Wearing the blood of her enemies would impress a man in any proper culture.
I bet if she presented Jacob with Ryan’s heart, he would accept it as sufficient dowry. They they could eat it at their wedding feast, and gain his strength.
Mind you, he’s a scrawny rapist who we’ve seen get taken down twice now, so it’s not a lot of strength, but enemy hearts are tough to come by.
I don’t think it’s that ‘Ryan’ was weak so much as that Joyce, Sarah, and Amber are all at least decently strong (plus Joyce kinda caught him off guard). I mean, he did escape from Sal and Amazi-Girl, so he’s at least somewhat physically capable, and a low-level Jager would probably be after his hat if he had one.
Positron
To be fair, he escaped by motor vehicle. Amazi-Girl only ever caught one car, and that was with vehicular assistance *after* “Ryan’s” escape.
My point is that Joyce should feel proud of her accomplishment, not that Ryan is in any way actually superior to Amazi-Girl. That said, fair enough
Jon Rich
The situations were different, too. Regardless of his strength relative to Joyce, (who, as it has been mentioned, caught him off-guard) he had to beat a quick retreat, both because Sarah was attacking him with a baseball bat and because there’s very little chance of Sarah and/or the rest of the crowd letting him get away once their attention was back on him.
We never see exactly how his fight with Amber went, but presumably it was a “classic” one-on-one fight, so that’s a much better gauge of his fighting ability. Or, since he was hospitalized and Amber lacks any clear physical wounds, his lack thereof, especially since he started the fight armed.
Rabid Rabbit
Leaving aside Amber’s much greater experience at fighting, while Ryan has the advantage of height over Amber, she was at the top of the stairs and had that advantage. On top of which he clearly wasn’t expecting anyone to fight back – he came to attack, not to fight. Which I’d argue means that his fighting abilities or lack thereof remain unknown, mainly because he’s a moron who didn’t think things through.
I tried making that argument to the last woman who told me that, but she retorted that I had to make the 500-word minimum for that essay or I wouldn’t be able to pass that semester.
David
Well, wrong course. In mathematics, a PhD thesis can be 4 pages + references. But those 4 pages then need to be good, like major breakthrough good.
Very high bar, quite unlikely to clear. But then try that in literary sciences.
Because Velma was trying to keep Shaggy and the guy in the ascot from hitting on her, not knowing Shaggy was Ace and Fred was sapiosexual. He finally fell in love with a TV reporter after the original series ended. Shaggy ended up with Scooby and Scrappy and some girl from the animal shelter, Daphne ended up with a second-rate Ghostbuster, and I don’t remember who Velma ended up with. Maybe Mindy Cohn, who voiced Velma and wrote for the series in the 2000’s, knows who the character eventually settled down with.
Cholma
Velma + Hot Dog Water 4EVAR
HeatherJean
Excuse the question, but what does “Shaggy was Ace” mean in this context?
I am of the group which maintains that Shaggy and Daphne are living together with an adopted child in THE THIRTEEN GHOSTS OF SCOOBY DOO. I always liked that ending since Fred was the Jock and a more mature Daphne saw Shaggy was the better match since, layabout or not, he was always loyal to a fault as well as supportive.
Oh Dear Lord, I just wrote fanfic!
Yumi
I can’t accept any version in which Daphne and Velma are not endgame.
a/snow mous/e
Yes
a/snow mous/e
if you read “Ace-X.U.L.” out loud, the person you’re talking to will probably be confused
I hope this is foreshadowing to the entire cast being taken to international court for breaking the Geneva Accords. The only one who gets off is Mike. From your Mom. For a nickle.
*Dina appears from a hole in the space-time continuum*
“It appears that the fabric of reality has been weakened. I would recommend keeping any additional shenanigans, chicanery, tomfoolery, dramatic irony, wacky hijinx, or convoluted character mini-arcs to an absolute minimum.”
MatthewTheLucky
But isn’t metahumor a form of wacky hijinx?
Khyrin
Yup… that means only one thing.
soggies will rule.
Positron
Dina’s appearance would be the minimum amount of shenanigans.
We veto your veto, and as Emperor of the Internet, Our veto is absolute and cannot be further vetoed.
Because man, I like Pablo’s pitch. All is -not- fair in love, and it’s about time we made a formal document signed by all the nations, most of which then promptly forgets about it!
What is that in your avatar picture? It looks like someone wearing the right rear fender of a car as a hat, with the rest of the car flowing off the back of her head.
It’s Kazuma from the second season of Konosuba! It’s a really good comedy anime that’s rumored to be getting a third season soon, and it’s based on a light novel series that to the best of my understanding is still ongoing. Also, he’s actually under a peculiar kind of Japanese furniture that he brought into a high-fantasy universe in order to start a successful business enterprise with an immortal demon he killed.
(It’s a really weird show.)
Halpful3
aaand now I have the theme song stuck in my head again. (but my brain keeps substituting “konosuba” as the first word of the song. it fits the tune so well!)
I’m surprised Billie hasn’t mentioned anything about the sweater being what Joyce was wearing that night, but she may have been too drunk then to remember details.
Bah. There are no laws about love that have forced Billie to move. There are laws about proper conduct RA conduct in the dormitory. Those rules are peripheral to love at best 😛
And a “Sarah called dibs” thing, and a “He’s dating Raidah” thing, although the fact that the former matters sort of makes it feel like the latter doesn’t.
But it’s probably also at least partially a race thing.
Also I doubt she knows that his (I don’t know for sure so I’m going to guess it’s either gray asexuality or demisexuality) is kind of a perfect fit for her religion-instilled sexual neuroses, so there is some information inequality/dramatic irony.
Don’t forget that, since she was traumatized, she was Not Looking, and managed to completely disbelieve several signals.
She may feel differently now. She IS wearing the sweater, so Ryan getting a measure of what he deserved has freed her somewhat from her trauma.
But also remember that humans can get a thought stuck in their head, and not revise their thoughts, plans, and expectations, even after new information has been made known.
She doesn’t know Raidah, except as Sarah’s nemesis.
She knows Sarah punched her, and she knows Sarah is her honorary big sister, so she’s inclined to not like Raidah in order to protect her positive feelings for Sarah.
SeanR
I mean she may feel differently about her chemistry with Jacob.
That is, at the pizza dinner, she was unconsciously flirting with Jacob so much a blind man could see it, but it wasn’t ABOUT her. She wasn’t looking because of the trauma. She was there for Sarah.
Now that she’s managed to recover enough that the sweater doesn’t cause tension on sight, she may realize she wants Jacob for herself, rather than her roommate.
But, humans can be remarkably change-blind, even, especially, where preconceptions are concerns.
230 thoughts on “Frumpy”
Ana Chronistic
Billie knows what’s up
though if she understood war, she’d know that sweater’s JUST FINE
Doctor_Who
Wearing the blood of her enemies would impress a man in any proper culture.
I bet if she presented Jacob with Ryan’s heart, he would accept it as sufficient dowry. They they could eat it at their wedding feast, and gain his strength.
Mind you, he’s a scrawny rapist who we’ve seen get taken down twice now, so it’s not a lot of strength, but enemy hearts are tough to come by.
Pablo360
I don’t think it’s that ‘Ryan’ was weak so much as that Joyce, Sarah, and Amber are all at least decently strong (plus Joyce kinda caught him off guard). I mean, he did escape from Sal and Amazi-Girl, so he’s at least somewhat physically capable, and a low-level Jager would probably be after his hat if he had one.
Positron
To be fair, he escaped by motor vehicle. Amazi-Girl only ever caught one car, and that was with vehicular assistance *after* “Ryan’s” escape.
Pablo360
My point is that Joyce should feel proud of her accomplishment, not that Ryan is in any way actually superior to Amazi-Girl. That said, fair enough
Jon Rich
The situations were different, too. Regardless of his strength relative to Joyce, (who, as it has been mentioned, caught him off-guard) he had to beat a quick retreat, both because Sarah was attacking him with a baseball bat and because there’s very little chance of Sarah and/or the rest of the crowd letting him get away once their attention was back on him.
We never see exactly how his fight with Amber went, but presumably it was a “classic” one-on-one fight, so that’s a much better gauge of his fighting ability. Or, since he was hospitalized and Amber lacks any clear physical wounds, his lack thereof, especially since he started the fight armed.
Rabid Rabbit
Leaving aside Amber’s much greater experience at fighting, while Ryan has the advantage of height over Amber, she was at the top of the stairs and had that advantage. On top of which he clearly wasn’t expecting anyone to fight back – he came to attack, not to fight. Which I’d argue means that his fighting abilities or lack thereof remain unknown, mainly because he’s a moron who didn’t think things through.
LookingIn
It’s not the size that matters…or so we are told by the ladies
Pablo360
I tried making that argument to the last woman who told me that, but she retorted that I had to make the 500-word minimum for that essay or I wouldn’t be able to pass that semester.
David
Well, wrong course. In mathematics, a PhD thesis can be 4 pages + references. But those 4 pages then need to be good, like major breakthrough good.
Very high bar, quite unlikely to clear. But then try that in literary sciences.
MathWizard
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/shortest-known-paper-in-a-serious-math-journal.html
It can even be two lines.
Sudden Clarity Clarence
That’s a paper, but it wouldn’t be enough for a Ph.D. thesis.
There exists a math Ph.D. Thesis with 7 pages of math, 1 page of references, and 4 pages of front and back matter (title, abstract, table of contents, and biographical notes). https://mathoverflow.net/questions/54775/what-is-the-shortest-ph-d-thesis
Some famous theses are very short. Landau’s thesis is 13 pages long, and John “A Beautiful Mind” Nash had a 26-page thesis.
Roborat
Well, if you had his heart, that would probably mean he is dead, so there wouldn’t be a whole lot of strength there.
Cholma
Billie is obviously not a fan of Velma. (she’s probably more of a Daphne fan for some reason)
Doctor_Who
You don’t think Billie likes freckled girls with glasses who might be into chicks?
Can’t say I agree with that assessment.
Cholma
Well, why else would she call that sweater frumpy?!
Pablo360
Maybe she’s just overcompensating.
Opus the Poet
Because Velma was trying to keep Shaggy and the guy in the ascot from hitting on her, not knowing Shaggy was Ace and Fred was sapiosexual. He finally fell in love with a TV reporter after the original series ended. Shaggy ended up with Scooby and Scrappy and some girl from the animal shelter, Daphne ended up with a second-rate Ghostbuster, and I don’t remember who Velma ended up with. Maybe Mindy Cohn, who voiced Velma and wrote for the series in the 2000’s, knows who the character eventually settled down with.
Cholma
Velma + Hot Dog Water 4EVAR
HeatherJean
Excuse the question, but what does “Shaggy was Ace” mean in this context?
Mephron
I believe that Opus is of the opinion that Norville “Shaggy” Jones is asexual.
HeatherJean
That was crossed messaging. I know what “asexual” means, and was guessing that what was what “Ace” was. Sorry
HeatherJean
Asexual?
C.T Phipps
I am of the group which maintains that Shaggy and Daphne are living together with an adopted child in THE THIRTEEN GHOSTS OF SCOOBY DOO. I always liked that ending since Fred was the Jock and a more mature Daphne saw Shaggy was the better match since, layabout or not, he was always loyal to a fault as well as supportive.
Oh Dear Lord, I just wrote fanfic!
Yumi
I can’t accept any version in which Daphne and Velma are not endgame.
a/snow mous/e
Yes
a/snow mous/e
if you read “Ace-X.U.L.” out loud, the person you’re talking to will probably be confused
Rabid Rabbit
To this entire thread, I have nothing to say but this: https://web.archive.org/web/20061113110233/http://www.evilkid.com/comics/EKearly/pages/fred.html
Big Box
Jennifer “War Crimes” Billingsworth
AnvilPro
I hope this is foreshadowing to the entire cast being taken to international court for breaking the Geneva Accords. The only one who gets off is Mike. From your Mom. For a nickle.
Mr. Mendo
Could a fifty-shenanigan pile-up be in our future?
Doctor_Who
Shenanigeddon approaches.
Pablo360
*Dina appears from a hole in the space-time continuum*
“It appears that the fabric of reality has been weakened. I would recommend keeping any additional shenanigans, chicanery, tomfoolery, dramatic irony, wacky hijinx, or convoluted character mini-arcs to an absolute minimum.”
MatthewTheLucky
But isn’t metahumor a form of wacky hijinx?
Khyrin
Yup… that means only one thing.
soggies will rule.Positron
Dina’s appearance would be the minimum amount of shenanigans.
Pablo360
Startup pitch: The Geneva Convention, but for dating
Gaia
I’m just gonna veto that right now.
Emperor Norton II
We veto your veto, and as Emperor of the Internet, Our veto is absolute and cannot be further vetoed.
Because man, I like Pablo’s pitch. All is -not- fair in love, and it’s about time we made a formal document signed by all the nations, most of which then promptly forgets about it!
firestk
I read that first sentence in King Candy’s voice.
Br44n5m
Does that mean neither of em get Camilla?
bearfuz
I predict trouble. Of course, this is a Willis strip, so trouble is inevitable, we just don’t know WHEN
a4lbi
The only accurate prediction is “SOON. Maybe. Eventually.”
Remmington Steele
No one expects … DAMN YOU WILLIS!
Darkoneko
So pesky.
Pablo360
*plays This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars on the hacked muzak*
Opus the Poet
What is that in your avatar picture? It looks like someone wearing the right rear fender of a car as a hat, with the rest of the car flowing off the back of her head.
Pablo360
It’s Kazuma from the second season of Konosuba! It’s a really good comedy anime that’s rumored to be getting a third season soon, and it’s based on a light novel series that to the best of my understanding is still ongoing. Also, he’s actually under a peculiar kind of Japanese furniture that he brought into a high-fantasy universe in order to start a successful business enterprise with an immortal demon he killed.
(It’s a really weird show.)
Halpful3
aaand now I have the theme song stuck in my head again. (but my brain keeps substituting “konosuba” as the first word of the song. it fits the tune so well!)
Pablo360
And now it’s Oumae from Hibike! Euphonium
MatthewTheLucky
What’ll it take to get you to join us, Joyce? Money? Fame? Jacob?
Pablo360
I didn’t think this universe had any magic, but look at you, turning black people into trophies. Got some racist alchemy up in here.
MatthewTheLucky
He just looks like a very sexy black man!
Pablo360
So, before Joyce starts a full-on race war…
OnyxIdol
SOA abridged, nice.
Nono
I’m surprised Billie hasn’t mentioned anything about the sweater being what Joyce was wearing that night, but she may have been too drunk then to remember details.
Romanticide
Unless it’s super awesome or super awful she probably wouldn’t remember, specially if it’s something Joyce would normally wear. I suppose
Leorale
I won’t recall what typical clothes somebody else wore to a party, weeks ago. I’m lucky to recall what I wore yesterday.
Ivy
Billie’s moving cuz of school regulations, not laws.
Positron
What about school bylaws?
JetstreamGW
Bah. There are no laws about love that have forced Billie to move. There are laws about proper conduct RA conduct in the dormitory. Those rules are peripheral to love at best 😛
Pablo360
They say a forbidden love is the strongest…
Passchendaele
Love will also be corrected and organized into fair/unfair categories in the upcoming Stockholm Convention.
Andy
I hear they’re going to force everyone to stay until they all get along.
dg
If this gambit pileup goes as badly as it could, we’ll have a Bloodbath of Stockhom on our hands.
Leorale
They’ll be forced to stay at first, but then they’ll start identifying with and defending their captors.
Some Random Name
I love how Joyce doesn’t realize that she and Jacob would be perfect for each other.
…is it a race thing? I feel like it’s a race thing.
Pablo360
And a “Sarah called dibs” thing, and a “He’s dating Raidah” thing, although the fact that the former matters sort of makes it feel like the latter doesn’t.
But it’s probably also at least partially a race thing.
Also I doubt she knows that his (I don’t know for sure so I’m going to guess it’s either gray asexuality or demisexuality) is kind of a perfect fit for her religion-instilled sexual neuroses, so there is some information inequality/dramatic irony.
SeanR
Don’t forget that, since she was traumatized, she was Not Looking, and managed to completely disbelieve several signals.
She may feel differently now. She IS wearing the sweater, so Ryan getting a measure of what he deserved has freed her somewhat from her trauma.
But also remember that humans can get a thought stuck in their head, and not revise their thoughts, plans, and expectations, even after new information has been made known.
She doesn’t know Raidah, except as Sarah’s nemesis.
Pablo360
She knows Sarah punched her, and she knows Sarah is her honorary big sister, so she’s inclined to not like Raidah in order to protect her positive feelings for Sarah.
SeanR
I mean she may feel differently about her chemistry with Jacob.
That is, at the pizza dinner, she was unconsciously flirting with Jacob so much a blind man could see it, but it wasn’t ABOUT her. She wasn’t looking because of the trauma. She was there for Sarah.
Now that she’s managed to recover enough that the sweater doesn’t cause tension on sight, she may realize she wants Jacob for herself, rather than her roommate.
But, humans can be remarkably change-blind, even, especially, where preconceptions are concerns.