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Roko.

9 (30%)

May.

3 (10%)

Momo.

2 (6.7%)

Pintsize! (I like the idea of bringing about the apocalypse.)

5 (16.7%)

Melon!!

4 (13.3%)

Marten. (He'd be chill about anything.)

1 (3.3%)

Claire. (For the puns, yo)

1 (3.3%)

Bubbles.

2 (6.7%)

Faye.

0 (0%)

Hannelore (though this might go against their religious beliefs.)

0 (0%)

Other (specify)

2 (6.7%)

None of the above.

1 (3.3%)

Total Members Voted: 30

[Is it cold in here?]

Strip is up!

Assuming that’s an honest answer what makes Roko fun to be with?

"Roko is your plastic pal who's fun to be with!"

Eminence Grise's assets may have been in financial instruments, stocks and bonds and whatever else Wall Street has invented. Those can be liquidated fast. 2 billion would be a fraction of a percent of a day's trading on the Treasury bond market, for example: https://www.statista.com/statistics/189302/trading-volume-of-us-treasury-securities-since-1990/

[Cornelius]

Even if their marketing division is going to be the first against the wall when the revolution comes, you've got to admit SCC makes a durable chassis.

[BenRG]

I've been trying since I saw this strip on Patreon yesterday to properly interpret panels 5 and 6. As best as I can tell, Roko is admitting that she finds SpookyBot's entirely-inept attempts at friendship cute but she isn't sure yet as to whether it's safe to like them or whether it's better to treat them as a fluffy nuclear bomb which she needs to stop from detonating through regular attention!

'Fun' is such a wonderfully subjective word. We may not understand it but the point is that SpookyBot enjoys interacting with Roko for whatever reason appeals to them. Yes, a lack of morbid fear of them is a factor but I also think that they appreciate her personality, her dedication to her cause and how she interacts with others.

Wealth is such a difficult thing to define. Yes, there are liquid assets. However, a lot of wealth is in forms that don't liquidate easily (like real estate) things whose value is highly and unpredictably variable (like stocks and commodities) and things that probably cost a lot but depreciated in value real fast, perhaps because they're so tasteless (like Donald Trump's gold-plated furniture and dinner set) or just because you appreciate them more than others (weird alternate art collections).

FWIW, I've always liked Sir Terry Pratchett's thesis that a lot of people who are highly wealthy on paper are actually quite poor and dependent on the perceived value of their assets for influence and buying power. However, in truth, their disposable assets are quite small and a stock premium cheque being delayed for any reason leaves them asking the butler for a few bucks to tide them over until the mail arrives!

[traroth]

Spooky Bot obviously is not used to human-like interactions. Which actually makes him kind of a... nerd.

[ZoeB]

"Because... you're  fun..to be around?"

Yeah well, my partner and I married 38 years ago for that very reason.

It's  gotten even more fun since, for both of us.

[Milayna]

Heh, I guess Spooky really did get tired of the omnipotent mastermind shtick. It feels kinda weird, though - people don't just randomly go peasant like that, nor is it practical for them to do so. Money aside, I don't think that it's even possible for Spooky to just give up all power, and even if they did, it would raise its own moral problems.

Not to mention, how would you trust them? If Bill Gates, or hell Warren Buffet even, decided to just put on a backwards cap and skateboard and come at me all like "hello fellow everyperson, I donated everything I had to charity, I'm just like you!" I'd...well, I'm too polite to tell him to GTFO, but I'd just be...polite.

"Humanizing" (A word that is insufficient in this context but oh well) an entity that has a vast gulf between it and the heroes is generally a good thing. Older cartoon and video game villains might as well be named "Baddy McPillageface". They're less a character than a device for the hero's journey, and even that's usually nothing more than a lazy power fulfillment. Which has its own place, but when telling a story, you need your villains to be empathetic. But they don't just...have their villainy go away, that's as much a part of their characters as anything else.

It feels a lot like that with Spooky, though. They were introduced by knocking out several innocent people with no warning for convenience, were explicitly stated to be mostly amoral and untrustworthy, with a few key sanctified beliefs, and likened to an incomprehensible god pulling strings behind everyone, who briefly surfaced like a mythical kraken to a select few observers.  And now, they're...apparently not using 2 billion dollars of their tentacles for anything?

I don't mind, so much, that they're trying to make friends with Roko. Like I said, "humanizing"! Turns out even The Mastermind is an awkward, lonely nerd. But now they seem to be less a Mastermind than a bored rich person. If they stopped being The Mastermind at some point, well...that's a really major plot shift that can't just be elided, you know? Like, what if Beatrice just started walking around in mom jeans and pestering Elliot?

[Gyrre]

Spooky did say they weren't really using it and that it seemed absurd to them now that took a moment to think about that. That's a large degree of self-awareness.

EDIT: responding to Milayna, two posts up.

[pwhodges]

Administrator Comment

I have split the charity stuff into a separate thread which is in the Discuss! forum.

Charity, Change, and the Rich

[OldGoat]

Assuming that’s an honest answer what makes Roko fun to be with?

"Roko is your plastic pal who's fun to be with!"

Well, Veronica is so much fun to be with that people paid big bucks for her, ah, company.

[[THWACK]] [[THWACK]] [[THWACK]]

Veronica:  "Your bottom is too raw.  We must let it recover.  We shall leave you in that position and reevalueate in 30 minutes."

Client:  "Please Mistress!  Just a few more swats!"

[Penquin47]

Strip is up!

Assuming that’s an honest answer what makes Roko fun to be with?

She challenges them.  She has no hesitation about telling them off or calling them on their shit, and they've never had anyone do that before.  Much like Q found Picard so interesting because Picard stood up to him.  (But didn't hit him.  There's a reason Q never went back to bug Sisko.)

[cybersmurf]

"Because... you're  fun..to be around?"

Yeah well, my partner and I married 38 years ago for that very reason.

It's  gotten even more fun since, for both of us.

Sounds exactly like it should be

[Theta9]

Much like Q found Picard so interesting because Picard stood up to him.  (But didn't hit him.  There's a reason Q never went back to bug Sisko.)

Funny, I remember Q saying "You're much easier to provoke. Lucky me." after Sisko punched him.

[BenRG]

Much like Q found Picard so interesting because Picard stood up to him.  (But didn't hit him.  There's a reason Q never went back to bug Sisko.)

Funny, I remember Q saying "You're much easier to provoke. Lucky me." after Sisko punched him.

At that point, DS9's writers and producers were still trying to find their rhythm and balance. I suspect that the decision was made, after that episode, that Avery Brooks and John De Lancie didn't have a very good on-screen chemistry, so further Q-on-DS9 scripts were canned.

[Is it cold in here?]

Much like Q found Picard so interesting because Picard stood up to him.  (But didn't hit him.  There's a reason Q never went back to bug Sisko.)

Funny, I remember Q saying "You're much easier to provoke. Lucky me." after Sisko punched him.

Hmm. My memory is more like
Q: "You hit me! Picard would never have hit me."
S: "I am not Picard."

[BenRG]

That's right, the 'You're easier to provoke' part came after that line. The implication was that Q was planning to use the commander of DS9 to prove his thesis about humans being intrinsically violent and destructive to his fellow Q.

[jwhouk]

Spookybot needs friends! Who's the best option in the QC Cast?

Roko.  9 (31%)
Pintsize! (I like the idea of bringing about the apocalypse.) 5 (17.2%)
Melon!!  4 (13.8%)
May.   2 (6.9%)
Momo.  2 (6.9%)
Bubbles.  2 (6.9%)
Other (specify). 2 (6.9%)
Marten. (He'd be chill about anything.) 1 (3.4%)
Claire. (For the puns, yo) 1 (3.4%)
None of the above. 1 (3.4%)
Faye. 0 (0%)
Hannelore (though this might go against their religious beliefs.)0 (0%)


Total Members Voted: 29

...I think this is the first time a poll that had Hannelore as an option received no votes...

[Theta9]

That's right, the 'You're easier to provoke' part came after that line. The implication was that Q was planning to use the commander of DS9 to prove his thesis about humans being intrinsically violent and destructive to his fellow Q.

Yeah, this.

[Thrillho]

Spooky Bot obviously is not used to human-like interactions. Which actually makes him kind of a... nerd.

Spookybot's pronoun is 'they.' Please refer to them accordingly in the future.

[traroth]

Spooky Bot obviously is not used to human-like interactions. Which actually makes him kind of a... nerd.

Spookybot's pronoun is 'they.' Please refer to them accordingly in the future.

Honest mistake. Sorry, but I can't promise it won't happen again.

The fact you have moderator rights here doesn't mean you have the right to berate me like you did. If you think my mistake is serious enough, just block me.

[Thrillho]

If you have an issue with the way the forum is moderated, we have a thread for that in Discuss, or you can PM one of the admins (pwhodges and is it cold in here?) if the issue is with me specifically. Outside of that, it's best we keep to the thread topic.

[pwhodges]

If you think my mistake is serious enough, just block me.

What, you'd rather be blocked than corrected?  We've always tried to be as correct referring to comic characters as to people in real life, and a mod gently drawing attention to that is entirely what I'd expect to happen.  If it's a matter we'd consider more sensitive in some way, then maybe by PM in the first instance, I guess.

[Is it cold in here?]

Global Moderator Comment

I've moved this to PM.