Depends what Booster’s cooldown is, and how long the effect lasts. They might be able to refresh it often enough to make it effectively a persistent bonus.
Ah yes This is because the condescending/smug person who claims to use psychology when in reality all Walky is saying that we are changing to reuse the terminology instead of admitting towards the idea that we are frauds and not showing our true selves. This logic is flawed because not everyone is showing their fake self, because not everyone has this general idea/fear of hiding their true selves. A good tl;dr For this is: you’re not a smart person for reciting psychological bullshit
Daibhid C
“This logic is flawed because not everyone is showing their fake self, because not everyone has this general idea/fear of hiding their true selves”
And yet every time I bring up the fact that I do and I’m worried about it, people tell me that it’s the same for everyone. I always suspected this was bull, but it’s nice to have it confirmed.
Deanatay
Everyone wears a mask. EVERYONE. Our ‘true selves’ is just when we wear a slightly more ‘honest’ mask. Even then, it’s our own definition of ‘honest’, so take it with a grain of salt.
clif
So there’s no actual true self? It’s just masks all the way down?
You know what? Change those from questions to statements. The evidence indicates pretty solidly that the self we experience is just a construct that our brain mechanisms create to explain ourselves to ourselves. And furthermore they have learned to cheat pretty heavily to do it.
Jhon
Any Buddhist will be happy to confirm this.
CorporateDronesDontHaveMissiles
A construct sure, but not necessarily a mask. Who we are is different day to day and situation to situation basis, but its not necessarily ungenuine.
clif
If it’s a construct and not the reality, I’m not sure how much more ungenuine you can get.
Alfa/Polaris
Yeah, people have many facets to how they work. Sometimes they’re contradictory, which doesn’t imply any of the elements being false. With reality being defined by those who live in it, our construct-based psychological makeup is as real as our needs to eat, sleep and breathe.
Devin
What I always want to ask when someone starts talking about this is who they are to start throwing around assessments about which of my selves is any more or less true than any other. Just because they’re different versions doesn’t mean they’re fake. They’re all me.
Demoted Oblivious
“They’re all me.”
BOOM! Nailed it. Claiming your expression of you is fake seems more often to be about denigrating a person than somehow protecting the rest of us from them. (See also”Fakey” -Malaya). Not that there aren’t people like that. (My ex perjured herself repeatedly in our last custody battle, fortunately, this time I had the evidence to prove it). But the times I’ve heard people attack others as fake seem to occur more often when the accused is being denigrated by the accuser, more than when the accuser is just warning others to be wary of the accused.
Alternately put, by Oprah Winfrey, “when people show you who they are, believe them.”
Leorale
– Maya Angelou.
(I’m sure Oprah has quoted Maya Angelou as well, but that’s who said it first.)
Part of me wonders if Walky changed their seats for the sole purpose of messing with joyce and delivering that line, or if he just didn’t want to walk too far
I’m not sure he was even indicating the back seats specifically so much as all the seats, Lucy just jumped right on approving the most immediate option (lest she indicate a preference that Walky might not share), and from there Walky saw an opportunity to razz Joyce
All made up and nowhere to go
Welcome to this one man show
Just take a seat they’re always free
No surprise, no mystery
In this theater that I call my soul
I always play the starring role–So Lonely!
That’s probably all we’ll get about Billie/Jennifer for a while, and I do have to wonder if Joyce isn’t right. The sorta-toxic-sorta-beautiful Ruth-Billie relationship was worth cheering for but also worth worrying about, and while getting with Asher does look like the definition of a bad decision, it’s possible that she had entirely justified reasons for leaving Ruth and her old self behind. Maybe she finally found out whatever Ruth was failing to remember here. I can’t point to hard evidence, but it seems like Rachel’s beef with her seems to be motivated by something more profound than just being a surly, terrible roommate.
It’s possible, but it’s possible that she’s also just leaving her old self behind and Ruth was part of that. Just as she didn’t change hair styles between high school and college, “Billie” was her name as a drunk cheerleader, as well as her drunk-lesbian-suicide-pact name. If she’s decided to make a clean break, Ruth could quite plausibly just be collateral damage. That would tie in with Ruth’s assertion that she “didn’t lose Billie,” which seems to suggest — or, at least, one possible interpretation of which is — that she did not actively do anything that led to the breakup. (Of course, it can just as easily be interpreted as “I didn’t lose her, I fucked up,” or “I didn’t lose her, I kicked her ass to the curb,” though the latter seems less likely given the fact she kept the spare chair in her room.)
I don’t think there’s any question that Ruth did much worse to Rachel than just be grumpy, but I don’t think it’s necessarily follows that the same thing caused the breakup. Jennifer doesn’t seem the type (to me, at least) to dump someone because she discovers they did something terrible in the past, and whatever Ruth did to Rachel was while her depression was untreated and possibly also while she was drunk (we don’t know when she became an alcoholic; if she already was by then, it might help to explain why she doesn’t remember much of last year, though it’s hard to imagine that Rachel wouldn’t have pulled a Sarah and got her kicked out — unless Gramps pulled some strings then as well, which would give Rachel another reason to be extra cranky). Ruth can have relapses, as we’ve seen, but emotionally she seems to have been on a much more even keel since getting treated, which suggests that her repeating that behavior with Jennifer is less likely.
From a storytelling perspective, I actually think it would be stronger for Ruth not to have repeated her behavior or anything: just because you’re getting better doesn’t mean you get to keep everything that makes you happy, including “the prettiest girl in the whole damned wing” whom you think you don’t deserve (while perhaps learning that it’s not a question of deserving anyway).
TL;DR: If Jennifer had entirely justified reasons for leaving Ruth and her old self behind, they might not have actually had anything to do with Ruth, just with herself.
Well, Rachel does remember something, but as she only drops hints without actually saying out loud „Hey you did XYZ and that was shit/hurt me/ ..l“ she seems to like holding a grudge.
Especially, as she knows that Ruth might not remember. Shitting on someone this way is crap. „Oh, you did something bad to me but I won‘t tell you what.“
Ah, yeah, nice to hear that you‘ll ride whatever it was for the rest of my life in your vicinity without telling me want it was.
I mean, ok, Rachel shouldn’t be held to higher standards then the rest, but her thinking herself morally superior while pulling that is about as annoying as Mary with her whole holier-than-though stick.
Or like a normal person, she thinks the “maybe I don’t” remember is just a bullshit excuse. Especially if it was something serious and Rachel isn’t just blowing a triviality out of proportion.
Demoted Oblivious
Or with all that DID go down, and knowing Ruth is foggy on it all, Rachel is just gas-lighting Ruth to keep fuel in her grudge and to have an excuse to be a raging asshole. Rachel sure doesn’t seem to have any kindness to spare for anyone else.
Leorale
As somebody who dated a fellow who is foggy on some of his really angry shitty behaviours from when he was very ill: it is indeed annoying that he can’t remember it. While I know intellectually that his insanity and his meds can cause memory loss, it just appeared so convenient, you know?
I think he knows that he probably behaved badly when he was angry. But he really seemed like he wanted to shrug it off and act as though he hadn’t done anything at all, instead of acting, accurately, like a guy who probably did shitty things that he couldn’t quite remember. He didn’t present like a guy who would like to know what he did so that he could address it, the things weren’t real to him. There wasn’t much of a way to assess whether he’d engage in those behaviours again.
There’s really no benefit to dredging up my own fading memories and informing/accusing him about it. I don’t need him to apologize or make amends or anything. I just want him to go continue getting treatment someplace else. He’s on meds now! I wish him well.
thejeff
It sounds like you have much better reason to believe that he really doesn’t remember anything than Rachel does about Ruth.
Sam
Especially as most people in fact don’t know that depression can cause memory loss (your sense of time blurs so a lot of similar events blend together and if it wasn’t significant to her as extra bad, but was to Rachel, it would be difficult to pick out or address as an individual thing) and Rachel has no willingness to believe anything other than her own narrative i.e. Ruth is evil and not willing to accept responsibility properly when the reality is more Ruth is actually unable to remember and getting annoyed at the snipes over something she can’t address due to lack of memory!
138 thoughts on “The back”
Ana Chronistic
Walky has changed to being Booster’s playback message
Paradoxius
Being around Booster certainly seems to have made Walky feel more powerful.
Needfuldoer
It’s a buff. He’ll be back to normal after it wears off in a few more turns.
Taellosse
Depends what Booster’s cooldown is, and how long the effect lasts. They might be able to refresh it often enough to make it effectively a persistent bonus.
Buttery Commissar
Aww. I’m really enjoying Walky’s expression in the first panel.
Lumino
Reminds me of Asher.
And makes me want to punch him.
Those two thought might be related.
Rose by Any Other Name
I was just thinking that!
That the expression on Walky’s face makes him look weirdly like Asher, I mean. Not the other part. Although…
AnnoyingFixation
Ah yes This is because the condescending/smug person who claims to use psychology when in reality all Walky is saying that we are changing to reuse the terminology instead of admitting towards the idea that we are frauds and not showing our true selves. This logic is flawed because not everyone is showing their fake self, because not everyone has this general idea/fear of hiding their true selves. A good tl;dr For this is: you’re not a smart person for reciting psychological bullshit
Daibhid C
“This logic is flawed because not everyone is showing their fake self, because not everyone has this general idea/fear of hiding their true selves”
And yet every time I bring up the fact that I do and I’m worried about it, people tell me that it’s the same for everyone. I always suspected this was bull, but it’s nice to have it confirmed.
Deanatay
Everyone wears a mask. EVERYONE. Our ‘true selves’ is just when we wear a slightly more ‘honest’ mask. Even then, it’s our own definition of ‘honest’, so take it with a grain of salt.
clif
So there’s no actual true self? It’s just masks all the way down?
You know what? Change those from questions to statements. The evidence indicates pretty solidly that the self we experience is just a construct that our brain mechanisms create to explain ourselves to ourselves. And furthermore they have learned to cheat pretty heavily to do it.
Jhon
Any Buddhist will be happy to confirm this.
CorporateDronesDontHaveMissiles
A construct sure, but not necessarily a mask. Who we are is different day to day and situation to situation basis, but its not necessarily ungenuine.
clif
If it’s a construct and not the reality, I’m not sure how much more ungenuine you can get.
Alfa/Polaris
Yeah, people have many facets to how they work. Sometimes they’re contradictory, which doesn’t imply any of the elements being false. With reality being defined by those who live in it, our construct-based psychological makeup is as real as our needs to eat, sleep and breathe.
Devin
What I always want to ask when someone starts talking about this is who they are to start throwing around assessments about which of my selves is any more or less true than any other. Just because they’re different versions doesn’t mean they’re fake. They’re all me.
Demoted Oblivious
“They’re all me.”
BOOM! Nailed it. Claiming your expression of you is fake seems more often to be about denigrating a person than somehow protecting the rest of us from them. (See also”Fakey” -Malaya). Not that there aren’t people like that. (My ex perjured herself repeatedly in our last custody battle, fortunately, this time I had the evidence to prove it). But the times I’ve heard people attack others as fake seem to occur more often when the accused is being denigrated by the accuser, more than when the accuser is just warning others to be wary of the accused.
Alternately put, by Oprah Winfrey, “when people show you who they are, believe them.”
Leorale
– Maya Angelou.
(I’m sure Oprah has quoted Maya Angelou as well, but that’s who said it first.)
Joshua Kronengold
And they’re all – here – sewn in the lining of me
In the seam-folds and the small mended corners
Tucked into collar and sleeves in the lining of me
— Talis Kimberly “Small Mended Corners” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbv4bnR7K-8)
ktbear
Meanwhile, Walky’s expression in the last panel makes him look like Faz.
Doctor_Who
Re: Alt Text
Obvious Booster’s attacks do recurrent psychic damage which continues throughout the day.
They need someone to cast Esuna.
Amy
Or the old SCH cleanse: Leeches.
Diner Kinetic
Part of me wonders if Walky changed their seats for the sole purpose of messing with joyce and delivering that line, or if he just didn’t want to walk too far
Jamie
Walky’s the kind of person who would definitely prefer the back seats. It’s just that he sat with Sal on the first day and … didn’t like change?
Tan
I’m not sure he was even indicating the back seats specifically so much as all the seats, Lucy just jumped right on approving the most immediate option (lest she indicate a preference that Walky might not share), and from there Walky saw an opportunity to razz Joyce
BBCC
Walky and Joyce will never stop being Walky and Joyce.
Also, Joyce, you sure you don’t need glasses?
Doctor_Who
Don’t see how they would help, she doesn’t have pupils.
King Daniel
Of course she doesn’t have pupils, she’s still a student!
Geneseepaws
Thank you. Someone had to do it, and I didn’t want to.
clif
Same.
Demoted Oblivious
I may beneath all of you, but nothing is beneath me! -The Underminer
Demoted Oblivious
(golf clap). That’s a fine pun, for eagle.
Robbie
He’s being mean. 🙁
JiggyJohn
just noticed…walky has a yellow stripe on the shirt under his jacket.
clif
We all know what that means.
David Doty
He peed himself in a very strange position?
JenGen
Ooof. Gotta feel a bit sorry for Lucy cause I don’t think this is gonna go the way she wants it too…
Pacce
Walky is such a great friend. Who needs Mike to attack insecurities when you got Walky?
Clif
The conservation of Mike principal at work.
Grath
Er, is the Asher smirk contagious??
Stephen Bierce
An outbreak of smirkalepsy?
JessWitt
The Booster psychoanalysis is definitely spreading.
cmasta1992
Yes…give Joyce glasses. The stars must align.
Doctor_Who
Joyce gets glasses, and also a haircut on the same day, and walks into the room looking oddly like Dorothy.
Becky’s brain would immediately break.
Mra
She would look like a mini Jocelyne
Needfuldoer
Yes, please…
Stephen Bierce
All made up and nowhere to go
Welcome to this one man show
Just take a seat they’re always free
No surprise, no mystery
In this theater that I call my soul
I always play the starring role–So Lonely!
Stephen Bierce
I wanted the Bonnaroo version but they don’t have it
Suet
Don’t be a smartass, Walky.
*powerwashes with a hose*
Yotomoe
We have to learn to accept change. Especially when we’re getting paid in change.
Clif
Your saying we should cash in on change?
Demoted Oblivious
No, Yoto is saying that change is the currency of life.
clif
I thought it was time we were spending.
Or wasting as the case may be.
Geneseepaws
Ask any baby; Change is good!
Else you get diaper rash….
Kravis
You know who used to say “Embrace the Change”, Joyce?
THE SKRULLS, Joyce!
THE SKRULLS.
The ones that tried to invade and coquer Earth because of some bullshit ancient prophecy. So, yeah. The Skrulls, Joyce.
Romanticide
that was a an event… that I didn’t like…
T Campbell
That’s probably all we’ll get about Billie/Jennifer for a while, and I do have to wonder if Joyce isn’t right. The sorta-toxic-sorta-beautiful Ruth-Billie relationship was worth cheering for but also worth worrying about, and while getting with Asher does look like the definition of a bad decision, it’s possible that she had entirely justified reasons for leaving Ruth and her old self behind. Maybe she finally found out whatever Ruth was failing to remember here. I can’t point to hard evidence, but it seems like Rachel’s beef with her seems to be motivated by something more profound than just being a surly, terrible roommate.
Rabid Rabbit
It’s possible, but it’s possible that she’s also just leaving her old self behind and Ruth was part of that. Just as she didn’t change hair styles between high school and college, “Billie” was her name as a drunk cheerleader, as well as her drunk-lesbian-suicide-pact name. If she’s decided to make a clean break, Ruth could quite plausibly just be collateral damage. That would tie in with Ruth’s assertion that she “didn’t lose Billie,” which seems to suggest — or, at least, one possible interpretation of which is — that she did not actively do anything that led to the breakup. (Of course, it can just as easily be interpreted as “I didn’t lose her, I fucked up,” or “I didn’t lose her, I kicked her ass to the curb,” though the latter seems less likely given the fact she kept the spare chair in her room.)
I don’t think there’s any question that Ruth did much worse to Rachel than just be grumpy, but I don’t think it’s necessarily follows that the same thing caused the breakup. Jennifer doesn’t seem the type (to me, at least) to dump someone because she discovers they did something terrible in the past, and whatever Ruth did to Rachel was while her depression was untreated and possibly also while she was drunk (we don’t know when she became an alcoholic; if she already was by then, it might help to explain why she doesn’t remember much of last year, though it’s hard to imagine that Rachel wouldn’t have pulled a Sarah and got her kicked out — unless Gramps pulled some strings then as well, which would give Rachel another reason to be extra cranky). Ruth can have relapses, as we’ve seen, but emotionally she seems to have been on a much more even keel since getting treated, which suggests that her repeating that behavior with Jennifer is less likely.
From a storytelling perspective, I actually think it would be stronger for Ruth not to have repeated her behavior or anything: just because you’re getting better doesn’t mean you get to keep everything that makes you happy, including “the prettiest girl in the whole damned wing” whom you think you don’t deserve (while perhaps learning that it’s not a question of deserving anyway).
TL;DR: If Jennifer had entirely justified reasons for leaving Ruth and her old self behind, they might not have actually had anything to do with Ruth, just with herself.
CJ
Well, Rachel does remember something, but as she only drops hints without actually saying out loud „Hey you did XYZ and that was shit/hurt me/ ..l“ she seems to like holding a grudge.
Especially, as she knows that Ruth might not remember. Shitting on someone this way is crap. „Oh, you did something bad to me but I won‘t tell you what.“
Ah, yeah, nice to hear that you‘ll ride whatever it was for the rest of my life in your vicinity without telling me want it was.
I mean, ok, Rachel shouldn’t be held to higher standards then the rest, but her thinking herself morally superior while pulling that is about as annoying as Mary with her whole holier-than-though stick.
thejeff
Or like a normal person, she thinks the “maybe I don’t” remember is just a bullshit excuse. Especially if it was something serious and Rachel isn’t just blowing a triviality out of proportion.
Demoted Oblivious
Or with all that DID go down, and knowing Ruth is foggy on it all, Rachel is just gas-lighting Ruth to keep fuel in her grudge and to have an excuse to be a raging asshole. Rachel sure doesn’t seem to have any kindness to spare for anyone else.
Leorale
As somebody who dated a fellow who is foggy on some of his really angry shitty behaviours from when he was very ill: it is indeed annoying that he can’t remember it. While I know intellectually that his insanity and his meds can cause memory loss, it just appeared so convenient, you know?
I think he knows that he probably behaved badly when he was angry. But he really seemed like he wanted to shrug it off and act as though he hadn’t done anything at all, instead of acting, accurately, like a guy who probably did shitty things that he couldn’t quite remember. He didn’t present like a guy who would like to know what he did so that he could address it, the things weren’t real to him. There wasn’t much of a way to assess whether he’d engage in those behaviours again.
There’s really no benefit to dredging up my own fading memories and informing/accusing him about it. I don’t need him to apologize or make amends or anything. I just want him to go continue getting treatment someplace else. He’s on meds now! I wish him well.
thejeff
It sounds like you have much better reason to believe that he really doesn’t remember anything than Rachel does about Ruth.
Sam
Especially as most people in fact don’t know that depression can cause memory loss (your sense of time blurs so a lot of similar events blend together and if it wasn’t significant to her as extra bad, but was to Rachel, it would be difficult to pick out or address as an individual thing) and Rachel has no willingness to believe anything other than her own narrative i.e. Ruth is evil and not willing to accept responsibility properly when the reality is more Ruth is actually unable to remember and getting annoyed at the snipes over something she can’t address due to lack of memory!
Sterling
Joyce probably DOES need glasses.
Rabid Rabbit
If only she’d learnt that in Roomies! She’d have had no difficulties in seducing Danny then!
Minim
Or they’d help her to see what a cockwomble he is…
Clif
Your saying we should cash in on change?
Clif
That was supposed to be a reply. Let’s try again.
Clif
Good. Worked better the second time. Now if we could just delete our posts that were
embarrassingwrong.