14-04-15 Low on funds

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vampire hunter D
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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by vampire hunter D »

Anyone else feeling the urge to give Ruby a hug now?
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brasca
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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by brasca »

wiseguy wrote:I don't think she was in itself a total outcast, I am guessing this was AFTER they boy's party

the problem WAS that she made friends with Lucy, but than came the time that Lucy got interested in boys while Ruby swore off boys...........

Result? the other 2 girls I am almost sure tried to get "the cuter brainiac" to help them FIRST, but since Ruby never showed any interest in accepting "their help" in trade for the brain help or going to same activities, they settle for helping Lucy in order to get homework help as Lucy had an interest to be part of same activities as the other 2 girls(boys as dates for girls)
Interesting theory. I too wonder if this happened before or after the infamous party. I have reason to believe that this might have happened before. Ruby does not seem like the type who would go to any parties, but maybe did she because her opinion of girls soured. Maybe she hoped boys were not so vain and shallow only to find out they were worse. Or maybe the party came first as you postulate, but somehow I think the girls would have been giving her a hard time for having a sister in porn instead of just the cattiness about looks and study habits we see here.

They do not call these the formative years for nothing. While it can be argued that college is different and it is Ruby was too committed to her studies to ever find out for herself that she was in a different world. Perhaps she looked around from time to time, but her past perception probably clouded her judgment. Now that she does not have classes and studying to do she actually has to look around and reevaluate things.

I am uncertain if this is the end of the chapter, but I am pleasantly surprised at the resolution.

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wiseguy
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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by wiseguy »

there is a chance that RUBY recognized her sister BUT for the boys she either was some porn actress, or they did not associate Amber Amber with Amber Larose, and they "asked"(to put it nicely) her to do the same thing the actress was doing, without knowing that they were not just asking Ruby to do porn things when she was so young, but to do the same things her sister was doing

thus for the 2 "popular girls" they did not see Ruby as the sis of a porn actress, but as the attractive Brainy girl that avoided boys(and girls) at all costs who ended up losing a friend(Lucy) when her friend got interested in attracting boys
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brasca
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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by brasca »

Perhaps it's just me, but if young Ruby had a penchant for tying up boys she'd be what I imagine a high school version of Clarice from Girls With Slingshots would look like.

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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

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themacnut wrote:I've always thought that part of the reason such students get heckled is jealously about them getting high grades, especially in tougher subjects where everyone else is barely able to pull off a passing grade.
There's slightly more to it than that, I'm afraid, as is explicit in this case. Lucy appears to have been bright, but she was also just extrovert enough to fit with the alpha group (in a subordinate position) and generally non-threatening. Ruby didn't know how to play their games, or want to. (Plus, in her specific case, she may have been more of a threat because, let's face it, if anyone had dolled her up properly, she'd have matched those two skinny alphas for male attention.) She was a natural outcast.

Looking back, I was probably more Lucy than Ruby; I was a nerd, but I had a few less-nerdy friends, and I had strategies for dealing with any bullying I did hit. I knew a few people who were right down the Ruby end of the scale; I just hope to god they made it through okay.
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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by rpr »

vampire hunter D wrote:Anyone else feeling the urge to give Ruby a hug now?
I do!

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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by Spidrift »

'J' wrote:what i find interesting about this strip isn't so much the flashback to ruby's past, as it is the effect it's had on her in the present.
The surprising thing isn't that Ruby is pathetically grateful for friendship; it's that she lets anyone get close enough to find out. From her point of view, it sometimes seems, every single person in her life before the comic starts has betrayed her or let her down. Her parents repaid her hard work and loyalty by favouring Amber; Amber repaid her attempts at friendship by hiding in her room with Zii, and then by inflicting the most embarrassing night of her life on her, and then by leaving her to lie to their parents; Lucy repaid her friendship by going off with the skinny alphas; Professor Conried repaid her respect by secretly abusing her trust; even Dillon repays her politeness by invading her personal space.

The weirdest thing about Ruby is that she isn't more bitter.
vampire hunter D wrote:Anyone else feeling the urge to give Ruby a hug now?
God yes. The problem is, though, that Ruby isn't the sort of person who can accept a hug from any random acquaintance, and her friendships are too distant or too compromised. (She feels a twinge of sexual desire for Dillon but she knows that she has to repress it, and anyway he's used hugs as a way to invade her personal space uninvited once too often.) She needs to build some trust with Andy, stat.
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chupacabra555
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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by chupacabra555 »

I'm sorry, but this one was just sad to me :(

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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by Artemisia »

themacnut wrote:So Ruby was the stereotypical studious outcast in high school. No surprises there, and I'll bet she wasn't much different in university either.

I've always thought that part of the reason such students get heckled is jealously about them getting high grades, especially in tougher subjects where everyone else is barely able to pull off a passing grade.
No, most of us get bullied because we're not able to fit in with the people in school. It isn't necessarily jealousy...it can be a combination of things including sociopathy (two of the bullies in my life), difficult family lives (five or maybe six bullies I've known), unwarranted sense of superiority (a good four on that one). I can keep going. It isn't jealousy, but most bullies eventually grow up and stop being bullies. Those who don't end up becoming even bigger bullies.
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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by Bambikles »

Woah, you've known 12 bullies ? That's an awful lot ! :(
I'm under the impression that it was a much less common species in French middle and high school. Dunno what the current situation is, though.

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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by Artemisia »

I had between two and four bullies just about every year of schooling I went through. The worst was in High School.

So, I really sympathize with Ruby.
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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by X3N0-Life-Form »

Bambikles wrote:Woah, you've known 12 bullies ? That's an awful lot ! :(
I'm under the impression that it was a much less common species in French middle and high school. Dunno what the current situation is, though.
I wouldn't be so sure about that last part. From my own observations, that amount of different bullies targetting the same person spread over middle & high school actually seems slightly conservative, unless you live in a small-ish town with a consequantly limited pool of potential bullies.

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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by DrAngryEd »

She had pigtails!!! I love her three times more!!
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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by Don Alexander »

Hey, look, it's Melissa and Jacqui! :D

Anyway, Blondie can't spell. Should be "Again." in the last line of her first speech bubble, not "again." Either that or replace the full stop beforehand with a comma.
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Re: 14-04-15 Low on funds

Post by Spidrift »

I've just remembered; over a year ago...
I Myself wrote:We've been getting so much denial from Ruby, which is fairly clearly on the verge of collapse (I credit her with too much honesty to keep this up forever), that I'm now wondering if she's going to run through a Five Stages plot.

("Getting distracted like this is so annoying! It's all Amber's fault again!"/"Okay, I'll go on one date a week with Andy, and maybe let him kiss me - that should be enough, surely."/"I hate feeling like this! It isn't what I planned! It's ruining my life!"/"Okay, maybe this won't be so bad...")
(For those who don't know, the five stages of loss and grief are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.)

And now I feel like I called something, though it's currently more about the yaoi interest than Andy. Ruby has just emerged from Denial (Dillon and Zii won't allow her to lie about this interest) and Anger (she tried yelling at Dillon, but she's too honest to stay in that stage for long), and she's now Bargaining with herself - buying the occasional yaoi manga, but keeping the rest of her sexual feelings at arms' length. If this goes on, she may have a crash shortly, perhaps when Amber finds out about the yaoi, or she gets pushed into a date with Andy, or she concludes that this distraction is messing up her job search.

But the good news is, if she can get through that, she may achieve some kind of sanity.
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