06-05-13 Make the most of my surroundings

[Bambikles]

so............. looks like "Ruby is in the closet" and Dill and Jerzy are out of the closet

Like this one

Another part of Ruby's presonality comes up. She's nosy but repressed. Maybe being repressed not only about sex, but in all her impulses, is the big point of this character. "I shouldn't, but I wanti it soooooo.... *rationalization* Can't help, I do it".

But really, this is funny, 'cos she's putting dilemma in a fairly harmless doing.

So Ruby, what you gonna do now ?

[Spidrift]

And now she'll hide in the closet and watch......

Well, yes. Rather obviously. Closet. Embarrassed person. Two other people about to have sex. What do you think might follow?

Except that I'm not sure about "watch". She'll be forced to listen, though.

Oh gosh... she probably doesn't even know gay people exist.

(a) She's a big fan of a sitcom in which, apparently, one character persistently pretended to be gay throughout the series. (b) She's prudish and coitophobic, but she isn't stupid and she hasn't been asleep for the last forty years. She'll know perfectly well that they exist; she just won't want to know any more than that.

Well, if she does peek, she'll learn soon enough that Dillon is not the guy in the photo (as neither look like Gary).

My guess is that she won't peek - she won't want to know any more than she can help about what's going on, or to risk discovery, and the writers will be quite happy to extend that joke for a few more strips. It can't last indefinitely, though - not with the two of them living in the same apartment.

Though the door might drift open. Conversely, Dillon or Jerzy might have a thing about turning the lights out.

Another part of Ruby's presonality comes up. She's nosy but repressed.

Barely counts as nosy in my book. You've been bundled off to sleep in a strange room, the wardrobe door is unlocked... Honestly, succumbing to the temptation to take a harmless peek is only human. And Ruby is clearly quite bright, which means she'll be a little bit curious about her surroundings.

Also, I got the impression from a previous strip that, not surprisingly, she'd never really been in a man's bedroom before. (Yes, she seemed surprised that it was tidy. No, that doesn't make her androphobic; it just means she's a little bit prone to think in commonplace cliches - and "most men are slobs" is barely a slander.) That's bound to push her curiosity level up one notch.

Anyway - the medium-term twist here surely has to be that Ruby will be cripplingly embarrassed about this situation. If she isn't actually discovered, I suspect that she'll beg Amber not to tell Dillon where she will have been. The irony being that Dillon, flamboyant impertinent exhibitionist that he is, would surely not be too worried by the situation. (Unless he realised that Ruby was curled up and screaming inside. He's a twerp, but he's not cruel.)

[themacnut]

Darn, I was hoping for a taser or pepper spray attack - but it looks like Ruby's just going to duck in the closet and then be "subjected" to the sounds of two men screwing. My only hope for more hilarity is at some point during or maybe afterward, Dillon may go to the closet for whatever reason and then Ruby gets a full-frontal nude profile, resulting in more hilarity (screeching Ruby at the very least).

[Spidrift]

As I vaguely remembered and somebody confirmed, Canada has civilised weapon laws - so I'm afraid that the chances of Ruby packing mace or high-frequency electricity were, realistically, never high. And I suspect that she's one notch too nerdy to have taken effective self-defence classes - though I wouldn't bet on that if it were my soft fleshy parts in the danger zone.

So I'm not entirely sure where this scene is going, after "Ruby hides in the closet". (Which looks quite certain. That's three frames of Chekhov's Closet in that strip.) Ruby is going to be subjected to crippling levels of embarrassment and probably far too much information about gay sex, certainly, whether or not Dillon and Jerzy ever discover that she was there. And she'll probably be stuck in a cramped closet for a while, though fortunately without any action figures. But - then what?

Actually, I have a bad feeling about the conventions of the Ma3 universe, which sometimes seem to include All Ladies Love Their Yaoi. If Ruby gets a glimpse of what's going on, we may find her subconscious doing an implausible flip-flop, and her suffering an annoying and confusing sense of inexplicable warmth. Her passing admiration of Dillon's taste in shirts in panel 3 may also lead to something; I've suggested before that Dillon is the sort to decide that what Ruby needs is a makeover, and Ruby - needing an optimum outfit for interviews, all else aside - may actually decide to go along with the idea, despite any doubts about Dillon.

And by the way, I'm not sure that Ruby is the sort to screech. Yelp, certainly, and scream if under sufficient duress - but she seems the sort who usually wants to hang onto her pride if possible. If Dillon does find her, even if he's nude, I'd guess that she'd try to walk out with some mix of hopeless shredded dignity and blushing apology.

[Gil Hamilton]

I think R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" is a favor film among the creative staff for these comics, because they sure like the "quick, hide in the closet!" gag a lot. ;)

[harvey-rrit]

Thank you for saving me ever so much effort in composition.

--There will be poor viewing, and Kal-El there is going to be mistaken for that pic of Gary.

Quote removed. The DAMNed

[Milnoc]

As I vaguely remembered and somebody confirmed, Canada has civilised weapon laws - so I'm afraid that the chances of Ruby packing mace or high-frequency electricity were, realistically, never high.

Hockey sticks.

[brasca]

Unless Ruby can look through the key hole I don't think see how she can watch anything. That apartment building looks too modern to have closets with skeleton key locks. She's certainly going to hear a lot.

[Spidrift]

Dramatic convention. And hey, it's hard to close a hinged closet door completely from the inside - no handle.

[Hurbster]

Well as long as she is not selfish enough to put Dillon and Jerszy off their respective strokes...

[Vielfras]

Hides in the closet,gets poked in the bum by one of DIllon's toys ;)

I'd like Ruby to become a Yaoi fan girl so what I think will happen is that Ruby will see Dillon and learns he is gay. Ruby will later meet Gary and thinks he and Dillon are in some sort of romantic relationship. She'll think that Dillon is cheating on one of them with the other, which is something that will make them living together even more awkward, and funny.
However, after she learns that Gary doesn't swing that way, she will have spent enough time with him to know he is not "yucky" and will let him SGR her. Thus making them a couple and ending the comic all together.

Or she'll just hide silently in the closet and get a flashback explaining how and when she saw Amber's video....

[DinoJake]

Ten bucks says she'll think Dillon and Jerzy are robbers and will start attacking them with a random object.

[Spidrift]

Given the dialogue she's just heard in the last panel of this strip, I wish I lived close enough to take that easy ten bucks.

[themacnut]

Seems most likely to me that she'll be hiding in the closet hearing Dillon and Jerzy get it on, but will have no idea what Dillon looks like unless she risks opening the closet door to peek, which she most likely won't do. It's quite likely she'll hide in the closet the whole time and not come out 'till Dillon and Jerzy leave (or sneak out in the middle of the night while they're sleeping), thereby setting up a gag where she thinks Gary is Dillon. The gag will probably only last until later the next day when they finally "officially" meet though.