones that get you thinking.
        (this is just basically to support what you said – though it didn’t need that. Just wanted to jot this down)

        1. Krys Brynhildr

          The thing that bugs me most about “its not real”/”they’re not real” arguments is that it often implies that the only thing or person one should care about is someone you can verify is “Real” and that the issues at play are only worth considering in the context of a “Real Person” immediately suffering from said issues.

          Its understandable that people might suggest taking any fictional story with a grain of salt because by nature fiction as a genre are stories constructed wholly by an author based on what they want to convey.

          But to belittle discussion of the underlying issues of discussing something that is technically “real” even just as a “real book” as somehow “fake” because it involves characters people have created that have no physical form always seems more like trying to dismiss the underlying concepts or to troll people for one’s own self satisfaction than any sort of attempt to add anything constructive to a conversation.

          Caring less doesn’t actually give a person any extra “Street Cred”. On the same note, wanting to be able to have an intelligent discussion over what is just as much “Literature” as any other story with this much effort put into the details of its telling doesn’t make the people involved foolish or “funny”.

          Someone putting on a mask and pretending how above everyone they are for doing so, well… I’m not sure thats much of a “Real person” either so much as a character someone creates to play pretend.

          So yeah, just adding to what you said, in slight annoyance of the original poster in this thread down, who seems to regularly show up to laugh at everyone here for taking a webcomic seriously.

        2. foamy

          I dunno about belittling people’s interests, but there are occasions where it seems like the comments section is in a competition for the most over-the-top piece of ITG-style posturing they can manage.

        3. Krys Brynhildr

          Not sure what “ITG-style posturing” means, but if you’re talking about the length of my comments, I’m just that wordy pretty much all the time. Well, in typing at least.

        4. Delicious Taffy

          Google says it stands for “Intelligence Tech Group”.

        5. CoMa

          I browsed and some abbreviation-dictionary defines it as “Internet Tough Guy”, “Inside the Game”, “In the Groove”, “It takes Guts” and some other more professional ´sounding terms like yours.

        6. Krys Brynhildr

          @Taffy, @CoMa: Thanks for the abbreviation assistance. Internet Tough Guy seems most likely given the context probably?

        7. foamy

          Internet Tough Guy. For example, say you get a news story about a crime. One person will say “I think this criminal should’ve be shot” and then someone will go “nah, shooting’s too good for them, they should be drawn & quartered”, and then the next one goes “yeah well I say they should be given a million paper cuts, rolled around on a salt plain, then feed feet first through a woodchipper whilst on fire”, etc.

          Or, for an example right here in todays comments, we have “Clint should go to hell” being replied to with, “nah, Clint should go to INFINITE hells”.

        8. CoMa

          I can understand that opinion. Sometimes the comments do seem to drift off (if that’s in any way what you meant, as I don’t know “ITG” as an abbreviation) – but I think that’s sometimes what’s interesting. But again, to each their own. The “belittling” was meant as description for saying stuff like “People take this too seriously, it’s just a comic” – because them being fictional characters doesn’t invalidate caring for them (I mean, they are created to cause some kind of feelings), as Krys Brynhildr put it.

    6. Vulcanodon

      Hilarious? So, you’re laughing at other people for their interests? Not a good look.

      Geek love is the strongest love of all. And this comic deals with weighty issues that I can identify with. I’m sixty years old and a walking advertisement for why people should be encouraged to find a gender expression that works for them earlier in life. And bigger context of the reason the Patriarchy and toxic masculinity needs to die.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Is it ageist to say I’ve been imagining you as a late-20s/early-30s person because you type well? It may just be the area I live in, but around here, anyone over 35 is pretty much guaranteed to type in the most bonkers way they can manage.

        1. Li

          I think you should revise that to anyone born before X, because I guarantee it’s not the age.

        2. Delicious Taffy

          That’s fair. In this area, if you went through high school at least a few years before Mighty Morphin Power Rangers made its debut, you’re very likely to type as though you’ve had your mind touched by some ancient being from the depths of the earth. Most people in my age group, in my own experience, tend to type in at least complete sentences, even if there are capitalisation and spelling errors.

        3. Vulcanodon

          Thanks Delicious Taffy. My sister taught me to type when I was about nine, so that would have been in 1966.

          I couldn’t say if it’s ageist or not to complete a mental picture of someone based on the information you have. Our brains are constantly finishing puzzles based on incomplete data. As long as there’s room to update the picture based on individual differences I guess.

          It would be really interesting to know the age distribution of the commenters here.

        4. Krys Brynhildr

          I’m a little over 30.

          Which seems a bit old to still be fumbling around trying to figure out basically anything about life or how to live it, but oh well.

          Sorry to hear that you can identify with a lot of the weighty issues that show up in this comic, since most of them seem to involve personal suffering of some sort.

        5. Vulcanodon

          Thanks Krys Brynhildr. Figuring things out takes as long as it takes. All my life I’ve been working impatiently at knots tied by others who were sure how I ought to think, act, feel and be. Now I am starting to suspect I’ll never get them untied. I recently told a group of students that it is possible to get stuck and end up not knowing how to

        6. Krys Brynhildr

          Well, good luck in any case. I’m lucky in that most of my knots are of my own creation at least, even if they exist as a poorly planned coping strategy to enable me to even fake the ability to function in this crazy world of ours.

          If its any consolation, even trying to loosen some of my own knots has proven to be a slow process, but that might be because I got myself stuck early one and have been fumbling around mostly blind with them for the last 10+ years. Even so, if you get lucky a few of them start to unravel a little without knowing what you’re doing, or at least thats my experience.

        7. Vulcanodon

          Yep. (Wistful look, exchange of appropriate gestures of support…)

        8. Halpful

          That’s the nature of knots… you pick at them from different angles over and over, and it takes forever, and they look much bigger and messier as you go… and then one day you find a part loose enough to un-knot 🙂 …and then you go back and start again on a different section. 😛

          the funny thing is, I think a phone game i installed on a whim is actually training me to not give up on tough problems. The majority of the last, like, 20 levels have seemed impossible. But the game rewarded me for trying, enough that I kept bashing against it, and a combination of luck and increased skill eventually got me through levels that I’d normally have given up on long ago. 🙂

        9. Vulcanodon

          @Halpful, what’s the name of that game? We have a young relative who, shall we say, struggles with concentration.

        10. Halpful

          Best Fiends. (iirc, available for many platforms, I use android)

          it’s also good at persuading me to give them money, enough that I’ve set myself a budget of $3/month. (I want to support them but, within reason)

          the biggest grind-incentive is the seasonal event, which is currently mothers-day themed (ugh triggers). I don’t know if they do one every month or what – I’ve only had it a couple of months iirc.

        11. StClair

          Whereas in the circles I tend to move in, it is common to assert that it’s the young, with their lazy informal grammar, incomprehensible txt spk, overuse of emojis, etc etc, that are the bane of literacy. Go figure.

          (And of course, “Adults type with their fingers, children with their thumbs.”)

        12. Vulcanodon

          Kids these days.

        13. Delicious Taffy

          Maybe if people would teach their fucking kids how to speak and write, they wouldn’t see things that way.

        14. OBBWG

          Relevant xkcd reference

        15. Vulcanodon

          ^^^

  35. Travestyhat

    I don’t like advocating violence but Clint makes me reconsider this stance with everything he says and does. He’s a monster and my dream is to see Ruth and Howard out of his grasp.

    1. Shiro

      Abusers, much like fascists, must be punched at any opportunity.

      1. Reltzik

        Unfortunately, some abusers and fascists can turn being punched to their political advantage.

        1. Emily

          Only because centrists are born without spines.

        2. thejeff

          More punching solves that. 🙂

        3. Delicious Taffy

          It’s a time-tested fact that you can absolutely beat the stupid out of a person.

        4. StClair

          I don’t know the degree to which you were joking, but…
          no, you actually can’t. 🙁

        5. Delicious Taffy

          Granted, some people are definitely impervious to that method. Growing up, though, I witnessed it with alarming frequency. One kid would act like a total dickbag, and then someone would beat the shit out of him however many times he needed to get his act together. Maybe this works better between kids, because that’s when I saw it the most.

        6. Delicious Taffy

          Alright, so maybe that’s a form of bullying, now that I think about it. But I don’t think it should be written off entirely if it ends up making the target a better person. Some people just don’t listen to anything other than a fist to the gut, and if you can get through to them, they do tend to shape up.

        7. thejeff

          Well, you can.
          Punch them sufficiently and they won’t do anything stupid anymore.

          They may not do anything anymore, but that’s just a side effect.

        8. Liliet

          Ah, ableist bullying, how I miss thee (not)

        9. Andy

          Thus you pick your punch to be effective. Sometimes a physical punch is effective, sometimes economic or emotional or legal. And then the follow-through is where you turn a punch to advantage against the bastards.

    2. zoelogical

      yeaaah

      the thing is, what Clint is doing is violence. like. every move he is making here is telegraphing threat, is telegraphing control, is telegraphing do-what-i-tell-you-or-else. he doesn’t have to raise a hand because he can get Ruth to raise it for him. all he has to do is posture, and she gets the picture.

      FUN TIMES SWEET DREAMS GOOD NIGHT

      1. Krys Brynhildr

        Definitely at least seems like it could fall under assault, even if he’s refraining from turning it into battery.

        1. zoelogical

          i mean like…there’s a lot of shitty things you can do without them being illegal or chargeable

  36. ESM

    Until I googled “Kaladar”, I thought Ruth dated an elf.

  37. DJTsurugi

    someone should break his FAAAAACE ~<3

    1. Kryss LaBryn

      With his FEMURS. For a NICKEL.

  38. Reltzik

    …… wow, this comic is being written by Shanna Cochran?

    I guess that explains why there’s no scifi/fantasy elements.

    ….

    … either that, or Willis is a faan of T. Campbell’s work.

  39. StClair

    It’s unfortunate that Clint has his hooks so deep in both Ruth and Howard that, though they may get better (and I hope they will), they will never be able to truly forget him.

    Because I can think of nothing more fitting.

    (Okay, some other things, but you know, in addition to…)

  40. crys

    how clint repeats his awful verbal abuse (“you will do this. you will do this” and “she will, she will”) is a tactic that just whittles away at ya

    ciaran is a cute name. i hope he was a good kid

    1. Krys Brynhildr

      Well, I mean if you want someone to remember something repetition is the way to do it.

      Even horrible things you are trying to convince people of without any connection to the reality of the situation.

      No wonder his daughter was able to run away with a man Clint didn’t approve of. He was probably too busy to actually keep a proper eye on her once she was out of his home at least, and ‘out of sight, out of mind’ only actually works if someone can enforce things staying out of sight, or the parties involved aren’t going to be thinking about them anyways.

      We’ve already seen how easy it is for people to swing by from the boy’s wing on the floor if nothing else, and I really doubt the school can ban Billie from the building even if they’re able to put her in a different dorm building. So many loopholes, for anyone who is willing to exploit them.

      1. Pat

        The school wanted to put Billie in a different room so they can have a relationship legally. They have no interest in banning Billie, even if that is Clint’s aim.

        1. Krys Brynhildr

          Yeah, that too, but even if they were trying to appease him on it, not much they can do.

          No real way for him to know either if he’s not going to check back, not with how little attention the dorm manager pays to the floor.

      2. zoelogical

        the technique is called anaphora!!

  41. Apostate

    Christ. What an abusive asshole.

    1. SgtWadeyWilson

      For a second there I saw that first period(.) as a colon(:), and now I’m oddly dissapointed.

      1. Schpoonman

        Christ was actually pretty good at what he was doing. Like 90+% of the time he was preaching love.

        1. Vulcanodon

          With some exceptions.

        2. SgtWadeyWilson

          I saw it more like they were saying that Christ was saying it, but I was a bit vague.

  42. Bagge

    Howard: “Wow, that was a MIGHTY INTERESTING piece of wall right there. I better pay REALLY CLOSE attention to it and not listen to anything Sis and Gramps are saying right now.”

    🙁

    1. foamy

      Yup. 100% classic avoidance behaviour.

  43. Bicycle Bill

    Tomorrow, Google wonders why there was a sudden spike in searches for ‘Kaladar’.

    1. Reltzik

      Google will Google, “why the sudden spike in searches for ‘Kaladar’.” It will see your post and know the answer. …. in all of five seconds.

  44. Arianod

    Things I learned today:
    -‘Kaladar’ is an actual place in our world.
    -Ruth’s grandfather isn’t merely an abusive, controlling asshole; he doesn’t
    want her to have anything.

    This guy literally becomes worse with every appearance in the strip.

  45. Anowan

    What ?
    What ?
    Who even says that ?
    I mean, that shows the level of grip Clint has on Ruth. He’s not even trying to be subtle.
    When my folks used to try and influence my choice of partners, let me tell you they were way more subtle.
    (OK, not everytime. I’ll always remember the phone exchange :
    “It doesn’t sound like he likes you very much, I’m sure he’ll break up soon”
    “Mom, I told you nothing about him except his first name”
    “How is that a reason not to trust my judgement”)

    That said, Clint’s certainty of his grip on Ruth and his subsequential lack of subtlety is allowing Ruth to not fall for it (as seen with this play on her eyes) without him noticing. This is kinda good news.

    I’m not an abusive relationship expert, but the worse that could happen at this point is a honeymoon, right ? It could tempt Ruth with sweet, sweet familial reconciliation and break her will to free herself and Howard. So it’s good Clint’s not realizing the stick doesn’t stick and he should bring some carrot on the table.

    1. zoelogical

      yuuuuuuuuuuup

      see. im not sure with clint there ever was a honeymoon

    2. Cerberus

      My dad was pretty much at this level when he decided to latch on to the idea that my partner at the time was a sorceress who turned me trans/abusing me into believing I was trans. Just constant assault on her and dehumanization/minimization of the relationship in order to try and “tough love” me into “opening my eyes” and accepting “what I needed to do” (i.e. come home, alone, get fixed).

      And it was all pretty transparently about the fact that she hard-resisted and called him on his shit and stood up for me consistently (my ex had some moments and actions that were very not okay and a bit abusive, but in a number of others, she was an amazing partner who fought for me when I needed it).

      1. Cerberus

        For some people in an abuse framework, they get it in their heads that whatever amount of control before was “too lenient” and now they have to “get tough” and show “tough love” to correct for that.

        Though there is also the terrifying prospect that he thinks this is kind and a sort of honeymoon from what he believes she “deserves”.

  46. C.T Phipps

    It bothers me Clint looks like a slightly older Frank West from Dead Rising. He insults the position of reporters attempting to stop the zombie menace with Megaman Blasters and common shopping mall items.

  47. C.T Phipps

    FYI, I realized that Howard entering another girl’s room isn’t because he’s got no sense of boundaries.

    He’s trying to HIDE.

    1. chris73

      He couldn’t have gone to Ruth or Billies room?

      1. C.T Phipps

        Wouldn’t that be the first and second places Clint would look? It’s a stupid plan but he’s sixteen. Mind you, it’s also a stupid and intrusive plan but you hide where you can and come up with an excuse later.

        1. chris73

          Ok maybe but that theory was kind of ruined by Howard going through Merediths belongings and asking about tampons

        2. Cerberus

          Yup, he was definitely hiding, waiting for “sir” to settle down. Staying out of sight. Out of mind. And he’s still trying to do that now. Keep your head down and maybe today is a day he won’t mess you up.

    2. Emily

      Nah, he’s got no sense of boundaries. He went into someone else’s personal space and used their things without permission.

      1. thejeff

        Which may be a hint that he’s never been allowed to have personal space or set boundaries?

        1. Halpful

          Exactly. I didn’t encounter the concept until my late 20’s. The first time I tried to set a boundary with my mum, she actually called me a brat.

        2. Cerberus

          Yup. It’s a big red flag that he’s not really been allowed private space or having his belongings not being treated as others to snoop in whenever they want.

        3. Halpful

          The irony is, nmum was quite proud of not snooping through my things or reading my diary (apparently her mother did) – but I wasn’t allowed to keep the *dogs* away from me or my things, and had no idea how to protect myself from other kids. 🙁

          basically, my boundaries were what *she* said they were, and she was doing me a favour by respecting them. :/

  48. cmd1095

    It’s a testament to Willis’s writing that he keeps making characters that make me wish I could enter comics just to punch them in the face repeatedly… with spiked gauntlets… until the blood stops being warm

    1. Danni

      90’s comics amount of spikes, or just a few spikes?

      1. Krys Brynhildr

        Or Katar level of spikes, which tends to be more about quality of spikes over quantity of spikes…er well, blades really, since its basically a knife on a grip so you can punch with it.

        Probably not legal to carry most places though…. at least outside of India.

        Especially the ones with pistols built into the hilt in case stabbing someone with them didn’t do the trick.

        Probably kind of illegal. Maybe.

    2. Vulcanodon

      Or just go at him with a Bat’leth.

      1. Danni

        the bat’leth is an oversized letter opener

        1. Vulcanodon

          That’s what I would tell the Police, anyway

  49. pumpkincat

    Holy crap, a Faans reference! Takes me back SO MUCH

  50. BenRG

    Oh? That’s interesting: Who is ‘they’ who have been babbling to Clint and why would they have been doing so?

    1. Eldritch Gentleman

      Probably that… blond woman who supervises the dorms. Or the people above her ruling the school?
      This whole situation reminds me how Leslie once said that she should wear a sign reading “I’m a good adult.”. Because here they are all horrible.

      1. Krys Brynhildr

        Well, specifically “Sorry about all those other adults, I promise I’m mostly okay.”.

        Which is one of the most truthful self representations in the comic as far as the Adults tend to go. Since she at least can realize that she can sometimes do plenty of dumb things and make bad life choices…unfortunately mainly after she’s made them.

        Where lady politicians are vaguely involved in particular, if Robin is any indication. Still, she tries to be decent.

        1. Eldritch Gentleman

          Love truly is insanity considering a formerly homeless and abused lesbian fell for a politician who was enabling and supporting all the stuff that hurt her…

  51. Aprion

    just toss the old bastard down the stairs and call it an accident already.

    1. chris73

      Naah, a story is only as good as its villian and I have high hopes for Clint. Hes not a cartoon villian like Ryan or Mary, not a simple bumpkin like Ross and is more cerebral than Blaine

      A whole different kettle of fish

      1. Krys Brynhildr

        See, to me at least, a kettle of fish is really only good for cooking…and then you know, having fish for dinner.

        If one wants fish to stick around, thats what aquariums are for. Kettled fish are slated for death by default.

      2. Cephalo the Pod

        “not a cartoon villain like Ryan or Mary”

        Ehh?

        1. Krys Brynhildr

          Mary is pretty “Cartoon levels of evil”, down to the way she puts her foot in her mouth repeatedly when she’s caught being evil.

          Ryan, not really seeing it. Especially not with him starting at further levels than Disney felt comfortable taking Hans to in Frozen. Hans is the cartoon villain version of Ryan-type villains.

        2. Pat

          I can’t say I see any parallels there.

          But Mary is… pretty real.

        3. Krys Brynhildr

          Well, honestly, plenty of real people don’t rise past the sort of villainy that we expect out of our Saturday Morning Cartoons. Honestly, it looks like we’ve actually upped that level of villainy there over the last 20 years as well.

          She’s a horrible that most people in the dorm seem to put up with because they don’t have a way to get her kicked off to another floor…or building. Which only leveled up to Billie’s ultimatum once she stepped things up to straight out blackmail that almost resulted in a suicide and her obviously prioritizing her ability to continue blackmailing Ruth over Ruth’s life.

          So yeah, definitely on a different sort of tier than serial rapists who drug people, or the sort of abusers who can be easily removed from campus by security or have to drive off before the Police make it there cause they’re waving guns around a college campus.

          Real people can seem like jokes too…even if they seem like lousy ones that have never been funny and everyone just wishes people would stop making.

        4. C.T Phipps

          Jim Bakker, the disgraced televangelist, recently went on the air to explain the Spirit of the Antichrist is making fun of Trump and it’s the first horseman of the Apocalypse.

        5. Delicious Taffy

          The first Horseman of the Apocalypse is the act of mocking Donald Trump, specifically? That’s one hell of a conclusion to make, and I’d love to see the explanation.

        6. JBento

          Then I looked and I saw an orange horse. Its rider’s name was Trumpsobviouswig, and Bannon followed close behind. And they were given authority over 50 states and more than 300 million people, because your country is full of fuckwits, to kill by the removal of healthcare, by the banning of immigrants, and by the removal of social programs.

  52. Danni

    you never forget love

  53. Rukduk

    …….Make the old bastard choke to death on his own cane.

    1. Krys Brynhildr

      Hey, not sure if you’re still at a time when you will check for replies, but a Tip if you do get Persona 5. Sorry for being off topic but just wanted to pass that along due to our previous conversation.

      If you get the Doctor’s Confident rank to 5 (though 7 is better), you can buy accessories that give you SP back every turn. This and getting the Maid Confidant up to MAX are two of the most important ones to rank up to use in game time efficiently.

      1. Rukduk

        Thanks. Yeah, I’ve that the Doctor, Maid, and Mishima Confidants are the most useful Confidants outside of your actual party. The Doctor because of healing items, the Maid because of the time management, and Mishima because of the exp boost to the members of your party not in combat. Also, no need to apologize about being off topic.

        1. Krys Brynhildr

          The only accessory thats ever seemed better to me than having the one with Invigorate 3 ones on everyone is the NG+ only one you get from the optional boss that makes only the Almighty damage type do damage to whoever wears it.

          For everything else there’s SP Adhesive 3 and a decent amount of Mementos grinding. Well, until you get some of the SP Item confidants unlocked, but SP Adhesive 3 never gets bad and can really add to your abiliity to stay in dungeons longer.

  54. CJ

    I wonder what precisely he has been up to. Making sure Billie is relocated to a remote dorm seems to tame for him. And I cannot imagine he doesn’t know that no one can forbit her to stay in Ruth’s room as long as she has her own somewhere not under Ruth’s supervision.

    Someone mentioned he thinks Billie will forget Ruth because of distance and no longer power-over situation, but his reference to the former boyfriend gives me the creeps. Did something strange happen to the guy in the story the name references?

    1. neeks

      Perhaps one day we will find out, but afaik the only information we have about her ex boyfriend is that 1) she had one and 2) his name is ciaran.

    2. Tarmaniel

      The boyfriend lives in Canada. She was forced to move to the US to live with her grandfather when her parents died and she was still in high school. “High school long-distance relationship” is pretty much synonymous with “guaranteed failure” so I doubt grandpa had to meddle. He just took/is taking advantage of the situation to twist the knife.

      1. Cerberus

        This.

        And it’s a long knife too, because this is essentially him going “hey, remember when your parents died and you had to leave a boy who loved you and all of your support network and friends to be entered into my endless horror-show of abuse and control you are still hopelessly mired in? Yeah, I’m going to poke that while also dehumanizing both him and the woman you currently love because I hope it will disabuse you of the notion that you are human and allowed any life other than that which I choose for you. I’m not about to have another your mom situation where she ran off with someone who was not pre-approved and escaped me.”

  55. Delicious Taffy

    I think it’s important to note that Ruth is currently in her regular, green-eyed state, and is actively rebelling to Sir’s face. Sure, she’s just stating names, but he didn’t directly ask what they were, so I’m sure he sees that as insubordination. Because stupid fucking assholes always see that sort of thing as a direct personal offense, because they’re fucking stupid and have their heads so far up their own asses, you can see them peeking out of their own fucking mouths.

    “Humhumhum, I’m such a big, bad dude, and I’m so in charge of every situation ever. I’m just so incredibly great, how could anyone even consider that my word is anything other than Law? What do you mean, ‘how am I great’? I don’t need to tell you why I’m superior, you just need to believe me when I say it, with no further questions asked. Questions are a sin, and you’re going to Hell for even considering that I may not be the ultimate authority over my life.”

    “Sir, I just asked you what soda you want with your combo meal. There’s a long line forming, can we hurry it up?”

    1. Delicious Taffy

      So, who do you nice folks subscribe to on YouTube? I’ll share mine if someone else shares theirs.

      1. Schpoonman

        SeaNanners, Jeremy Jahns, Philip DeFranco, Magic Scrumpy, TeamFourStar, and a handful of others.

        Mind you, I haven’t been watching as much YouTube the last few months due to my computer seemingly being unwilling to effectively run it. Maybe I need to try Firefox.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Philip seems like an alright guy. I caught a few of his videos and his appearance on the H3 Podcast, and he seems to have a pretty good head on his shoulders.

      2. Krys Brynhildr

        I think I’m only subscribed to DiGi Valentine who does the “Who Dat?” series of videos about video game and anime characters.

        I don’t really subscribe to a lot of things, I just look stuff up when I feel in the mood to listen to music mainly.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          I may end up checking that channel out. How in-depth does it go?

        2. Krys Brynhildr

          It mainly is just the guy doing a basic rundown of the characters characterization and basic things about the series, as well as talking about their designs and what he likes and dislikes about them.

          They’re generally pretty funny, and always somewhat informative, but mainly its just him going over characters from things he likes and reviewing the characters themselves. Its….interesting, though honestly I’m not very good at keeping up to date on it.

      3. Delicious Taffy

        Here’s a selection: Jim Sterling, OneyPlays, Cr1TiKaL, MaxMoeFoe, Filthy Frank, iDubbbzTV, MxR, MasakoX, TeamFourStar, JonTron, Caddicarus, Appabend, The Game/Film Theorists, Yandere Dev, E;R, Nomad Colossus, and Applekations. I also follow, but am not subscribed to, Lyle McDouchebag, Sleepy Cabin, and occasionally PewDiePie.

        Most of these are video game-related, come to think of it. The rest are mostly animators or commentators of some sort.

      4. boop

        GaLM, VoidBurger, Markiplier, Etho, YogscastHannah, Retulino kaj Liviro (Ni Ludu), happypuppytruffles, Jack SepticEye . . *scratches head* I know there are a lot more, but those are the ones I actually keep an eye out for, I think

        oh, and Pakratt, but I’m more likely to watch him on Twitch than the ol’ YT

        1. Delicious Taffy

          I tune into some of Jack’s videos, from time to time. His playthrough of Shadow of the Colossus was pretty fun to watch, because he was having a blast the entire time.

    2. Vampire Chipmunk

      I love Game Theory and Film Theory (and GTLive), Markiplier, and Jacksepticeye, React channel, Andre “Black Nerd”‘s reviews, and Channel Awesome (especially the Tamara’s Never Seen series on there, since her videos tend to be…happier than Nostalgia Critic’s). Also, Cracked’s youtube channel.

  56. Jago

    He is effing hateable.

  57. miz

    it’s been waaaaay too long since i’ve read faans, can someone help me find this reference? or at least point me in the right direction of where/when to look.

  58. podian

    You were asking, you said “what’s-his-name”.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      “Don’t answer my questions, that’s talking back.”
      “Why aren’t you answering my question, you ungrateful shit?”

      1. Deathjavu

        That is the kind of classic catch-22 I am way too familiar with

  59. Deviant

    Ciaran of Kaladar.

    Is he referencing some old dungeons and dragons character?

    I’m gonna pretend he did. Much nicer that way.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Clint strikes me as a joyless asshole, so it’s extremely unlikely he’d bring up D&D in any context. We can still dream, I guess.

  60. BenRG

    I still think that Clint is a trustee of the college or endowed a wing or something. It’s the only reason I can work out why he has such total access to what should be confidential information and unquestioned ability to effectively issue orders to the admin staff.

    I’m wondering if this is all going to turn into some kind of horrible mess with Billie’s parents getting very angry with her for ‘maligning’ a ‘pillar of the community’ and getting involved with his ‘delinquent’ granddaughter.

    1. Cerberus

      I’m imagining HS Ruth applying to a place she really wanted to go to, far far away in secret (prolly in Canada) but getting bullied into going to this school where he’s got way too much influence instead.

  61. JasonAW3

    That guy needs his comeuppance something fierce.

    1. BenRG

      The problem is that a ‘comeuppance’ for Clint will probably shatter Ruth’s future. She might have no option but to drop out to support Howard. If Ruth can just keep the old monster relatively happy and out of her hair for another two years, she gets her bachelor’s degree and have a serious chance of starting her own life. Then she can take Howard off of his hands and tell him: You never liked us or wanted us? Well, now we’re gone.”

      An ugly excuse for a happy life? Yes, but it is the most some people ever get.

      1. Cerberus

        Escape. It’s the most a lot of us get, but it is worth so much more than trying to stick in there long enough to get revenge.

        But yeah, it makes revenge arcs an odd sort of vicarious sometimes because I didn’t really get to ever have one.

        1. Halpful

          *hugs*

        2. Thulcandran

          Yes, and YES.

  62. mrj

    but one of these days
    i’m gonna wriggle up on dry land

  63. Kaos

    that old man does not have any soul at all. He is devouring Howard’s sanity. mmm.. sanity.

  64. Clark

    Wait Willis, do you mean Kaladar Ontario? As in the place I’m from, that has like eight people living in it and sure as hell no one named Ciaran. I mean, we got two Jeffs, a few Johns and the girl named Russell, but nothing Big City Celtic like Ciaran. Now, if you’d said Cloyne or Plevna or Ompah, I might have believed you did your research… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaladar

    1. Emperor Daniel

      Maybe they moved away? 😛

  65. zoelogical

    the moment when you realize you were 18 percent of the comments made yesterday

    y i k e s

  66. Luchucholo

    Wow, some old people sure like make others feel nasty, even if the death door is looming in the horizon. Getting off themselves some sort of abusive escapism, much? This Clint dude needs a big shake, off and far from his own sense of entitlement about how others must relate to him.

    1. Cerberus

      It’s because they resent the young for being young. Because they see it as something the young “stole” from them and are “misusing” and so direct all their resentment in trying to punish the young for having their health and full range of mobility and having a whole life ahead of them.

      It’s the same bitter violent resentment behind every think piece on millennials or the votes for candidates and positions deliberately designed to hurt the young most of all.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        The phrase “Youth is wasted on the young” comes to mind. Some folks mean they’d love to pair their life experience with the vigor to apply it more thoroughly. Others literally think young people shouldn’t have youth because they’re “wasting” it. Those latter people can get in the sea.

  67. BP

    …. Nope, can’t do it. Tried to think of something witty and all that’s coming is “stab, stab, stab, stab, STABSTABSTAB”.

  68. Cerberus

    Comic Reactions:

    Panel 1: Yup. No amount of haste was ever going to be enough for “sir”. It’s a task designed to be failed so it can be “her fault”. He’s fucking textbook at this shit and very very good at it. And now I feel super sad for the mom who fought so hard to get away from this fuck, to keep her kids safe from him only for a drunk driver to place her kids in the same hands that very likely abused her.

    Panel 2: Oh dear, Ruth’s eyes have gone black again and her face neutral. He’s getting in her head good and that’s a very bad thing. Also, poor Howie looking off to the side, trying to be emotionally absent as much as he can. Yeah, he’s definitely being abused and knows that being seen “seeing” the abuse is super likely to get him hurt as well, so best to pretend to be distracted and disassociate as much as you can until it’s all over.

    Panel 3: Spark of defiance! Woo! But also oh no, because this fucker is going to take special glee in cutting that out of her.

    Panel 4: Ugh. This is so violently awful, I don’t even know where to begin and just designed to stab as hard as he can into a painful wound. More so because I’m willing to bet money that the reason that that Kaladar relationship ended is because she had to move down here to live with “sir” and his abuse.

    But yeah, this is giving me some nasty flashbacks to how my dad and uncle would try to exploit relationship stuff and my feelings about it as a weapon against me. With both of them acting, once they had done their damage, like the end of an 8 year relationship was the equivalent of the end of a summer fling rather than the divorce in everything but name it actually was. It’s such a vile thing to attack.

    And it’s all worse because it’s all about control to him. Ending a relationship so she has less and less options to escape him, attacking it, because that’s one outside perspective that can help her leave. It’s the isolation wedge of the Power and Control Wheel. Like, this is the reason that my family is not allowed to know my actual name nor who I’m dating and planning on marrying. So they can’t do this shit to them or me.

    Panel 5: Ugh, he’s so fucking awful and good at this nasty petty abuse. Like, fuck, he stabs into an open wound, deliberately dismisses the humanity of someone she cared deeply about, and then when she has a perfectly normal reaction to being stabbed in the memories, he snaps at her, punishing her for saying anything other than a line with “sir” in it (and that says on its own so fucking much about how toxic and awful living with him was).

    And even more vile when you note that Ruth literally only got out of the hospital today. And she was in there for suicidal ideation. He’s deliberately stomping all over the weakest points of a person who nearly just died by their own hand out of a petty need for control. And he doesn’t even have the decency to care about that beyond his own selfish desires to own her like a decorative set-piece.

    Panel 6: I am so proud of Ruth here. This is a hard thing. To stand up for something like this. Because it seems small from the outside, but she’s taking a huge risk here, all to defend the humanity of the people she loved/loves. Because that’s a line, even in her most abused point, she can’t internally cross. And it’s sad because he’s going to be extra cruel in response to what he will surely interpret as an unacceptable level of defiance and disrespect.

    I dunno, maybe Asma will drop a heavy box on him if he tries anything here.

    1. Bagge

      That’s the kicker I have too keep reminding myself about – that this is how he treats Ruth the day she was released from the suicide ward.

      I can just imagine what a jolly old gramps he was the days after the car accident…

      1. Rukduk

        Disgustingly enough, he was probably dancing with joy because his “pathetic” son-in-law and “traitor” daughter were dead, with their offspring fully under his control. Probably said some shot about their dad deserving to die, because he’s one form of evil incarnate. The fact that people like Sir exist is so baffling to me that it’s one of the only reason I believe in an afterlife, because people like that deserve an eternity of punishment far away from whomever they ever hurt. And the people they hurt deserve an eternity of peace far away from such abusers.

      2. zoelogical

        HAHAHA yeah

    2. Rukduk

      *appropriate gesture of support* I’m sorry that your family is shitty like that. I never actually even tried to date anyone because I was afraid my dad was going to pull that kind of crap, and I didn’t want anyone else to have to deal with him….the result of this is that I’m still scared to ask someone else and actually have no idea how to actually date someone. I’m pretty stunted romantically.
      …
      Also, if Asma did drop a heavy box on Clint right now, she would probably become my favorite tertiary(?) character bar none. Then again, where is the line between secondary and tertiary character drawn at this point? Because I generally include the rest of the Girl’s floor as secondary characters with Carla slowly becoming a more main character. But if they’re tertiary characters then I guess Asma becomes my immediate favorite quadriary (this probably isn’t even a word now that I think of it) character because she hasn’t shown up as much as everyone else. Main point being, Asma would probably be in my top ten favorite characters if she dropped something heavy on Clint right now.

    3. BP

      Oh hey, you’re right, he’s committing emotional and verbal abuse in front of two witnesses! Oh, goody! 😀

  69. Tenn

    Now go fuck off, Frajer Hughesless Cane-up-the-ass.

  70. chris73

    I’m liking Clint as a villain in this storyline as he seems to be a combination of every villain we’ve had so far

    He appears to be reasonably intelligent, still looks physically threatening, probably has money and maybe even respect/influence, is a white, older, former vet and has convinced the authorities (well pudding hair anyway) that his intentions are honourable

    A worthy foe indeed

  71. gloria

    i know where kaladar is! i have family north of there in cloyne and northbrook!

  72. Briny

    I don’t know any of the webcomics people say this is a reference to, so I’m going to assume “Ciaran” is Canadian for “Danny”.

  73. Heavensrun

    (sees preview of new Slipshine) (LAUGHS)

  74. bettyfordbrownies

    She found a guy in Kaladar?….was he a tourist?…cottager maybe?

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