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Sven, drink more spathe ham.

[cesium133]

Wow, now I‘m really curious for Rokos dress. It makes me think of an old Taylor Swift song:

“Only bought this dress so you can take it off.“
Taylor Swift: Dress (2017)
 

any Taylor Swift song is "old"?
a song from 2017 is "old"?

 

You’re talking to someone called Timemaster. They’re obviously a time traveler from the distant future.

[Roborat]

Possibly-human-skin-bound Bibles?! Is it just me, or is this comic getting weirder in a more and more chaotic way as time goes by? Not that I'm complaining, I like weird   
It's just that if Northampton is turning into Sunnydale, I'd like a bit of warning...

Turning into Sunnydale? Hell, seems to be more like turning into Night Vale.

[Wingy]

On the suits for Bubbles:

A 1940s, Zoot Suit in bright colours that compliment her dark red skin.

Given Bubbles unresolved past with the military, I could easily see her choosing fatigues or whatever her models equivalent was.  I can also see a full-dress uniform or whatever equivalent might be available, if either is available in her size.

[Wingy]

USB glory holes. Huh.

Roko not looking at Beeps changing made me stop and go 'Why would robots care about modesty?' Tho I guess as they're surrounded by humans, they just kinda picked it up....

Possible I suppose.  I interpreted the hand up as dismissal of the proposed venue.  Then Roko gets cranky at Beeps insistence in panel 3.

[shanejayell]

Looking forward to seeing the dress...

[somnolesence]

I enjoy that Jeph clearly had fun coming up with new euphemisms for how short a dress could be.

[justaguy]

I don't think I've ever had a problems with something like body disassociation--I'm fortunate to have always been comfortable in my body. However, even for me if I look into a mirror at myself for long enough things start looking weird and alien. For someone like Roko, mirrors must feel like a trap.

[Farideh]

Oh, poor Roko

[jwhouk]

Jeph is teasing the fan base again.

[Gyrre]

True, I had forgotten about those, probably because I never had to deal with it in things that I owned. Mine were all either U160 or U320.

Edit: And yes, part of me thinking that it could be robot kink is that it is typically pronounced "skuzzy".

And here I always thought Hexadecimal's weird orb cat thing was named after the gunk you used to have to clean out of your mouse so the ball would track properly again.

[Gyrre]

Oh geeze!

Really drives home that just about anything can trigger an episode.

[Timemaster]

Oh, dang. 

Roko looks amazing in that dress. And just so slightly immodest, that it‘s perfectly okay for a girls night out in my book. And her look in the mirror is so full of self confidence in the first two panels.
And BANG another episode. Brains can be real bitches or assholes from time to time and obviously the CPUs of our dear robots are no exception.

I hope she gets out of this, finds herself again and maybe even manages to get out and still have fun this night. Maybe it does some good to her.

TM

[BenRG]

Ah, so does this mean that we're going back to addressing Roko's traumatic dysmorphia or is this just a passing drama strip before we go back to the Wacky Hijinx^TM of the night out?

FWIW, I think that the origins of this arc was in that tribute to Daft Punk poster Jeph did a while back.

[traroth]

Poor Roko. It was to be a fun evening, but her issues are getting back to her...

[oddtail]

I don't dissociate (that I know of - I hear it can be difficult to figure out), but I can *so* relate to looking in the mirror, being all "hey there sexy", then immediately switching to "ARGH ARGH NO THIS IS WRONG I FEEL AWFUL NOW".

I wonder if Roko is based on trans people Jeph knows, because how she's portrayed hits so close to home for me, that's some good research right there (or maybe experience, but I don't want to speculate about Jeph's personal life or feelings).

[shanejayell]

Poor Roko.

[Pseudowolf]

However, even for me if I look into a mirror at myself for long enough things start looking weird and alien.

There is an actual phenomenon where if you stare into a mirror in a dimly-lit room, most people will report seeing their face becoming distorted and/or become someone else's. Something about how are brains are wired to try to find patterns and if the lighting isn't good enough, your brain tries to fill in the "missing" information. This is also why the old "Bloody Mary" game works.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

'Speak softly and carry a large baguette' are important elements of Roko's foreign policy.

( a night out would do roko good but not now not now )

[Wingy]

( a night out would do roko good but not now not now )

Could be.  Though if she can pull it together long enough to keep from flipping out entirely, maybe a night out and connection to another would help with her dysmorphia?

Neither Beeps nor Roko have mentioned orifice management software or shown any interest in using it if they have it.  Having read her own bodies manual, I would expect Roko to know about any such; Beeps strikes me as just clueless enough to have never bothered to consider any such thing.  Hehehehe!  What if Beeps and Roko both ran into instances of Yay who was out on the prowl after being tweaked by Aurelia on the subject?  Oh to be a fly on the wall at this party.

[hedgie]

It must be *really* awful for Roko, considering that, unlike humans I've known, she's spent most of her life happy with *her* body, and it was basically inseparable from her mind, so she never had to develop coping mechanisms to deal with these feelings hitting her all at once.[1]  This sudden onset has to be a huge shock that she's ill-equipped to handle.  Though not the same, recently, I had to deal with having real emotions again, months after coming off all of my non-PRN psych meds, and not having felt anything except vaguely miserable and bitter for too many years to count.  Over that time, I lost the ability to deal with actually being able to deal with feelings from elation to rage, to sorrow, and the broadside was just too much.

And I think that in Roko's case, the fact that her face and other bodily bits are probably engineered to be as identical as possible short of replicator technology only serve to exacerbate these problems, and also, again, with the completeness of the "newness".  If, say, she had come to her current body in a "ship of Theseus" or "My Grandfather's Axe"[2] manner, she would feel fine, even if the end result, physically speaking was identical, because it was still *her* body the entire time, even if she needed a new arm/leg/head at various points.

[1] At least us meatbags dealing with those issues have, even if in a maladaptive manner tend to have a lifetime's experience.
[2] Although, more modern dwarfs might admit that it *might* be a Grandmother's Axe, having discovered multiple pronouns

[JohnTheWysard]

any Taylor Swift song is "old"?
a song from 2017 is "old"?

Every song turns „old“ automatically six months after release. 

Anyway, I just noticed: Beeps is AFAIR the first robot shown with proper toes. Even Rokos old body and Millefeuille are toeless. And I don’t remember Mays new body to have any. 🦶

I prefer the new style. In fact I'm probably lack toes intolerant.

[JohnTheWysard]

Why is Roko channeling Marigold? That -is- Roko in there, is't it?

( cool dress beeps )

"Roses are red
Violets are blue
The shorter the dress
The better the view!"

[Wingy]

The shorter the dress
The better the view!"

As long as the dress-wearer is intending to show said view.  This is where women of my generation "covered up" with sheer-to-waist pantyhose, although hose seem to be out of fashion favor at the moment.  But then, mini's aren't all that "in" at the moment either.  There's no rush; the new generation will figure it out eventually.

[Carl-E]

So... back after almost a year away, binged to current last night, and I absolutely love that Roko's episode starts with her mirror image then transfers to her reality.

After all, dissociation is in the eye of the beholder...


Oh, and full military dress uniform for Bubbles.  It's the only formal outfit she'd be comfortable in, despite the complicated implications for her.

[Gyrre]

I like how everyone just panned all suit options from the seventies.
The high collar would have looked ridiculous on Bubbles anways (Roko could probably pull it off).

And while military dress is the most likely in character option (and about the only one I can see in my head beyond the first fashion plate on the previous page), that wasn't entirely the point.

[Wingy]

I like how everyone just panned all suit options from the seventies.

I lived through that era at an age where mens fashion was something I was old enough to appreciate.  Bluntly, it was h*ll.  There was no excuse for those fabrics and patterns then or now.  I'm glad to see my opinion has been sustained over the intervening ages.