Early update for November 1, 2022
Added 2022-10-31 03:56:00 +0000 UTCeveryone loves the argument hallway
Comments
Maybe it's just the friends I've made and jobs I've worked, but, I've found that, well into adulthood this is true of most people, when it comes to interpersonal drama.
NotEnufDog
2022-11-01 00:38:00 +0000 UTCYEP. I think it’s easily an ALL OF THE ABOVE situation haha
Doki
2022-10-31 14:36:53 +0000 UTCI think if we’ve learned one thing about Billie is that if she’s going on a long rant, chances are she’s very wrong and reading the situation poorly.
mirror
2022-10-31 14:02:40 +0000 UTCI wonder how accurate Jennifer's read on the situation is. I mean, she's *notoriously* bad at that, but I also wonder if maybe she's a slightly right in that Ruth did hope, a tiny bit, that Billie would break her way back into the relationship, so to speak. I guess what makes me.... sad(??) about this situation is that neither one of them feels *wrong*. Ruth did what she thought was best for both of their long term mental and physical health with the only tools she knew how to use, but from Billie's POV and Ruth's history, Ruth's door barricade could have easily been a medical emergency. But I also do think Ruth is mostly happy for Jennifer and that she wasn't lying about that. But feelings are complicated and she can also be, in a small secret part of herself she doesn't like to admit, also mad that Billie never came back.
Nikki H.
2022-10-31 13:56:56 +0000 UTCRuth didn’t mention Raidah or her friends, Jennifer. In fact, she didn’t really say anything.
Andrea Andrew
2022-10-31 12:46:15 +0000 UTCwow
Katrina Marie Paton
2022-10-31 07:57:43 +0000 UTCouch
Bagge
2022-10-31 06:48:44 +0000 UTCAnd the dysfunction grows...
Alacrity Fitzhugh
2022-10-31 05:15:14 +0000 UTCI don’t get the feeling that Ruth lies awake at night, villainously twirling her mustache, saying “Ooh, I HATE how that Jennifer is so SO HAPPY these days” as is being unfairly characterized here. I agree Jennifer is projecting onto others a lot.
Shane Wegner
2022-10-31 04:42:55 +0000 UTCShe calls them Raidah's friends and not her friends. That says everything.
Lauralot
2022-10-31 04:41:18 +0000 UTCIn between semesters way back when in college, people would just not come back and we never learned what happened to them. I kinda want that for one or both of these characters.
Steve McSheffrey
2022-10-31 04:40:32 +0000 UTCYou're right, she should've just left her in a suicidal malaise drowning in alcohol. And then not used the lockpicking skills Ruth taught her or the key Ruth gave her.
Seth Aaron Hershman has they she pronouns
2022-10-31 04:35:55 +0000 UTCOh man in *no* way should the onus be on Jennifer to figure out that Raidah and Co. are scummy, agreed 1000% there, the fact that she’s attached really deeply to them is tragic and not at all her fault. As you point out, she’s, uh, she’s her. Also, the relationship between her and Asher is tragic given that he seems to be the only one in that group who has genuine feelings for her. I know I’m like only one voice in the chorus but I do not think Jen has some “comeuppance” coming at all. I’m just chuckling nervously at “Raidah’s friends are amazing.”
Sajuuk-Khar
2022-10-31 04:34:41 +0000 UTCBillie’s habit of lock picking her way into Ruth’s room necessitated the Halloween Barricade Incident. Boundaries, Billie.
Shane Wegner
2022-10-31 04:29:51 +0000 UTCIt feels like everyone's really eager for Jennifer to find out how awful her current peer group is, like she's somehow "earned" having everything fall apart on her. And, like...man. Man! She has already been through so much. She had basically no support coming into university save for Walky. All of her coping mechanisms, maladaptive though they were, were stripped away. She hated herself and spent a lot of time basically suicidal, and took on the added commitment of being the sole person helping with her new girlfriend's mental health, <i>while</i> also occasionally being blackmailed by one of her neighbors. Even once things finally started to level out with Ruth, and she had a support system, she <i>then</i> needed to quit alcohol and did so cold turkey. That's a <i>lot</i>. And after <i>all of that</i>, her girlfriend breaks up with her anyway. And, like, none of this is me arguing that any of this is Ruth's fault, but you just don't see a lot of "oh, man, I hope Ruth discovers Jason is secretly awful and she has to beg Jennifer's forgiveness," y'know? Because hey, maybe that's a shitty thing to want for someone. Like, can you blame Jennifer for wanting an escape? For wanting friends who just kinda hang out and don't push her too far out of her comfort zone or have a ton of baggage? I can't. I <i>certainly</i> can't blame Jennifer Billingsworth, Famously Great Judge of Character with Fantastic Situational Awareness, for not somehow divining that her boyfriend got all her old friends kidnapped, a thing literally no one knows. Or for not figuring out that Raidah is secretly, uh, unkind and maybe a bit of a user? Which is just as bad? And that's a thing really only Sarah knows, and Sarah, y'know, hates Jennifer. Like, don't get me wrong, all of this unraveling is gonna be great drama, and a neat story, and I'm on pins and needles for it. But I think that's distinct from "Jennifer must see the error of her ways for letting herself get dumped by her girlfriend and making new friends and not coping with her mental health perfectly", not least of which because, uh, trauma doesn't teach you the best lessons. If it did, everything since that drunken car crash woulda gone waaay differently.
Seth Aaron Hershman has they she pronouns
2022-10-31 04:25:32 +0000 UTC
