Sal is taller and, not to be too blunt about it, not as zaftig as Amber. Quite frankly, there’s no way it would fit.
Besides, Sal’s got her leathers and her full-face helmet. She doesn’t NEED Amber’s outfit.
Kyrik Michalowski
Today I learned what zaftig is, thank you random internet stranger.
Miri
Depends on what the suit is made out of and how much stretch there is in the fabric. Because she is taller, it might work.
Marsh Maryrose
The suit has room for a grappling hook and deity knows what else. The suit is made of hammerspace. It would fit Sal; heck, it would fit Beef
The Femur Remover, she who plays Flight of the Bumblebee on your ribs, using your femurs, after… While she’s defeating you, but before you are totally dead, using Ruth’s R.A. Death Stare®️™️
Kidnapping first please, Amber is an emotional wreck but that isn’t likely to kill her immediately. Now, will Ruth be able to help and not get herself, or anyone else, killed?
Just talk on the way to rescue everyone, you can unpack the emotions and save people at the same time. Heroes always have emotional breakthroughs during violence, right?
From what we’ve seen he isn’t, as long as you’re not Ruth or Howard. He has some personal grudge against their father, which he takes out on the kids (primarily Ruth).
A more sympathetic take than he deserves is that he blames Ruth’s dad for getting her mom killed. Unfortunately, that makes him hurt his only blood relatives left.
thejeff
Reading between the lines another take is that he only blames Ruth’s dad because he took her mom out of his control.
Regalli
Yeah, the hints that he’s physically abused at least Howard, and therefore probably also Ruth? That did not come out of nowhere.
thejeff
Definitely Ruth, probably Howard – though it may ‘only’ be emotional abuse.
My suspicion has long been that Ruth’s mom married and left the country to get away from Clint’s abuse. If there were problems with her husband, it may have been partly that she was grasping for any way out.
C.T Phipps
While possible, that would imply Ruth’s dad wasn’t a scumbag and that would violate Dumbing of Age casualty. At least one parent must be a pile of crap and probably both.
Needfuldoer
If Clint’s tirade is anything to go by, Ruth and Howard’s father’s crime was being a “weak and unfaithful collection of mental problems”.
That could be a source of Ruth’s tendency to freeze like a deer in the headlights when the femur-ripping facade cracks. If she strongly resembles her mother, but acts like her father, that could make Clint fly off the handle even worse.
Needfuldoer
The problem is, we pretty much only have his distorted point of view to go by. As far as I know, Ruth’s parents didn’t appear in the Walkyverse, and Dumbiverse Ruth hasn’t said much about them.
C.T Phipps
Eh, just because he’s a piece of crap doesn’t mean that Ruth’s father wasn’t a cheating pile of crap. There’s room enough for many branches of awful.
King Daniel
Ruth’s father – Richard “Dick” Lesse – did appear in the Walkyverse. And he did cheat on her mom in that ‘verse at least (and with Billie’s mom, no less!), as Ruth found out to her chagrin when she was babysitting Billie and Walky one fateful day.
We know from Dumbingverse!Billie’s own words that her mom here has a tendency to “do business on every man known to her,” so it’s not implausible to think that Dick Lessick may have been similar.
Needfuldoer
Thanks, somehow I forgot about that part.
thejeff
Certainly possible, but the only evidence for it is Clint’s description and I give less than no credibility to that. The parallel to the Walkyverse is suggestive, but Ruth’s background is sufficiently different that I don’t think it’s necessary.
Still, my main point was that I think your take was far too sympathetic. That Clint’s abusive ways go back farther and don’t just derive from the death of his daughter. His controlling abuse fits perfectly with hating the man who took his daughter out from under his thumb, ruining his plans for her.
BBCC
Nah, when Ruth told Howie that their grandpa was going to pick them up after their parents died in a patreon strip, Howie’s immediate reaction was ‘Okay. I’ll stop crying.’
144 thoughts on “Effect”
Ana Chronistic
you can always unkidnap someone
emotional crises are FOREVER
Kyrik Michalowski
They certainly feel like they last forever, at least.
deathjavu
Only roughly as long as the comic has been running and will run…so yeah, pretty much forever.
Suet
Amber needs some pudding. Maybe.
Suet
“Foot in the door”, go with the personal baggage first.
I did wonder why Amber’s last sentence didn’t end yesterday, and now she did.
Doctor_Who
She needs a Hostess Fruit Pie.
Everyone knows that if a superhero gives you a Hostess Fruit Pie, you need to cease all nefarious activities immediately.
It’s The Code.
CrazyJ
That only works until you run into someone allergic to apples.
Foxhack
Or whatever the hell is in those pies. Nowadays if I eat one I’m sick for a whole week.
Lokitsu
Unfortunately, that code was repealed in the 90’s and hostess fruit pies were replaced with M-16’s and katanas. Frankly, I preferred cupcakes.
Miri
… Pretty certain heroes shouldn’t try to de-escalate by giving their foes weaponry?
Foxhack
… You didn’t live through the 90s, did you? Everyone got guns and katanas. Even Casper.
StClair
Pouches, too.
But they had to trade in their feet for ’em.
He Who Abides
And the ladies all got big leather jackets.
DSL
And a hairstyle that lives on in Chef Ann Burrell.
clif
I wouldn’t know. I’m still recovering from the 60’s (the best parts of which actually happened in the early 70’s).
Deanatay
I thought that was Justice Fruit Pies.
Doctor_Who
Please say this somehow leads to the birth of Amazi-Ruth.
Man, that would really mess with Billie’s head.
emeraldbeacon
I’m still hoping that Sal finds out, and gets Amber to let HER wear the suit for the evening…
Bicycle Bill
Sal is taller and, not to be too blunt about it, not as zaftig as Amber. Quite frankly, there’s no way it would fit.
Besides, Sal’s got her leathers and her full-face helmet. She doesn’t NEED Amber’s outfit.
Kyrik Michalowski
Today I learned what zaftig is, thank you random internet stranger.
Miri
Depends on what the suit is made out of and how much stretch there is in the fabric. Because she is taller, it might work.
Marsh Maryrose
The suit has room for a grappling hook and deity knows what else. The suit is made of hammerspace. It would fit Sal; heck, it would fit Beef
Lokitsu
I like the name RAdical Girl.
adam Black
the Salty SaLTruist
adam Black
i also like Wham! Woman
Reltzik
I like “I Obviously Don’t Want My Identity Known So Quit Asking My Name Or I Remove Your Fe- Er, Teeth” Woman.
butts
pation.
clif
Is it chilly in here?
Miri
I’ll remove the cause, but not the symptom.
clif
My faithful handyman. Er, handyperson?
Rose by Any Other Name
Wait for it…
Geneseepaws
The Femur Remover, she who plays Flight of the Bumblebee on your ribs, using your femurs,
after… While she’s defeating you, but before you are totally dead, using Ruth’s R.A. Death Stare®️™️Kravis
But then again, hindsight is 20/20.
clif
But it’s clearly covered in Chapter 42 of the handbook, Handling Superheroes and Their Existential Crises.
adam Black
maybe with contacts
Reltzik
Not for another 255ish days.
RacingTurtle
i see what you did there
clif
To be honest, I had to think about it.
Kyrik Michalowski
Kidnapping first please, Amber is an emotional wreck but that isn’t likely to kill her immediately. Now, will Ruth be able to help and not get herself, or anyone else, killed?
thejeff
But it’s the emotional wreck part that keeping her from dealing with the kidnapping appropriately.
Regalli
This is a lot to unpack at four in the morning, yeah.
Kyrik Michalowski
This is a lot to unpack at any time of day, it being 4am just makes it more exhausting.
Rheinman
Except for Dorothy, who got up early to start the day. She should be at peak performance. Which, admittedly, isn’t Amber’s peak performance.
Reltzik
All the worst unpacking happens in the wee hours.
StClair
For example.
clif
We’ve all been there.
Stephen Bierce
—Request the data
What will it EFFECT
When all is done?
Thinks Major Tom
Four, Three, Two, One!
Bicycle Bill
And I thought I was one of the few who remembers “Völlig Losgelöst”.
vlademir1
This post is quite the oddity… Yer singing it rather than putting it on the Muzak.
Bicycle Bill
“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but just as much to stand up to your friends. I award ten points to Ruth Lessick.”
adam Black
even more to moving Trucks .
( is that too soon? )
adam Black
Personal Emotional Crises, first .obvs.
BBCC
The emotional crisis kidnapping obviously.
adam Black
the amazing crises and the emotional kidnapping
Kyrik Michalowski
Just talk on the way to rescue everyone, you can unpack the emotions and save people at the same time. Heroes always have emotional breakthroughs during violence, right?
clif
Sure. Violence concentrates the mind wonderfully.
adam Black
How scary is Ruths Grandfather really?
i think she ought to put that to the test, Is he just a Mega karen or will he do outside violence to keep Ruths RA record clean ?
especially to N’er to well fathers
Needfuldoer
From what we’ve seen he isn’t, as long as you’re not Ruth or Howard. He has some personal grudge against their father, which he takes out on the kids (primarily Ruth).
C.T Phipps
A more sympathetic take than he deserves is that he blames Ruth’s dad for getting her mom killed. Unfortunately, that makes him hurt his only blood relatives left.
thejeff
Reading between the lines another take is that he only blames Ruth’s dad because he took her mom out of his control.
Regalli
Yeah, the hints that he’s physically abused at least Howard, and therefore probably also Ruth? That did not come out of nowhere.
thejeff
Definitely Ruth, probably Howard – though it may ‘only’ be emotional abuse.
My suspicion has long been that Ruth’s mom married and left the country to get away from Clint’s abuse. If there were problems with her husband, it may have been partly that she was grasping for any way out.
C.T Phipps
While possible, that would imply Ruth’s dad wasn’t a scumbag and that would violate Dumbing of Age casualty. At least one parent must be a pile of crap and probably both.
Needfuldoer
If Clint’s tirade is anything to go by, Ruth and Howard’s father’s crime was being a “weak and unfaithful collection of mental problems”.
That could be a source of Ruth’s tendency to freeze like a deer in the headlights when the femur-ripping facade cracks. If she strongly resembles her mother, but acts like her father, that could make Clint fly off the handle even worse.
Needfuldoer
The problem is, we pretty much only have his distorted point of view to go by. As far as I know, Ruth’s parents didn’t appear in the Walkyverse, and Dumbiverse Ruth hasn’t said much about them.
C.T Phipps
Eh, just because he’s a piece of crap doesn’t mean that Ruth’s father wasn’t a cheating pile of crap. There’s room enough for many branches of awful.
King Daniel
Ruth’s father – Richard “Dick” Lesse – did appear in the Walkyverse. And he did cheat on her mom in that ‘verse at least (and with Billie’s mom, no less!), as Ruth found out to her chagrin when she was babysitting Billie and Walky one fateful day.
We know from Dumbingverse!Billie’s own words that her mom here has a tendency to “do business on every man known to her,” so it’s not implausible to think that Dick Lessick may have been similar.
Needfuldoer
Thanks, somehow I forgot about that part.
thejeff
Certainly possible, but the only evidence for it is Clint’s description and I give less than no credibility to that. The parallel to the Walkyverse is suggestive, but Ruth’s background is sufficiently different that I don’t think it’s necessary.
Still, my main point was that I think your take was far too sympathetic. That Clint’s abusive ways go back farther and don’t just derive from the death of his daughter. His controlling abuse fits perfectly with hating the man who took his daughter out from under his thumb, ruining his plans for her.
BBCC
Nah, when Ruth told Howie that their grandpa was going to pick them up after their parents died in a patreon strip, Howie’s immediate reaction was ‘Okay. I’ll stop crying.’
He’s already been an abusive piece of shit.