THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: Kugai on 06 Mar 2016, 12:25
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Zoom Zoom
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I'm trying to give sensible answers to the poll... Why am I trying to give sensible answers to the poll? :?
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Why not.
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Butts is the most sensible answer, because butts.
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Chassis designs like May's have been around long enough to go out of warranty.
Apparently anyone who can afford to upgrade from one will do so.
Why can't she pick up some ugly secondhand thing on Freecycle? Assuming that parole conditions allow her to change bodies.
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I feel 'butts' is the only save vote here. It has been a constant since the early days.
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Obviously, Butts was the correct answer on the poll for today.
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It's nice to know that Punchbot isn't a dickhead to his fans, even stopping to sign an autograph when they are making an ass out of themselves.
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May is definitely a teenager at heart, right down to the fangirl behavior patterns! Meanwhile, poor Momo is stuck with being the sensible older sister. Come to think about it, hasn't that also always been her role with Marigold?
I long have thought that Punchbot is a nice guy. He just has impulse control issues, like May herself, of course!
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It's strange to see May so polite and respectful.
She generally seems to have more time for her fellow AIs than for humans.
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May is polite because Punchbot is someone she admires.
When she asks him in panel three and he holds his fist up high, my first thougt was that he´ll punch her the autograph straight in the face. :-o
TM
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"Vote for AI Rights" -- the AI ERA was some time ago, does this mean the "skate park" has been around a long time?
May has now created evidence that she visited someplace where someone named Punchbot hangs out. Bad move. I hope it doesn't bite her in the butt.
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A thought that occurs to me: Maybe Corpse Witch won't try to block Faye and Bubbles doing good deeds but she will try to exploit it. Maybe use a 'Free Charity Repair Shop for Destitute AIs' as a way of laundering her profits?
"Vote for AI Rights" -- the AI ERA was some time ago, does this mean the "skate park" has been around a long time?
This indicates, IMO, about how long ago it was that humans stopped using the building as a skate park. The AIs seem mostly indifferent to decoration of living space so it's likely that they'd just not bother to take down the last remainders of human occupation and the politics of the day from the building.
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That sounds like Corpse Witch to me. She's morally dubious, but ultimately pragmatic. If she can find a way to benefit, she will.
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"Vote for AI Rights" -- the AI ERA was some time ago, does this mean the "skate park" has been around a long time?
The poster could have been put up last week - If the history of real-world rights movements is anything to go by, a big victory some time ago does not mean the struggle is over, or even close to being over.
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Exactly. There will always be people who say "Sure, robots have equal rights EXCEPT the right to vote/marry/work/live in my neighborhood."
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May is definitely a teenager at heart, right down to the fangirl behavior patterns! Meanwhile, poor Momo is stuck with being the sensible older sister. Come to think about it, hasn't that also always been her role with Marigold?
Not "stuck with". It's her natural role, something she chooses to do. Having May around is good for her, stops her from getting stuck in her comfort zone.
But hey, I'm projecting here.
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As a point to mention, when May was looking for work, the clothing store she tried to apply at wouldn't even accept her application. The owner was comfortable being openly biased and discriminatory, which says to me that there are only limited legal protections on AI rights. To parallel, in a lot of states in the US, you can be openly fired for being gay, there is no law against it. Even in some cases working towards laws to protect people's right to be homophobic jerks. So yeah, gay people have rights as human beings... to a limit. On the other hand, if you refused to hire someone because they were black and openly said so, you'd be sued eight ways from Sunday. That's probably the status of AI rights at the current time. They are recognized as sentient beings, so it's illegal to say, abuse them, force them to do something against their will, etc. But they're still second class citizens where it is legal to discriminate against them.
Which is a likely explanation as to why some robots wind up in the fighting arena to make an income. Because employment opportunities are bad enough that they are forced to illegal activities just to keep running and powered. Possibly even for shelter, the way Bubbles lives at the rink. Basically, technically legal but still considered undesirable by a large section of the population. Probably unless they are in what are considered 'appropriate' roles. I don't think this is all that far off, since there have been other parallels between how AIs are treated in QC and how LGBT people are treated in the real world.
Of course, some of them, like Punchbot, probably just do it because they enjoy their work. I mean how hard is it to find other work when all you want to do is punch things?
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Well, so much for plausible deniability. I hope that marker wasn't permanent.
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Wait, is Jeph implying something for future comic cons?
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I'm not sure if parole officers are that thorough, though admittedly I don't have much experience in that department.
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Um.
At least occasionally, parole officers are so ... thorough ... in inspecting the bodies of parolees "for evidence of various types of unlawful activity", that rape charges were filed afterward and convictions were handed down.
Factor in the HUGE number of parolees too scared to say anything/press charges, and the number of people who don't give a rat's ass whether parolees get basic legal protection, and you have to figure it happens a hundred times for every conviction.
At this point some of those former parole officers may be going to parole officers of their own - which would have some interesting interpersonal dynamics, wouldn't it?
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Momos expression speaks volumes I think
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Assuming that parole conditions allow her to change bodies.
Hmm... I wonder if May actually owns her body? We know that in QCworld, AIs migrate from non-humanoid "functional" bodies to humanoid ones, so presumably their legal "self" is their AI core process? May's description of robot prison sounded like some sort of processor-rack where here consciousness was stored. I confess that I don't know what happens when human prisoners are released. I don't think they are issued with clothes, like a "demob suit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demob_suit)", are they? Or are they?
At least occasionally, parole officers are so ... thorough ... in inspecting the bodies of parolees "for evidence of various types of unlawful activity", that rape charges were filed afterward and convictions were handed down.
Unfortunately, any social role that involves authority over others will attract people who enjoy exercising it, and some who will abuse it.
The poster could have been put up last week - If the history of real-world rights movements is anything to go by, a big victory some time ago does not mean the struggle is over, or even close to being over.
So very true. Even where nominal legal rights have been achieved, the struggle for social and economic equality continues. To the front!
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Indeed. A highly apropos statement (as I am guessing was intended) for International Women's Day.
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Obviously, Butts was the correct answer on the poll for today.
So when I voted butts and said that butts was the sensible answer, I had seen today's comic via Patreon...but I would've made that exact same post even if I hadn't. Because butts.
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Which is a likely explanation as to why some robots wind up in the fighting arena to make an income. Because employment opportunities are bad enough that they are forced to illegal activities just to keep running and powered. Possibly even for shelter, the way Bubbles lives at the rink. Basically, technically legal but still considered undesirable by a large section of the population. Probably unless they are in what are considered 'appropriate' roles. I don't think this is all that far off, since there have been other parallels between how AIs are treated in QC and how LGBT people are treated in the real world.
Besides companion AIs a lot of the "legit" jobs we see AIs doing seem to be connected to the AI industry itself, such as the store where Momo got her current chassis and Gordon the spider AI companion consoler.
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Well, so much for plausible deniability. I hope that marker wasn't permanent.
She will never wash that cheek again.
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EDIT: removed by admins
So nobody is going to complain about that rape joke or genital speculation?
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Obviously, Butts was the correct answer on the poll for today.
So when I voted butts and said that butts was the sensible answer, I had seen today's comic via Patreon...but I would've made that exact same post even if I hadn't. Because butts.
I mean, duh. Butts. I am too broke for patreon, so I had no way of knowing there would be butts except that I've read the damn comic before
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Gotta say, as a dude who accesses these comics the second they're available on his phone, I fucking love that the hovertext has been made just a part of the comic.
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I'm calling it now, Momo and May are Alice and Malice.
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I don't know which is scarier - May's half-a-face from last week or Faye's gleeful smile in panel 3....
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I don't know which is scarier - May's half-a-face from last week or Faye's gleeful smile in panel 3....
Calling it now, May's full-face, panel 1 in the next strip
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Remember what getting disfigured did to the Joker.
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I'm confident that Bubbles has only decided to go ahead with this because she believes Faye to be capable.
I'm also confident that Bubbles is enjoying May's discomfiture right now.
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I don't know which is scarier - May's half-a-face from last week or Faye's gleeful smile in panel 3....
Definitely Faye. By a long shot.
This is also the scariest Faye has ever looked at any point in the series. ._.
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Faye is proving what Hannelore said about her bedside manner.
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Hmm, I don´t see anything scary in Faye´s face in panel three. On the contrary, to me it looks cute. I´m tempted to say, this is the cutest Fayeface ever. She´s simply euphoric about getting a chance to work on something new, to improve her skills and take them to a new level.
A devoted micromechanican myself (watchmaker), I can totally relate.
Admitted, to May this is really really scary. Imagine a doctor saying to you in hospital that he won´t treat you himself, but he´ll hand you over to a student to improve his medicine skills.
*shiver*
TM
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Bubbles has today shown that she understands one of the great truths of the English-speaking races: Revenge is sweet but never fattening.
Personally, I think that this is a 'best friend' thing. Faye and Bubbles are so on each other's wavelength that they can coordinate a prank without so much as exchanging a word. Meanwhile, May might learn the value of a verbal filter.
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So its been a long time and more than a few internet identities since I was a member of the forums here (Think "Music +Science = Sexy" as a new t-shirt release...) but I saw panel three today (8th March) and had to come back. I needed to say how impressive the perspective difference on Bubbles is. From the lower angle (around Momo's view, I'd think), and with that disdainful look on her face you really get a sense of the size and power Bubbles has at her disposal, something which hasn't really been illustrated previously. I LOVE that panel...
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Faye meets face meat.
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I'm getting a certain 'have you watered the brains today, Igor?' vibe here...
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I'm getting a certain 'have you watered the brains today, Igor?' vibe here...
Which I believe is entirely intentional and, more specifically, something Faye and Bubbles are, somehow, subverbally conspiring to present.
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Faye Whitaker, plastic surgeon to the stars (of the the Robo-Ronin Rumble).
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WARNING:
Do Not Operate Drunk
Okay, I don't believe that's what the warning label on the front of that machine actually reads, but then, I don't believe the label on that crate actually reads "Caution: Crate contains live bobcat" either.
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Remember what getting disfigured did to the Joker.
"Wanna know how I got these scars?"
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Remember what getting disfigured did to the Joker.
"Wanna know how I got these scars?"
I've always preferred Jack Nicholson, myself. "But, as my plastic surgeon always used to say: 'If you've got to go, go with a smile!'"
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WARNING:
Do Not Operate Drunk
Okay, I don't believe that's what the warning label on the front of that machine actually reads, but then, I don't believe the label on that crate actually reads "Caution: Crate contains live bobcat" either.
He never said it read that, only that it did. And I'm pretty sure it says high, not drunk.
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Remember what getting disfigured did to the Joker.
"Wanna know how I got these scars?"
"I tripped and fell while picking up my dismembered arm."
I'm not sure if that's pathetic, or frightening. Frighthetic?
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Just wanted to mention and applaud all the different "camera angles" in this strip. A far cry from a lot of "everyone stands around for N panels in front of an identical / limited / no backdrop" strips.
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I love Faye's insults. Also, I am surprised May still has her arms attached after they are pulled like that in the last panel.
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This is going to prove interesting
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It has potential - in particular I'm imagining May's reaction to having Faye do "better than OEM" repairs, or giving her a substantially remodeled custom face that she likes better.
But, honestly, if Faye just plain does a good job, she'll appreciate it. For all her flaws, cynicism, and impulse control issues, May is someone who has major loyalty and gratitude for people who do something nice for her, especially when it's something they didn't have to do and when it's somebody she's been an ass to earlier.
But on some level it's still going to be disappointing, at least to me. I really wanted to see Chibi!May inhabiting Momo's old chassis and asserting her own identity in it.
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But, honestly, if Faye just plain does a good job, she'll appreciate it.
I'm wondering how good a job Faye does will prove more important. If Faye just fixes the problem, that's all well and good, everyone is happy.
But if Faye decides to do a little more work than the obvious repairs, that could land May in far more trouble, because one would assume that as a parolee, May would only be "lent", for want of a better word, the chassis for use during her parole. It could even be a case that when the terms of her parole ends, May will have to return the chassis in a condition close to when she was given it. Meaning any aftermarket upgrades or mods could have serious repurcussions for her.
Ultimately this is going to walk on a very fine line for May and her future.
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I wonder what happened to the chassis May used before she went to jail...or if she had one at all.
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I can't quite remember, but I think May was originally a military or corporate AI looking to get herself a chassis, just one that involved a couple of million of military grade hardware.
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She was trying to buy a fighter jet on the black market to transfer her consciousness to, but that doesn't mean she didn't already have a humanoid chassis.
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I wonder how many butt autographs (buttographs?) Jeph ill be asked to sign at cons now.
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I wonder how many butt autographs (buttographs?) Jeph ill be asked to sign at cons now.
Probably about the same.
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This might very well be the same chassis she had before going into the robo-jail. With its maintenance neglected while she was embezzling and saving money for the new fighter-jet chassis, then warehoused for however long she was in, during which time its warranty expired.
In a similar vein, when convicts are getting out of jail they have the clothes and possessions they had on their person when arrested returned to them. So, their old wallet with their expired drivers license and years-out-of-date photos of family who've left them while they were in, the jeans and shirt they were wearing, etc. Maybe for the synthetic set this includes the old chassis.
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This might very well be the same chassis she had before going into the robo-jail. With its maintenance neglected while she was embezzling and saving money for the new fighter-jet chassis, then warehoused for however long she was in, during which time its warranty expired.
In this comic (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3035) it says pretty explicitly that May was given a new chassis upon leaving incarceration. It's even called a "reformChassis," kind of like giving an ex-con a striped shirt to wear all the time.
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Run May! Run while you can!
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I wonder what happened to the chassis May used before she went to jail...or if she had one at all.
If she wasn't just living in a server rack but had an actual body, it may have been seized and auctioned off to pay restitution or fines or court costs or parole fees or jail room and board or any of the other bites the system takes from convicts.
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This might very well be the same chassis she had before going into the robo-jail. With its maintenance neglected while she was embezzling and saving money for the new fighter-jet chassis, then warehoused for however long she was in, during which time its warranty expired.
In this comic (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3035) it says pretty explicitly that May was given a new chassis upon leaving incarceration. It's even called a "reformChassis," kind of like giving an ex-con a striped shirt to wear all the time.
Honestly, that chassis seems like its designed more to encourage a parolee to break the law again rather than help them reform.
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The vibe I get from this is a sitcom where one actress has demanded too much money for next season, is disfigured in the final show of the year and is replaced the next season by a different actress.
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You mean Jeph wants to explain why May might look completely different once we see her again?
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This is exactly how I see this arc ending.
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If May becomes a supervillain, will she go back to prison, or will Hannermom hire her?
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Hannermom can get her out of prison. Probably makes it easier to negotiate a salary that way.
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Honestly, that chassis seems like its designed more to encourage a parolee to break the law again rather than help them reform.
Exactly right. The QC AI parole system sounds a lot like the actual parole system.
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I wonder, does this mean May's going to have a different face? or is it just a skin* replacement?
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It would appear to be a "skin" replacement. What I want to know is since the face won't match the rest of the body will Faye keep going with the make over until May looks entirely different.
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The kind of teasing Faye is doing can do real damage to someone who's been traumatized.
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I'm not sure she is teasing, I think she is just so excited with the prospect of learning more techniques that she is oblivious to May's discomfort. Not to mention the fact that her typical "patients" generally let her do whatever she wants.
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What I want to know is since the face won't match the rest of the body will Faye keep going with the make over until May looks entirely different.
We don't know how different their available dermal covering is from May's normal colour, and since it's the face, a very small distinction would be visible. It's completely possible that they can make a shade of blue that wouldn't be too different from her body, especially given that different colours on the face and body don't seem to be entirely uncommon, so they just have to do the entire head.
Of course, given May's history, she might use a face/ body colour difference as an excuse to go back and look into further modifications. It could present a new temptation. She doesn't want to go back to jail, but if the only upgrade option available to her is illegal, then how far should she take it...
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But are the repair / modifications themselves illegal or is it just where they are happening the issue?
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The kind of teasing Faye is doing can do real damage to someone who's been traumatized.
May's traumatized?
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If May's not traumatized, she's probably going to be. Having a whole new face is non-trivial thing. Not that anyone will do anything less than their best, but it won't be her old face.
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Okay, tonights comic is the kind of thing I was thinking about. If they change the skin colour on her chassis, that could lead to some serious questions from May's parole officer. That's a major change on what is essentially (I presume) federal property (May's chassis for the duration of her parole). And that is something the parole officer is going to notice, even if it is just a shade off the original dermal covering.
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If May's not traumatized, she's probably going to be. Having a whole new face is non-trivial thing. Not that anyone will do anything less than their best, but it won't be her old face.
Her current face isn't her old face either.
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Are AI's as "attached" to their skin as us meatbags so as to be traumatized by its possibly drastic change?
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The kind of teasing Faye is doing can do real damage to someone who's been traumatized.
May's traumatized?
We don't know but it's possible. Depends on just how bad a place Robot Jail is.
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We don't know but it's possible. Depends on just how bad a place Robot Jail is.
Sure, it's possible. It's possible that any of the many many people Faye has met, for example, in the cafe while she was working there could have been traumatized at some point in their lives.
Is there some concrete reason that you think that Faye's teasing might cause real damage? Because to me she simply seems to be nervous in a way that is perfectly normal and healthy for someone whose face is being operated on while awake.
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Concretely, May has just emerged from an environment where she was frighteningly vulnerable. If I'd had someone threaten to toss me into an incinerator(*), I might twitch a bit when someone exulting at using flensing tools on me.
Less concretely, since Robot Jail is "horrible" (strip 2503), it might have psychological effects analogous to harsh prisons for humans (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/magazine/inside-americas-toughest-federal-prison.html?_r=2) (warning: it's rough reading).
(*)Apparently plausibly, since May didn't rule out the possibility that Momo could follow through.
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"these days"
http://questionablecontent.net/2713
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Well, it looks like May's going to get a full face transplant with differing-colour pseudo-skin. That could be difficult unless she begs for a pair of gloves in the same colour. Then she can just pass for that colour all over. This may have some interesting consequences, especially if the new colour is human flesh-tone. A lot also depends on how much the 'underlying gel' controls the shape of the face; she might come out of this looking very different.
Meanwhile... Yeah, Faye needs to learn a better bedside manner, especially for when the patient is conscious.
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I wonder if May's non-human colour is a badge of her parole, which changing it will violate.
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May's traumatized?
Yes, definitely (http://questionablecontent.net/2713). My reading, given her reference to having a physical body "now", is that robot jail is just a big room full of 19" racks full of disembodied AI cores (let's be honest, that's what our prison authorities would do if they could (http://wagingnonviolence.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/csp-Los-Angeles4-1024x680.jpg)). Not a nice place for one who dreamed of being a fighter-jet.
Flensing... There's a word I haven't come across since I read Moby Dick. Faye is having a whale of a time.
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Looking up 'debridement' ...
Yegh.
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Faye's expressions the last two days have been fantastic. I am worried for May though, hopefully it'll just be a little off colour but maybe May would prefer looking like Sally's dress from Nightmare Before Christmas.
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I wonder if May's non-human colour is a badge of her parole
That would be absolutely fucking terrible.
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Does anybody else find Faye's enthusiasm slightly ... unsettling?
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"Slightly"? ... No.
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I'd think the ability to negate pain (or what passes for it) would be a standard feature on the chassis for an AI - in fact, reporting pain data would seem to be more difficult than not reporting it.
Skin color is non-trivial, I suppose, but Momo's hair color changes quite easily.
Faye needs work on her bedside manner, but it should be noted that she mostly works on patients who are a little more blasé about getting wrecked.
May is having a favor done for her, and is reacting in the way May typically does - she throws insults left right and sideways because she's never been very good at gratitude.
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Bubbles is a really great person. She'd probably get hell from Corpse Witch if she agreed to give away Fight ClubWhoops, broke the rules repair stuff to non-clubbers, so she came up with a reasonable excuse to seriously help out this person that she doesn't even like, for free (probably). Warms my heart.
Of course, the one doing the repairs is someone who has no practise doing it, but Faye is a great sculptor, so it should turn out well.
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For all we know, Faye could very well be trained on working with faces and Bubbles is just acting this way because of how May acted when they first met. One of the first things we saw her working on was Barry's head after all.
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The "raid on the arena" prediction seems sadly pretty likely. And if it does happen, even if May, Faye, and Bubbles all manange to stay out of trouble somehow, Corpse Witch will likely retaliate against May somehow.
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I think it's fun to imagine May looking like UNITY from Skin Horse. But I don't imagine that's going to happen.
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Are AI's as "attached" to their skin as us meatbags so as to be traumatized by its possibly drastic change?
Seems more like being *in* the chassis and conscious while it's being altered would be the potentially traumatic thing. At least in May's case, right now, because she hates her current chassis and has since it was issued to her. AIs like Momo who got to choose their own chassis, or have just had the same one for a long time, might feel more like their chassis is an important part of their identity.
There may not be a precise comparison to carbon-based people but it seems from how the robots act that a chassis means a little less than a body but far more than clothes. In which case getting stuck on a server rack in Robot Jail would be serious punishment all by itself.
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"Flensing" is one of those really cool sounding words that you really don't want to hear in reference to your face meats.
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Anyone getting a Nicholson Joker vibe from this?
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If Jeph doesn't go that way then someone should do it as fan art.
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She's already kinda got a Two Face thing going on right now.
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Anyone getting a Nicholson Joker vibe from this?
Sometimes I wonder who's blocking me.
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"Flensing" is one of those really cool sounding words that you really don't want to hear in reference to your face meats.
See, Flensing is a word that tells you that something terrible is about to happen.
I find debridement to be a somewhat more terrifying word, because its telling you something terrible has already happened.
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Ah, here it was.
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2760
Now they can really turn her into the Bodyguard of the Daughter of the God of all AI's.
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Faye is enjoying this way too much.
May, welcome to the Uncanny Valley.
Or as some like to call it, the Twilight Zone...
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In spite of all the prediction of doom and insanity, the patient seems fine.
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The makeover begins.
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If you're wondering what May looks like topless, today's comic will tell you. (Hint: She wasn't kidding about looking like a barbie doll.)
It appears she'll have a beige face going forward. A bit closer to human than the blue, but still not like Momo's pseudo flesh tone. It does appear that Bubbles really knows her stuff, and May won't be rocking any Frankenstein-type scars etc. on her face. I'm assuming when Bubbles says "This will all have to be replaced," she means the joint and not the whole arm. Otherwise May would have a non-blue appendage to go with her face. Staying with the blue hair is an interesting choice.
On the subject of sewing, I remember when I got some stitches on my finger. The guy who sewed them was amazingly skilled. It was like a magical process.
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Can Bubbles knit? It might be soothing for her and give her a way to make friends.
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Ok but, despite always knowing they're all robots, this page is still kinda disturbing as all hell.
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Faye isn't a robot... or is she?
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We _think_ she was joking (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=131).
She leaks red fluid when she's cut and was accepted as human at the hospital. On the other hand, she was able to throw an adult man across a bar.
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On the subject of sewing, I remember when I got some stitches on my finger. The guy who sewed them was amazingly skilled. It was like a magical process.
Yeah it looks like magic, my cousin is doing the last year of his surgical rotation and he basically spent a months rent buying pig's trotters to practice his suture technique. They get tested on how well they can do a suture one handed, in case of an emergency situation.
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Can some people not sew?
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We _think_ she was joking (http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=131).
She leaks red fluid when she's cut and was accepted as human at the hospital. On the other hand, she was able to throw an adult man across a bar.
So was Jessica Jones. Faye has super strength, just not invulnerablity.
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Can some people not sew?
This is rather like asking, "Can some people not cook," or "Can some people not sing?" Not everyone is skilled at it, and when someone says they can (or cannot) do one of those things, they really mean that they have (or have not) attained some reasonable degree of skill.
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Some ppl have physical impediments that mean they literally can not sew.
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Our girl Bubbles has some mad skills there.
And I think I like the way this somewhat new look for May is going
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The asshole who did my stitches when I cut my thumb open sucked.
Then my mom convinced me that no, we don't have to go to the hospital, she can take them out herself, it's no big deal. (In all fairness, my mom is a licensed MD, so it's not like some random teacher or lawyer or whatever doing minor surgery on me.)
NEVER. AGAIN.
Bubbles knitting would be a good way to continue her friendship with Hanners.
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If you're wondering what the new May will look like, she should be something like this:
(http://heartneystudio.com/clientfiles/misc/new_may.jpg)
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May's traumatized?
Yes, definitely (http://questionablecontent.net/2713). My reading, given her reference to having a physical body "now", is that robot jail is just a big room full of 19" racks full of disembodied AI cores (let's be honest, that's what our prison authorities would do if they could (http://wagingnonviolence.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/csp-Los-Angeles4-1024x680.jpg)). Not a nice place for one who dreamed of being a fighter-jet.
Flensing... There's a word I haven't come across since I read Moby Dick. Faye is having a whale of a time.
Either the claustrophobia was caused by Robot Jail, in which case it's evidence of trauma, or she was claustrophobic before she went in, in which case it would certainly have traumatized her.
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I have a feeling that they will decide that having just a khaki head will look odd and go for a full body makeover.
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May is having a favor done for her, and is reacting in the way May typically does - she throws insults left right and sideways because she's never been very good at gratitude.
Agree with one minor amendment: May has never been good at expressing gratitude. She has shown gratitude before, and her entire behaviour suggests she's not half the jerk she is projecting to the world, she just has enormous problems opening up and expressing positive sentiments to people. Combine that with a sarcastic sense of humour and low impulse control, and the jerk façade is inevitable.
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Bubbles is clearly a 'droid of many talents. I don't know why she's so embarrassed about knowing how to sew! It strikes me as something that they'd teach you in Basic to ensure that you can maintain your kit in the field.
Meanwhile, I have a feeling that May is going to end up a bit of a patchwork quilt of repairs and replacement parts! It's a good thing that her warranty has already expired or this would invalidate it to sure!
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May is having a favor done for her, and is reacting in the way May typically does - she throws insults left right and sideways because she's never been very good at gratitude.
Agree with one minor amendment: May has never been good at expressing gratitude. She has shown gratitude before, and her entire behaviour suggests she's not half the jerk she is projecting to the world, she just has enormous problems opening up and expressing positive sentiments to people. Combine that with a sarcastic sense of humour and low impulse control, and the jerk façade is inevitable.
Goodness, that sounds like a description of someone else in the strip.
Perhaps The Pugnacious Peach will end up as a big sister to May, singing lullabies like "May, May, my mei mei" or helping May through the recovery process with the benefit of her own experience.
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Can some people not sew?
It was only relatively recently that I discovered that not everyone was taught how in primary school, so maybe?
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At first glance I thought those were nails not needles and Bubbles was going to straight up hammer May's hair back on.
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FWIW, I'm still hoping that May begs a set of shoulder-gloves in the same tone as her new face dermal. I don't know about anyone else but I'd feel self-conscious having a very obviously different skin tone between my face and hands. That said, it depends a lot on how May feels about her chassis. She may not care enough about it to want to put too much trouble into making it appear aesthetically balanced. Additionally, it's beginning to look like the face is the only part with dermal so she might not have a problem as she's always had bare exo-shell on the rest of her body.
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If it were that big of a problem she probably can just find a can of paint and paint her face blue.
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(http://49.media.tumblr.com/d6b7b430c82c11294e011035ef6518a9/tumblr_n494y9AtlT1tqx091o2_r1_500.gif)
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Can some people not sew?
The Greyjoys :claireface:
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I though sewing was a common enough skill amongst military personnel - whatwith the requirement of keeping dress uniforms etc. in perfect condition - not to elicit surprise anymore?
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It probably wouldn't surprise anyone who was in the military or their families. But people outside the military environment, such as Faye, might be a bit surprised.
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Totally random, but I love that when May and Faye speak in unison, their text containment is half bubble, half box.
<relurk>
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FWIW, I'm still hoping that May begs a set of shoulder-gloves in the same tone as her new face dermal. I don't know about anyone else but I'd feel self-conscious having a very obviously different skin tone between my face and hands. That said, it depends a lot on how May feels about her chassis. She may not care enough about it to want to put too much trouble into making it appear aesthetically balanced. Additionally, it's beginning to look like the face is the only part with dermal so she might not have a problem as she's always had bare exo-shell on the rest of her body.
Her neck, shoulders and chest remain blue, so adding gloves won't be enough to complete the effect, unless she's wearing a coat and a scarf.
May will look like one of those cars with a replacement door in a different color.
I could see this as eventually becoming a droid fashion statement - multiple-tone body parts put on deliberately.
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I don't know if May could deal with being a trend setter to that extent.
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I don't think a patch-work May would care at all about her crazy quilt appearance, since it's not a fighter jet chassis. It's like those lunatic homo sapiens who lose body parts, have them replaced with synthetic replacements and given the option of a skin-tone covering just go, "Meh." Saw a picture on imgur of a guy who'd forgotten to charge his forearm's batteries before leaving for a trip, so he was sitting in an airport lounge where people were recharging their phones and tablets with a cable running from an outlet to his carbon fiber forearm with anatomicly correct robot hand at the end of it. If he'd been at all self conscious, I'm sure there is a synthetic skin the thing could have been wearing.
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Did they remove May's eyes as part of the dermal installation procedure, d'ythink?
Also, unless it's some sort of heat-shrink-wrap, you'd think some skills along the lines of sewing would be required during installation.
Additionally, it's beginning to look like the face is the only part with dermal so she might not have a problem as she's always had bare exo-shell on the rest of her body.
If the rest of her's bare, she could just get a paintjob. A spraycan or two of primer, and the same of topcoat wouldn't cost that much, if she can lay off the fighter-jet T-shirts and fart apps.
I can't imagine trying to spray the dermal blue would end that well. It wouldn't wear so well with constant facial expression, surely.
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Bubbles is turning out to be quite the talented little sew-n-sew :claireface:
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If I had a cyborg hand, I wouldn't want natural looking, I'd want obvious chrome. If I have to have a prosthetic, I want it to be as badass as possible.
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If I were going to guess, I'd guess that the dermal is a silicon rubber sheet with a bunch of tiny piezoelectric sensors stirred into it, and the fixative gel is the same rubber or slightly more flexible, plus a mild solvent that has it temporarily gooey; not at a high enough concentration to dissolve the dermal, but sufficient to fuse it to the softer rubber that the gel sets into as the solvent evaporates, and to make the dermal itself more flexible/shrinkable for a while until exposure to air evaporates the solvent. During that time it would be soft enough to shrink or expand somewhat to fit, and you could splice patches of it together although that would likely leave a visible seam. The result would be a thin "skin" of slightly harder/tougher rubber fused to "tissue" that's softer and more flexible.
So the procedure would be a matter of putting a pre-formed head covering over the fixative gel, probably bringing a seam together at the back of the head to make it reasonably snug, and working the air bubbles out from under it to make sure all of it is in contact with the gel. At which point the silicone rubber contracting over the gel would do the final shaping to a perfect fit. Most of the tools would be the same sort of thing you use applying fiberglass coverings.
The sensor net would be piezoelectric crystals - the same microscopic bits that used to get attached to phonograph needles to detect vibrations. That could provide a fairly good sense of touch - but depending on how the sensor signals are detected, probably one that would degrade over time as tiny little conducting fibers in the dermal wear out depriving the embedded microelectronics of their antennas. So May probably now has a drastically better sense of touch over her face than she got with her out-of-warranty ReformChassis.
Of course this is all me being a maker weenie and second-guessing the artist. It's plausible, but doesn't necessarily match canon.
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If I were May and getting my facial tissue replaced though, I'd probably have opted to have lips.
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Can some people not sew?
The Greyjoys :claireface:
Well played. Well played indeed.
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Bubbles is clearly a 'droid of many talents. I don't know why she's so embarrassed about knowing how to sew! It strikes me as something that they'd teach you in Basic to ensure that you can maintain your kit in the field.
I'm pretty sure her MOS (or whatever they call it in the QCverse military) was some form of medic.
Which makes me wonder: with whom is/was QCverse America at war?
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They have always been at war with Eurasia.
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They have always been at war with Eurasia.
Are you sure it wasn't Eastasia?
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What are you talking about? They have always been at war with Eastasia.
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Why a medic? A medic wouldn't need a body that can punch holes in brick walls.
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Why a medic? A medic wouldn't need a body that can punch holes in brick walls.
They would if a wounded comrade was on the other side of the wall.
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Part of medevac duty is lifting downed helicopters off of the people who need medical care.
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Which makes me wonder: with whom is/was QCverse America at war?
QCverse America is at war with Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Afghanistan and France.
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Don't forget Australia.
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QC-verse Australian AI troops.
(http://img05.deviantart.net/4894/i/2012/176/b/e/robot_spider_by_redstringstudio-d54u52v.jpg)
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Saw a picture on imgur of a guy who'd forgotten to charge his forearm's batteries before leaving for a trip, so he was sitting in an airport lounge where people were recharging their phones and tablets with a cable running from an outlet to his carbon fiber forearm with anatomicly correct robot hand at the end of it. If he'd been at all self conscious, I'm sure there is a synthetic skin the thing could have been wearing.
That arms owner is actually an actress, and according to her Twitter, she has several coverings for it, as well as several types of arms/attachments. And one of the best Furiosa cosplay I've ever seen.
https://mobile.twitter.com/aannggeellll/status/686252861206978561 (https://mobile.twitter.com/aannggeellll/status/686252861206978561)
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That's the image I saw on imgur.
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I think May's face in panels 3 and 4 looks surprisingly like Gavia's.
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It's been bugging me all day trying to figure out what May's head in panel 2 reminds me of and I just realized it's a watermelon.
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The Pugnacious Peach is now treating May more or less respectfully. What does this mean?
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The Pugnacious Peach is now treating May more or less respectfully. What does this mean?
That the quips got old?
To be fair, joking aside and with the presumed lack of optional features (I imagine the fight club has plenty of the basics, but not a lot of the flashy stuff), it's May's body, she's the one who'll have to live with it, so Faye and Bubbles do need her input.
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The Pugnacious Peach is now treating May more or less respectfully. What does this mean?
That you were misinterpreting Faye-style playful ribbing as something malicious?
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Punches! Wooo!
I like May's final look.
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I hope May is in salvageable condition
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It's fascinating to me, as a dude who spends way more time focusing on color and shade than I aught to, that 'khaki' qualifies so close to Faye's face color. This is not a problem, because Jeph was probably using less-red versions of tan fotr Faye's face than my rosacea-cursed ass would have chosen, but it's nonetheless fascinating.
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I love May's new head.
Anyone else notice how with her head having the fake skin covering, but the rest of her body still being blue and robotic she looks alot like Ava from Ex Machina?
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I love May's new head.
Anyone else notice how with her head having the fake skin covering, but the rest of her body still being blue and robotic she looks alot like Ava from Ex Machina?
Holy funk she does. I would now make a comment concerning the ending of Ex Machina, but I will not because I want all of you to spend money to find out how that brilliant movie concerns itself.
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Bless him! I'm quite sure that Punchbot intended that to be only a 'friendly punch', just as he received. However, I suspect that they've so enhanced his pseudo-musculature that even that is like being hit by a truck!
I'm not worried about May. It was just a silly arc-closing punchline. Although, I can see May waxing lyrical and initially refusing to wash the impact spot. Jeph did a good job here emphasising her teenage girl side and I'm expecting any consequences of this interaction to reflect that.
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And the next picture is from Mays perspective, lying on the ground, surrounded by Faye, Bubbles and Punchbot.
The following one is pretty much the same, only Mays arm added, giving a thumbs-up and a speech bubble:
"Totally worth it!" :-D
TM
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RIP in kill may
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Where can I get a subscription to Punches Monthly?
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Aaaand now May needs a complete rebuild.....
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I'm imagining Prolapse Monthly and Punches Monthly being on the same stand.
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Just because they're monthly mags it doesn't mean they'd be in the same stand. Unless it's also aggressively terrible porno.
On May's state, I think I have to go with Timemaster's idea. Something on the lines of "THAT RULED ASS"
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Well, that was quite the end of week....
:claireface:
....punch line.
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1: WORTH IT! bzzzt zzzt zzzt.
2: we can rebuild her... better... faster... in two-tone or one-tone...
3: with all those dicks on his head, why does Punchbot still have no nose?
4: WORTH IT!
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He's a punchly guy.
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It's fascinating to me, as a dude who spends way more time focusing on color and shade than I aught to, that 'khaki' qualifies so close to Faye's face color.
May's head is about the same colour as me. The rest of her is the colour I'd be if I lived in one of those extreme northern climates. Depending on what she wears, she may find an easier time "passing" amongst humans.
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Anyone else notice how with her head having the fake skin covering, but the rest of her body still being blue and robotic she looks alot like Ava from Ex Machina?
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2c/13/3c/2c133c57738c445dcfc86268422217a5.jpg)
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That's not Ava. It's a robot from Chappie.
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It's fascinating to me, as a dude who spends way more time focusing on color and shade than I aught to, that 'khaki' qualifies so close to Faye's face color. This is not a problem, because Jeph was probably using less-red versions of tan fotr Faye's face than my rosacea-cursed ass would have chosen, but it's nonetheless fascinating.
You draw with your ass?
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You don't?
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I gotta say, May wound up looking pretty good. That head could seriously pass for human. Which leads me to wonder how many of characters in this strip are actually robots?
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SPOILER: They are all robots. Except Pintsize.
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(http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/05/21/fashion/21DISRUPTIONS/21DISRUPTIONS-master675.jpg)
Ava
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You don't?
likewipingamarker.gif
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Today's episode brought to you by Poor Impulse Control.
Maybe in some terrifying alternate universe where May didn't go to jail, she got married to Punchbot and now the two of them are flying around strafing sheep with missiles and miniguns.
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You draw with your ass?
Depends on who's asking and what they're willing to pay
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It's been a bit overshadowed by the Big Punch, but is that a different hairpiece on May? The old one was looking really spiky by the end, and this one is more soft. Plus I'm guessing that the old one was produced by auto-installing large numbers of hairs, while the new one is manually sewn onto the scalp. The old hair thus might not have been removable from the old myomer.
If it's new, then she's lucky the Robot Fight Club had a full hairpiece laying around in the correct blue color. Whichever, the new look is a lot softer. We'll have to see if this experience has softened up May's personality to match.
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PUNCHBOT YES
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Maybe it's the same hair but Bubbles washed it?
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Those appear to be clippers Bubbles is holding. I think she gave her a trim along with reinstalling her hair.
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Yeah, I got the impression that it was the same wig but Bubbles did some styling on it.
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Which makes me wonder: with whom is/was QCverse America at war?
QCverse America is at war with Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Afghanistan and France.
QCverse America is at war with East Asia, They have always been at war with East Asia
And now Bubbles can practice her Body Repair skills
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QCverse America is at war with East Asia, They have always been at war with East Asia
:( :-( :-(
May exhibits poor impulse control; Punchbot demonstrates that impulse equals change of momentum.
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The hair that May's chassis came with was made out of some kind of cheap plasticky material. I recall her warning Dale against touching it too much, as it gets bent out of shape pretty easily.
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When your name is 'Punchbot', certain things are expected of you.
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QCverse America is at war with East Asia, They have always been at war with East Asia
:( :-( :-(
I take it you didn't recognise the 1984 reference.
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Or maybe she saw me make that reference a full page earlier :roll:
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Hmmmmm
I didn't. Or I probably did and forgot about it when I Posted that this morning.
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Hmmmmm
I didn't. Or I probably did and forgot about it when I Posted that this morning.
Woah, it's ALMOST like internet culture is uniting people in different time zones with different CULTURES and shit?
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I had the same thought.
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Which makes me wonder: with whom is/was QCverse America at war?
QCverse America is at war with Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Afghanistan and France.
QCverse America is at war with East Asia, They have always been at war with East Asia
QCverse America is at war with Eurasia. They have always been at war with Eurasia. Your crimethink will be punished.
-
Which makes me wonder: with whom is/was QCverse America at war?
QCverse America is at war with Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Afghanistan and France.
QCverse America is at war with East Asia, They have always been at war with East Asia
QCverse America is at war with Eurasia. They have always been at war with Eurasia. Your crimethink will be punished.
2+2=
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5 for large values of 2 and small values of 5
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5 for large values of 2 and small values of 5
My mom is a chemistry teacher. This is one of her favorite lessons. She has a shirt for it and everything.
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Aaaand now May needs a complete rebuild.....
I was wondering if she did that in hopes that they would now have to replace the skin on her body, so it'll match her face.
I just hope he didn't hit her in the face. Comparing the level of his fist in the last panel to the level of her face in the previous panel makes that look like a possibility.
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I just noticed that Bubbles was holding a buzzer.
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When your name is 'Punchbot', certain things are expected of you.
Like serving fruit flavoured drinks.
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My mom is a chemistry teacher. This is one of her favorite lessons. She has a shirt for it and everything.
Your mum is amazing. And I've never even met her.