297

Hipster
Posted on November 24, 2018 by David M Willis

297 thoughts on “Hipster”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “fuck this, I’m resigning 4 REAL and moving to Bulmeria”

    1. Clif

      What? You think Bulmeria doesn’t have a backstory?

      1. K^2

        But is it interlocking with anything?

  2. Doctor_Who

    “Also, one of these people is the twin sister of your girlfriend’s childhood friend slash pseudo-sibling, and the other is dating him.”

    “That’s it, I’m moving back to Toronto! I hear there’s affordable housing available on Degrassi street, that place sounds drama free!”

    1. Yumi

      NOTHING dramatic has EVER happened in the history of Degrassi, street or school.

    2. Jimi

      that was even better than the alt text tbh, best comment here, good job

      1. Jimi

        Uh, because of my gravatar, I feel the need to mention that *wasn’t* sarcasm

    3. Piotr W

      Wait, Degrassi was a Canadian show???

      1. Deanatay

        They’re referring to Avalon, a now-defunct webcomic.

        1. Kamino Neko

          I’ve never read Avalon, so I don’t know if it had a Degrassi Street, but it wasn’t set in Toronto, so the mention of Toronto rather points to the actual Degrassi series. (Or the actual De Grassi street in the actual Toronto, but the context makes the fictional series far more likely.)

      2. Kamino Neko

        Yes, it was. Several Canadian shows actually (The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, and Degrassi: TNG). Named for, and initially set primarily on, a real Toronto street (actually spelt De Grassi). Started on CBC in 1979.

        1. Needfuldoer

          So, did it follow one group of kids as they grew up, get married, have kids of their own, and never move out of their old neighborhood?

        2. showler

          Yes and no. Lots of new kids all the time, but some series regulars lasted through almost the entire run of all four shows with their kids becoming primary characters later. It’s Canadian Coronation Street.

        3. Kamino Neko

          I never actually watched TNG, so I can’t say for sure how much of the adult generation were DJH/DH (KDS had a different cast of characters, if not entirely a different cast of actors) students, but, AIUI (from looking information up when it was first starting), there were a few first-gen students who were still involved, but, for the most part, not. (Checking, it lasted for a decade and a half (holy shnickies!), so it clearly had to expand beyond the school by the end. Also, there’s yet another new series, Next Class.)

      3. HeySo

        “Degrassi was a Canadian show???”

        There was a US version of Degrassi, but it was far worse reviewed.

        (Because, leave it to Hollywood to needlessly remake an excellent offering into something far worse; See: The Hollywood dumpsterfire remakes of Let The Right One In and the Millenium Series [ie, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo].)

        Moreover, I’m of the understanding that there’s several Degrassi (seasons/serieses/variations/successors) now, but that the US version is still limited to the single offering.

        That said, I really need to get to watching the series myself, at some point. Do those of you familiar with it think it aged well enough to give a go, still?

    4. Screwball

      Daniel here. I know it’s a bit late to add new comments, but this gives me a thought-

      How ARE they going to explain this to Walky?!? “Hey, Bro, you know your new girlfriend? Yeah, turns out she’s the 1 who stabbed me in the hand at the holdup, so I just strangled her half to death…”
      “Hey, Walky, you know how your Sister held up that convenience store years ago? Well I’m the 1 who stabbed her hand back then. Oh, and we just beat the snot out of each other just now and she almost choked me to death, but at least I stood up to her instead of panicking and running away…”

      1. HeySo

        Walky’ll go into a three-day stupor, wherein he’s unable to think of anything other than chicken nuggets. After that, he’ll just pretend he never heard the stuff to begin with. It’ll become a whole repression arc, much like the ones from It’s Walky.
        ..Now, if I remember that series correctly, he finally fully gets over his anxieties when he bangs the object of his anxieties, so.. guess there’ll be a Walky x Amber slipshine in the future [I’m casually assuming there aren’t already a dozen, despite suspecting there actually are.]

  3. newllend(henryvolt)

    Greatest job in the world ain’t it Ruth?

  4. Kris

    Probably above your paygrade Ruth.

    1. Agemegos

      Quite. Ruth — as she herself recognises — was not given adequate training for RAing the ordinary complications of the lives of a typical selection of teenagers. Amber’s DID is not amateur hour stuff. She is seriously mentally ill, and she is engaging in behaviour that is dangerous, self-destructive, and violent. Ruth is not equipped for this. Amber needs expert care.

      1. Fart Captor

        What happened here was a fistfight between two of her residents. Ruth is ENTIRELY able to handle that much

        1. Cholma

          Ruth: “You are eached fined one femur a piece for fighting. You may choose which leg.” (Pre-medication Ruth wouldn’t have allowed that choice; she’s improving!)

  5. Stephen Bierce

    Amber’s powers of recovery are quite remarkable.

    1. jeffepp

      Eh, she’s use to getting choked out when she’s… er… Slipshining.

    2. newllend(henryvolt)

      What’s remarkable is that those glasses aren’t damaged Beyond repair.

      1. Doctor_Who

        Maybe shet gets them the same place as Ruth.

      2. DailyBrad

        She’s lucky in that they fell off before they got to wrestling on the ground, I think, so the glasses were off when they were most in danger of getting messed up.

      3. Kensou

        They’d been damaged, and yet are pristine once again. Those are DAMN impressive specs on those specs.

        1. Michael Steamweed

          They’re Amazi-specs.

    3. segnosaur

      Well, technically we don’t know how long it has been since the end of the fight. The fight may have only lasted a minute, and it probably would take Dorothy a couple of minutes to find Ruth and bring her down. So everyone may have been ‘resting’ for a minute or 2. Plus, Amber hasn’t really done much (except for to retrieve her glasses).

  6. jeffepp

    So, you’re saying they weren’t born the instant you first saw them?

    1. Shen Hibiki

      No, no. Having backstories is expected.
      She didn’t expect them to interlock.
      The backstories were supposed to be all the same way Joyce likes her food. Nothing touching anything else.

      1. ǝ snow ʍousɐ

        Aptly put!

      2. ǝ snow ʍousɐ

        (Also, I like your heterochromatic furry avatar, it’s super cute :3)

  7. figureaddict

    I pity Ruth

  8. shadowcell

    Dumbing of Age Book 9: That Was Nice

    1. Keulen

      Dumbing of Age Book 9: Hipster, Toyboy, Out of the Way.

  9. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    Ah some levity. It feels like it has been *so damn* long ago since we last saw some.

    Cool to see that I was right in that Dorothy would go grab the RA thanks to her respect in authority figures.

    Also I can’t tell if I like or dislike the brevity of their replies or not. It’s a amusing sure, realistic too, but it also leave a heck of a lot out that could cause issues for the both if Ruth decides that this is above her paygrade.

    Best case scenario? She somehow rangles them into Counseling or Therapy. Worst case scenario she tries to cover that this fight happened, Ruth get’s taken off of her RA position, and SIR comes back into the picture.

    1. DailyBrad

      Part of me can see Ruth being like, “No one’s bleeding, no one’s concussed? Get out of here and call shit even.”

      1. Rabid Rabbit

        “Dorothy, you pulled me away from hockey for this? At least there I’m guaranteed to see a concussion or two.”

  10. Yumi

    It took me a minute to realize “toyboy” was about…toys, and not some flipped around version of “boytoy.” And ALSO, it turns out “toyboy” has other meanings and of the two is the one spellcheck recognizes.

    1. Agemegos

      I’m much more used to hearing it to mean “boytoy” than o hearing “boytoy”.

      1. Yumi

        Are you British by any chance?

        1. Agemegos

          Australian.

        2. Yumi

          That makes sense, then. I assume if Ruth had meant the shared meaning, she would have gone with “boytoy,” but…

    2. BigDogLittleCat

      !!! I didn’t get that until you pointed it out! That line didn’t feel right when I ready it- because I was reading “boytoy” also.

    3. Miri

      I was wondering if whatsit who he hooked up with
      (Thad?) was a grad student/mature student ? That makes more sense!

      Also only heard boytoy used as a playful flip of toyboy (Briish)!

    4. Keulen

      I misread it as “tomboy” at first and was confused about who Ruth was talking to.

      1. Dana

        Same.

        1. Felian

          Same. and then i read boytoy and was still confused

  11. Agemegos

    You tattle. To Ruthless.

    Way to president.

    1. Yumi

      Look, my expectation of what qualifies as “presidential” has pretty much been blown up by this point and was probably a foolish notion to begin with.

      1. Agemegos

        If Dorothy wanted to be a serious candidate she would have tweeted about it.

        1. segnosaur

          Including making up stupid nick names for the participants.

        2. C.T Phipps

          Dorothy is running into the problem for her Presidential run of getting people other than Joyce to like her.

    2. segnosaur

      Why is that wrong?

      A fight could have caused serious problems…physical injury, property damage, etc. And none of the witnesses (including Dorothy) had any training to deal with that. Ruth may not be an expert, but she was probably the closest authority figure who might have SOME idea on how to de-escalate the situation.

      Hopefully anyone who rises to the position of president will understand when they need to call on people with more expertise.

      1. Agemegos

        It’s not wrong. That’s probably why it’s unpresidential. You get to leadership positions by being strong, not by doing right.

        1. segnosaur

          I thought you got into leadership positions by getting assistance from Russian hackers.

        2. Agemegos

          Dorothy should be so lucky.

        3. Questionor

          OTOH keeping Amber alive might give her her own hacker.

        4. the final pam

          A good part of leadership is also deferring to people better suited for the situation. If a leader isn’t qualified in a specific task, they hire or otherwise acquire people who are to make up for their faults. A terrible leader is one that steps into a situation they are not qualified nor have any expertise in and makes a huge mess of it, leaving someone else to clean up. If Dorothy had intervened on her own, there’s a great chance that neither of them would have listened to her, and since she doesn’t have the physical capabilities of restraining either of them, she could’ve just gotten hurt if she had stepped in. On the other hand, Ruth has a dominating authority and is more than likely physically on par with either of them, and could physically step in if it needed it.

        5. aureus

          That’s an awfully long way of saying “Maxim 63: The brass knows how to do it by knowing who can do it.”

        6. the final pam

          Yeah, I’ve never heard that quote before so?

        7. Bathymetheus

          It’s from https://www.schlockmercenary.com/

          Note: this is a daily strip that has been running for years – possibly even longer than DoA. I’m not even sure the early strips are still available on line.

        8. Bathymetheus

          Just checked. Archive does indeed go back to the very beginning.

        9. Remmington Steele

          Delegation is part of a leader’s job description.

        10. Deanatay

          IME, good leaders rarely rise to positions of power.

          Admittedly, when they DO, we all benefit.

        11. ego

          leadership is saying “me MUCH strong” 62,400 times.

  12. Pterodactyl Ghost

    Ah, the good ol’ days of 5 minutes ago.
    I remember it like it was… 5 minutes ago.
    The life of an R.A. was so simple then.
    Not like these days with all these Millennials and their personal problems!
    Dadgummit!

  13. Darkoneko

    that sideway eyes

  14. chris73

    Dorothy did exactly the right thing here, she couldn;t physically stop so she did the next best thing.

    Ruth, hopefully, will put this up the line for someone else to deal with because shes is emotionally unable to handle this and needs to put herself first

    1. Clif

      Dorothy couldn’t physically stop them, but neither could Ruth. But Ruth has the power of sarcasm.

  15. Luna

    I mean… Amber’s also done a lot of other stuff much more recently that Sal has a right to call out (I know it was Amazi-girl running a lot of the show, but Sal wouldn’t know that and Amber was still cognizant of most of it). Could be coming up, I mostly just hope it doesn’t get brushed aside in the heat of the moment.

    1. thejeff

      All of which also involves outing Amazi-Girl, which she might not actually want to do. And which she’s mostly made her peace with, until learning that Amber was the one who stabbed her.

      1. Luna

        I don’t think it has to involve outing Amazi-Girl. If this were a full trial she was required to give evidence for, then she’d have to, but just saying ‘this girl’s been stalking and harassing me for weeks’ seems sufficient for trying to explain why she got into a fight with her. And you can’t say she made her peace with the stalking before she knew about their shared history when that history drastically recontextualizes said stalking. It makes it far more threatening and any peace they formed after feel deceitful.

  16. Kris

    Sal’s apologized for that. Still haven’t heard nothing from you Ambs. Not even on the stalking which is way less justified.

    1. marillius

      Amber already apologized for that in the past and Sal apologized to Ethan.

      1. Laladoria

        When did Amber apologize?

        1. Kris

          Yeah I’d like to know that too. The Amber I know was imagining ways to tell Walky without actually telling him so she could avoid an awkward conversation. Apologizing as AG doesn’t count either, but I don’t think she’s even done that.

        2. thejeff

          If Amber’s on the hook for the stalking Amazi-Girl did, then Amazi-Girl’s apologies should count too.
          Admittedly, I don’t recall Amazi-Girl actually apologizing, but they did seem to have worked things out before this revelation

        3. Needfuldoer

          The line between Amazi-Girl and Amber used to be a lot fuzzier.

          I got the impression that Amazi-Girl was originally just a character Amber slipped into at will, which has since taken on a life of its own beyond Amber’s control.

        4. TemperaryObsessor

          Amazigirl has apologized to Sal. She meant her apology to cover the stabbing incident as well as everything in present but after realizing she had taken things too far neither part of her wanted to tell Sal about the past.
          Amber never apologized to Sal. Its a lot to expect someone who still has panic attacks from an incident to apologize to the person who started it even if her response was bad too. Amber didn’t do any of the stalking so no she shouldn’t need to personally apologize for it when Amazigirl already did.

        5. Kris

          If you’re talking about this.

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/underoos/

          This does not count as an apology. Amazi-girl did not even say what she was apologizing for. You can stretch this to cover the stalking if you want to be generous because Sal mentioned it.

          Also apologizing under a false identity is insincere to say the least. It’s another manipulation because the person you hurt has no idea who you are. There’s a good chance Sal wouldn’t have even worked with AG if she knew she was also Amber.

          Also can someone clear this up for me? How much blame is shared between Amber and AG? Cause I’m pretty sure the law wouldn’t care who either was if a crime was committed. So Amber stabbed Sal means AG’s not responsible for that? Is Amber not responsible for the stalking? Does AG’s vague apology cover for Amber? It’s especially confusing when Amber was completely aware of AG’s actions for most of this. I’m afraid to have an opinion on this because I have no experience with DID and no idea what’s acceptable.

        6. Jamie

          I’m really curious to know what you think was the first manipulation.

          Amber/AG is guilty of a lot of things, but manipulation ain’t one.

        7. Kris

          Presenting yourself to someone under a false identity is inherently manipulative. You have no consequences for your actions and anything anyone does as a result of your interactions with them. You also rob those same people of any context when making decisions based on who you are. Especially in this case where Amber has personal history with Sal which would definitely have been a factor in all of their interactions. It wasn’t intentional, mustache twirling manipulation, but Amber did mislead Sal.

        8. thejeff

          Legally, I don’t have the vaguest idea. Most likely the law doesn’t handle it well at all. Though it might make a good basis for an insanity plea in some cases.

          Beyond that, Amazi-Girl’s apology was intended for everything, but Sal likely understood it to be for the stalking and general recent harassment. Which makes sense: Amazi-Girl did it, Amazi-Girl apologized for it, no need for Amber to be involved. The “false identity” doesn’t really matter there. Even if she’d been Amber when she’d apologized for the stalking, it wouldn’t have made any more sense to Sal, since she still wouldn’t have known Amber was the girl from the robbery.
          It’s fair to argue the apology shouldn’t count, since she was still keeping the secret that she was the one who’d stabbed her, but that has nothing to do with either DID or her superhero id as far as the apology is concerned.

          More generally DID is complicated and rare and I’m not sure there are good social rules in place for handling it. At the very least though, you can’t blame one alter for what another does while at the same time not accepting that other’s attempts to apologize. (Amber needs to apologize for the stalking. AG’s apology doesn’t count.)
          It is even more complicated here, because no one actually understands that they’re dealing with DID, with the possible exception of Danny, so everyone’s expectations are off. And Amber doesn’t handle it well herself: seeming to treat it as if everyone knows and understands (at least everyone in on the AG secret), while never actually explaining it.

        9. Kris

          Thanks. It’s still very hard to take the stance I want since it doesn’t seem clear at all who is responsible for what. I’m just gonna say Amber and AG should both apologize and Sal too probably.

        10. BBCC

          Personally, I felt AG’s apology to Sal was insufficient even for just AG’s actions. It lacked any specificity (WHAT exactly are you apologizing for? Just ‘everything’ is vague and unhelpful).

      2. Emily

        Yeah, she apologized to the person she actually held hostage which is the most important person.

        1. Vukodlak

          Cause I’m sure Sal would treat Leland better then Amber treated her if they met today.

        2. BBCC

          I mean, Sal’s not generally a stalker, so there’s that.

          Another important factor here – has Leland apologized to Marcie and has Marcie accepted it in this scenario and generally has Leland been trying to be better since he, y’know, smashed Marcie’s throat with a rock?

          (Ignoring the fact nothing Sal did to Leland was anywhere near equivalent to things he did to Marcie, unlike with Sal and Amber and the fact, so far as I can see, nobody’s said Amber needs to accept Sal’s apology or treat her nicely (other than things like not stalking her) – just that Amber should apologize for stabbing her (with most of those people saying Sal should apologize to her for the robbery as well).

  17. Roger

    Talk about the stalking! Talk about the stalking! Talk! About! The! Stalking!

    1. newllend(henryvolt)

      That Implies spilling the beans about the hole Amazi-girl identity I don’t see Sal going that far. Besides they made up and got past that one…. still going on a long list of reasons they have bad blood though along side Sal’s ability to play music being crippled and Amber being scared for life.

      1. Roger

        i dunno i think it’d be pretty easy to say This Girl Has Been Stalking Me And Harassing Me without also saying she’s a superhero

    2. Regalli

      Please! It was off campus and featured two assaults!

      1. King Daniel

        The stalking, at least, was on-campus; I remember one instance where Marcie and Sal were conversing on the building steps where Ryan later got slashed, and in the next strip it revealed that Amazi-Girl was sitting on the ledge above them (hidden until then by the speech bubbles), talking about how if Sal kept taking things from her and Amber, soon she’d find out that they’d have nothing left to lose.

        1. Rabid Rabbit

          Well, sure, but Sal didn’t know that.

        2. Laladoria

          There is also the instance where Amazi-Girl followed Sal & Co. to that parking lot where they were trying to drink beer (and would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that meddling Amazi-Girl!)
          This was off campus, and I believe the first time she followed Sal somewhere?

        3. Regalli

          Parking lot fight (which was definitely AG finding an excuse to go after her) and the rally were both off-campus. Of course, one has witnesses who could talk to Ruth and out AG, and the other probably went kinda public and would also out her, but it is still pretty damn creepy.

  18. Darkoneko

    So anyway, I wonder whether Sal will stop wearing gloves from tonight on.

    1. Kris

      Probably not. It’s a very visible scar. She’s obviously self conscious about it. Potentially making up with Amber doesn’t make her scar go away.

      1. BBCC

        Even if that were the problem, she’d have to actually make up with Amber.

  19. gangler

    The hand thing might not be the best opening line.

    It was years ago, and were it not for Amber’s current hobbies it would be no more concerning than Sal’s own criminal past.

    Sal’s starting to seem like she’s a little fixated on the incident.

    1. Nep

      Amber stabbed her! In the hand! When she was restrained!

      1. gangler

        Oh for sure, and that was awful, but without the context that she’s currently Sal’s stalker who leaves a swath of violence everywhere she goes it’s just like “That was then, this is now, try to coexist I guess.”

        1. segnosaur

          Stabbing someone in the hand is pretty significant. Long term disfigurement, possibly loss of some motor control or pain. its something completely obvious that people can understand. And obviously it impacted Sal enough for her to want to keep the scars covered with a glove.

          Not to minimize the crime of stalking in general, but for a lot of people its a bit easier to, well, sweep under the rug. “She lives on your floor… of course you’re going to see her”.

        2. gangler

          I’m not saying you don’t tell them about the stabbing. I’m saying you lead in with the stalking, current violent behavior, show how the present day Amber is a problem, and then get into how she’s stabbed you in the past and you fear she will again.

        3. Fart Captor

          Anybody telling Sal she should just have let being stabbed THROUGH the hand go just because it was years ago is a massive asshole.

          Of COURSE they should still be able to avoid violence, but holding a grudge overt that is shit no decent person should be judging her for

        4. Schpoonman

          Friendly reminder that evidence shows she is very musically-inclined (in a different world a music major?) and she can’t play bass anymore.

        5. Emily

          Like she is crippled for life and Amber has never so much as admitted wrongdoing to her let alone apologized. I’d still be mad too.

        6. TemperaryObsessor

          If Sal’s goal is to paint this as Amber’s fault bringing up five year old shit that Sal clearly started and not admitting to her fault up front makes her look bad.
          Sal has been practically perfect in the present up to this point while Amber/Amazigirl has been picking fights and stalking her over five year old shit. Then Sal can bring up the five year old shit to explain that in context this is way scarier.
          If Sal’s goal is to maximize the chances of both of them going on with there live after this she did a good job. It looks bad if either of them are randomly getting into fights without context. It also looks bad for at least one of them if modern day this is not an isolated incident.

        7. Clif

          Someone who understands. Sal knows what she is doing.

        8. TemperaryObsessor

          Other people brought up the fact that Sal could not want to make a thing out of this in this comment section before me. Considering last strip it makes sense.
          Let the school sit them down and tell them what they already figured out on their own and pat itself on the back.
          It wouldn’t work if Amazigirl didn’t already realize she was taking things too far and stop.
          It wouldn’t work if Sal didn’t realize you know what maybe I did hurt her first and more than I realized, so maybe I have to be the first to apologize or at least back down even if it doesn’t seem fair.
          I don’t think Amber had the right to punish Sal but its sort of because allowing friends and family to punish allows for way over the top punishment.
          Its like I once accidently poked someone with a bookmarks corner. So he felt he had the right to poke me with his bookmark in return, maybe that was understandable but then his friend thought he also had the right to poke me with his bookmark. WTF it was an accident your friend poked me on purpose. Looking back I’m pretty sure they were both bullies so it was proberly just an excuse to bully me.

    2. Lumino

      Not to be overly critical, but you lose most of the fine motor coordination in one hand and let me know how ‘fixated’ you are on the issue.

      1. gangler

        If Sal can be rehabilitated there’s no reason Amber can’t be. Sal has been allowed to move forward with her life, and others deserve that same opportunity.

        The issue is that Amber is not rehabilitated.

        1. Questionor

          I went over to the Sargent, said, “Sargent, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I’ve rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I’m sitting here on the bench, I mean I’m sitting here on the Group W bench ’cause you want to know if I’m moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after being a litterbug.”

        2. Tarnagh

          Careful. Next thing we know, Ruthless will call the cops and a two foot cop with a six foot gun will show up.

        3. Questionor

          sorry that was an obligatory reference, it’s thanksgiving weekend and you said the word rehabilitated.

        4. Lokitsu

          Arlo Guthrie would approve.

        5. Lokitsu

          PS: You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant.

        6. Kryss LaBryn

          (exceptin’ Alice)

      2. Xccj

        I think the weird thing is Sal has never been outwardly fixated on her injured hand in the comic, so these are likely pent up feelings that she’s finally releasing. So for her, these feelings aren’t anything new, but it does seem new to us so some are saying it’s a new fixation or something. Just some thoughts.

        1. Uly

          She wears her gloves even when she sleeps. That’s a pretty big sign that she cares an awful lot.

    3. Catman

      Yeah but “to bake a pie you first need explain that you were stabbed in the hand”

      -Carl Sagan, probably.

    4. Kris

      It’s pretty hard to be on Amber’s side since we have yet to see her do anything to reconcile with Sal. Fist fighting her is not a reconciliation. Neither is stalking, dating her brother, or partnering with her under an alter ego. Versus Sal who we’ve seen try and succeed with Ethan. Amber gets no credit until she does something positive.

      1. segnosaur

        It would probably be easier for Sal to reconcile with Ethan because he never did anything to her…. On the other hand, I don’t recall Sal doing anything to try to reconcile with Amber. (Hard to say who first started the fight, but i don’t recall Sal making much effort to say “Lets talk this out”… they both pretty much went to fighting.)

        And I get the impression that Amber (or her Amazi-Girl persona) actually wanted Sal to hurt her, as kind of a way to atone for stabbing Sal. (Not to say it isn’t a messed up way to go about it.)

        1. Kris

          It’s complicated at best. Sal was visibly angry, quoted something AG had said which Amber finished. Amber took that as a threat to Ethan. That pissed Sal off more. Then they kind of started taunting each other wondering who would actually win in a fight. Sal threw the first punch. Sal doesn’t get much credit but she definitely gets more than Amber by actually doing something and reconciling with someone. She might have even talked things out if Amber hadn’t just assumed she was hostile but that’s getting into speculation now.

        2. marillius

          Why does Amber have to assume someone who is regularly violent and who held her friend hostage isn’t hostile to her? Why is there this belief that someone can’t ready themselves to defend themselves against someone who, mind you, came up very angrily and did something that was pretty much throwing down the glove in challenge to Amber. Sal provoked first. Sal through the first punch. And Sal committed the first armed crime.

          Amber has suffered each and every time. Amber is as she is now in part because of Amber. Sal can be offended all she wants, and Amber needs a shit ton of help, but Amber is in part the monster Sal helped make and she seems to only just barely be willing to accept that… or was last page, anyway. Now she’s kind of being a brat about things.

          A more appropriate thing for Sal to say to Ruth would have been, “She’s one of the victims of a violent crime I committed when I was young and stupid and is naturally paranoid, terrified and angry with me because of it. Also she needs some help because she is seriously f’d in the head at least in part because of the mental trauma I caused her.”

        3. marillius

          in part because of Sal*

        4. CJ

          Because Amber knows nothing of Sal getting into fight. The only times she met Sal Sal was being friendly with Danny, asking Amber if she needed help, ….
          AG got into fights with Sal and then teamed up with her.
          Ambers expectations that Sal would become violent towards her or Ethan comes from the Blaine induced bullshit in her head that that is “the right thing to do, else you are a weakling” and Sal’s no weakling.

        5. thejeff

          Amber’s expectations that Sal would be violent come from her being traumatized by Sal’s violence during the robbery. Blaine likely made her more vulnerable to that trauma and certainly screwed up any chance she had at recovering from it well, but the actual expectations were set by Sal’s actions back then.

          And yes, that was a long time ago and Sal’s different now and it’s not rational to cling to that. Welcome to how trauma works. It’s not rational.

        6. MatthewTheLucky

          No one chooses their flaws. When a person’s mental illness makes them a threat to others, that is on them, not their victims.

        7. Kris

          It’s a grey area. I’d argue that it’s troubling that she would just assume someone was violent just because they look angry without showing any legitimate violent warning signs. It almost has a tinge of racism that’s been a bit of a subtle undercurrent to this story and Sal’s story in general. I personally don’t think she looked violent at all or even that angry when Amber got defensive but you can argue that up and down and get nowhere.

          Amber does have a right to defend herself if she feels threatened. The point I’m trying to make and will keep making is that Sal has shown effort and healthy improvement Amber just has not. In fact Amber’s been actively avoiding it.

          Maybe she’s not ready which is fine, but she can’t play the victim here when she’s just as guilty as Sai in this scenario. Some would argue even more so because she’s permanently hurt Sal. I won’t because you can’t really measure trauma and Amber has not taken that event well at all. But my point remains. Sal’s apologized to one of the people she hurt and is trying to improve, even though this whole mess probably set her back a bit. Amber hasn’t, she didn’t even give Sal the opportunity, and she’s being just as bratty as Sal is about the stabbing incident.

        8. thejeff

          She’s not assuming “someone” would be violent because they look angry. She’s assuming Sal will be violent because she looks angry. Have you noticed the panic reactions she’s had to Sal throughout the entire comic?
          Which has nothing to do with Sal’s race*, just to Sal herself. Because Sal is a trigger for her trauma.

          *Race certainly played a role in Sal’s backstory and white privilege very likely did in the legal handling of the aftermath, but there’s no reason to think it does in Amber’s reaction to Sal.

        9. Kris

          That was more of a tangent to the point as was making, but it is an undertone in this story even if Amber has personal reasons to fear Sal. Mainly involving Sal’s past with Leland or like you said Amber facing no legal consequences for the stabbing. I wasn’t trying to say Amber’s racist. My bad.

          The fact is Sal has never actually been threatening to Amber in anyway before this the exception being when Amazi-girl purposefully antagonized Sal and her friends.

          It’s all or mostly in Amber’s head. Her building up this false identity for Sal which Sal herself ranted about to Danny as being a re-accuring thing in her life was an active detriment to this situation not escalating to where it did. In the score of who handled this like a rational and mature adult Sal gets 1/100 which is a hard fail but Amber is like -5/100 which is worse.

        10. thejeff

          Current Sal has not been threatening. Robbery Sal was threatening enough that Amber still has trauma from it.
          Yeah, that’s all in Amber’s head and it’s not rational. That’s kind of the point.

      2. Questionor

        She started dating Walky before she knew they were brother and sister. Didn’t Amber only find out Sal was his sister when Sal walked in on them making out on the roof?

    5. Miri

      Well, somebody assaulting you, causing permanent damage to your hand, is a kinda big deal? If that was her dominant hand, she may have needed to virtually relearn how to write (my writing with my other hand is about as shaky as most 5-6 year olds’). You use your hands all the time… We know she was musical before, and it stopped her playing a stringed instrument. As “it wouldn’t have been fair” to sing without Marcie also being able to, chances are that’s a loss she felt almost as strongly. Also, depending on what and how Amber damaged stabbing her, she may still get pain in it. She may be expecting early onset arthritis in that hand.

      It may have happened 5 years ago, but it will affect her every day for the rest of her life.

      Personally, I think she’s allowed to care about it having happened. She and Amber will need to move past their issues given their proximity to each other (or Sal and Lucy could swap rooms? But still scope for overlapping class schedules, professors assigning them to do group work together etc. And that small matter of Amber dating Sal’s twin brother… I don’t want Amber to be the catalyst causing Sal to completely estrange herself from her whole family!!) but that doesn’t mean that this is a trivial or incidental thing for her at all.

      1. Regalli

        People have poiinted out that the diagonal angle on that scar means it almost certainly hit (and, given the size and the fact that the book pdfs apparently say it went ALL THE WAY THROUGH HER HAND, broke) some bones. Plus almost certainly some muscles and ligaments. It’s highly likely Sal needed surgery and physical therapy, and she almost certainly went through those recoveries alone given her parents’ and siblings’ lack of support. (The surgery probably occurred while she was still in Indiana, but most of the PT would have been in Tennessee.) All of that effort and her hand is still seriously, permanently damaged, with a nasty pair of scars that require the constant gloves.

        Amber was traumatized, but Sal was too while also being significantly, permanently physically disabled.

        1. Ray Radlein

          I had the middle finger extensor tendon of my non-dominant hand severed by window glass back when I was a teacher — a much less severe injury than Sal’s — and it was months of physical therapy and recovery after some pretty fancy ER surgery.

          Don’t even want to think about how awkward and painful a knife through the entire right hand would be.

        2. BBCC

          It was not only diagonal, but jagged. Either Amber shoved it around in the struggle, Sal tried to move her hand and it got shoved around, or the police pulling her out moved the knife more.

          So, yeah, that’s looking at bones, muscles, tendons, nerves, ligaments. The scar itself is still really red and looks half healed to me, and it seems to me that still having pain is likely. Dunno how likely early arthritis is, but we know she doesn’t have full use back and (based on nerves, ligaments, etc.) almost certainly some measure of pain so it’d still be a serious impairment to function.

        3. Regalli

          Bad bone breaks near joints can definitely up arthritis risk, and given it’s her hand it seems pretty likely a joint could’ve been impacted. That’s speculation, though – as ever, Sal’s decreased ability in her hand is canon, thank you for link, and we haven’t exactly seen her at a specialist to know if she has that risk for sure. But it is a real risk, because we know Sal’s hand doesn’t work so well anymore.

        4. Vukodlak

          None of which proves her hand suffered permanent disability. I’ve been hit by a car at a far lower velocity then the one Amber was hit by. So I can tell you her recovery is unrealistically super human. So unless you have direct proof her hand is less capable then it’s not. Otherwise Amber would be in agony right now.

        5. adjudicus

          This strip is direct proof. It’s not unreasonable to assume that this has affected her in other ways too

        6. BBCC

          Link didn’t work, so here:http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/02-this-is-the-way-that-we-love/tuned/

          I should really just bookmark that strip, since this question comes up a lot.

        7. adjudicus

          Thanks

      2. Emily

        Honestly, if Walky kept dating Amber after Sal had made it clear she wasn’t comfortable with that he would be the world’s shittiest brother.

    6. Yumi

      She is “fixated” on it, I guess, but, you know, what everyone else has said. She’s also not stopping to think about the best way to frame the situation and just replies with what seems most relevant to her, which is the stabbing.

      1. Clif

        Sal’s done exactly the right thing. Sal and Amber have provided enough context to explain the fight while providing minimal reason to do anything but extract a promise not to repeat it.

    7. Marsh Maryrose

      I was mugged once. I hadn’t thought about it in years, but I still remember every detail.

      I was on the bicycle end of a bicycle-vs-car accident once. I hadn’t thought about it years, but in my mind I can still slo-mo replay the 270 degree flip I did.

      And both of those were decades ago. I’m pretty sure that if, five years ago, someone stabbed me in the hand, resulting in permanent injury, it would be something I’d remember every day, and especially on the day that I met the stabber.

      1. ischemgeek

        I have been sexually assaulted. I was also bullied severely in school. And growing up in an abusive household, I was subject to various and sundry assaults and threats to my life.

        In all cases, the perpetrators got off Scott free. Sal isn’t fixated, she is angry at injustice. I don’t blame her. I still seethe at what happened to me sometimes, and for me it was 15 years ago. I still flash back to it sometimes.

        Regardless of what Sal did to Amber, Amber assaulted her with a deadly weapon and permanently disabled her when she was already restrained and helpless. And where Sal’s life as she knew it was ruined by her decision to commit a crime in desperation (a crime in which nobody was physically injured), Amber seemingly got off disabling her permanently legal consequence free. That has to burn for Sal.

    8. Nikol Geier

      I think Sal is mostly bringing it up because she realizes she went too far and is just trying to give Ruth the full picture—she knows “five years ago” isn’t a strong case, but wants it to be clear that this is more than a normal scuffle. Amber is just pissed, though.

  20. Ivy

    Ruth reminds me of Benson

    1. newllend(henryvolt)

      Only problem is She can’t threaten to fire people.

  21. tim gueguen

    I wonder if Ruth will mention her grandfather is an emotionally abusive asshole within the next strip or two.

    And the thought comes to mind of Evil Granddad making an alliance with Blaine for some reason. Those two wastes of carbon would probably get along well together, their attitudes towards their families seem pretty similar.

    1. Lilyliv

      Oh please no. Anything but that teamup…

    2. ProfessorDetective

      Then Evil Granddad uses his connections to get Toe Dad out of jail then they meet Joyce’s mother and it just turns into a League of Super Suck Parents.

      1. Regalli

        Linda joins in. Dargon Chesterfield funds the whole shenang.

        (Technically we haven’t seen this Dargon be evil, but generally speaking you don’t get hilariously, ridiculously wealthy while your adult son calls you ‘cruel’ and figures out whatever costs necessary to stay far far away without being evil.)

        1. Khno

          And then they try to contact Galasso, who tells them to fuck off because
          1/HE will rule the world
          2/do not presume he has not lesbians at his disposal
          3/also they all failed until here.

        2. MatthewTheLucky

          Well, he might like Dargon, except that Dargon can’t control his heir, who is now a minion of Galasso.

    3. newllend(henryvolt)

      Sinister Six is on the way.

    4. WarDragon

      I don’t really see them getting along. Clint strikes me as a classist fuck more than anything, and he’d see Blaine as a low-class thug, probably lumped in with his son-in-law, who he hates purely for having the gall to think he was good enough to marry Clint’s daughter.

      1. tim gueguen

        He’d probably find Blaine a useful idiot, while probably underestimating him enough that it could come back to bite him.

  22. Rabid Rabbit

    Called it: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/embarrassed/#comment-1364152

    But yeah, Sal, not doing a very good job of making yourself seem like the reasonable party here.

    1. Keulen

      At this point neither of them seem very reasonable to me.

      1. Rabid Rabbit

        Different sort of unreasonable, though. Sal makes herself seem petty to those who don’t have the whole backstory and weren’t there for the start of a fight (as in “Right. Five years ago. And now you’re starting a fight?”).

        Amber, meanwhile, suggests that stabbing someone through the hand is a perfectly reasonable response to them holding a knife to someone’s throat. Which might seem vaguely logical to those who don’t know the story, as you might suspect this was part of a fight or whatnot.

        To those who do know the story, though, man, she’s overdoing things. (Who, Amber?)

        Point is, though, that Sal’s making it sound like she started things. I mean, yes, she did, five years ago, but this evening it’s a bit more complicated than that, and if she’s trying to stay out of trouble (who, Sal?), that’s really not the best way to start.

        1. CJ

          Since it’s the very first opportunity to start a fight about it, that seems a rather strange point to bring up.

  23. Goki

    Dorothy, snitches get stitches.

    Can ya stop sucking for like 5 minutes, they were just having a break through damnit!!!

    1. the final pam

      Are you fucking serious? Dorothy didn’t do anything wrong by getting an authority figure, considering Sal was still choking Amber out last page. She did more than Ethan and Danny, who were still gawking and twiddling their thumbs over what to do. Dorothy’s not able to just divine from the heavens that Sal and Amber would work it out, she wanted to make sure that neither of them got hurt.

      Can ya stop hating on female characters for absolutely absurd reasons for 5 minutes, they haven’t done anything to deserve your ire.

      1. the final pam

        Every single time Dorothy just exists in the comic, you come in saying she sucks or she’s awful simply for doing the crime of being herself. With Dorothy getting Ruth to intervene, it’s much more likely that Sal and Amber can actually talk things out properly, because as it is, only Sal’s had that breakthrough.

        1. Butts

          Would you like Dorothy if she were a real person you knew in real life? I wouldn’t.

          I’m not saying she’s a bad character- just that she’s unlikable and OP is allowed to dislike her.

        2. Fart Captor

          Everyone else is allowed to criticize him for his opinion, as well as you for taking “I don’t like this character” and universalizing it to “so she’s unlikable”

          If neither of you can come up with a defensible basis for your opinion, you are more than welcome to take your ball and go home

      2. Regalli

        Yeah, given the timing Dorothy probably ran and got Ruth pretty much immediately after she saw the fight. What she saw was Sal decking Amber hard enough to knock her over while they were on a staircase made of concrete. That’s not something an untrained person should intervene in (we were all kinda worried Ethan or Danny would try to step in and get hurt,) and it is way the fuck too dangerous to leave people to. There were like four different points in that fight where they could’ve killed each other.

        1. the final pam

          Yeah, and given that Ruth is physically strong enough to throw Billie across the room, if there was anyone that could have physically intervened in a throwdown between Sal and Amber, it’d be her.

        2. Regalli

          She also made a pretty good attempt at throwing Blaine which only failed because she was having unsupported withdrawal symptoms. Ruth’s pretty strong.

        3. thejeff

          I thought it was successful. Sacrifice throw. Blaine went down harder.

          She just couldn’t follow through, thanks to the withdrawal.

        4. Regalli

          Right, Blaine got up after and Ruth couldn’t go after him.

          Point being Ruth is, while maybe not quite on the level of Sal and Amber, still more than physically capable of getting involved in this fight if need be. (Really all she’d need to do is wait for an opening, surprise disable one, and then put herself between them.)

    2. Rabid Rabbit

      Dunno, Sal’s the one with the stitches here, and she wasn’t exactly snitching when she got them…

    3. Zach

      The whole point of the comic is that snitching is the responsible thing to do if you care about these people. The one asking to die needs to be institutionalized, and I bet Sal would accept any consequences to help make that happen FOR Amber.

    4. Sam

      Stopping people fighting when they could seriously hurt each other is not a bad thing.

    5. Fart Captor

      I was going to post earlier sarcastically stating how excited I was that people would now switch gears to unreasonably shitting on Dorothy instead of Amber or Sal, but I thought to myself “oh geez, have a little faith in people”

      1. BBCC

        In this comment section?

        You’re funny.

    6. Norah

      Did you think Rachel was wrong when she called Chloe when Ruth was suicidal?

      For all Drothy knew when she saw the fight, Sal appeared to be choking Amber, and might’ve killed her.

      I know you hate the character of Dorothy for some reason, but she didn’t do anything wrong here.

      1. Norah

        “Dorothy”, not “Drothy”.

    7. Khno

      hm. You know, I, a grown adult, had to separate teenagers (way younger) from punch/chocking each others. I still took several hits in the process, was scolded by my chef because I shouldn’t have intervened myself but have taken the time to find a phone, phone to the chef, let the chef phone to enough underpaid goons to get to the fight and stop it. Other teens despised me for weeks because I interrupted a legitimate fight that would sure “hav[e] a break” anytime from right now to in two weeks. There are some situation where things go awry whatever you do, and the only to do ius to NOT let do.

    8. Kryss LaBryn

      “Snitches get stitches” is the sort of stupid, controlling bullshit that people who know perfectly well that what they are doing is wrong and/or illegal and that they will get in trouble for doing it say to try and prevent good people from reporting them to the proper authorities in order to try and escape the unpleasant consequences of their actions.

      Somebody is getting hurt, one way or another. You want to help stop that from happening, but you aren’t able to do that yourself. But it’s okay! Society has set up a whole slew of authority figures, from the nearest adult through the FBI/RCMP/national police of your country to help you out! They can intervene and help out the person (whether yourself or someone else) who is being hurt!

      All you have to do is to let them know about the situation so they can step in and stop it! –Except: “Snitches get stitches”. “Tell on me and I’m gonna beat the crap outta/kill you, too!”

      So now you have to choose between doing the right thing to help someone (or to stop abuse happening to you yourself)–and retaliatory violence against you for trying to do the right thing. Because something bad was happening, and you wanted to help stop it.

      There are laws to protect whistle-blowers against punitive retaliation for a reason. “Snitches get stitches” needs to die. >:(

      1. Huehuetotl

        It’s not quite as simple as that in the real world. Calling the cops (or informing on people you committed crimes with) can be a form of retaliatory violence. When the cops show up, for some people the risk of being summarily executed on the street is much higher than for others. In my town, a cop got caught using a drop-gun after murdering a suspect, and the judge let him walk. Do you think I’m going to call the police if I see someone stealing a bike? I don’t want people stealing bikes, but I’m not about to risk someone’s life over it (either the bike thief’s or someone the cops think looks like them).

        1. thejeff

          Yeah, it’s complicated.
          On one level “Snitches get stiches” is essentially “gangs will punish people who talk to cops” and is awful and needs to die.
          On another, for lesser crimes, the police do react disproportionately to many groups and there’s a level of in group protection in not going to the police over everything.
          And these two feed into and reinforce each other.

    9. Emily

      We get it, you hate Dorothy. Stop making up increasingly stupid excuses for it.

      1. Goki

        With the exception of “the final pam” and “Emily”the rest of you aren’t wrong. In a real life situation that isn’t a comic, you would get an authority figure and hopefully things can get worked out.

        My concern in this case…. Dorothy got Ruth, though I suppose it could have been worse. Now as much as I liked the first version of Ruth we saw, she probably would be the worst person to split this up as she would have made things worse. This new Ruth seems to actually want to help, but it is tough to see how she will resolve this situation. Also, we don’t know how much Ruth knows at this point and how much Dorothy has told her.

        Now some people just need to slug things out and then they can move on, hence my comment, but many of you are right, there are some situations that need more to it and hopefully Ruth is up to the task.

        In the end, whether I like the girls or not, if I get a bit harsh, it’s because I have or had high hopes for them and I do hope there is some situation where they can work things out and move on. They don’t need to be friends, but they are going to need to find a way to co-exist, 3 and a half years is a long time to live close to a blood enemy, if they both are still in school, and I hope they will be.

      2. Goki

        And as for Emily and The Final Pam… No, I will hate who I want, you guys aren’t the boss of me. If I decide to hate on a character that is female, that is my business, if I think they suck, it’s my opinion to have. But since you both seem so offended on me hating on characters who are women, I will switch things up a bit, (note that some of these hatin’s are old though)

        Blane: For god sake’s man, if you weren’t such a dingus, you wouldn’t be in the financial situation you are in. I am sure that hospital stay didn’t help your money matters, learn from your mistakes and move on.

        Toedad: For goodness sake, that is your daughter man, stop being a you for like 5 min and at least tell her you love her, as she is. Is that really so hard?

        Ryan: Dude, you don’t need to do this, just walk away… (see’s him get sliced to ribbons by Amber)…… I shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as I am….. naw screw it. GO AMBER!!!

        Ruth’s Grandpa: Dude what are you some kind of super villain wannabe? Ruin our plans? Also, come on man, it isn’t cool to speak bad of the dead, and whether you liked him or not, that’s Ruth’s father. Stop being a dingleberry, if ya can’t say something nice, shut the hell up. (Yeah I know the irony in that statement, but once again I ain’t telling people how to be)

        Joe: Come on man, have some standards. Also, SCREW YOU, Joyce needed help and you abandon her for sex? Are you really so hung up to get laid that badly? I know the list kind of killed your love life, but it’s your own dumbass fault for making a list.

        Jacob: Dude, I know you are trying to be a good guy and all, but even the most dim of person can see what is going on here. While I am not a fan of your girl…. she doesn’t deserve what is going on here… (ugh that hurt to say…) Realize what is going on and either tell Joyce it ain’t happening or break up with your girl. Seriously I thought you were better than that.

        If you need me to go on I can, but I will call out anything I feel is BS and I don’t appreciate when people try and tell me what to do…

        That being said, I will try and back off a bit on Sal and Amber (no promises on Dorothy…. Seriously Dor-o-thy? Damn what a pretentious name… ok Goki stop.. you promised you would try…

        1. Regalli

          … the fuck do you hate an accepted standardized spelling of a name for? It’s been in use in that form since the 16th century and was famously the name of the main character of The Wizard of Oz. It has literally always been spelled like that. It’s derived from Dorothea.

        2. Regalli

          And Dorothy’s a reasonable character who, serious underestimating of the value of rest and trouble with relationships and breakups aside, tends to be pretty damn great. (Both of these are legitimate issues – she’s not as good at keeping her feelings in check and keeping things casual as she needs to be to maintain casual relationships, and her breakup with Danny sucked. Even then, teens also tend to suck at emotions – note that Walky was JUST AS invested as she was – and Danny was particularly challenging because he clearly didn’t get the soft approach she had been trying.) Her actions here were perfectly reasonable – Sal or Amber could have gotten each other killed or bystanders seriously hurt, and she had no way of knowing it would resolve safely. Even with it doing so, the respective traumas and degree to which they’re intertwined in each other’s lives means they NEED some kind of mediation or campus intervention. Them living on the same floor is demonstrably bad for Amber’s mental health and probably won’t be great for Sal’s now she knows. This is too big for bystanders to fix. It’s too big for Amber and Sal to fix. It may be too big for Ruth to fix but at least she has RESOURCES.

        3. Goki

          Really? I am backing off a bit and you really want to reopen this?

        4. MatthewTheLucky

          Deflection is not backing off.

        5. thejeff

          “Backing off a bit” and getting some digs in as you do so. Not really a great look.

        6. the final pam

          “No, I will hate who I want, you guys aren’t the boss of me. If I decide to hate on a character that is female, that is my business, if I think they suck, it’s my opinion to have. But since you both seem so offended on me hating on characters who are women”

          You’ve missed the entire point. Notice how neither Emily nor myself said anything otherwise. By all means, hate whichever characters you want, but if you pick absurd or downright stupid reasons to do so, people will call you out. And by every definition of the word, hating Dorothy because she got an authority figure to stop a fight is fucking absurd. Knowing you and your past ‘criticisms’, if Dorothy had stayed there and gawked and done nothing, you’d still hate her. If Dorothy had tried to physically intervene, you’d still hate her. No matter what she does, she would still “suck”. And I’m willing to bet had it been anyone else that had gotten Ruth- Joyce, Sarah, Carla, Rachel, Roz- you wouldn’t be like “God Joyce can ya stop sucking for five minutes!!!!” because that’s a reaction you tend to hold specifically for Dorothy for whatever reasons.

          And deflecting by giving your opinions on, hm, four of the villains?? And then two regular cast members? That doesn’t prove anything, least of all that you don’t hold female characters to incredibly high standards.

          You’re focusing so much on the fact I said female characters that you’re completely ignoring the ‘absolutely absurd reasons‘ qualifier. There are plenty of things to criticize Dorothy for, same with Sal or Amber, but grumbling and moaning the minute they are on screen and going on about how much they suck is not reasonable, especially if they’re not even doing anything.

        7. Regalli

          Like, that’s why I bring up the name thing. (Isn’t this the person, or one of them, who’s been deliberately misspelling it for so long Willis put a filter on it.) I get when people were like ‘Wait, Jason’s dad’s name is DARGON?!’ because that’s a pretty antiquated name that appears 95% of the time as surname rather than given, but you’ll notice that even then no one hated the character because the name. And it’s pretty transparent shorthand for evil!

          Using the character’s name to justify your dislike is just weird to begin with,* but doubly so when said name is standardized, existed for 500 years in its current form, doesn’t really have recognized alternative spellings, is from the language the story is written in,** and was also the name of the main character of one of the most famous movies of all time. It’s not pretentious. Dorothy didn’t pick her name to begin with (being as she is both fictional and apparently cisgender and perfectly accepting of the name her parents gave her,) so it can’t be used as a character trait, but even if it did, it’s just a name.

          * I mean there is the odd occasion of something like Attack on Titan where it became clear that several characters were named for World War II Japanese warships or Nazi officers and that, btw, the author actually has fascist leanings, but generally speaking people who got upset about that dropped the series because dude’s a fascist. The names were just a symptom of the greater ‘wait, FUCK’ and an early indicator the story would reflect his awful politics. (The manga has apparently gotten pretty blatant in the awfulness.)

          ** Hating unusual names also tends to have a racial component that is also not great so I tend not to judge and it’s probably a good idea to not do that. I mean I’ll sideeye the parents who named their child Adolf or any name that’s so cutesy you know they’ll get teased, (like, ‘Ima Hogg’ – nooot a good idea,) but that’s still not the kid’s fault. And for a character, sure whatever. I am perfectly okay with Les Bean.

        8. Goki

          Well now, you guys make some points…. not very good ones, but hey that’s what you believe . I believe differently and I don’t apologize for it. If you guys can’t handle it that’s on you . At this point we have both shared how we feel, and I doubt will be able to change each other‘s minds nor do I care . I will continue to voice my opinion and you guys can do the same . Have a nice night .

        9. Fart Captor

          ?

  24. abysswatcher1993

    Ruth’s description of Ethan is almost accurate considering recent events. Also, I hope she orders these two vigilantes to get a psychiatric help, and maybe reveal information about certain two predators that need to be in prison for a long time.

    1. Laladoria

      “recent events” ? Ethan has been a ToyBoy his whole life! Do you KNOW how big his Transformers collection is?

  25. Ziggy

    I am not certain as to Ruth’s legal obligations, whether or not she HAS to contact Campus Police, and report the incident. At the very least, she will have to write up something for the Hall Director, explaining what happened, and what she decided on disciplinary measures, and why. Trying to sweep this under the rug will definitely get her fired.

    1. Regalli

      True under normal circumstances. But we also have to account for the fact that the person Ruth would report to is Chloe, who is both useless and prone to trying to sweep things under rugs. She also put Ruth back in charge of the hall despite her being clearly medically unfit for the responsibility because the awful grandfather paid the school off and no one wanted that hall due to its challenging residents. Ruth would also kind of like to get fired, and mostly stays unfired in the hopes it protects Howard. (I doubt it actually is. I have no expectations of decency from their grandfather.)

    2. Kryss LaBryn

      –Which means that she can report this to Chloe, as a “This fight happened, and I did [this] to stop it, and have dealt with disciplining them/working to resolve the issue(s) that caused the fight by getting them both to [whatever], so at this time and to the best of my knowledge this matter has been resolved” thing, and then Chloe can sweep it under the rug (which is especially likely since if Walky knows the Dean as a family friend, it seems very likely that his twin sister does as well).

      That way, Ruth can do the right thing by reporting it to the next link in her chain of command, and Chloe (who we already know doesn’t like to deal with unpleasantness) has no reason to not sweep it under the rug/accept that a scuffle between a couple kids over some nonsense that happened when they were little (yes, we know it was neither a “scuffle” nor “nonsense”, but Ruth may not and Chloe certainly doesn’t need to) is over and resolved.

      I mean, it would probably be better for Sal and definitely better for Amber if they at least went to see a school counsellor who could refer them to therapy; but so far as what would probably be best for Ruth right now, there doesn’t have to be a conflict between reporting it and ignoring it.

      1. thejeff

        Since Walky only found out about the Dean in comic, it’s not likely Sal knows anything about it.

        But yeah, this definitely gets swept under the rug and that’s not even necessarily a bad decision by Ruth – assuming Sal and Amber seem like they’re not going to pick up where they left off. Sure, it would be great for both of them to get some counseling, but that’s only loosely linked to the fight. Punishment for the fight is the last thing they need.

    3. Jhon

      Security cameras. Why do people keep pretending they don’t exist?

  26. ProfessorDetective

    ?So yeah, you know that whole ‘one bad day’ theory? These two had the SAME bad day.

  27. MatsuoTanuki

    Yes! Defuse the situation! Give the lectures! Restore the peace of the hall! Build cred as a stern yet gentler dorm manager! Go Ruth, you can do it!

  28. Ashley

    God, I HOPE Amber realizes how stupid she sounded just then.

    1. thejeff

      Doubt it. I don’t even realize how stupid she sounded just then. At least to someone who didn’t know the whole story. There are serious problems and omissions in both their short statements.

      1. Ashley

        I honestly don’t think you can “both sides” this argument. Sal did not make Amber into this larger-than-life villain to hold responsible for her actions. Yes, Sal held Ethan with a knife, Amber did not stab her because of that, she did so because she could not stand up to her father.

    2. EnerPrime

      Does she sound stupid, though? Think of it in context of what Ruth knows, not what us all-seeing readers know. If Ruth heard “Sal held Ethan at knifepoint and the incident ended with Amber putting that knife through Sal’s hand” would she think of it as “a traumatized Amber attacking Sal after the police intervened and had Sal in cuffs” (what really happened), or would she think of it as “Amber disarmed Sal of the knife and stabbed her with it to defend Ethan” as a certain recent rapist-stabbing incident might lean her towards believing?

      1. thejeff

        Or for that matter, if she’d just heard “Five years ago she stabbed me through the hand” with no other context, would she think Amber had just randomly attacked Sal out of nowhere.

        Neither statement is a fair summary of events.

        1. Ashley

          I mean, let’s be honest here, Sal wasn’t a threat to her anymore. Even considering what happened at the store, Amber’s attack was completely uncalled for and, yes, came out of nowhere.

          Amber’s pretending her actions had to do with defending Ethan, but they didn’t. Even if she has come to think of them as such, that doesn’t mean one event lead to the other. It didn’t. What led to the attack was Amber misdirecting anger from her dad to Sal. That could’ve happened in any number of ways, involving any number of strangers, but it happened after that attempted robbery.

        2. Fart Captor

          No, she isn’t pretending that at all.

          Sure, her answer is simplistic and doesn’t make it clear that there were other relevant things that happened in between, but I think you’re reading way too much into that.

          Neither of them really seems to really be interested in explaining to Ruth what happened 5 years ago in any more detail than they need to. They’re telling Ruth why they were they had been punching the crap out of each other just a few moments ago. They each brought up the key thing that they were so angry about that it led to a fight.

          Like, that’s it. Sal was trying to beat up Amber because Amber stabbed her. Amber was trying to beat up Sal because Sal threatened Ethan.

          If Ruth feels she’s going to need more information about what happened five years ago for some reason, she’s perfectly capable of asking them some follow-up questions

          On a side note: I don’t think Amber had any anger towards her dad to displace at the time of the robbery. None of the flashbacks leading up to that seem to suggest she had any idea how shitty Blaine was being to her, and only a couple strips ago it was revealed that he didn’t start getting physically abusive until after the robbery.

          She was definitely angry at Sal though. How could she not be? But it was Amber’s feelings of guilt and anger towards herself over not having been able to defend Ethan, that Blaine stoked to goad her into stabbing Sal.

          If she’d understood Blaine well enough to be angry at how he treated her, his goading probably wouldn’t have worked. She didn’t know yet that he was somebody she might ever need to stand up to.

        3. Ashley

          I disagree with the entirety of this post.

  29. Dave

    Ruth, shouldn’t you know by now? We don’t get nice things.

  30. Reltzik

    …. actually, Ruth’s probably the best authority figure for us to have step in at the moment.

    …..

    …. MAN that’s a scary thought.

    1. Yumi

      Now I’m imagining if Dorothy had run to get other people.

      Leslie: “Neither of these two are in my class, and this is not the ‘gender theory related emergency’ you promised me it was.”

      1. Agemegos

        The Dean: “Take it off campus.”

        1. Yumi

          Puddinghead: “W-who’s parents are the most…influential…”

        2. Rabid Rabbit

          That’s… not a hard question. Sal’s. Unless Piddinghead’s involved with the Korean mob somehow, and even then, it would require Blaine to care. (Linda would care for how it reflects on her.)

        3. Reltzik

          Oh, Blaine would definitely care. If Amber gets expelled for this, he won’t have to pay for her college anymore.

        4. Yumi

          You know I wasn’t actually asking the question, right?

        5. Deanatay

          Jason: Why’d you bring ME? I’m just a TA – an EX-TA, at that!

          Dorothy: Trust me, you were better than ANY of the other options…

        6. MatthewTheLucky

          Maybe he could annoy Sal into stopping.

        7. Abel Undercity

          Mike: “I’ll rent a ring and sell tickets.”

      2. Khno

        Leslie would come. Unprepared and maybe useless, but she would come.

  31. Bagge

    So, in a fight between Sal and Amber, the winner is… Ruth?

    1. stoodmuffin

      Very Willis way of doing things

    2. TheKelliestKelly

      Ruth is always the winner in any fight

      1. Bagge

        There are probably som WILD urban legends about her circulating on campus.

    3. ValdVin

      Ruth does seem to be very Genre Savvy here. Wonder if she guesses who AG is.

  32. stoodmuffin

    No one died.

    Good.

    Now, maybe some therapy.

    1. Reltzik

      …. competent therapy?

      1. jeffepp

        In a Willis comic?

        1. thejeff

          Ruth seems to be getting it.

        2. King Daniel

          And Dorothy.

    2. BBCC

      The parties involved are Amber and Sal.

      good luck with that.

  33. Bagge

    They can talk to each other. No red panels, no trauma induced psychotic episodes, no need to be amazi-girl – this seems promising!

    1. BenRG

      I think that they’ve pushed their minds too far through the ‘lock’ of the trauma because of fighting. At some point, their brains will catch up with what is happening but it isn’t today.

  34. GenJen

    i honestly would love Ethan to speak up at this point. His perspective is pretty unique here and could honestly clear a lot up that neither of the fighters really could.

    Also, Amber’s kinda been using Ethan as a prop here to justify her feelings/actions. She got angry with him when he told her he talked to Sal. Her whole thing when she saw Sal was ‘i’m not gonna let you hurt Ethan’, but then right after made it about herself being made into some kind of monster at that gas station.

    Also, like, Sal’s gotta be confused like nothing else. Outside of us, Ethan, and Danny, nobody really has the whole picture on Amber’s fragile state of mind. To Sal, Amber’s this girl who stabbed her years ago when she was restrained, stalked her, started smooching her twin brother as soon as Dotty broke up with him, and dresses as a vigilante yet for some reason acts like the vigilante is a completely different person “W’ere not on speaking terms”, then asked Sal to end her which most people would assume is her asking to be killed.

    Like, WTF.

    We’re a bit biased since we know Amber’s whole story, but from Sal’s perspective it’s all gotta be pretty insane and even a bit scary.

    1. Uly

      I’m not 100% certain that Ethan and Danny really understand how bad the Amazigirl situation has gotten.

      1. King Daniel

        Amber, at least, has spoken to Danny in the past about the need for Amazi-Girl and herself to cooperate because “at the end of the day, we both still share this 5’2″ meat vehicle.”

        1. timemonkey

          But she’s also been vague enough that he still has no idea what she was talking about.

        2. thejeff

          I think Danny’s been starting to figure it out, though I’m sure it’s still not clear. He’s the only one who’s actually gotten anywhere near enough clues to begin.

    2. Fart Captor

      She hasn’t been using Ethan as a prop at all? She’s not angry on his behalf, she was a TRAUMATIZED because her ONLY friend had a knife to his throat.

      She got upset at Ethan because she was afraid Sal would realize who SHE was as a result. Ethan certainly still had every right to talk to Sal of course, but Amber wasn’t wrong about that since the VERY NEXT TIME Sal saw Ethan and Amber together it immediately led to her figuring it out and then a fist fight

      1. Rabid Rabbit

        Yeeesss, but… The form the trauma takes (because of her asshole father) is “I didn’t protect Ethan.” She sees Sal, goes into a fighting stance immediately, and positions herself to protect Ethan (who doesn’t need protecting). The trauma’s tied up with Ethan, but she refuses to listen to him — like when she first realizes who Sal is and goes to tell Ethan that “she’s here”. Ethan suggests everything might work out, but Amber/Amazi-Girl doesn’t listen to him in the slightest. He may not be a prop, but he’s a major component in everything, and she pays no attention to his opinions on the matter. (It’s one of the unfortunate ways in which she sort of takes after her father, in an attenuated way.)

        1. marillius

          Sal through the first punch and provoked this fight as much, if not more, then Amber. Amber, who had last seen Sal while being with Ethan at the same time, was in the gas station five years ago. Sal has attempted to commit armed robbery and held a hostage at knife point. Amber had a psychotic break and stabbed Sal during it in part because of the trauma Sal caused to Amber. At the end of the day, there is no two butts about this. Both need help, but Sal is more in the wrong by a lot.

        2. Emily

          Ethan literally just finished telling Amber that he and Sal were making amends when Sal showed up and Amber proceeded to completely ignore him just like she does any time he says something that doesn’t fit with how she wants the world to work. Also, Amber crippled Sal and stalked and harassed her and from her perspective struck up a sorta-friendship under false pretenses. So no, Sal is definitely not more in the wrong by any amount.

        3. CJ

          Survivors guilt is a really common reaction to seeing violence and not being able to stop it, especially if the victim of the actual violence is someone dear to you.
          That alone doesn’t need a Blaine to evolve.
          But Amber already must have had plenty of that before the situation started as Blaine hitting Ambers mom and degrading her must have been a common occurrence of all her life. And then that piece of shit taunts her about being useless to protect Ethan and she puts a knife through Sal’s hand, because she cannot put that knife through Blaine . Which I’m sure she would have liked to do and still does.

  35. BrokenEye, the True False Prophet

    Those were the days, my friend. I thought they’d never end.

    1. Kryss LaBryn

      We’d sing and dance, forever and a day…

  36. Ravenstromdans

    I find myself wondering how well Ruth might have accounted herself if she’d tried to get between Amber and Sal while they were still in full ass-kickery mode, especially since her relationship with Billie has sort of drained off a lot of the pure-rage energy that seemed to lend itself to her own combat skill.

    Between Sal’s lifetime of street-fighting experience and Amber’s hard-won self-defense training, I feel like Ruth is kind of dodged the bullet as it’s basically already over by the time she arrived.

  37. BenRG

    It’s very much to Ruth’s credit that she didn’t just turn around and walk away after hearing that.

    1. Peter

      Ruth is on some quality meds.

  38. Nobody

    In other words “I don’t get paid enough for this sh*t”

  39. Nym

    I appreciate today’s comic.

  40. Opus the Poet

    Is it just me, or has Ruth lost a lot of weight since the breakdown?

    Or is art evolution to blame?

    1. Rabid Rabbit

      I’m getting art evolution. The overall shorts don’t seem to hang off of her any more than they used to. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/messages/

      She does seem slimmer, but I think it comes from a minor character redesign when she got her haircut.

  41. Ainara

    I was like “wait don’t both of those nicknames refer to Danny” before realizing it’s toyboy, not boytoy

    1. ǝ snow ʍousɐ

      Ohhh, i totally thought “toyboy” was just some variant of “boytoy”, but now i get it

  42. jeffepp

    So, you’re fighting over Chippendale’s, over there?”

    “Naw,”

    “No! Wait, what’s Chippendale’s?”

    “So, this isn’t about a guy?”

    Sal and Amber glance at each other, then at Dorothy, then back at each other.

    “No?”

    “No.”

    “No is good.”

    And together, they say “No” to Ruth.

    Dorothy’s eyes narrow in thought, but, she can’t figure out why they looked at her. Ruth blinks a few times.

    “Oookay… Are you really fighting over a girl?”

    The pair look at each other again, then look away, and once again, as if they rehersed it, say together “Nooo?”

    Ruth puts her face in her palm, and let’s out a sigh. “Are you two dating, or something?”

    Both Amber and Sal look shocked at this, then each gets a strange look on their face. Once again, their eyes meet, and they both look down.

    “Are we?”

    “Maybe? I dun’know.”

    Amber looks at Ruth. “It’s… It’s complicated.”

    “No shirt! You don’t say?”

  43. Icalasari

    Oh thank god Ruth is there

    1. Eldritch Gentleman

      That depends on whether or not she will start breaking some femurs. It would be like that scene in Hellsing Abridged
      “We’ve come to save you!”
      “Hooray It’s the catholic Church!”
      “FROM YOURSELF!”
      “Oh no It’s the catholic church”
      *heretic murdering ensues*

      1. Cmd1095

        lol loved that scene

  44. CJ

    BTW: is that a “hey, you trusted me to actually help” smile in panel 5, just before realization sinks in that it’s out of her league?

  45. kilgaen

    Hey, you know what? They come up with the relevant reasons for the fighting which are also not likely to get either of them expelled. Good so far. I am cautiously happy.

    1. BenRG

      I can’t see Ruth passing this up the chain to someone who could expel one or both of them unless it’s abundantly clear that they’re still a danger to each other.

  46. Farmer_10

    I wonder if this what it must feel like to be a new character in a show who’s in the middle of a conflict that’s been boiling over for three seasons.

    1. Deanatay

      Or a webcomic packed with relationship drama that’s been updating daily for over 8 years?

      Yeah, like that.

  47. Deanatay

    Panels 4-6 represent the comments section so well:

    Panel 4: The “Go Sal, Amber’s a psycho” faction
    Panel 5: The “Go Amber, Sal’s a jerk” faction
    Panel 6: The rest of us.

    Hey, do you remember back a couple of weeks ago, when we only imagined that these two might find out about each other? That was nice.

  48. Nope

    Perhaps the best way to deal with this is just some kind of restraining order, Sal switches to a different dorm and Amber has to stay 20 feet away from her at all times.

    Of course then she’d just get in her face as Amazagirl….can you get restraining orders against vigilantes?

    1. Deanatay

      Ruth: Ok, we’ll need to send one of you to another dorm. You two clearly can’t be trusted in the same dorm with each other.

      Amber: Move? But, I, I need my…

      Sal: Wait, new dorm new roommate PICK ME PICK MEEEE!!!!

  49. hof1991

    Ruth is exactly the right person for this. Amber and Sal are both self hurters with traumatic pasts. Both pursue self destructive paths. Amber begged to be hurt in one comic. Sal just finished a deliberately risky ride. Ruth knows a bit about self destructive traumatized people.

  50. Needfuldoer

    What’s the over/under on Sal adopting “Toyboy” as her nickname for Ethan? That was actually pretty clever. Good job, Ruth.

  51. David Doty

    Hey now, you two. Snitches get stiches.

  52. SpaceshipPilot

    I’m really glad the fighting is over, and that no one else got hurt.

  53. Robert

    Why do I have a feeling on the next strip that Joyce will be hovering over either Amber or Sal wishing them a happy good morning? Because despite how crazy things get around here, nothing ever changes?

  54. Nick

    I’m kinda disappointed at Ethan and Danny for not doing anything. Thank goodness we can count on Dotty.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      Ethan and Danny are pushovers, like Asgore Dreemurr.

      1. Nick

        Asgore who?

        1. ǝ snow ʍousɐ

          Undertale reference

  55. BBCC

    Neither of those is the whole truth. They’re both missing some big pieces there, somewhat understandably (Sal might not want to out AG, Amber might not want to disclose her mental health) but Ruth is always a delight so I’m happy.

    1. Vukodlak

      Unless of course the only thing that matters to Sal is the hand thing.

      1. BBCC

        We know it’s not, but okay.

        1. thejeff

          Not the only, but it’s the big one and the one that she only just learned.

          She could complain about the rest of it, but that would require a lot of exposition and admitting to potentially illegal vigilante stuff. And even there the stabbing in the hand part is why she’s pissed at Amazi-Girl again, even though they were just getting along.

          Oh. Just thought of it. Can’t wait for the next Amazi-Girl/Sal team up. She’ll have no idea. No idea Sal knows she’s Amber. No idea Sal knows about the stabbing. No idea they fought.

        2. BBCC

          Yeah, the stabbing really recontextualized the stalking and harassment, and you’re right, even if she wanted to out Amber as AG, it’d be hard to do without Amber telling Ruth Sal was helping her after the rally.

          I wouldn’t be surprised if AG’s waiting for Sal later and Sal just doesn’t show up.

        3. thejeff

          Quite possibly. But they will meet again. And it will be confusing.

        4. Regalli

          Plus the underage drinking, which would also get Malaya and Carla in trouble. (Seriously so, in Carla’s case.) There’s basically no way for Sal to bring up the whole stalking affair without getting herself in bigger trouble, but they had damn well better talk about it privately when Sal and AG get the chance. (And oh will that be a mess for AG.)

        5. BBCC

          I think AG might be patrolling alone for a while.

  56. Betty Anne

    Amber, look in the mirror. Literally. You’re Blaine with longer hair. Stop being Blaine with longer hair. 😐

  57. Ryek Hvek

    When are Hipster & Toyboy getting their own strip?

    1. Marsh Maryrose

      Randy Milholland has started putting out Super Stupor strips again. And he’s borrowed (with permission) characters from other strips before.

  58. Kyrik Michalowski

    Careful Ruth, you are dangerously close to breaking a wall with that last panel

  59. Icalasari

    Honestly, she could tell the truth:

    Both had a shit day, they saw each other, remembered a VERY bad incident from years ago, and thought the other was getting aggressive and they needed to act in self defense (because honestly, they DID think the other had ill intent and were ready to rumble)

    IE Both had a stupid and thought they were protecting themselves

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