05-08-14 Meow like a kitty

[Giz]

New strip! http://www.stickydillybuns.com/strips-s ... ke_a_kitty

Updating in advance this week to get the book ready for the printers.

[Adamas]

Obviously she's never lived with cats during the spring.

[brasca]

Or had a cat like Choo Choo Bear or Sprinkles who have sex and produce kittens to make their owners' lives miserable.

Quote removed. The DAMNed

[Spidrift]

(Heh. A bonus bonus from the Kickstarter - a strip on Monday.)

Obviously she's never lived with cats during the spring.

She's clearly never lived with un-fixed cats at all. Or heard the phrase "tomcatting around", for that matter. Or spent very much time with very many other women.

I know that she's meant to be naive, and it's a joke, but sometimes it gets a bit overdone. And I still reckon she's really a slightly sheltered teenager, not someone who's spent several years at university. Anyhow, she did appear to have noticed that she liked looking at hot men, and come to terms with it to some extent, a few strips back; the way that every character in these comics always seems to be taking two steps forward then three steps back sometimes gets quite head-desk-inducing.

On the other hand, we get Ruby with her hair down in a t-shirt nightie, which suits her. (The granny thing was a bit much.)

[Schmorgluck]

And I still reckon she's really a slightly sheltered teenager

For some reason, I read "shattered" instead of "sheltered" at first. Which reminds me to point out that Ruby has more than her fair share of neuroses. It's easy to overlook in a setting full of at least borderline people, but she clearly has issues.

[Spidrift]

I'd say that she had just the one thing, really - the hang-up about sex, which is what powers the general repression, the issues with her sister, and all the rest. She needs to get her head straight and accept that she's got a perfectly normal set of sexual impulses (which even she has already told herself once are nothing to actually be ashamed of), but if she can get over that one big problem, she should be fine. She may not ever be everyone's favourite person - I suspect that she'll always be a bit straight-laced and ambitious, and probably prickly with people she doesn't trust, especially Amber - but there's the basics of a very decent human being there, with a lot of virtues.

Some guy will have to work to earn her trust, though. Which makes me wish that we had a bit more background on Andy. At the moment, he's just a pretty Ken doll with a respectable job, room-temperature IQ, and a totally weird man-crush on Dillon. I don't want some ten-strip biographical flashback, but I kind of hope that Ruby gets desperate enough to say "Tell me about yourself" on their next date, and we get a couple of speech balloons of actual character. The current Andy-shaped hole in the page doesn't look like anything that would be any use to Ruby at all.

[crimzontearz]

And so it was that Ruby's reaction to sex was identical to Amber's to her first time

it would be funny tho

[FlashD81]

I wondered when Andy would come back into the mix. The previous date was a bit of a disaster. Andy is a nice enough guy, however is lack of intelligence would make me wonder if he could manage the date on his own.

She still has a lot to learn about her sexuality but that is part of the fun. BTW Ruby does look nicer in that loose hair and long T-shirt.

[JoybuzzerX]

I had always kept wondering, where's Amber? She's just seems so under used. Then this comic goes and makes me finally think, she's not meant to be a big part of the comic, but rather just a way to get Ruby moved in with Dillion.

I do have to agree, Ruby seems to be very sheltered, especially for someone who went to college. My only guess is she really never made friends with anyone in high school or college for her to think any of that.

[Spidrift]

I wondered when Andy would come back into the mix. The previous date was a bit of a disaster. Andy is a nice enough guy, however is lack of intelligence would make me wonder if he could manage the date on his own.

I'm amazed he can get dressed on his own.

I guess that Andy may have hidden depths; it'd be quite nice to find out something better about him. He seems to be a competent lifeguard; perhaps he's a really dedicated athlete, who needs helping to get out as much as Ruby does. And, well, the date could have gone worse. A bit. In theory. But at the moment, his main virtue seems to be that he's mostly harmless, so that Ruby can have a few dates with him without actually feeling horribly pressured or too naive by comparison. Which leaves Ruby, entirely accidentally, exploiting him for practice.

I had always kept wondering, where's Amber? She's just seems so under used. Then this comic goes and makes me finally think, she's not meant to be a big part of the comic, but rather just a way to get Ruby moved in with Dillion.

Well, we knew where she was this night, from Ma3. (This strip just makes that clear, just in case anyone is reading SDB but not Ma3. Is anyone, I wonder?) But I gather that you mean generally.

I agree that Amber has been looking like a spare wheel in SDB for the last few dozen strips, and playing a much more active part in the plot of the other comic. Her initial plot point in SDB was having a problem finding a worthwhile boyfriend and running a functional love life, especially after Ruby showed up, but that worry seems to have evaporated in an instant once she thought of Gary. TCampbell has hinted that her long-term plot concern is getting used to life outside the porn industry, which has scrambled her thinking rather badly, and that fits what we've seen, but she's not had much opportunity to work through that in SDB; Ruby could be giving her a high-contrast view of the world, but, well, so far it just isn't happening. Amber seems to find Ruby incomprehensible rather then thought-provoking.

Perhaps Amber's relationship with Gary will crash and burn, and Ruby will get a chance to tell both the other two simultaneously that they've just convinced her yet further that relationships are a waste of time, forcing Amber to think about what she did wrong. But who knows?

I do have to agree, Ruby seems to be very sheltered, especially for someone who went to college. My only guess is she really never made friends with anyone in high school or college for her to think any of that.

She seems to have avoided making any kind of friends, to a near-pathological degree. (Note that she never talks about friends.) God knows what her reputation was at university; logically, somebody there probably ought to have caught that she had socialisation problems, but, well, didn't. She really does make more sense as an 18-year-old (who just avoided social experience at school) rather than a 21-year-old (who avoided social experience at school and university).

I wonder what she puts in the "Hobbies" section of job application forms?

[FlashD81]

Andy needs more depth than what has been shown so far, and a date or two with Ruby might go a long way in that regard. The possibility of awkward situations coming from Ruby's fantasies during the dates could be great as well. Ruby's growing social status could be the focus of the next book.

I don't know how long it will be before Amber's relationship with Gary comes to a stop, but eventually It probably will. In the meantime I hope they both get something out of it not just Amber.

I think I'll keep sticking around to see what happens next.

[Bambikles]

Ruby will soon learn what all women think about is also sex.

[Spidrift]

The possibility of awkward situations coming from Ruby's fantasies during the dates could be great as well.

On previous form, Andy would just sit there grinning while Ruby zones out. She's very rarely said anything revealing when one of her yaoi fantasies hit; Dillon may spot what's going on, having a mind that works on much the same lines in that respect, but Andy seems too clueless.

I'd be more worried about Ruby acting on this idea that she ought to throw Andy at Dillon. I really think that Andy might go along with that. For someone who apparently identifies as straight, and doesn't set off Dillon's gaydar, he can seem awfully keen on the idea of learning from Dillon.

(Perhaps Dillon thinks of him as straight because Dillon's seduction attempts bounced off, not realising that Andy isn't Kinsey zero, he just has zero clue? No, I don't really believe that - but still...)

And frankly, I hope that we've now seen enough of Ruby's yaoi fantasies to make the writers' point, and she can now move on a bit. Today's strip was okay, in that it served the plot purpose of bringing Andy (and Minew) back into play and telling anyone who doesn't read Ma3 where Amber has gone - but honestly, "Ruby is in denial, but <yaoi fantasy!>" is a joke that we've seen plenty already. And she seemed to have begun to realise what was going on, and to accept it; this is a jump backwards.

Ruby's growing social status could be the focus of the next book.

And back to the basic problem; this is still Dillon's comic, even if Ruby has attained a strong supporting position. Some of us have said before we'd love to have Dillon disappear while the less annoying characters get developed to the full, but it's not going to happen, whatever. So volume 2 is going to be no more than half Ruby at best.

Which does remind me, though; this is strip #149. It'll be interesting to see what acts as a bookend on Friday.

I don't know how long it will be before Amber's relationship with Gary comes to a stop, but eventually It probably will. In the meantime I hope they both get something out of it not just Amber.

Gary already has. He's said so, repeatedly. He may not have got an orgasm during penetrative sex yet, but when a man says he's happy to have had his (previously documented) wildest fantasy fulfilled, I'm inclined to believe him.

Ruby will soon learn what all women think about is also sex.

From whom?

[DrAngryEd]

Wow, Ruby's hair looks a little bit longer..looks even better...are you free for the night, gal?

[Zippy]

(Heh. A bonus bonus from the Kickstarter - a strip on Monday.)

Well, define bonus. Creators' time is a zero-sum game, and I'd rather have had an EC update today rather than SDB on both Mon & Tues...