10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

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Giz
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10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

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Cortez
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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by Cortez »

Amber didn't seem to take any of that personally.

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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by OllieOrOlly »

Definition of "respectable" is tenuous at best in Ma3-verse. :))

Other than Dillon, there doesn't seem like there'd be anyone Ruby would be comfortable enough to talk about her relationship worries; maybe her fellow yaoi fan-(trans)girl? She doesn't know a therapist like Kiley (probably much for the best. Aha), and she doesn't know Zii well enough - or at least, knows her enough to know she is an unreliable cheater.
While Amber isn't at fault exactly, she does hold some - perhaps not responsibility but - influence in Ruby's anxiety: Amber's excessive and shameless sexual exploits for profit and sheer hedonism, and leaving Ruby to have to conceal it from their parents*, has appeared to have given Ruby a complex in which she is disgusted by anything sexual in reality, so she even denies her own desires, assuming an absolute, i.e. Amber's sexual excess was so vile (to Ruby) that anything sexual is therefore repellent.

*Perhaps Ruby's help in *saving* their parents from the smut knowledge is a reason that Amber wasn't overtly offended by being talked about badly; it could also be that Amber is the older sister, and has felt that she has been lacking in that regard, so can understand Ruby's outburst.

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Spidrift
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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by Spidrift »

Mmm. Specifying the make of motorcycle for this metaphor? When Ruby has previously shown no interest in motorcycles? That is indeed oddly specific. Or is it another hidden yaoi reference?
Cortez wrote:
Tue Jul 10, 2018 9:12 am
Amber didn't seem to take any of that personally.
I guess that the idea is that Amber sees Ruby as all overheated and angry because she's not getting laid (a problem with which Amber can sympathise), and hence, no, won't take it personally; unhappy people say stupid stuff, and it's best just to let them get over it. But that's unfortunate here, because it means that Amber doesn't pay attention to Ruby's actual issues with her, which go a bit deeper than sexual frustration.

(I hope. If Ruby starts being all nice and friendly to Amber them moment after she gets into Andy's pants, it'll seem very weak after everything that's gone before.)

In fact, Amber's persistent deafness to Ruby's complaints about the lying to their parents is getting to look like a clumsy plot contrivance. I mean, she could only have picked up that this conversation was about Ruby's relationship with Andy if she was standing silently behind her for some time, which seems a bit bizarre -- whereas the "lying to our parents" line was loud and clear. And as it's the thing that stops Ruby's issues from being routine slut-shaming, and as Ruby is quite obsessively truthful in general, it's obviously important. But Giz apparently doesn't want to delve into the (admittedly not very comedic) mess of the Ruby-Amber relationship, so this scene stays focused on the Ruby-Andy issue -- which means that Ruby is stuck with the idiot ball, because her repression requires an amazing level of willful lack of self-awareness. Which reduces her to a standard stupid-virgin-who-just-needs-to-get-laid, when she'd previously been allowed a little more complexity than that. Oh well.

Anyway, I think it's pretty clear that she's now rushing off to talk to Zii. She spent a couple of panels in the preceding strips seeking to confirm that Zii wasn't involved in the Dillon-Jerzy-Angel mess, and Dillon never got around to disillusioning her; those lines can now be shown to have had a point. (Yes, if she thought, she'd realise that Zii is highly unlikely to be much more more "respectable" than Dillon or Angel, and is just as bad as them or Amber for letting sex control her life. For that matter, she should remember that Zii is associated with Amber's past behaviour. But she's not thinking that clearly. Comedy.) And Ruby doesn't have that many friends to talk to in Montreal, and knows that Zii is successful with guys (whereas Ramona or Julian would be very odd people to consult). I can't see where else she could be going, frankly.

Which just leaves the question of what sort of frame of mind she finds Zii in. I imagine that the two comics will have been nudged into synchronisation, but I doubt that Zii will tell her about the DiDi/Gary situations. Most likely, Ruby will find Zii at the comics shop, drag her to the cafe, and hit her with her problems. Though we may get some embarrassed/wistful looks from Zii if Ruby says anything about Zii clearly having her head screwed on and not letting her sex drive mess up her life.

Oh, and there's the question of what advice Zii is likely to give, and for that matter what will get through to Andy. Ruby's already been about as blatant as she's ever likely to get without shriveling up with embarrassment, and I can't see her getting herself and/or Andy drunk to lower their inhibitions. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

(Now, if Ruby could just induce Dillon or Gina or someone to take Andy aside and ask him what sort of idiot he thinks he is...)
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lordoffiling
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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by lordoffiling »

I missed Ruby so much. It makes me really sad that she’s not gonna get all the strips she deserves.

EDIT: Also, I don’t know motorcycles so I looked this one up. Given the context I was expecting some kind of sleek crotch rocket, but as it turns out the Kawasaki KZP is a police motorcycle.

How... interesting. Fan art request? Ruby in uniform on that bike. Bonus points if it looks like maybe she’s enjoying it a bit too much.
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Spidrift
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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by Spidrift »

Good point about the bike model, so I looked it up. Yep, a special police model. Then Google told me one more thing; the KZP was the model that appeared in the original run of CHiPS. A ’70s-’80s American TV show.

And we already knew that Ruby watched a hell of a lot of those, and is a hopelessly Google-addicted nerd. So there’s our explanation; it’s Ruby being written entirely in character.

Incidentally, remembering that Ma3 handled the actual consequences of Gary getting laid fairly cleverly, I wonder if Amber ought to be more careful what she wishes for. Yes, getting laid will probably make Ruby less tense — but would a less tense Ruby be a nicer person, or just more efficient? And if Ruby discovers that she enjoys sex, she might conclude that she’s been missing out on a good thing for the last four or five years — and who’s she going to blame for that? Maybe the person who put her off the whole idea?
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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by Antinerd »

On second thought maybe Andy is actually right to avoid doing it with Ruby. Judgemental. Unrealistic expectations. More than a bit crazy.

You don't stick your dick in crazy. Of course Andy is likely too young to have learned that but maybe he is operating on some subconscious preservation instinct.

That said Ruby has a lot of potential. The passion is there at least.

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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by Spidrift »

Really, by the standards of the comics' universe, Ruby is quite sane. She's got some hangups which she's working through, but she's not a violent psychotic like Yuki, her denial is less bizarre than Sonya's, she's certainly not as terrifying a stalker as Izzy, and she's a lot less obsessive than, well, most of the cast, but certainly including Angel.

Actually, she's right about one thing even here; most of the cast are controlled by their libidos. To be sure, Ruby's repression is its own kind of dangerous and unhealthy, but at least she can demonstrate self-control. Compare and contrast, say, Zii, who's just lost friends and a band because she isn't sufficiently repressed.
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-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
Avatar misappropriated from the wonderful XKCD.

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brasca
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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by brasca »

Respectable people? I predict Ruby will seek out Ramona, but she may be preoccupied consoling Angel so she’ll go to Julian who’s not going to be much help since he’s a virgin. By default she’ll have to talk to Zii.

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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by suranae »

She could run into Jung, for a pour your heart out to the bartender moment. The advice might be iffy but it'd be level headed.

Bumping into Gary or Kiley is possible but unlikely.

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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by worldshaking00 »

"Respectable" huh? I wonder if she is going to church.

Seriously though, that is a rather limiting limitation considering the circle of 'friends' Ruby has. Especially if she goes to someone she thinks qualifies only to find out that they aren't through conversation. It might be a nice segue to introduce Ruby to Gary though. Fair being fair though, since they just had a run of SDB interrupt Ma3. I think Gary & Ruby could be friends, and I don't particularly desire them to become more than that.
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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by KittyHat »

I had forgotten how incredibly rude and annoying Ruby is. It's really quite amazing how unruffled Amber is by her.

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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by samtheman »

Andy is not scared Ruby. He's just oblivious. And Ruby needs to get laid soon (or at least masturbate) or she might start punching walls out of frustration. And I wonder if this is the end of the current SDB arc and we are going to snap back to Ma3 on Thursday.

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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by worldshaking00 »

Would be a palette cleanser, just like the recent SDB run being one for Ma3.
"Be excellent to each other." - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
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Spidrift
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Re: 10-07-18 SDB-He is scared

Post by Spidrift »

worldshaking00 wrote:
Tue Jul 10, 2018 2:20 pm
"Respectable" huh? I wonder if she is going to church.
It’s a rather old-fashioned term that Ruby uses periodically in a slightly odd way. I think it just comes down to “not completely morally hopeless by Ruby’s standards, so far as she knows”. But she uses it very subjectively; remember, she classes yaoi fandom as “respectable”, which is maybe not a conventional assessment.

So I think she can persuade herself to apply it to Zii, if the plot demands it.

(It’s one of those things that could be a weird bit of characterisation, or could be a symptom of writers working in their second language.)
Seriously though, that is a rather limiting limitation considering the circle of 'friends' Ruby has.
Why the quotation marks? They may be confusingly weird by Ruby’s standards, but the whole point is that she’s found genuine friendships in Montreal, which she hadn’t much ever before, and she’s gradually getting her head around the idea that people don’t invariably suck. There’s a whole bunch of people who’d make the time to try and give her fair advice, if she asked, though some of them are grossly under-qualified.

Given that she’s excluding anyone she knows was involved in the latest Dillon-Angel-Jerzy farce, and that she’s not that close to Ramona, I think it’s a pretty safe bet she’s going to Zii. She’s never been to Zii’s home, so far as we’ve seen, so odds are she’s going to the comics shop — familiar ground, for her. Which means that the one plausible fallback, if Zii isn’t in, might be Jung. Who would probably be a better adviser than he has any right to be, actually.
KittyHat wrote:
Tue Jul 10, 2018 2:56 pm
I had forgotten how incredibly rude and annoying Ruby is. It's really quite amazing how unruffled Amber is by her.
Given that Amber seems to dodge the whole lies-to-parents issue, even when Ruby specifically mentions it, and that Amber has been shown in the past worrying about how she can ever tell them about her porn work, I wonder if the idea is that Amber knows, in her heart of hearts, that she still owes and needs Ruby. Ruby kept her secret for seven years, which puts Amber in her debt however you cut it, and eventually there’s got to be a big scene with the whole family, at which point Amber will really not want to have entirely alienated any of them.

So the point may be that Amber doesn’t feel she has a choice.
samtheman wrote:
Tue Jul 10, 2018 3:06 pm
Andy is not scared Ruby. He's just oblivious.
So what can anyone advise Ruby to try? She’s already been about as upfront about this as she’s probably capable of being — I mean, the flirtatious lines and sexy black dress are exactly the kind of thing that’d work fine for Zii or most of the rest of the female cast, 98% of the time.
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-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
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