23-01-15 They are very close

[Spidrift]

Unfortunately, this is the Ma3 universe, where people Do Not Talk.

On the other hand, she doesn't need a talk so much as she needs to think. Dillon talking to her is probably the necessary catalyst for that, but it's just possible that she could catch herself being stupid, smack herself upside the head, and work out for herself where she was going wrong. Unlikely, I'll grant you, but she's one of the very few characters in the setting who might just be capable of self-diagnosis.

Or this may be a comedy, everybody may ignore Ruby's weird behaviour, and she may spend the next couple of volumes desperately trying to organise live-action yaoi scenes.

[Don Alexander]

Okay, Ruby, time to stop it! It's getting highly annoying!

Admittedly, I'm not quite sure what she's aiming for.

Panel 2,m okay, she wants to make it clear that Ray and Dillon are close and should continue with their guy-on-guy kissing lessons, so she can have her yaoi.

But then her complete reversal? Just to theoretically create a situation where Amber says "Well, in that case, since you are not a close friend of Dillon's, I'll not hate you, since you seemingly hate his guts?" and then they get to go on with the guy-on-guy??

In just WHICH of the infinite multiverses is THAT going to work????

Not to mention, if Amber does not help out, it defaults back to Ruby. And then perhaps that very jealous boyfriend gets mentioned, and Amber asks who the hell that is supposed to be...

Anyway, really hope someone calls Ruby out for her extremely irrational behavior she is exhibiting here.

[Spidrift]

She's not used to doing this sort of thing. She's making it up as she goes along, badly.

But what I'm getting from this is that she has an old, simple problem with her sister. Amber is the pretty one. Amber gets the attention. Boys want to kiss Amber. So when Amber walked into the room, Ruby didn't just think "damn, someone's interrupted this hot yaoi scene", she thought "damn, Ray is going to want to kiss Amber now". And she was right, of course.

But she also knows that Amber and Dillon are close. So her first reaction was to tell Amber that Ray was close to Dillon, in the hope that Amber would back off from something on which Dillon had first claim. The trouble was, this didn't work, and Amber agreed to help Ray because he was a friend of Dillon's. So Ruby hastily tried reversing that claim,in the hope that Amber would not help someone who wasn't a friend of Dillon's. Idiot comedy logic at its worst.

But Ruby is out of her depth, lost in a hormonal fog, and improvising like crazy. She does need to stop and think; ideally then she'll realise that she's being a bit unethical; at the very least, she should see that she's getting nowhere and she needs to back off.

[JoybuzzerX]

None of what he has said, has to mean he's a big fan of her porn. She has done other acting now. Also, I don't see how it counts against him (not that I think she has yet to be interested in him), as it never counted against Gary.

Amber may be moving past the porn industry, it doesn't mean she's going to whitewash it and rewrite her own history and act like it never happened.

[wi1dfire]

First, I wanted to say I found your points well thought out, Spindrift. I didn't agree with all of them, but if I didn't pick them out your response below, you can probably assume I agreed with you, or at least didn't disagree with it.

These two ought to have started that process by now; they certainly ought to be getting it underway now that they've got the opportunity.

Upthread, I objected to your use of the word "Toxic" to describe their relationship. I still do, but I do have to say that the current living conditions, which neither one thought up or sought after, might create a toxic relationship. From my experience, this is the exact opposite way to get over sibling rivalries, so I'm not sure I would call this a viable opportunity. I'm sure their mom thought it would be, but that's the perspective of someone that has had a professional career presumably for decades (we know her and their father are both successful doctors) and has also presumably been married for quite some time. Someone like that has probably long since gotten past the hump of learning to just let things go and to put up with different values in people, which Ruby hasn't done yet. Their mom may have forgotten that particular skill isn't standard to everyone's personality.

the judgementalism may not have kicked in until the teen party disaster, by which time Amber was safely away from home.

That's possible, but we don't know that for sure. I know I was a pretty judgmental 5 year old, and it only got worse as I made my way through my teenage years. I'd love to forget the more annoying aspects of that personality trait, but my siblings equally love to bring it up now that they've successfully knocked some of it out of me. But you're right, we don't know that Ruby fit that pattern. I wouldn't be terribly surprised though.

"She won't mind lying to mummy and daddy; after all, I don't" And then, when Ruby gets annoyed, she calls her "uptight" and shoves a kitten in her face.

Two points of order. First, Amber does not appear to have asked Ruby to lie for her. It would be one thing if Amber did force her sister to silence, but its quite another for Ruby to enforce it on herself due to being unwilling to deal with having a sibling in porn. Amber is probably grateful for Ruby staying silent, since she does appear to be on some level ashamed of her past, but she shouldn't (and apparently doesn't) feel responsible for Ruby doing so.
Second, Ruby is uptight. No one likes to be called on it (Ruby especially doesn't like to be called on it), but she is. I'll allow that it isn't really fair for Amber to say that to her though. Amber has been offstage for most of the comic, while Ruby's world has been turned inside out and rearranged every twenty minutes. She's WAY outside of her original comfort zone, and has mostly handled it with aplomb. But still, from Amber's perspective, Ruby is pretty uptight.

(Could Dillon help with that? Well, I'm sure that he'd love to try. But he has his own fatal flaws in that area. He may do better once he's spent a few weeks getting his head around Ruby's personality. She's not actually very complicated, but she's way outside of Dillon's usual experience, which is presumably why he finds her interesting.)

And going along with that, there IS a way for Dillon to help the sisters out, and good news, it doesn't actually require critical thinking on his part. If they continue to hang out with one another, and there seems to be no stopping that, Ruby will actually pick up the ability to relax about things that annoy her. They'll still annoy her, but she'll have more perspective, and might even see them as no big deal. And once that happens, she'll be able to look past all the wrongs her sister has done her, and maybe start to focus on that one or two things that Amber has done to help her out. Chief among them allowing her to stay in her apartment with zero notice and without even a token protest, even if they didn't get along at the time. She's already starting to pick up on the good parts of Dillon, so it is possible.

[zaprzapb]

Oh Ruby that was just too funny.

[Spidrift]

None of what he has said, has to mean he's a big fan of her porn. She has done other acting now.

See my previous lengthy post on this subject. I'm not going to grind through all those details again. Unless I made any errors of fact there, I stand by the conclusion; little or none of Amber's non-porn work has yet been released to the public, and Ray is still having to be gently persuaded to think of her as anything but a porn actress.

Also, I don't see how it counts against him (not that I think she has yet to be interested in him), as it never counted against Gary.

And Gary was just as tactless to Amber, who was just as laid-back and forgiving to him. She does put up with this stuff, and even finds it funny. But when you know that somebody is trying to leave a bit of their past behind, it's just plain rude to bring it up the first time you meet them in person. It's not a terrible crime - the porn is part of Amber's past life, she's got to deal with that, and she'll get guys far less nice than Gary or Ray reminding her - but it's a negative mark against both those two.

Upthread, I objected to your use of the word "Toxic" to describe their relationship.

Strike "toxic", replace with "sour". The relationship isn't killing anybody, it's just bad and not getting better.

I still do, but I do have to say that the current living conditions, which neither one thought up or sought after, might create a toxic relationship. From my experience, this is the exact opposite way to get over sibling rivalries, so I'm not sure I would call this a viable opportunity.

It's not a good situation, but it makes fixing their relationship look kind of necessary. They're stuck in the same living quarters for a significant period, they need to work on getting on or, yes, things will just get worse. And, longer term, this should remind both of them that they need to either learn to communicate or give up altogether. And as they both seem to value family loyalty, the latter isn't an option.

I'm sure their mom thought it would be, but that's the perspective of someone that has had a professional career presumably for decades (we know her and their father are both successful doctors) and has also presumably been married for quite some time.

(Nearly thirty years, minimum. Even I think that's quite some time.) I'd like to see the LaRose parents some time, but I don't expect that we will. Parents of major characters in the Ma3 universe seem to be stuck with being generic off-screen idiots and plot devices, and trying to make sense of their behaviour from the second-hand reports we get of them is fairly futile.

First, Amber does not appear to have asked Ruby to lie for her. It would be one thing if Amber did force her sister to silence, but its quite another for Ruby to enforce it on herself due to being unwilling to deal with having a sibling in porn.

That strikes me as frankly disingenuous. If Amber didn't flat out ask Ruby to lie to mummy and daddy, she certainly didn't do anything to prevent her, and she took full advantage of Ruby's silence in that she never told them about her porn career. When Ruby briefly thought that Amber was saying that she was a lesbian, her reaction was "Is this something else I have to lie about?", and Amber has never said, then or at any other time, "I didn't ask you to lie".

I assume that there was a very fraught and confused 'phone conversation between Ruby and Amber the day after that teenage party, and we could all write the fanfic in our heads. We don't know what exactly either of them said in Giz/Shouri canon, but I just can't come up with a script that doesn't involve Amber encouraging Ruby to silence. Amber knew that Ruby knew about her porn work, and knew that Ruby wasn't saying anything to their parents. Saying that she isn't responsible for the consequences of that would just be moral cowardice - which isn't one of Amber's vices.

But still, from Amber's perspective, Ruby is pretty uptight.

And there's the rub. Amber only ever operates from her own, weird and narrow perspective. She's kind of nice on her own terms, but her capacity for empathy with her own sister seems to be zero. And while we've seen Ruby's and Dillon's understanding of other viewpoints gradually expanding, Amber's still seems to be fixed. Maybe we'll see more of her in future strips - and maybe she'll one day manage a proper apology to Ruby.

Double post merged. The DAMNed

[JTheCreator]

Oi vey, This is just getting uncomfortable to watch...Amber's facial expression in the last panel also sends some awkward reaction vibes.

[brasca]

I know this is suppose to be funny but to me this is a little painful. I would hope someone would pull her aside and figure out what is going on.

Unfortunately Amber doesn't know her sister as well as she should and Dillon is still hung up on his crush.

To give him credit, Dillon seems to have his own hormones reasonably well under control at present, and he's already dragged himself away from Ray to talk to Ruby once. And he seems to be putting some genuine effort into his friendship with her. My bet is that he will take Ruby aside to ask her WhatTheHell while Amber talks to Ray. (Bonus points if Minew gets another meal out of this.) The interesting question then is how that conversation will go.

I just want to know what her angle is? I suppose her logic is that Amber would be less likely to help Ray with his acting if she thought Dillon and him were enemies, but seeing as how both Dillon and Ray are present and would immediately tell Amber otherwise this will fail immediately. Has she improvised some clever plan within a plan or is she now so delusional with lust for yaoi she cannot think clearly anymore?

[FlashD81]

That is precisely the problem. Her hormones have got the better of her. She needs a moment of self reflection and/or to be pulled aside and asked what the heck is going on.

[Spidrift]

Yep. The poor kid's brain is flooded with unfamiliar hormones, making her act like a comedy character. It's kind of sad, and of course it won't work. But she's just had her new, addictive pleasure taken away from her, and to add insult to injury, it's been blocked by her pretty big sister who always gets all the attention. Like Flash says, she probably just needs a moment of clarity to sort her head out a bit.

[wiseguy]

in short

she needs 2 new female friends

Kiley to help her accept herself and her discovery of her interests

Zii to show her the fun ways to enjoy yaoi

[FlashD81]

That would make my day.

[CFT]

I just want to know what her angle is? I suppose her logic is that Amber would be less likely to help Ray with his acting if she thought Dillon and him were enemies, but seeing as how both Dillon and Ray are present and would immediately tell Amber otherwise this will fail immediately. Has she improvised some clever plan within a plan or is she now so delusional with lust for yaoi she cannot think clearly anymore?

I suppose from Ruby's "leaning in conspiratorially" pose that the intention is that she is "whispering" both those phrases to Amber and thus no one else hears them? (which, if true, at least explains away part of the "problem". But I'll admit there's no concrete proof that this is the case). And also, after that, even if Ray and Dillon contradict her, Amber may be inclined to believe Ruby (why would she lie about that?) and attribute the lack of animosity between the two "mortal enemies" to one or both of them "scheming" something against the other, lol.

[Spidrift]

She may be leaning in, but her speech bubbles are full-sized and don't have the dashed borders that often signify whispering. They look to me like standard, audible speech.