Pixie Trix Comix & Hiveworks Community

Just because she's from Canada doesn't mean she didn't attend one of the many Christian colleges in the US. It would depend how "christian" her parents were mostly. I really don't recall any characterization of Amber and Ruby's parents.
Waiting on more industrious sorts to find out for me.

Let me join the chorus of readers in agreement that Ruby does look more alluring with her hair down.

Spidrift wrote:No friends? Not even a few people who shared their weird interests?

Maybe opinions differ, but "No friends at all" (as opposed to the routine "Quiet, not many friends") would usually rate as a red flag to me. I remember chatting to someone who handled student welfare at a university who certainly said exactly that.

No friends might be a bit of a stretch, but no lasting friends doesn't. She might have had a couple people she talked to in class after class, perhaps grabbed coffee with after a section or two, and then never talked to again. Its been several years since I took sociology, but there's a term for the kind of friendship which only takes place within certain contexts, usually work or class, but that neither party has any interest in expanding beyond that context. It's rarer now than it was even ten years ago, thanks to social media, but Ruby doesn't strike me as the social media type anyways.

But, honestly, I think we're supposing a lot from a little. When in the comic has she really interacted with anyone she'd consider a peer, besides Minew? Angel is the only other person I can think of, even interacting with Andy seemed to me to be a bit out of her comfort zone. This entire comic has been Ruby out of her comfort zone, really. I think its quite possible that she has a few close friends at least, but ones that know her well enough that she's just flat not comfortable talking about certain topics and are willing to indulge her, in addition to work/class acquaintances that aren't close enough to actually talk about sex with.

As an aside, a student welfare officer that sought ought potentially lonely students is mind-boggling to me. Granted, I went to a huge university, but I can easily imagine someone sliding straight through the system if they didn't want to be noticed. Live on your own. Don't stay after class. Turn stuff in on time. Don't volunteer during classes, and don't ask questions. Always show up about five minutes before class starts, and never in a rush. Be presentable, but not overly made up (clean, comfortable clothes, hair brushed, pony-tail for long hair, only enough make-up to not get questions about being sick). I stood out, because I did exactly none of those things, but plenty of people I went to school with could pass their lecture professors on the street and not expect to be recognized, and I don't think they stood out as weird for doing so. High school, where you have the same small pool of teachers watching your antics (and placing bets on them) for four straight years I can understand that level of scrutiny, but I have a difficult time imagining it at the university level unless you live in a dorm.

Edit: That isn't to say I don't believe you, I just have a hard time imagining it. I have also read stories where students interacted with an academic advisor/guidance councilor type person at the college level, and I never met one of those either.

Geeno wrote:I really don't recall any characterization of Amber and Ruby's parents.
Waiting on more industrious sorts to find out for me.

(1) Wealthy doctors (according to Zii). (2) Amber is uncomfortable about telling them about her porn work (not exactly amazing), hasn't done so yet, but apparently feels she ought to keep in touch with them a bit. (3) Evidently don't know about Amber's porn work, suggesting a lack of gossipy friends who'd hear things from acquaintances... (4) Don't listen when Ruby tells them that Amber never reads e-mail (i.e. typical bloody oblivious parents).

It doesn't add up to much, beyond "well off, educated, probably a bit socially conservative, clearly rather oblivious, haven't actually alienated their daughters". Religion not mentioned, but as I said before, Ruby doesn't show any signs of religious indoctrination that I can see. Her prudishness and naivety are couched in purely personal terms.

wi1dfire wrote:But, honestly, I think we're supposing a lot from a little.

Well, yes. Frankly, the Pixietrix crew aren't perfect on character consistency at the best of times, so extrapolating from what little we've got is really rather chancy. But we do it anyway.

wi1dfire wrote:When in the comic has she really interacted with anyone she'd consider a peer, besides Minew? Angel is the only other person I can think of, even interacting with Andy seemed to me to be a bit out of her comfort zone.

Actually, there were a few moments with Andy which suggested a perfectly functional human being. She accepted his gift with good grace and a bit of charm, and in the next strip she was chatting to him and smiling. Things went downhill after that because of all the comedy misunderstandings, of course, but Ruby really doesn't come across as a total shut-in.

wi1dfire wrote:As an aside, a student welfare officer that sought ought potentially lonely students is mind-boggling to me.

This was a casual conversation a few years ago, in truth, but the context was her complaining about changes to the system which meant that she and her peers would get less one-on-one contact with students in an informal tutorial context, which was where she could watch out for serious problems. Her example was a conversation where she'd said casually to a student "Can you get one of your friends to <assist with some minor work-related issue>", and he'd said "Oh, I don't have any friends". I think that anyone would wince at that; she also regarded it as part of her job to address the issue in some way.

wi1dfire wrote:I have also read stories where students interacted with an academic advisor/guidance councilor type person at the college level, and I never met one of those either.

This was someone from an old-style UK collegiate university, as I recall, which may help. Tutors in those used to have a job description of being in loco parentis. The idea of one of the dons taking the place of your parents had become a joke even in my student days, but colleges could still be small enough that a bit of worrying about individuals was still possible. Rising student suicide rates are bad for recruitment and hence for fee income, don'cha'know.

And to change the subject entirely - the thing that amuses me about this whole thread is that I don't think we've even mentioned the frame which gives the strip its title, which is quite hot and as explicit as this comic gets, and which is presumably designed to establish where Amber is at the end of the volume. (I'm sure that everybody here knows anyway, but having her just vanish off without any further explanation would look weird in the print version.) In many comics, it'd have attracted a lot of attention, but of course we've seen much more in Ma3, so "Amber gets a guy and is having a really good time", technically resolving her major problem from the start of the strip, isn't seen as worth even mentioning on these boards.

Spidrift wrote: And to change the subject entirely - the thing that amuses me about this whole thread is that I don't think we've even mentioned the frame which gives the strip its title, which is quite hot and as explicit as this comic gets, and which is presumably designed to establish where Amber is at the end of the volume.

I think it's because most readers on the forum also read Ma3 and so are perfectly aware of where Amber's got to, and did most of their commenting back at the Ma3 strip where Amber showed up at Gary's door asking to stay the night. So to most of us Amber being shown with Gary is old, old news by now.

Uh, yeah. That's what I said.

Oops, one more crucial thing we missed on this update; it included a colour image of the print volume cover. This is, I'm sure, the first time we've seen the colour of Ruby's hair. She is, as expected, auburn.

Cats aren't like that??

Someone here has a very romantic notion of cats, I can tell you that.