24-03-15 Real books

[Azrael]

She's got you outgunned, Ruby.

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[brasca]

It occurred to me later that Ruby does not know that Zii and Amber have a friends with benefits arrangement so she might be more at ease since as far as she knows she is a high school friend of her sister who she last saw supporting her at a rock concert, but nothing more than that. Zii on the other hand might be more concerned about keeping her current relationship a secret if she still thinks of Ruby as Amber's kid sister who probably still thinks they were playing house behind closed doors.

[sparky]

Ruby m'dear you really should try just admitting you like graphic novels...they're fun and some are really well written.

Of course, we could ship you a few very special titles to get started...

Maybe one or two volumes of something called "Menage a 3"?

['J']

The more interesting question is what she'd say if Ruby said "I've realised that you were having sex with Amber, back when you two kept locking me out of her room".

"Uh, yeah. And?"

maybe

but Ruby can add a lil more and go "why you never invited me to play?"

actually, that gives me a thought: while ruby probably doesn't know the details of zii & amber's relationship, she's had enough hints to put some of it together. if ruby figures out that 'playing doctor' with zii was around the time that her's and amber's paths started to diverge, then she may come to blame zii for the problems in their relationship. as if zii 'stole her sister from her' with perversion.

ruby's smart, but not always completely rational when it comes to her issues or her sister.



also, i was sure there was a strip where a young amber says "people should do this for a living" as she's having sex with zii, but i couldn't find it for the life of me.
edit: nevermind, found the strip in question

[Spidrift]

She's got you outgunned, Ruby.

Actually, I think panel 2 there involves Zii acknowledging that Ruby has the bigger guns...

It occurred to me later that Ruby does not know that Zii and Amber have a friends with benefits arrangement so she might be more at ease since as far as she knows she is a high school friend of her sister who she last saw supporting her at a rock concert, but nothing more than that.

Ruby doesn't know about the current FWB arrangement, but she realised at the concert that Amber and Zii have clearly Done Stuff together in the past. That hasn't affected her behaviour here so far - very likely she hasn't remembered it yet, Zii has kind of had her on the ropes - but she certainly knows that Zii and Amber have some kind of sexual connection.

That might well reduce the chances of her seeing Zii as someone she can open up to, even if the current arrangement remains a secret. On the other hand, Zii is being fairly charming here, and they have a kitten to bond over, so - we'll see.

Zii on the other hand might be more concerned about keeping her current relationship a secret if she still thinks of Ruby as Amber's kid sister who probably still thinks they were playing house behind closed doors.

Zii is unlikely to go telling Ruby about the current arrangement out of the blue; that would be over-sharing even by Zii's standards. She might be more casual about letting things slip than would really be tactful, being Zii, but on the other hand, she's already seen that Ruby is a bit prickly, oddly nervous of being laughed at, relatively formally dressed, and possibly in denial about an interest in erotica or graphic novels. And she may well remember Ruby as a rather priggish kid. It doesn't take a social genius to go from that to "Maybe don't mention that I'm boffing her sister straight away".

(Though if the fact does come out - well, Ruby isn't exactly impressed by Amber going from Gary to Ray quite so quickly. If she thinks that Amber is running a lesbian affair as well, one imagines that she may get a tiny bit judgemental back at the apartment.)

actually, that gives me a thought: while ruby probably doesn't know the details of zii & amber's relationship, she's had enough hints to put some of it together.

She's seen more than enough to get that Amber and Zii banged in the past; I think we can take it as read that she'll treat that as established fact. If she discovers that they're at it again these days, it'll add an extra twist of weirdness for her - FWB areangements are kind of off her scale of normality, all else aside - but it's more a quantitative than a qualitative difference.

if ruby figures out that 'playing doctor' with zii was around the time that her's and amber's paths started to diverge, then she may come to blame zii for the problems in their relationship. as if zii 'stole her sister from her' with perversion.

She might - and if Amber ever lets slip that Zii introduced her to sex, it'll be a spanner in the works of any tentative Ruby/Zii friendship. But, well, Ruby currently has her annoyance well focussed on Amber, and it wasn't Zii who went into the porn business, or who asked truthful Ruby to lie to their parents for years. I think it would take a lot to make Ruby shift much of her annoyance to Zii.

Another question is what Zii will say to Amber, next time they meet. Even if Ruby swears her to silence over the yaoi, I can't see Zii failing to let slip "Oh, I bumped into your sister around town today". They may have significantly different perspectives on Ruby; Amber mostly sees her as kind of difficult at this point, whereas Zii can afford a more laid-back opinion - Ruby is a smart young woman with a cute kitten, even if she does seem oddly jumpy.

[Milkmaid79]

Zii wasn't insulted-what about anyone else who may have overheard her 'panic mode' tactic, especially anyone who saw her becoming flushed over the 'non-real' publication she was looking at?

What about them? They'd probably think she was a confused hypocrite, unless they guessed that she had some kind of hang-up which was making her unhappy. But they'd have been in a comic shop in the first place, so if they were older than twelve, they'd hardly be likely to worry about one random woman shooting her mouth off about how books should look.

(Okay, she's an attractive young woman, so I guess it might trigger some tragic geek insecurity about liking comics meaning that they'll never get a girlfriend. But this shop employs some high- grade counter candy, which should help assuage those fears.)

So she's a confused hypocrite who for some reason comes into a comic shop to berate the comics. At least she hasn't moved up to entering a porn shop while decrying the 'filth' on the shelves.. not yet anyway. Apparently the Zii meeting was a required plot development, otherwise she could just get her yaoi fix online and avoid anyone else knowing. She could even get Dillon to buy some for her, since he already knows.

Zii must be high-grade counter candy in the same way that she's a rock star.

I can't see Ruby talking to Zii about anything when she learns Amber and Zii have a 'friends with benefits' relationship (or does she already know and I missed it?). Ruby is too uptight and judgmental to be able to handle that idea with anything resembling maturity.

Ruby doesn't know about the current FWB arrangement, but she realised during the gig that Amber had had sex with Zii back during their teens - and she didn't enjoy that discovery. Obviously, she hasn't brought that up here yet; she hasn't fled screaming, but the subject may not have crossed her mind yet.

She'll probably think that Zii is part of Amber's world, and not expect much better of her than she does of Amber - but if Zii manages to turn on the charm enough, well, Ruby can put up with Amber, so she can surely be polite to someone who's polite to her. Ruby isn't totally inflexible, after all. If she does find out about that current arrangement, yes, she might be rather badly squicked - but even Zii doesn't go round boasting about her sexual arrangements to everybody, and especially not to people who've already shown themselves a bit prudish, so I doubt that'll come up during this conversation. Later in the plot, who knows?

So it's okay for Ruby to write off Zii in the same judgmental way she does Amber unless Zii charms her? As for putting up with Amber, more like Amber somehow manages to tolerate her freeloading shrewish sister. I can't recall the strips where Amber wasn't polite to Ruby, although I recall her asking what she had done to make Ruby so angry. Amber made adult films and Ruby chose to lie to their parents about them. Everything else seems to have been Ruby's literally retarded libido and stunted emotional growth combined with a seemingly unending fountain of bile and spite aimed at her sister.

Quote fixed. The DAMNed

[Spidrift]

So she's a confused hypocrite who for some reason comes into a comic shop to berate the comics.

So? In that case, she just looks nuts. Any comics fan with an ounce of emotional security about their hobby could just laugh that speech off, if they happened to overhear it. Given that the readers know that it's just Ruby panicking and talking rubbish as an ineffective defensive measure, I still don't see it as a big deal.

Apparently the Zii meeting was a required plot development, otherwise she could just get her yaoi fix online and avoid anyone else knowing. She could even get Dillon to buy some for her, since he already knows.

Characters in these comics tend to forget that the Internet exists half the time, though Ruby seems to be more comfortable with it than most. Maybe she likes reading on paper, and she might not want to order yaoi online because of the difficulty of explaining deliveries to Amber. But anyway, she's an addict who's still getting hardened to the rush from her new drug; the shop is the known source, so she's gravitated back to it.

Zii must be high-grade counter candy in the same way that she's a rock star.

That's the job she was hired for, and she has a proven ability to paralyse the entire nerd herd just by walking in while wearing one of Jung's skimpier creations. Either you believe in results or you don't.

So it's okay for Ruby to write off Zii in the same judgmental way she does Amber unless Zii charms her?

Not particularly, but equally, she's under no obligation to like someone she's just met for the first time in years without some good reason. We happen to know that she has, by her own standards, some reason to be suspicious of Zii, so Zii will score some points if she manages to charm her way past that suspicion. Conversely, one of Ruby's minor virtues is a degree of formal politeness, so it won't be too surprising if she fails to get away from Zii before Zii can get a read on her and drag her off for coffee or something.

As for putting up with Amber, more like Amber somehow manages to tolerate her freeloading shrewish sister.

I sometimes wonder if some of the people reading this comic have relatives, or whether there are a lot of orphans around. Ruby and Amber are family. They don't have to like each other much, but they are clearly both operating under a code which means that creates obligations. Ruby concealed Amber's career from their parents for years, despite the fact that it would have been easier and simpler for her to tell them; Amber gives Ruby somewhere to stay, despite the fact that it would be less stressful for her to shut the door in Ruby's face.

Actually, there are probably a lot of complications behind those choices on both sides, but it comes back to flesh and blood. We choose our friends, God gives us our relations, and all we can do is adapt.

I can't recall the strips where Amber wasn't polite to Ruby, although I recall her asking what she had done to make Ruby so angry.

Apart from asking a painfully truthful teenage girl to deceive her parents for years, of course. (And do not tell me that was simply Ruby's choice; Amber knew that Ruby knew, and could have taken that as her cue to have the guts to tell their parents the truth. Instead, whether or not she'd asked Ruby to remain silent, she took full advantage of Ruby's silence to perpetuate her moral cowardice.) But no, Amber isn't generally impolite; she's unthinking. The kindest interpretation is that she didn't think what staying silent was doing to Ruby, she offered to introduce Ruby to a couple of male porn stars as potential boyfriends, and she only wonders why Ruby is uptight and angry when it becomes painfully obvious or inconvenient to herself. She's just given up even trying to understand her own sister.

Of course, it doesn't help that Ruby either doesn't know herself why she's so angry, can't put it into words, or thinks that telling Amber that it's everything about her wouldn't actually do much good. Self-knowledge is at a bit of a premium in this comic.

Everything else seems to have been Ruby's literally retarded libido and stunted emotional growth combined with a seemingly unending fountain of bile and spite aimed at her sister.

Amber has unfortunately become the focus of Ruby's frustration and anger. (Bile, maybe, spite not so much.) There are some reasons for that, but it's probably largely the flipside of that family loyalty thing. Strangers, you have to be polite to; family are the people who have to live with and forgive you.

Ruby is gradually pulling through this stuff, but even Dillon hasn't actually asked enough of the important questions yet to help her through it. It'll be interesting to see if someone who's known the Larose girls for a few years helps the process further.

[OldBrit]

otherwise she could just get her yaoi fix online and avoid anyone else knowing.

Buy online, and the vendor has a record of your name, address, and probably credit card; your card company has a record of the transaction, the delivery company has a record of the source and destination of the delivery, and your room-mates may witness the delivery.
Buy in a shop for cash, and normally you're an anonymous face to the cashier, and that's it.
The internet just gives an illusion of anonymity.

[Spidrift]

And we know that Ruby thinks that anything she does electronically will inevitably become public knowledge.

[wiseguy]

So it's okay for Ruby to write off Zii in the same judgmental way she does Amber unless Zii charms her? As for putting up with Amber, more like Amber somehow manages to tolerate her freeloading shrewish sister. I can't recall the strips where Amber wasn't polite to Ruby, although I recall her asking what she had done to make Ruby so angry. Amber made adult films and Ruby chose to lie to their parents about them. Everything else seems to have been Ruby's literally retarded libido and stunted emotional growth combined with a seemingly unending fountain of bile and spite aimed at her sister.

that is why I keep saying (even if most here seem to think if Ruby did not say it, it did not happen, so they put the whole excuse as "I can't do what Amber does" ) that in the "boy's party" (which I assume was 1 or 2 years after Amber left the house, and Ruby was in high school)

1) a porno movie with Amber Amber was shown (only 100% FACT, the rest are highly probable but can't say it is an absolute fact))

2) Ruby recognized her sister (her face must have been shown in the few seconds Ruby saw) and one of the shots was probably her butt (reason for ruby's comment when she was talking to Amber)

3) the boys asked her(and I am guessing other girls in the party?) to do the same things that were done in the movie(boys knowing Amber Amber was Amber Larose is irrelevant but if they knew ...... their words would have felt harsher to Ruby) and Ruby got put off by that to the point that she decided to give up any thoughts of having sex and never explored it (until now)

4) she saw (unjustly if we be fair) Amber as the cause of the boys saying those "nasty things" (they would have said same things if the movie was with just Chanelle or was with Hyapatia Lee, was not because it was her sister) thus a resentment and bile and spite toward her

I repeat again that I do not subscribe to view of most that Ruby's abhorrence of sex was because "my sister did those nasty things, so from now on I won't do it" and her parents being very puritan (they might surprise us and we find out they are very imaginative in bed and even possible that they already know their daughter was Amber Amber and they just waiting for her to reveal that to them, so they are NOT like Gary's parents )

[Azrael]

She's got you outgunned, Ruby.

Actually, I think panel 2 there involves Zii acknowledging that Ruby has the bigger guns...

HA!

[Spidrift]

A stray thought; that shop has healthy-sized Yaoi section, and it can't be justified entirely by Zii's purchases on the staff discount. (Okay, they have apparently overstocked lately, requiring a three-for-two sale to clear some space, but still - Jung is probably pretty good at stock management.) So Zii and Jung are probably moderately experienced at selling the stuff to women and gay guys, some of whom, in the nature of things, may be a little embarrassed by their purchases.

In other words, this probably isn't Zii's first rodeo, even if she didn't usually know those customers from childhood. She may laugh a little, but she probably knows the form for putting customers at their ease. And Ruby has signalled the specific nature of her problem and feelings pretty clearly. So I wouldn't be too surprised if the first frame of the next strip included Zii saying "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone if you don't."

(If she also manages "By the way, cute kitten" in the first two frames, I'll call bonding moment.)

[Quinlan1973]

Ahh, yes. Zii has discovered how to exploit Ruby's greatest weakness.

[Don Alexander]

So she's a confused hypocrite who for some reason comes into a comic shop to berate the comics.

So? In that case, she just looks nuts. Any comics fan with an ounce of emotional security about their hobby could just laugh that speech off, if they happened to overhear it.

Well, considering how it seems to me that a large part of the Internet has not even that one ounce of emotional security and flame wars go off at the slightest perceived insult of hobbies, life choices, sexual orientations etc... I'm not so sure.

[The Omnipotent One]

I have to agree with DA; the Internet allows everyone almost complete anonymity, allowing a majority of people to act as they please. When you go on the Internet, I'm told you have three options: be yourself, be someone you're not, or be quiet. While this may not be true, it's the general mood I feel when I look at some YouTube comments or other forums