Unused strips for October 2 and 3, 2025

whoof, i wrote this Alice/Ruth sequence while being Norovirused the eff up. one of those "dang the election results are really making everything come out both ends OH i see, everyone in our family is just actually super sick, okay" situations, you know the ones

(yes, this sequence was originally placed earlier, directly after Jennifer meets Joyce and Dorothy coming out of the media building)

The first thing I did after coming out the other side was to make Alice's motives here more explicit, anchoring them more solidly in her previous interaction with Ruth. It meant directing towards a different punchline endpoint.

Plus, "what does that face mean" feels more like a Dina line, and something i discovered during this whole experience is that i start writing everyone like Dina when I'm Under Duress. I use way more precise words than are strictly necessary. And social interactions suddenly become a puzzle.

And so I also retooled the dialogue a bit on the following strip. Put it more in Alice's voice than Whoops All My Masking Is Down, I'm Just Writing Dina Now By Default voice.

"Cults of personality" is gone. "Evaded" is gone. "Imminently" is gone. "Vouched for" is gone. I put things in a less Dina-like rhythm.

Plus "I am going to put my mouth on [her] mouth" is, like, just a 30 Rock line. I think originally in penciling stages I had "cooch," but thought that was a bit too horny for the moment and changed it to "mouth," but with fresh eyes post-Norovirus I realized it was just a 30 Rock line, so then reverted it back to "cooch."

Anyway, this is why Alice was wandering by in Read Hall during the earlier Raidah/Asma strip! She wasn't just wackily materializing in the presence of Hot Goss. She was on her way to talk to Ruth. (She doesn't live in Read, after all!) After getting a lunch there, I guess, since it took her a while.