Yeah, she did promise, didn’t she? Though part of her seems to be fighting to break that promise. The same part that makes her say things like “not yet.”
So what she told Billie in their last parting is still true– Billie really is Ruth’s only hope, right this minute. By all means, Billie is strongly advised to get more of a support system around Ruth as quickly as possible by any means necessary, but the next move is hers, and she no longer has the luxury of wallowing in failure.
Meantime, let’s just hope Ruth doesn’t get into any circumstances that’d make her feel right about a dramatic “self-sacrifice.” It’s only a “sacrifice” if you actually want what you’re giving up.
I mean, think about it. Ruth’s kind of just been saying that she doesn’t want Billie around. Billie has every right to be like #won’t deal. To say that Billie is her last hope isn’t true, either; Ruth’s a lot stronger than that. She’ll make mistakes, sure, because she’s human. But at this very moment, she’s strong enough to resist drinking even after, you know, that whole thing with Billie.
Personally, I think she just needs to put more faith in herself.
Given all of that, onus is on Billie to step in and help. She did it before, and just because she’s hurt doesn’t mean she shouldn’t do it again. (Or rather, it’s what a hero would do, and Billie wants to be a hero in her own right.)
I think it’s absolutely unfair, but Ruth is dead wrong about one thing: in college or elsewhere, we rarely get exactly what we deserve, at least in the short term. This is the hand Billie’s been dealt: how she plays will determine who she is.
Gigafreak
Billie is not the hero Ruth deserved, but the hero she needed.
Well she’s the hero she gets, one way or the other.
ninja_jesus
How is that not unfair to Billie? To put that amount of stress and guilt on anyone is pretty harsh. “You are my only hope”, a.k.a. “You are the only person on this planet that is giving me the will to live, don’t fuck it up.” I do not think you understand the implications of this, and the effect that it’s had on Billie.
On the other hand, Billie did volunteer for this, and she was the one who broke the promise. I hope she’ll do the right thing and save Ruth from herself. :\
Kodra
I think we’re in violent agreement. None of us asked for the lives we live, what we control is how we respond. Billie has sorta embroiled herself into this whole mess, and she is the only one who can do something about it. She’s a head cheerleader. The problem solver. That’s the identity she’s most comfortable with. Part of her current breakdown is the loss of that identity.
In some ways, this is exactly what she needs: A problem that she can solve.
Arkadi
Well, Ruth said “You *were* my only hope” and that was when she broke up with Billie. It’s not like she put the pressure on her while they were together.
whatintheliteralfuck
Ninja_jesus, i have nothing worth saying on your statement, but you may want to keep a lookout, some guy named rick is looking for you.
Roland Jones
What Ruth is doing is pretty awful; going to someone and telling them “if I die it’s YOUR fault” is a fucked up thing to do. And Ruth forced herself on Billie, which was also pretty fucked up. Making out with someone without their consent and guilt-tripping them with threats of suicide are not nice things to do to someone, to put it mildly. Ruth shouldn’t be alternating between molesting someone (someone she has power over as her RA, at that) and demanding that that person save her from herself. She put Billie in the situation you describe here, so yes, it is entirely unfair to her. It’s downright abusive.
Ikaru
Passive aggression and regular aggression. Not a nice mix. Neither of these girls are exactly stable, but at least I think they are both aware of this.
Kodra
I don’t think Ruth realized what she said. She was trying to absolve Billie, but in the process revealed just how wounded she still is. She’s not forcing this on Billie, but now that Billie knows, she is compelled to act. Because that’s who Billie is.
Deanatay
When you save someone’s life, you’re responsible for the rest of it.
whatintheliteralfuck
in that case i think most people who’ve stopped a suicide have caused even more suicides because they thought the problem was over.
JepMZ
I…thought she’s talking about that she still cares without outright admitting it and Billie finally realizes that?
I would be a little more worried about the “drowning myself” part of that monologue. Ruth’s an English major, after all, and she’s currently feeling very much like a betrayed lover. Does she have the full on self-destructive drama queen chops to pull a full Ophelia?
LeslieBean4Shizzle
I was going to make a joke about Ruth being murdered by Billie’s mother, but it occurred to me that the popular theory that Gertrude murdered Ophelia isn’t well known outside certain circles.
Catullus
What does Gertrude stand to gain from murdering Ophelia?
LeslieBean4Shizzle
1) Ophelia called her an adulterer, to her face, in their last scene together.
2) If Ophelia is pregnant with Hamlet’s child (which her carrying around an armful of birth control suggests) then that child is the rightful heir to the throne, NOT any child Gertrude has with Claudius, which factors into…
3) Ophelia offers Gertrude some of her birth control, and says that Gertrude likely has need of it as well, implying that Gertrude may be pregnant by Claudius.
It should be noted that birth control in that time period often worked by chemical abortion. Every single plant that Ophelia is noted to be carrying can be used to either prevent or terminate pregnancies.
LeslieBean4Shizzle
There’s more, but I assume you don’t want me to copy/paste entire articles in here.
LeslieBean4Shizzle
An additional note: On number 1, I should have noted, Ophelia used the flower language popular among Elizabethan nobles to call her an adulterer. Ophelia: “There’s fennel for you, and columbines.”
Fennel and columbines and nasty shit in Elizabethan flower language. That’s pretty much the Elizabethan version of calling the Queen a whore, Gerry Springer style.
Kaoy
That actually would make a lot of sense. I never understood why Ophelia would have killed herself, but could totally see Gertude doing the deed/ordering someone to.
Worth noting here that most Shakespeare plays have some elements that are ‘lost in translation’, so to speak. I never new about the flower language or the birth control information. It is quite possible that that was the intended assumption for its original audience to make.
Ivan
Better the Fennel than the way used on camels for centuries before that. They used to (used to?) take a stone, roll up their sleeves (or remove their KKK sheets) and stuff it into a camel’s uterus as a de facto IUD.
I’ve seen fisting, but never cervical fisting!
Thomas
@ Ivan: While interesting in terms of content, I find the way you chose to phrase your comment in poor taste. Comparing the garb of desert nomads to Klan robes, implying there are similarities between the two groups, is xenophobic. The fisting joke seems to imply sexual violence.
Soon, all comics are about bathtime.
“Don’t make me bathe, you wouldn’t like me when I bathe.”
Bathman: The Scrubbed Night
“I’m the best at what I do, and what I do is refreshingly clean.”
Soap boxes in alley this morning, tire tread on empty shampoo bottle. This city is afraid of me. I have seen it’s true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of mud and when the drains finally dry up, all the vermin will suffocate. The accumulated filth of all their filth and mud will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Cleanse us!”…
Yeah, I bet the invention of philosophy and the invention of showers are linked somehow.
I mean didn’t Archimedes have a great idea in the bath and run outside yelling “Eureka!”?
Kinoko
The story goes that he noticed while getting into his bath that the water rose, and was therefore being displaced by the volume of his body.
So he actually had a revelation *about* the bath, rather than just in it.
239 thoughts on “Not yet”
An Average Loser
But. . . She can’t.
Camachri
She will, and she’ll like it. (She won’t like it)
T Campbell
Yeah, she did promise, didn’t she? Though part of her seems to be fighting to break that promise. The same part that makes her say things like “not yet.”
So what she told Billie in their last parting is still true– Billie really is Ruth’s only hope, right this minute. By all means, Billie is strongly advised to get more of a support system around Ruth as quickly as possible by any means necessary, but the next move is hers, and she no longer has the luxury of wallowing in failure.
Meantime, let’s just hope Ruth doesn’t get into any circumstances that’d make her feel right about a dramatic “self-sacrifice.” It’s only a “sacrifice” if you actually want what you’re giving up.
Helmet
That’s kind of unfair to Billie, though.
I mean, think about it. Ruth’s kind of just been saying that she doesn’t want Billie around. Billie has every right to be like #won’t deal. To say that Billie is her last hope isn’t true, either; Ruth’s a lot stronger than that. She’ll make mistakes, sure, because she’s human. But at this very moment, she’s strong enough to resist drinking even after, you know, that whole thing with Billie.
Personally, I think she just needs to put more faith in herself.
Kodra
I don’t think it’s unfair to Billie at all. Billie is the only one in a position to help Ruth. She’s the only person who has seen all of the various sides of Ruth, which Ruth has stated in the text of this comic: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/privy/
Given all of that, onus is on Billie to step in and help. She did it before, and just because she’s hurt doesn’t mean she shouldn’t do it again. (Or rather, it’s what a hero would do, and Billie wants to be a hero in her own right.)
T Campbell
I think it’s absolutely unfair, but Ruth is dead wrong about one thing: in college or elsewhere, we rarely get exactly what we deserve, at least in the short term. This is the hand Billie’s been dealt: how she plays will determine who she is.
Gigafreak
Billie is not the hero Ruth deserved, but the hero she needed.
Opus the Poet
Well she’s the hero she gets, one way or the other.
ninja_jesus
How is that not unfair to Billie? To put that amount of stress and guilt on anyone is pretty harsh. “You are my only hope”, a.k.a. “You are the only person on this planet that is giving me the will to live, don’t fuck it up.” I do not think you understand the implications of this, and the effect that it’s had on Billie.
On the other hand, Billie did volunteer for this, and she was the one who broke the promise. I hope she’ll do the right thing and save Ruth from herself. :\
Kodra
I think we’re in violent agreement. None of us asked for the lives we live, what we control is how we respond. Billie has sorta embroiled herself into this whole mess, and she is the only one who can do something about it. She’s a head cheerleader. The problem solver. That’s the identity she’s most comfortable with. Part of her current breakdown is the loss of that identity.
In some ways, this is exactly what she needs: A problem that she can solve.
Arkadi
Well, Ruth said “You *were* my only hope” and that was when she broke up with Billie. It’s not like she put the pressure on her while they were together.
whatintheliteralfuck
Ninja_jesus, i have nothing worth saying on your statement, but you may want to keep a lookout, some guy named rick is looking for you.
Roland Jones
What Ruth is doing is pretty awful; going to someone and telling them “if I die it’s YOUR fault” is a fucked up thing to do. And Ruth forced herself on Billie, which was also pretty fucked up. Making out with someone without their consent and guilt-tripping them with threats of suicide are not nice things to do to someone, to put it mildly. Ruth shouldn’t be alternating between molesting someone (someone she has power over as her RA, at that) and demanding that that person save her from herself. She put Billie in the situation you describe here, so yes, it is entirely unfair to her. It’s downright abusive.
Ikaru
Passive aggression and regular aggression. Not a nice mix. Neither of these girls are exactly stable, but at least I think they are both aware of this.
Kodra
I don’t think Ruth realized what she said. She was trying to absolve Billie, but in the process revealed just how wounded she still is. She’s not forcing this on Billie, but now that Billie knows, she is compelled to act. Because that’s who Billie is.
Deanatay
When you save someone’s life, you’re responsible for the rest of it.
whatintheliteralfuck
in that case i think most people who’ve stopped a suicide have caused even more suicides because they thought the problem was over.
JepMZ
I…thought she’s talking about that she still cares without outright admitting it and Billie finally realizes that?
JWLM
I would be a little more worried about the “drowning myself” part of that monologue. Ruth’s an English major, after all, and she’s currently feeling very much like a betrayed lover. Does she have the full on self-destructive drama queen chops to pull a full Ophelia?
LeslieBean4Shizzle
I was going to make a joke about Ruth being murdered by Billie’s mother, but it occurred to me that the popular theory that Gertrude murdered Ophelia isn’t well known outside certain circles.
Catullus
What does Gertrude stand to gain from murdering Ophelia?
LeslieBean4Shizzle
1) Ophelia called her an adulterer, to her face, in their last scene together.
2) If Ophelia is pregnant with Hamlet’s child (which her carrying around an armful of birth control suggests) then that child is the rightful heir to the throne, NOT any child Gertrude has with Claudius, which factors into…
3) Ophelia offers Gertrude some of her birth control, and says that Gertrude likely has need of it as well, implying that Gertrude may be pregnant by Claudius.
It should be noted that birth control in that time period often worked by chemical abortion. Every single plant that Ophelia is noted to be carrying can be used to either prevent or terminate pregnancies.
LeslieBean4Shizzle
There’s more, but I assume you don’t want me to copy/paste entire articles in here.
LeslieBean4Shizzle
An additional note: On number 1, I should have noted, Ophelia used the flower language popular among Elizabethan nobles to call her an adulterer. Ophelia: “There’s fennel for you, and columbines.”
Fennel and columbines and nasty shit in Elizabethan flower language. That’s pretty much the Elizabethan version of calling the Queen a whore, Gerry Springer style.
Kaoy
That actually would make a lot of sense. I never understood why Ophelia would have killed herself, but could totally see Gertude doing the deed/ordering someone to.
Worth noting here that most Shakespeare plays have some elements that are ‘lost in translation’, so to speak. I never new about the flower language or the birth control information. It is quite possible that that was the intended assumption for its original audience to make.
Ivan
Better the Fennel than the way used on camels for centuries before that. They used to (used to?) take a stone, roll up their sleeves (or remove their KKK sheets) and stuff it into a camel’s uterus as a de facto IUD.
I’ve seen fisting, but never cervical fisting!
Thomas
@ Ivan: While interesting in terms of content, I find the way you chose to phrase your comment in poor taste. Comparing the garb of desert nomads to Klan robes, implying there are similarities between the two groups, is xenophobic. The fisting joke seems to imply sexual violence.
Historyman68
Whoa, mind blown.
Ivan
I knew that would do it.
Mr. Random
Who checked?
Jen Aside
Who bathes the bathmen?
AgentKeen
Soon, all comics are about bathtime.
“Don’t make me bathe, you wouldn’t like me when I bathe.”
Bathman: The Scrubbed Night
“I’m the best at what I do, and what I do is refreshingly clean.”
…I may be a little punch-drunk tonight.
Camachri
About time they cleaned up their act.
Pink Freud
Time is an illusion. Bathtime doubly so.
Jen Aside
moar like BUBBLY SO
Mr. Random
Soap boxes in alley this morning, tire tread on empty shampoo bottle. This city is afraid of me. I have seen it’s true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of mud and when the drains finally dry up, all the vermin will suffocate. The accumulated filth of all their filth and mud will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Cleanse us!”…
…and I’ll look down, and whisper “no.”
Mass Confusion
I wish I had more “Yes” just for your comment
Ocbrad1
Agreed!
David M Willis
WHO WASHES THE WASHMEN, GOD DANGIT
jeffepp
The Omb-suds-men, of course. With their giant blue, lufas.
NCP19
Have all of my admiration
Rybridge
The Dark Knight Rinses
Bane: Nobody cared who I was until I scrubbed off the mask.
Deanatay
Scrubbing Of Age: When Somebody Washed Me
Gigafreak
I am vengeance. I arm the night. I am Bathman.
Swerve
With great power there must come great responsibility to bathe frequently and wash your costume twice a week, True Believer!
Rufus Saltus
Because the original quote was in Latin and I can’t help myself:
Quis lavabit ipsos lotores?
gwalla
YES
StClair
Ave!
Jen Aside
DANGIT
[I had actually started with “showers” so I guess at least “bathes” was kinda recognizeable]
nothri
…..are you looking for volunteers? Cause I’ll bite that bullet!
whatintheliteralfuck
sounds painful
Nono
Dumbing of Age: Introspective Moments in the Shower
An Average Loser
I thought everyone does that.
Tunaro
I just jam to Daft Punk.
nekobawt
you’re up all night to get soapy?
Deanatay
Sudsy. Up all night to Get Sudsy.
Doctor_Who
Yeah, I bet the invention of philosophy and the invention of showers are linked somehow.
I mean didn’t Archimedes have a great idea in the bath and run outside yelling “Eureka!”?
Kinoko
The story goes that he noticed while getting into his bath that the water rose, and was therefore being displaced by the volume of his body.
So he actually had a revelation *about* the bath, rather than just in it.
Avery
That was more physics than philosophy. Lotsa good physics probably got worked out in the shower.
Deanatay
And all the other Greeks said, “You don’t smell so hot, yourself!”
BalRog gets a "D"...and PASSES!!!
and the colored girls go, “Doot, Doodoot, Doodoot, Doot-doodoot…”
Ivan
yes, but the idea was a catapult.
Yotomoe
I daydream about my characters and sing the english version of Bloody Stream.
Ivan
The Mandarin version, combined with ‘sing-song’ is much more interesting.
Aizat
You didn’t?
Idon'tcarenomore
Interesting pattern of strip. Nice work. wake up Billie
AgentKeen
…Ah shite.
Foxhack
Oh so now she has a reason to get drunk again.
Tunaro
Blue flashbacks? What the Hell does Blue mean?
Aizat
Blue means Billie picked the Control Ending.
thomas0comer
Does that mean Amber, with her red flashbacks, is a renegade player?
Aizat
I didn’t see the red nightmare scars on her. Must’ve been Paragade.
Tunaro
You can be Paragon and still pick Destroy. Shepard deserves to survive, damn it.