05-07-13 Walking like a duck

[RickSmith]

I am rather charmed by this comic. It is funny, there is character development, people are helping other people... what is not to like?

[Theran]

Thank You Shouri and Giselle, You've made my day if not week.
In my own life I've met girls who had a "Ruby reaction" (they really looked cute before and after the compliment), so I found this episode charmingly accurate.

Good thing Dillon is there to help and looking at the current state of things there is going to be a lot of helping involved (and probably a lot more chocolates involved as well).
Cheers

[Bambikles]

It's urgent that Ruby take proper sentimental and social education. As I see her, she's prime material for manipulation and seduction for anyone talented enough to pass her defences and confuse her, while shying away nice guys.

You mean, it'll be really bad if Dillon introduces Ruby to Zii?

I really didn't think of Zii there, more of the classical Don Juan/Casanova. Thinking of it, introducing Ruby to the current Zii would probably be harmless for quite a while. Zii's still recovering from her break-up and I'm not sure her anything-that-move mindset will stick now. Actually it could be interesting comedy potential given it probably would be like a matter/antimatter clash.

[Artemisia]

Well, that, and the question is...does Ruby know Zii?

[MonCappy]

I generally attribute a lot of the long term relationship hang ups to crap parenting because most of them seem to have originated before the character left their parents' home. If the parents didn't actually inflict the damage (which Oyama did, if only through repeated boneheaded carelessness) then they still gave crap guidance or monitoring of their kids to let these particular ruts set in. Granted, this is assuming that most of these behaviors aren't a chemical imbalance at base, but that seems unlikely for the stories told.

That smile as she's enjoying the chocolate and letting the reins slacken a little looks good on Ruby. Her sequence of expressions is wonderful here. Dillion continues to effectively make his points by carefully maintaining a ratio of compliment to criticism.

Who's Omaya?

[Spidrift]

"Omaya" isn't anybody. "Oyama" could be either one of two characters; context suggests it's Takeru Oyama rather than Yuki Oyama.

And wouldn't it be nice if people valued clarity of communication?

[Bambikles]

Well, that, and the question is...does Ruby know Zii?

Probably not, but there is still the chance that Ruby met Zii when she was Amber's friend in high school. If Ruby learns that it's "thanks" to Zii that Amber got into porn... Fwaï-aïe-aïe !

[Spidrift]

I'd assume that Ruby and Zii were passingly acquainted back then, yes. Though Zii may well not remember Ruby much, and it's not guaranteed that Ruby will remember Zii as more than a blur. There seems to be a six-year age difference (assuming that Amber left home at 18, and Zii is close to her in age), and a teenage girl's friends will rarely pay much attention to their friends' pre-teen kid sisters. They likely think of them as silly and annoying kids.

(Of course, if Giz wants a plot twist, she can always say that Zii babysat Ruby sometimes or something.)

And as you say, if Ruby ever finds out about Zii's part in Amber's past, she's likely to react with sheer contempt. They don't strike me as characters with much in common to start with.

[wiseguy]

no monday strip?

[Odd Man Out]

EC Filler suggests that most of the strips will be delayed or filler this week while numerous people are headed to a convention.

[Spidrift]

I'm talking about someone new with real charm and suave player skills, who'd consider it a challenge to charm the prickly Ruby out of her panties. And then dump her like yesterday's news since he got what he wanted from her.

To add to the drama Dillon and Amber could see what the "player" was doing, and try to block him, but Ruby's growing attraction to the guy leads her to defy them and sneak around them in creative ways, ways I'll bet she never used around her parents because no boys back home could touch her.

Incidentally, while this would be a horribly plausible possible plot once Ruby starts coming out of her shell, I'm not even convinced that Dillon would be much help. He's always been written as a bit of an idiot with a huge soft spot for romantic fantasies. He might even encourage Ruby to make a dumb mistake in that situation.

Which would just leave Amber playing the hard-nosed realist giving cool advice in matters of the heart. Yeah, we can really see Ruby taking Amber's advice there, can't we?

On the other hand, Dillon is being written with a bit more social intelligence now that he's the title character, so he might be a bit more help than that. Anyhow, we're getting deep into fanfic territory now.

[Don Alexander]

Wow, it's like shooting fish in the barrel.

[SiliconDream]

Not quite what I've read.' From the studies I've read'up on, while women tend to shift orientations some, men seem much more fixed. The reason is that for men orientation is linked to physical arousal, while for women it's much more about emotional feelings and attachment.

If you look at the study I linked to above, young women do have slightly less stable orientations than men during adolescence, and are much more likely to be bisexual or "mostly straight" around age 21. However, there's still a ton of instability among orientation in young men. Among those high school boys who were <i>only</i> attracted to males for the preceding year, the majority reported being <i>only</i> attracted to females in followup interviews conducted 1+ years later...and an even larger absolute number of young men went from female-only attraction to male-only or bisexual attraction. Ditto for actual sexual behavior. People move in and out of the various "non-heterosexual" categories very frequently, whether measured by relationship-seeking behavior, attraction, or self-labeling. Other studies on adults have shown that they also tend to move up and down the Kinsey scale over time.