273

Step lightly
Posted on January 14, 2016 by David M Willis

273 thoughts on “Step lightly”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “I also aim to sever the jugular when I can, but not now I guess”

    1. EdHead

      BUT SOON

    2. Znayx

      I thought she aimed to sever femurs

      1. Yet_One_More_Idiot

        No, Ruth severs femurs, Dina severs jugulars.

        And Bobo the Clown-killer severs jugglers. >_>

        1. Captain Button

          What is Sarah’s preferred target?

        2. pathology

          feelings

        3. Roborat

          Thought that would have been juggalos.

        4. Rowen Morland

          Wasn’t the twist ending in that that Bobo was also a clown themselves?

  2. DarkoNeko

    Be vewwy vewwy quiet.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Also, Dina is thinking of getting her hair tied too now. Maybe a ponytail, hmm.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Pigtails might work better.

        1. Doctor_Who

          With her intelligence, ethnicity, small stature, and ability to be effortlessly adorable, all that will be required is some red hair dye for the pigtails, and her metamorphosis into Chiyo-Chan will be complete.

        2. DarkoNeko

          And then she’ll gain the ability to fly using them ?

        3. LeslieBean4Shizzle

          Nooooo!
          The pigtails will take over her mind!

        4. CptNerd

          Unless they’re removable, in which case she will shut down.

        5. Needfuldoer

          I’m sorry, but pigtails don’t look right on anyone over the age of seven…

        6. Lawzlo

          What about Snoop Dogg? Or Willie Nelson?

        7. TheNinthShader

          What about all those people in those porn- No. Nevermind. That doesn’t look good either.

        8. Griffin

          Have you not seen Veronica Mars?

        9. Plasma Mongoose

          Try telling that to Vikings or even my gravatar.

        10. Meamoi

          Pigtails look right on *everyone*

          The only question is “braided or unbraided?”

        11. Ana Chronistic

          LADYBEARD

      2. EdHead

        It stay how it is, Dark Kaiser

      3. Doctor_Who

        But she will use lots of hairspray to make the ponytail go up at the proper angle to resemble the crest of a Parasaurolophus.

    2. Aeron

      I’m huntin’ wesbians. huhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuh.

      1. Mr. Bulbmin

        Eeeh . . . What’s up, Ruth?

        1. Deanatay

          “I’m wooking fowa wittle wed wesbian!”

          “Hmm… what’s she wearing?”

          “A wed Anderson University sweatshiwt – HEY!”

          “What?”

          “Have YOU seen her?”

          “Hmmm…. *tugs on hoodie strings contemplatively* Nope, sorry, ain’t seen her.”

          “Nuts. Okay, thanks anyway!”

        2. DSL

          “It’s Wuth season and I demand that you shoot me NOW!”

  3. EdHead

    Willis is getting late. Its 12:05

    1. Carriethedragon

      I believe it’s because the website clock drifts sometimes. He doesn’t actually post the comics manually–he uploads them ahead of time.

      1. EdHead

        Pffft. Im not stupid. I know willis waits 1 hour before midnight starting every comic to give him a rush. The challenge of making good plot, great art, and incredible characters is his high. The ultimate thrill.

        1. begbert

          I have confirmed proof that he actually does this. Then, at the last moment, he pushes the button to send himself six months back in time, in order to have both the thrill of the deadline and also the astonishing lead time. Then he usually spends a couple months hunting for the newest transformers (which are tough to find because he’s in the past) before getting around to posting the comic, after which he jumps a year or so forward in order to read the comments and give himself ideas on how to get us to damn him. These damnations power his time machine, in much the same way that our tears give him sustenance, and if he does a good enough job he can build up enough damnation juice to take Maggie on a few months of vacation before jumping back to one hour before the subsequent comic is due to start the process all over again.

          And yeah, this all means that he’s several hundred years old by now, but he’s cool with that because our wails of sorrow keep him young. Not because he’s an eldrich abomination or anything – it works that way for all comic artists. Not that I had to tell you that; that much is common knowledge.

        2. Emperor Norton

          1: You, begbert, just won ten internet points. No, twenty! Don’t spend them all at once, you hear?

          2: I think this makes perfect sense, especially the part where Willis reads the comments and makes his next strip mainly to prove the biggest loudmouths’ recent opinions wrong. I mean, how often does a typical DoA encounter start with “X does something rather shitty” (which sparks a storm of comments pointing this out), and then in the next few strips they end up (almost) completely redeeming themselves and give a context to the shittiness that makes it less shitty? Too often to be a coincidence!

        3. Captain Button

          So is there a comic strip locked in the attic showing Willis as a mummified corpse?

      2. HMRC4EVR

        Humm.

        If the website is drift compatible, what’s the companion website?

    2. Dreadhawk177

      Must… sleep…

      1. TheNinthShader

        Weakling.

    3. Kateastrophe

      TWINS.

    4. BenRG

      He probably finished up feeding and changing the mini-hes a bit later than usual.

  4. AnvilPro

    Hooray for fear!

  5. Mr. Mendo

    Ruthless is gonna get as far as the elevator and be like, “…wait a minute…”

    1. Dean

      “…WHERE did Dina get an Anderson hoodie?”

      1. Mr. Mendo

        “…why would the dinosaur girl be standing where people can see her? This doesn’t add up at all!”

      2. Reltzik

        “Wait a minute! I thought I saw a hair color no one on this floor has!

        “…. oh, wait, that girl just dyed her hair. That threw me off. I think I’ll sneak some peroxide into her shampoo.””

      3. Cerberus

        I wonder if I should loop back and inform her that it’s not commemorating the work of Elaine Anderson, but is actually for an evolution-denying Christian institution…

        Nah, that sounds like effort.

        1. electromagneticDestroyosaur

          “It’s a funny joke…”

        2. ə snow ʍouse

          There we go, Dina’s perfect excuse!

        3. a snow ʍousɐ

          “This is a university sweatshirt? I thought it was in honor of Elaine Anderson, the famous anthropologist. I found it in a trash can on the other side of campus.”

  6. Mada

    Awww, I love how helpful the dorm’s being with this 🙂

    1. tim gueguen

      Little do they know that Ruth knows, but is pretending she doesn’t.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Plausible deniability protects her from getting in trouble.

    2. Doctor_Who

      It’s 60% being good people, 40% getting to put one over on Ol’ Ruthless.

      1. electromagneticDestroyosaur

        You make her sound like some bongo Geyser

        1. Doctor_Who

          Adding it to the list of potential band names. Though I suppose we’d need a bongo player for it to really be appropriate.

        2. electromagneticDestroyosaur

          Reminds me of what Pintsize said about irate women being his medium of choice.

        3. a4lbi

          I hope you actually meant to type Bongo because a Bongo Geyser sounds cool.

      2. Captain Button

        They are letting their hate flow through them.

    3. Carolyn

      Let’s just hope Mary doesn’t find out.

      1. EdHead

        It’s not a matter of if, its a matter of when Mary finds out.

    4. Cerberus

      I know!

      It’s… so amazing. Like seriously, no joke, Becky just has this ragtag group of created family to call her own, but she’s earned herself some amount of reputation and respect among a bunch of the other queer girls on her floor, outside even her main group and they’re all in her corner.

      It’s like this little queer underground circle letting her know that she’s not just going to disappear one day, that the students will fight to keep her safe and will fight for her if the school tries to start shit.

      And it’s so much of what she needs after having her hand forced into meekly accepting her dad’s threat to walk away, all alone into a car to be dragged away without a real fight, to escape on her own. It’s a continuation of the joy she felt when she learned of how many had come after her and fought for her.

      It’s her genuinely getting a genuine supportive positive community for once in her life instead of organizations more interested in her utility as a baby mill and indoctrination factory.

      And that… it’s enough to genuinely bring a tear to my eye, because that’s what good community should feel like.

      1. Cerberus

        And it’s also extra awesome, because Becky is full of appreciation for it all, making sure everyone feels thanked and regarded. It’s clear her “god answers lesbian prayers” moment with her rescue in the car has really left her feeling blessed and while she may be burying some emotions still to process, she’s definitely still full of joy to still be here, complimenting Mandy’s hair and just being one of them rather than a person on the outskirts just trying to survive a little longer.

        She’s being truly welcomed and she’s full of gratitude and yeah, that’s just indefinably awesome.

        1. Bagge

          Becky is a scientist all right:
          – Hypothesis: If I can get to Joyce, everything will be all right.
          – Hypothesis: God answers lesbian prayers
          – Hypothesis: My butthole dad won’t be able to get me in the end.
          – Addhook hypothesis: Dinosaur chicks are rad.

          CONFIRMED!!!

        2. TamiDOA

          “Dinosaur chicks are rad”, I need that on a shirt!

        3. Leorale

          Remember when Becky first came to the school, before the showdown with ToeDad, and she was kind of abrasive, especially to Dorothy and Danny. Not, like, Carla or Malaya levels of abrasive, but noticeably. I wonder if that’s simmered down a little bit; now that she has less to hide and less to fear, she can think more clearly about the feelings of those around her, and express that she cares about them. Or, it may be specific to her supporters, as she appreciates the hell out of them, especially after experiencing what it’s like not to have any.

        4. Mollyscribbles

          I think the abrasiveness is like . . . those dogs that are rescued from abusive homes, and they snap and growl at people until they realize that no, they’re not going to be hit, yes they’ll be fed, yes they can feel safe and sleep without fear. And then they’re just the most loving creatures. Possibly not the best metaphor, but still.

      2. Captain Button

        A proper underground should be organized in a cell structure, of course, but given the shippertariat here they would all be turned in excuses for, well, you know.

  7. Architex

    Now this is character development

  8. miados

    people like when you react the way they expect. I know people tend to not like how I just say “meh” when asked how I’m doing etc.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Does Ruth *really* want that ?

      1. miados

        what you expect and what you want aren’t always the same thing. people just like when you act the way they expect even if they wish you wouldn’t

    2. begbert

      Actually tell them how you’re doing once or twice, in complete detail, and they’ll start to appreciate the ‘meh’s for the gifts they are.

    3. Griffin

      Make up some dramatic story about losing your sandwich and cry, then tearfully thank them for their concern. That’ll either teach em or send em running.

  9. ninja_jesus

    It seems like Becky’s made friends with all of Reed Hall (was it Reed Hall? I can’t remember). Well done.

    1. Carriethedragon

      Read, but close enough!

    2. gkheyf

      the superhero lives in clark hall

      1. Lord Stoneheart

        I think it’s Clark Wing.

        1. TamiDOA

          It’s the third floor of the Clark Wing of Read Hall. (Yeah, I need to work on suppressing my detail compulsion.)

        2. Captain Button

          Does the third floor have a scandalous reputation with the other floors as a drama pit of shamewolves?

          Or do the other floors have their own circuses running that Willis is not showing?

          (Someday he will franchise them out to other artists.)

        3. TamiDOA

          The third floor should have a reputation for violence. Between Ruth and Billie’s fights, Amber punching her dad, AG’s frequent sightings there, Dina attacking Toedad, Joyce punching out Toedad, and of course Sal. The other floors probably shrink in fear at the sight of a “3rd floorer”.

          Which leads to the question – How can Joyce not have fanboys & fangirls following her around after the “gunman of campus” incident?

      2. Jay Eff

        Is that anywhere near Kent Hall?

        *dodges tomatoes*

    3. DinaWho

      ‘Men Are From Beck Women Are From Clark’

      1. Reltzik

        But then… why is Becky…

        …. Wait, in what way WOULD that suggest Becky being into a given gender?

        *snark fail*

  10. Plasma Mongoose

    Doe act too scared Dina, or it might arouse her too much.

    1. LeslieBean4Shizzle

      … would that result in the next Slipshine being a fourway between Ruth, Billie, Dina, and Becky?

      1. ninja_jesus

        Not a four-way, just a group session. Becky is very protective of her Dinasaur.

    2. Reltzik

      Dammit, must EVERY day’s comment section disolve into slaship?

      … slashship? slash-ship?

      1. ninja_jesus

        You say that like it’s a bad thing.

        And I suppose if you’re ace, it might actually be.

        1. Reltzik

          Bad? No. Monotonous? Yes. You have to give it a rest for a few days or it loses its awesomeness.

      2. Tenn

        Slashslashins.

  11. Kernanator

    Oh look, Rei is attending college.

    /obvious jokes

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Needs more bandages.

    2. Tenchan

      Oh no! That can only mean one thing!

      1. EdHead

        I’m sorry Tenchan, I don’t have my permission slip on me.

        Guess that means I ain’ going on that feels trip.

    3. Captain Button

      So Becky is the Mysterious Transfer Student?

    4. Captain Button

      Of course, since this is the series reboot with more romance and academics and less angst and paranormal activity, this would be Angelic Days Rei.

      1. HMRC4EVR

        Okay, I was thinking Rei/Sailor Mars and wasn’t making the connection.

        Thank you.

      2. Spencer

        What’s the point of EVA if everyone isn’t sad and dying.

  12. LimeSheep

    aww, theyre all protecting her now

  13. jepmz

    I assume that was a Howl’s Moving Castle reference. Don’t burst my bubble! LoL

  14. Stara

    I just fell in love with the hallmates! Didn’t realise they were all in complicity without collaborating, by now (they’d be rather thick to not be suspicious of Becky at this late and unsubtle stage, but this is pleasant)

    1. Cerberus

      Yeah, I know, this comic really made me fall more in love with Agatha and Mandy as characters! Like, this is such an awesome and important small kindness, it’s like Sierra’s dad trying to waylay Blaine in the hallway.

      1. Leorale

        Totally. People here are basically good, and, when presented with something right in front of them, they take meaningful action! This is a-OK with me.

  15. Leorale

    I didn’t realize how many background characters know about Becky. Is it everyone on the hall except Ruth?

    1. DinaWho

      I doubt Mary does, simply because she’d probably tell.

      1. Lord Stoneheart

        Mary saw Becky back when she first showed up, but I would guess Mary doesn’t know that she’s still there. She would certainly be the type to rat her out.

        1. Someone

          Mary’s an ass, but I can see her being buyable, perhaps an amazon gift card and a new bible. I would be more worried about Mike who is more evil for the sake of evil.

        2. Bard1cKnowledge

          But at the same time, It’s Mary, look at my Gravatar, this is Mary on Easy Mode. If Mary knew that there was an illegal Lesbian on Campus living in someones elses room she would go past the R.A and straight to the Dean……Principal? the Highest legal authority on campus. And once she realizes who had the room Becky is staying in, which she knows kinda, she will get both Billie and Ruth out.

          God I hate Mary. I need a new Gavatar. I want an Ethan one, too bad i suck with coding 😛

        3. Airyu

          You could always make a gravatar account and slap on a custom ethan icon!

    2. John

      Guessing not Mary, either. I can’t see her not using it against Ruth.

    3. Plasma Mongoose

      When you explode closets like Becky does, how can anyone not realise Becky’s sitch.

      1. Reltzik

        Because exploded closets make for messy forensics!

        CHECKMATE!

    4. Cerberus

      No idea if it will be reflected in the actual comic, but I feel like it’s possible that while a number have a good suspicion, it might only be the more queer and bi students who are especially circling to protect her and that they may have cottoned on to the fact that the shooting involving a “MacIntyre” and homophobic violence is closely related to Becky and so feel very protective of her.

      Mostly because I’ve seen that a lot, usually in queer organizations, where someone will almost be adopted by the rest of the group who’ll take them under their wing because it’s a pretty open secret that they’re going through some heavy shit.

    5. AgentKeen

      Well, I imagine more than a few of them put together the shooter on campus story with Becky, and maybe even figured out why, since Joyce introduced her to everyone.

  16. gkheyf

    “and yet, there’s this small sense of dissatisfaction, as i know that you don’t truly fear me”

    “…it’s ruthless. run away. run and hide. and remain hidden until………now”

  17. Lia47

    i still dont think ruth would rat becky out

    1. Captain Button

      Yes, but it is still polite to provide her with plausible deniability. Just in case.

      (Almost wrote that as deniaBillie)

      1. EdHead

        In other words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ag4nkSh7Q

      2. TamiDOA

        I suspect Ruth has known all along what Becky has been doing, but has ignored it for some reason. Ruth is many things, but she’s not clueless.

        1. Lia47

          thats her cousin, Clue Lessick

        2. TamiDOA

          🙂

          And her other relatives: Hope, Worth, Brain, Wit, Penny, …
          (I’ll stop now. Don’t hit me.)

  18. DinaWho

    I love how evidently the majority of the hall is now conspiring to keep Becky safely concealed from Ruth (and the long arm of the IU housing rules).^^

    1. Cerberus

      It makes me feel like the circumstances of Becky’s attempted kidnapping have made the social media rounds not to mention that Becky is a very friendly and gregarious person.

  19. John

    Mandy got a palette swap. Weird.

    1. JessWitt

      Her hair color is so spearminty.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Like a Mentos.

        1. Reltzik

          Now I want to see Becky escape Ruth via a Mentos commercial plot.

          …. it wouldn’t WORK, but I still want to see it.

        2. Captain Button

          +1

      2. electromagneticDestroyosaur

        HER NAME IS COLGATE AND YOU CAN’T TAKE MY FANON AWAY

    2. Dean

      It’s Player 2 Mandy.

    3. Peduncle

      It’s neither Champagne nor Mandy.

    4. Needfuldoer

      “You gotta have blue hair”
      – Strong Bad

  20. newllend(henryvolt)

    So the entire floor is in on it now.

    1. Heavensrun

      Except for Mary. Nobody’s telling Mary.

      1. Bard1cKnowledge

        Tell her what?

        1. DSL

          Nothin’

  21. newllend(henryvolt)

    And I guess I know who that blue hair girl is now kind of.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      She was a redhead before.

      1. Doctor_Who

        I guess with Ruth, Carla, and now Becky on the same floor, she realized that she was destined to be the 4th most popular ginger in the place. But she can be the #1 girl with blue hair!

        1. Cerberus

          Yup, the red head market was saturated. It was time to begin the Grand Blue Uprising!

      2. Amazi-Stool

        She was a bespectacled redhead and just wanted to sleep normally in a bed! (alt-text)

  22. timemonkey

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW, this is so cute.

  23. Edupoet81

    So, it would seem that a good chunk of the floor is in on the Becky situation. I’m not so sure about the effectiveness of their technique for hiding Becky, seeing as said technique seems to be just winging it.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Ruth has known all along, and is just pretending that she doesn’t.

  24. Mr. Random

    I wonder if she can get away with saying that she’s only doing it to make interaction with her easier?

  25. Captain Button

    Agatha is showing a lot of strength there, picking up Becky bodily like that.

    Does she work out with Amazi-Girl, or do they just both use the same energy drinks?

    1. EdHead

      She works out with Brock Lesnar.

      Suplex City bongo

      1. EdHead

        It wont let me say the B word.

        I must have admin powers.

        Cripes, not I’m Joyce pre-first traumatization.

        1. Leorale

          It’s from when Roz and Joyce went head to head and people used that word REALLY excessively about Roz. Willis made it autocorrect to ‘bongo’. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

        2. Kryss LaBryn

          I kind of like it. I have started to use it in real life.

        3. DarkVeghetta

          IT SPREADS.

    2. electromagneticDestroyosaur

      Or maybe Comic Physics are expected to take effect (kind of the same way Amazi-girl didn’t fly off the road from momentum during the Great Chase.

  26. Mandy

    Sigh. I wish I was as cool as my namesake in this comic.

    1. Rob

      You’re too hot to be that cool ;o

      1. Sageress

        NO FLIRTING IN THE COMMENTS

        1. Reltzik

          See? It’s forbidden. Officially forbidden. That means it can never happen now and all your desire to do so automatically evaporates.

        2. a snow ʍousɐ

          Damn that Sageress, quasher of dreams!

        3. Rob

          no one tells the president what to do

    2. Leorale

      Your grav does have blue hair.
      The hair-dye, it calls to you.

    3. DarkoNeko

      now you both have blue hair, too.

    4. Roborat

      I am confused, do you mean Mandy, or May?

  27. Stephen R. Bierce

    *can’t decide between Motley Crue or Stevie Wonder*

    1. a4lbi

      Why not both? :3

  28. Spencer

    Because I’m never going to get any other chance to say it; it took me forever to realize why Agatha was Robin’s McAwesomes counterpart in Shortpacked!.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Agatha is what ?

      1. LeslieBean4Shizzle

        In the Willis comic Shortpacked!, all of the workers at Shortpacked had weird parallels at the store next door called “McAwesomes”. Agatha was Robin’s “double”.

    2. LeslieBean4Shizzle

      … because she’s also a bisexual/indefinably queer Speedster who previously worked for SEMME with curly hair, but blonde instead of black-haired?

      1. Spencer

        Was Agatha bi? I know all the members of Squad 48 were, but Agatha wasn’t with them, or if she had a speed powers.

        But yeah, I meant that she was a minor SEMME agent who also got a job at a toy store.

        1. Lord Stoneheart

          Agatha was in the same squad as Other Rachel if I recall correctly. I think Mike might have been transferred there at one point too. Not sure.

        2. LeslieBean4Shizzle

          Honestly, I can’t remember her well enough to know for sure – I was just guessing. It was Shortpacked!, so like 70% chance of being some flavor of bi.
          Alternatively, since she was Robin’s opposite, she might have been Ace.
          The point is, she was likely somewhere in the QUILTBAG.

  29. Rob

    IMPOSSIBLE, all polysexuals have telepathy. Even if Dina is making a conscious effort to block it, Ruth should know something is up!

    1. Reltzik

      It’s like broad-spectrum gaydar.

      …. “broad” pun unintended, but it totally works.

    2. Reltzik

      Also, I don’t think “polysexual” is the right term here.

      1. Griffin

        It isn’t incorrect , unless Ruth is only into girls, which may be for all I know.

        1. Spencer

          Ruth is bi.

      2. Rob

        Polysexual just means attracted to more than one gender. Ruth mentioned having a boyfriend so I’m assuming she’s bi and Dina said something along the lines of not seeing the difference in genders so I assume she’s pan.

        1. thejeff

          Poly is different than bi in ways that I don’t quite follow. 🙂
          As is pan for that matter.

        2. zwol

          Bi and poly are orthogonal. Bi = attracted to both men and women. Poly = comfortable with having more than one SO at the same time (as long as everyone involved knows about everyone else and is OK with it). It’s certainly possible to be both bi and poly, but it is also possible to be just one of the two.

          The distinction between bi and pan is a little harder to pin down but I have the impression it’s mostly about how important gender presentation is to you. Or how invested you are in smashing the gender binary.

        3. Spencer

          I think thejeff meant that he didn’t understand the difference between bisexuality and polysexuality, not polyamory.

        4. zwol

          OK, yeah, I don’t understand that one either.

        5. Spencer

          Neither do I, actually. I understand that pansexuality is inclusive of all forms of gender identities, but doesn’t poly just mean “likes more than one”?

    3. Cerberus

      Their bi-foils have detected fellow queer energy in Dina and Becky and the Secret Homo Hivemind is conspiring to protect the baby dyke lest she be eaten by Ruth-less predators.

      1. LuniasM

        Oh god that’s amazing. And accurate.

  30. Walky_Talky

    I aim to misbehave.

    1. Opus the Poet

      “I do solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

      1. Bicycle Bill

        “Mischief managed.”

  31. Historyman68

    I love Mandy’s outfit.

  32. Rukduk

    Don’t know why, but Ruth just reminded me of the drill sergeant from full metal jacket.

    1. inqntrol

      Let’s hope she’ll not end up like him, if you know what I mean.

      1. DarkVeghetta

        Word of God assuages such fears. This time.

  33. Charles Phipps

    I have this weird idea that Ruth wouldn’t ever normally kick out Becky even if it cost her job but she would do it because Ruth has such a low self-esteem that she’d think doing so would be good for both Becky (don’t rely on other people) and herself (driving away people she thinks like her despite how awful she is). I wouldn’t be surprised if ruth’s attitude is driven by her self-hatred.

    1. Reltzik

      Ruth would go into full on “no, you’re being a bunch of stupid freshman and I’m not going to allow anything this idiotic in my hall” rant mode, and by the end of it would have bullied everyone on the floor, even Sal, into putting their heads together to find a more pragmatic solution, with the result of Becky becoming Marcie’s roommate.

      1. Wublub

        I like that plan.
        Wait, which one is Marcie?

        1. Captain Button

          Marcie is Sal’s friend who can’t speak, so she uses sign language. She isn’t going to school but apparently lives in the area to be near Sal. So she probably has an off-campus apartment.

          She is currently wooing/stalking Malaya.

  34. Kat

    I’ve never stayed in a college dorm, since I commuted to my university from home… But if they claimed Becky was just there to hang out during the day and was not trying to sleep there, would Ruth still be able to kick her out? I have no idea how dorm rules actually work. (Actual story events, the aftermath of the whole gun incident, etc. – all of that aside, of course; I’m sure anyone who knows Becky or sees her around already assumes she’s staying on campus after what happened.)

    1. Reltzik

      It varies from college to college, but basically you’re renting a room from a landlord who answers to your parents more often than to you. They get to set a lot of rules which include a lot of babysitting crap, though much less than in previous generations. (“No sex” is kinda outdated outside the private fundie schools.)

      In fairness, this is the first time a lot of students lived away from parent supervision, and they’re young enough to still have common-sense-failures fairly frequently, so the colleges kinda have to put in rules to protect their own property and the sanity of other tennets. (No stacking textbooks on hot plates. … or clothes. You know what? No hot plates.)

      Also, they charge by the head and dorms are pretty cramped. Extra people can mean rent they aren’t collecting or fire marshal codes being violated.

      1. Cerberus

        Yeah, but the visitation rules are rarely enforced. A friend of mine was sexiled for a month from his room back when I was in school because his roommate’s girlfriend essentially moved in with him. I don’t think she even got kicked out, he just confronted them and said he was no longer going to sleep in the study room to give them privacy and so if they wanted to fuck, they could do it while he was sleeping in his own bed.

        1. DarkVeghetta

          “sexiled” I learned a new word today! xD

      2. Captain Button

        Including the tyrannical ban on shooting sex videos.

        1. Bicycle Bill

          There was no ban on shooting sex videos … just not advertising the campus as a possible location site.
          And let’s face it — to the average porn viewer, a dorm room from one college (unless it’s *YOUR* college’s dorm room) looks pretty much like a dorm room from any other college.

  35. Cerberus

    Also, I find it absolutely adorable that when Ruth was threatening her femurs and so on, she couldn’t manage any form of fear response with Ruth, but with Becky, she’s got something she believes she could lose in the form of Becky being tossed out of the dorms and that genuinely concerns her to the point where it’s written on her face.

    She’s really fallen in love with her red-haired baby dyke scientist. And it really continues to be one of the healthiest relationships largely because a lot of their conflicts are external rather than internal.

    1. Leorale

      The ones that are internal, they solve by expressing their needs clearly and then being kind to each other. It’s the best.

  36. LooksLikeDaniel

    Thus far, Becky has had the guts to go against everything she was raised to believe and defy her fanatical father to his face and run away to hide out with Joyce once she got caught. Shortly thereafter, she managed to summon the courage to come out to Joyce (who at the time was still Bible thumping with a smile on her face). She has endured being kidnapped by toe-Dad at gunpoint and then nearly getting killed in a car accident. . . and come out laughing. After all this, she was still able to face toe-Dad and lay it out on the line and, when he blamed the whole thing on her, had the audacity to look him in the eye and say, “Fuck you. You don’t have any power over me.”

    Yeah. I’m pretty sure she can handle Ruth.

    1. Silly Name

      If Ruth is made of iron, Becky is made of adamantium mixed with rocks and concrete.

  37. Bagge

    I love that they have an early Ruth-warning system in place.

    And I REALLY love that the floor has adopted Becky. Adorable!

  38. Opus the Poet

    Nothing to do with today’s comic, but appropriate anyway as it’s from the school. http://www.idsnews.com/article/2016/01/iu-scientists-develop-biomaterial-for-fuel-cells

  39. Benjy

    I love this.

  40. Bicycle Bill

    Looks like Becky has been adopted by just about the whole floor…. with the possible exception of Mary.
    And don’t think for a minute that Ruthless doesn’t know about Becky either.  It’s just that up to this point she hasn’t been worth the effort it would require to do anything about her.

    1. Sam

      Yeah, a lot of people seem to be of the mind that
      a) Ruth knows Becky is there buuuuuuuut… b) She has no energy/will/desire to do anything about it and as long as they act secretive, she can pretend she has no clue and continue her life without wasting energy on that. And even if Becky fell in front of her she might just put a hand over her eyes and say she didn’t see anybody because effort is hard.

      1. Bicycle Bill

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmzsWxPLIOo

  41. Red

    Sweet how everyone likes to help her out

  42. BenRG

    Ruth Lessick is a woman with a few simple desires that are all she needs to make her content – A job that doesn’t require too much work, the morbid fear of those who are placed under her charge and nightly alcohol-fuelled oblivion. If she gets all these things, she considers the day complete.

    She’d totally deny it but I’m quite sure that the presence of Billie in her life is increasingly included on that list.

  43. skdk

    i had kinda assumed that becky now went to the school somehow? she talked about going to some class before?

    1. BenRG

      It will probably take some time for Becky’s studentship to become ‘official’ to the point where she’s allowed to actually be officially noted as resident on campus. So, not being seen acting as if she lives there by anyone in an official capacity is a pragmatic necessity to avoid bureaucratic awkwardness.

      It is entirely possible that at least some senior figures know what’s happening and looking the other way so long as she isn’t too obvious about it. So long as she keeps it quiet, they won’t make a fuss before the paperwork is finally all filed.

      1. Kichjo

        I’m sure the higher-ups at the school do know – i can’t imagine they *didn’t* talk to the police after the whole “stranger brings gun on campus, threatens multiple students, etc.” situation, and at some point “he was looking for his daughter who was no longer at the school she was enrolled in and believed to be staying with a friend enrolled here” probably came up.

        At which point the logical, rule-following reaction would be to have a firm talk with Joyce (at the very least) and some of the other students (depending on whether they found out students besides Joyce were helping Becky) about visitation rules, and put at least some effort into sending Becky away (with her dad in jail, she could probably even go home now) instead of just assuming she’d leave on her own. Since such things haven’t been mentioned in-comic, and Becky’s still fairly openly on-campus (she’s being hidden from Ruth, but going to class with Dina and not hiding in general), i’m guessing they’re just letting the situation slide for now.

        It might not even be a long-term thing – maybe they’re just waiting until everyone’s a little less traumatised from everything to actually put a stop to it. Either way, publicising “we’re knowingly letting someone break a major rule!” on a college campus will end badly, so it makes sense everyone’s still putting major effort into keeping Ruth from finding out.

    2. Leorale

      She just drops into classes sometimes, to learn things. Easy to do in a big class, like Biology 101, which could have a hundred students. She’s not actually enrolled or receiving grades.

  44. TheNinthShader

    Haha the first panel, she looks like shes wearing mens underwear on the outside of her clothes hahha I love being immature.

    1. Captain Button

      So she is the *real* Amazi-Girl?

  45. Charlie Spencer

    Okay, I don’t keep up with fashion at all. Are white shorts over black leggings a thing? If I see it in the real world, I need to know if it hip and cutting edge or if I can go with my gut reaction (gawd-awful ugly).

    1. Leorale

      I mean, leggings + shorts are a thing in this comic, and I guess they’re a plausible campus fashion, but I’ve never seen them in real life (NYC). My first thought was that it’ll make the comic look dated, but whatever, Agatha’s experimenting! or it’s laundry day.

      1. DSL

        I remember from my longago college days being told (as a freshman) by a senior friend that you could always tell the “frosh” early in the year (especially the female frosh) by their “hey look at me” clothing. As you aged through the ranks, tees and sweats became the non-uniform uniform.

      2. ischemgeek

        Here in Canada in Autumn you see leggings and shorts or leggings and skirts pretty often, since it can be 25°C-30°C in the day time and then crash way down to frost warning territory at night.

        Also leggings under torn jeans. The torn jeans thing isn’t really my look but some people like the aesthetic but don’t want to freeze their butts off when its -40°C out with wind chill. Mind you, I’m of the opinion that if you don’t look like the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man, you’re not bundled up enough for winter, but most people also think I’m part lizard because of my heat tolerance and cold sensitivity. 😛

  46. Deanatay

    Dina isn’t afraid for herself, but apparently Ruthless can’t tell the diff, so it works.

  47. BenRG

    Am I the only one who thinks that Dina’s expression in panel 6 suggests that Ruth has just made her “Top 10 Surreal Interactions” list?

    1. Silly Name

      Dina has interacted with Faz.

      Nothing is surreal anymore.

  48. Cephalo the Pod

    Mandy has become a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan!

    1. Spencer

      Mandy used to be a brunette but became a redhead when she transformed into a Super Saiyan God to fight Lord Beerus.

      1. Tacos

        Isn’t there now also a blue haired Super Saiyan version?

        1. Spencer

          That would be the Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan.

          That is, in fact, the real name.

  49. Just Me

    Wasn’t Ruth at the party in Joyce’s room? Wouldn’t she already know about Becky? And based on past experience, wouldn’t she not care?

    1. Leorale

      At the time of the party, most people thought that Becky was an out-of-town pal visiting for the weekend.

      You’re right that Ruth is very unlikely to care (and is likely to be supportive, even), but the characters don’t know that. They just see that RAs uphold rules, that Ruthless is a tyrant, and Becky is breaking the rules, so. Billie is the only one in a position to guess that Ruth is too apathetic to care, and she’s wiser to give Ruth plausible deniability.

  50. Just Me

    Though I do like the idea of everyone in the dorm trying to pull a fast one on Ruth by conspiring to hide Becky…or protecting Becky by conspiring against Ruth…however you want to look at it.

  51. GMWestermeyer

    Sooo the lesson of the ‘Ruthless’ storylines is: male bullies are mean and scary but we should all identify with and coddle female bullies? Not sure that’s as feminist as you think it is, Willis.

    1. Leorale

      I think the lesson of the Ruth storylines is, hey, here’s a complex person, let’s see who she is and what happens. They’re not fables with morals, they’re an exploration of characters.

      Also, who is identifying with or coddling Ruth? Billie is, which is a good thing to do for your girlfriend. Everyone else is just trying to keep the hell away from her.

      1. Silly Name

        As much as an interesting character Ruth is, she is a person with serious issues who wouldn’t survive long in real society. As much as DOA is more “realistic” than Willis’ previous works, it still exists in a somewhat cartoony universe. If it weren’t for plot reasons, Ruth would have lost her place as an RA a long time ago.

        1. DarkVeghetta

          I’ve red plenty of irl stories that feature much more broken RA’s – most from people on these comment sections talking about their life experiences and people they knew.
          In other words, you’d be surprised.

    2. Spencer

      See I actually agree that Ruth is a bully and there’s a small tendency to overlook her past abusive behaviour, but then you get into a “well what about men huh!?” thing and I don’t even want to touch it anymore.

      For real: that thought process has done more damage to actual discussion on social imbalances that disfavor men than any feminist talk has.

    3. Amazi-Stool

      Mike is the male bully of this comic and look at what he’s getting away with in the comments!

      1. Spencer

        Oh shit I completely forgot about him!

        Yeah you wanna talk about male bullies getting away with everything and having their abuse romanticized then look no fucking further. At least Ruth occasionally gets shit for her actions. She nearly killed herself once for god’s sake.

        1. chris73

          I personally would have loved to see Joe deck Mike with a couple of shots but that wouldn’t have been as funny I guess

      2. Spencer

        To be more accurate, “abuse romanticized by the comments section” and not the narrative itself, which it doesn’t do for Ruth either.

        1. Leorale

          Oh, he meant *comments* identify with and coddle Ruth because she’s female. Nope. Whenever Ruth gets comment-sympathy, it’s not because she’s doing something horrible to somebody weaker than she is, it’s because we’ve seen, up close, that she has suicidal depression and alcoholism, and that she needs help.

          Identify with: I haven’t seen any comments where people identified with punching people a lot, or bossing people around, or any of her other bullying tactics. I see lots of comments where people identify with feeling depressed. A whole lot of us have shared that we’ve been there, or even that we are there now. (It’s good to know.) We don’t identify with her when she’s bullying people, we identify when her imbalanced brain sounds like ours.

          Coddle: Mental illness and addiction are both extremely solid reasons to want to help somebody out! She needs help for those issues, and we wish she’d get it. That’s not coddling, that’s a situationally-appropriate human response to any person with a life-threatening illness.

        2. ischemgeek

          Should also point out, part of Ruth’s bullying behavior is a self-destructive tendency toward self-isolation. And part of it is likely a symptom of depression and alcoholism.

          I had a depressive episode as a teen, and mine wasn’t like the cries-all-day-in-bed kind that’s stereotyped as the way women/girls get depression. Mine was angry and bitter and hateful when I could feel anything at all, with a heavy dose of apathy and emotional numbness. All of which Ruth exhibits.

          And, being real: When you have that kind of depression, it’s fucking hard to be decent. You genuinely hate everyone and everything regardless of whether or not they deserve it (many did in my case but a lot of people didn’t) and sometimes you just want to get pissed off at someone even though you know they don’t deserve it because at least then you’re feeling something.

          And not saying that depression makes everyone an asshole, but for reals: Depression made me an asshole, and it wanted me to be an asshole because then I’d hate myself for being an asshole, and then I’d get more depressed and into this positive feedback loop of self-loathing, self-destruction, and misery.

          So, yeah. Not saying that Ruth’s behavior is okay. It’s not. It’s not at all. But genuinely speaking, in this particular case, I think it’s a manifestation of her mental illness. Which isn’t to say that she’s not causing harm to others, or that she doesn’t need help. But, just.

          It’s not like you become a different person when you’re depressed… it’s more like depression makes you into the worst possible version of yourself in the multiverse. I became my dad with boobs (the way Amber does when she’s in a self-loathing spiral, and I mean that parallel to that level of severity. When I am depressed, I am quite literally a Blaine-level asshole. Depression-brain me is a physically and verbally abusive, hateful, self-destructive asshole. There is a fuckin’ reason I seek out counselling if I start feeling Depression-Brain creeping back – I don’t like who I am when I’m depressed, and that makes it really friggin hard to pull myself out of it once it gets going). Ruth becomes Ruthless.

          I do believe that a version of her who is not Ruthless exists somewhere, and that she can develop into that person with a shit-load of mental health help. Cuz I grew out of Teenage Blaine-Level Asshole Me into Now Me, and I don’t think Now Me is a saint, but Now Me is pretty okay.

          None of that ^^^ is excusing Ruth’s behavior, by the way. But yes, I relate to her. Not all women who get depression manifest it in the classic /publicly-known way, and there needs to be more awareness of her kind of angry depression. And it’s a complicated thing, and it’s not “just making an excuse” to acknowledge that she does have a mental illness that needs help and her mental illness is the reason behind her behavior. Like, girl needs help. Making her into social pariah is what her depression wants, because as pissy as a person with angry depression can be to anyone else, they’re gonna be even worse to themselves. By like a factor of a million. And their brain is not going to ever shut up. Like that kind of angry depression is kind of like having Mike in your head always and forever, only a nastier and more sadistic version of Mike, and his only source of amusement is tearing you apart. Except that Mike is you so even if you hate him, you’re hating yourself and giving him what he wants. It freaking sucks.

        3. zwol

          Valuable bit of wordsmithing I picked up I can’t remember where: an explanation is not an excuse. Ruth’s behavior is at least partially explained by her mental illness, and that’s valuable because it tells us how to respond. But to present the explanation is not to excuse the behavior. (I think some people think that if you explain some piece of bad behavior you’re implicitly saying that there should be no punishment for it, which isn’t so. … In Ruth’s case I think punishment would serve no constructive purpose, but that’s a separate question from ‘why does she do what she does’.)

        4. DarkVeghetta

          Angry-depression seems to be more common then most realize. This is pretty much what happened to my second fiancee for most of her adult life, broken up by the times where she’d suppress it with either medication or love from a relationship. I’ve come to know what it can do to someone and Ruthless is a bitingly-accurate representation of a part of that.

          I can only hope Ruth eventually finds herself again, without the -less at the end. She’s been through so much and I see parallels to someone I still love, years later, in her. One should always hope.

        5. Leorale

          Thank you ischemgeek for sharing your experience! I learned from your post.

    4. David M Willis

      *squints*

      you’re this guy

      how the hell are you still here

  52. Kamino Neko

    Hrm. Unless we’ve skipped a few hours since the last strip, we’re still pretty much in the middle of the day, yes?

    So…it seems strange that they’d need to hide Becks. ‘I’m here visiting with my girlfriend’ seems like it should be good enough. If it were at night, or first thing in the morning, making it clear she’d stayed over, sure, but during daylight hours after the first classes of the day?

    1. Leorale

      I think they’re trying to hide the fact that Becky is here *all the time*. Ruth has seen Becky on a couple occasions, and Becky tried to deflect attention. If Ruth just sees Becky occasionally, then whatever, that’s a pal who visits and not worth noticing. If she sees her every day, that could theoretically cause Ruth to question people, and they haven’t got a story for it.

      1. Leorale

        Oh no, wait, it’s probably just ‘We’re breaking rules, we’d better hide from authority figures.’

        1. Kamino Neko

          But, during the day, they’re NOT breaking the rules, unless IU has a much, much stricter policy than any dorm I have knowledge of the rules.

        2. Leorale

          She’s allowed to be here at the moment, but they’re breaking rules by having her live there longterm, so in general they are being rule-breakers. Hide!

        3. Kamino Neko

          And hiding her during the night makes sense.

          Hiding her during the day doesn’t.

      2. Random832

        In principle, Ruth doesn’t know that Becky’s not another student who lives in a different dorm, or on a different floor.

        1. Spencer

          Billie told her that Becky was visiting from Anderson.

        2. TamiDOA

          And Ruth might question why Becky is still here after all this time, so they need to hide her. But Dina wearing Becky’s Anderson hoodie may cause questions too.

        3. Silly Name

          You’d be surprised at what people, even observant ones, fails to notice.

          Just ask yourself: before Dina drew attention on the fact she was wearing an Anderson hoodie, did you notice it?

        4. TamiDOA

          True. I’m frequently invisible like Dina. However, Ruth always assumes everyone is doing something wrong and if she isn’t catching them, she’s not trying hard enough. Or are Billie feels mellowing Ruth out?

        5. electromagneticDestroyosaur

          The heaviest physical contact often has that effect.

        6. Spencer

          I think Ruth is mellowing Ruth out.

          And not in a good way.

  53. Bagge

    I still try to maintain this headcanon that Agatha has a normal, slightly boring time at college while everyone else is occupied with DRAMA, but I must say that seeing her taking a key position in La Resistance makes it hard to maintain…

    You had me fooled, Agatha. Good on you.

  54. Toes14

    I like Agatha. Can we see more of her?

  55. Selavy

    Damn, Agatha just full body yanked Becky through that door AND knew Ruth would be there at that exact moment? Amazi-girl might have some superhero competition here.

  56. Tacos

    Aw see, this actually really nice. It seems the entire floor -minus Mary obviously- have adopted Becky and are looking out for her.

  57. cricricri13

    Am I the only one that thinks that if Ruth catches her it won’t be that big a deal? Sure it’s a cute gesture from the others, but seeing how Ruth acts normally she probably wouldn’t be Ruth-less towards Becky under this circumstances.

    1. chris73

      Well yes we the readers know that but the rest of the dorm haven’t had the advantage of seeing how Ruth normally acts

    2. Spencer

      Given how Ruth usually treats everybody, they are well within their rights to be scared of her. Besides, they’re all breaking the rules by sheltering Becky. Letting an authority figure know she’s crashing there is a bad idea.

  58. A. B.

    How tall is Ruth? She always seems to be three or four inches above everybody else.

    1. cesium133

      She’s standing on the femurs of her victims.

    2. Leorale

      Here y’go: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/blog/what-the-heck-do-we-care/

      1. Lord Stoneheart

        Whoa, Mary is actually smiling in that image.

        1. Spencer

          Apparently she was going to have more focus and be something of a foil to Joyce.

          Then Willis remembered it’s Mary and the whole thing fell through.

  59. Leorale

    or: http://s174.photobucket.com/user/wandering-dreamer/media/blog%20stuffs/screen-capture-5_zps199de407.png.html

    (sorry it’s not from the DoA site, I just googled for it and that’s what came up.)

  60. Kay

    It’s always nice to see everyone working together for such a good cause. 😀

  61. Dez

    Noooo, why does Mandy have blue hair now?
    I liked her orange hair. It reminded me of my character, Chloe.

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