Have we ever seen that expression on Faye's face before?I don't believe we have.
She's afraid of what Bubbles is going to do next.
Well I guess we should have seen that coming.
Have we ever seen that expression on Faye's face before?
She's afraid of what Bubbles is going to do next.
The decision to punch CW was so rash it needs ointment.
In other words it was incredibly stupid. Bubbles is right not to have immediately gone with Faye. I only say immediately in case Jeph pulls a fast one tomorrow and they both tell CW to piss off, hope that doesn't happen though.
The decision to punch CW was so rash it needs ointment.
Wow! Corpse Witch's chassis must be very lightly constructed to have deformed that badly!
About time Faye's violent outbursts cost her.
I had to register on the forums just to voice my frustrations.
Screw you, Faye.
Forcing Bubbles to choose between her friendship and her job on the spot like that? Absolutely awful of her. If she wants to quit that's her business, but to not just put her on the spot, but assume that of her? You're an awful friend.
About time Faye's violent outbursts cost her.Ok, while it's true that Faye jumps to violence too fast and too often, and it was unwise, I still object to this. This isn't her punching someone for something minor, Corpse Witch directly threatened to have her friend tortured.
Forcing Bubbles to choose between her friendship and her job on the spot like that? Absolutely awful of her.Its probably not just her job too. I'm sure she'll feel she has a responsibility to all the other AIs at the site.
CW is unlikable, but she handled the situation right, whereas she could have done things with bad outcomes for the others.
How do I think this will work out?
I think that Jeph is going to have two strips with Faye and Corpse Witch making their cases (with a huge side-order of threats and innuendo on CW's part - She may also try to frighten Faye off with a few revelations about Bubbles' less-salubrious past). Then, after Bubbles (or possibly May, just to shake things up) summing up on Thursday, we'll have Bubbles making her own points about what she wants (as opposed to what Faye and Corpse Witch want) on Friday. The decision will be next Monday.
It's a plausible reading that Bubbles has turned her back on Faye and that Bubble's expression says "You're nothing to me, squishy", with Faye reacting with fear of abandonment.
It's a plausible reading that Bubbles has turned her back on Faye and that Bubble's expression says "You're nothing to me, squishy", with Faye reacting with fear of abandonment.
Facial expressions are very subjective because I totally did not read Bubbles' face as "You are nothing to me". That's a very defiant standpoint... To me she is avoiding Faye's stare because she's giving up. Basically sayng "I'm sorry, I can't follow you. I'm stuck here".
I felt CW's threat was pretty standard for what you encounter when dealing with illegal activity, from watching other shows.
About time Faye's violent outbursts cost her.Ok, while it's true that Faye jumps to violence too fast and too often, and it was unwise, I still object to this. This isn't her punching someone for something minor, Corpse Witch directly threatened to have her friend tortured.
About time Faye's violent outbursts cost her.Ok, while it's true that Faye jumps to violence too fast and too often, and it was unwise, I still object to this. This isn't her punching someone for something minor, Corpse Witch directly threatened to have her friend tortured.
Still a bad idea to punch out your boss, especially before you even have another job lined up. An even worse idea to punch out the boss of an illegal racket, it's like punching out the mobster or gang member you worked for under the table; being fired may not be the worst consequence Faye has to face for that. And CW is definitely the vindictive type, she won't let this go easily.
My prediction: I don't see Bubbles going with Faye. At all. Despite the friendship, Bubbles has more reasons to be loyal to CW than to Faye. Furthermore, I can see Faye taking this as a betrayal and telling Bubbles to go screw herself before storming out the door. Thus would end their friendship, followed most likely by Faye crawling back into the nearest bottle over the "breakup".
Second job in a row that Faye's burned her bridges at. Might be problems coming up with a third. Has Faye been attending the therapy group? As a friend in recovery noted, drinking is less an illness than a symptom of an illness: the underlying emotional problems are what leads to drinking. Faye doesn't seem to have dealt with whatever made her drink.
Speaking of which, Faye's now in bad danger of a relapse, particularly if Bubbles doesn't leave with her.
I think that Jeph is going to have two strips with Faye and Corpse Witch making their cases (with a huge side-order of threats and innuendo on CW's part - She may also try to frighten Faye off with a few revelations about Bubbles' less-salubrious past). Then, after Bubbles (or possibly May, just to shake things up) summing up on Thursday, we'll have Bubbles making her own points about what she wants (as opposed to what Faye and Corpse Witch want) on Friday. The decision will be next Monday.
Am I the only person here seeing anger in Bubble's expression?
Yanno, BenRG, I didn't get my first GDT thread locked until about my third or fourth try...
Evoking empathy for some (me included); schadenfreude for others, I guess.
TED? GDT (general discussion thread maybe?) Has there been some heavy moderation? The most recent posts seem incoherent.
Yeah, there has been a curiously high level of Fayehate this week so far, hasn't there? I really don't know what triggered it off.
Evoking empathy for some (me included); schadenfreude for others, I guess.How true... I'm sorry for Faye. Her actions were not wise, and she's a flawed character, but taking pleasure in someone else's misery is no virtue either.
I have trouble understanding why people are so happy about seeing Faye like this. She is in the sort of place I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy - isolated, insecurity on every front and *alone*. Even in the company of others, even friends, it's possible to feel alone and I think Faye's been alone for so long that she doesn't really understand how people work. Similar to Bubbles in that way.
Yeah, there has been a curiously high level of Fayehate this week so far, hasn't there? I really don't know what triggered it off.
Some people, including me, see faye as both a bully and a thug. Threats and violence are often her go to moves in any situation. Even Jeph has said he would not want her in his life. So yes, it is good and appropriate that her actions have negative consequences.
...would just be further incentive for Faye to go to the cops.What is Faye going to go to the cops with? As Officer Rosko said, even the small time gambling is barely even a crime. The officer would seem to have a major bee in her bonnet about the place, which is why she hurtled in when she thought there might actually be evidence of something bad going on but apart from that... By the looks of things, under UK law at least, far more trouble could be caused by whistle blowing to the taxman.
In some ways it's fitting that she's currently in the arms of another character who has problems with impulse control. Perhaps May can help her with that.
The officer would seem to have a major bee in her bonnet about the place, which is why she hurtled in when she thought there might actually be evidence of something bad going on but apart from that... By the looks of things, under UK law at least, far more trouble could be caused by whistle blowing to the taxman.
...would just be further incentive for Faye to go to the cops.What is Faye going to go to the cops with? As Officer Rosko said, even the small time gambling is barely even a crime. The officer would seem to have a major bee in her bonnet about the place, which is why she hurtled in when she thought there might actually be evidence of something bad going on but apart from that... By the looks of things, under UK law at least, far more trouble could be caused by whistle blowing to the taxman.
Some people, including me, see it as both disgusting and morally reprehensible to take pleasure in the misery of others. Even if those others have impulse control problems, even if those others sometimes act out violently.
You don't have to like what she does. You don't even have to like her. But being glad that someone is miserable is IMO worse in terms of bad attitude and more likely to make someone like me avoid having you as a friend than Faye's loss of control.
Just a note in case you ever wind up sad and lonely and don't know why.
If this was to me,
So after the whole sobbing on May's shoulder thing today, I'm expecting another real curveball... like how interesting could it be if Angus showed up right about now?
Sounds a bit like someone is being taken advantage of (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3312).
and personally, i rather disagree with the notion that if you quit your job over a disagreement with the boss, your coworkers are somehow obligated to quit along with you. like, what would bubs quitting have actually accomplished?
i rather disagree with the notion that if you quit your job over a disagreement with the boss, your coworkers are somehow obligated to quit along with you.Socialising with Faye is, what probably not even 5% of Bubbles' life. The other 95% is all around the skate park and the fights. Expecting her to walk away from 95% of her life because someone in the 5% has anger management problems is well...
i rather disagree with the notion that if you quit your job over a disagreement with the boss, your coworkers are somehow obligated to quit along with you.
Socialising with Faye is, what probably not even 5% of Bubbles' life. The other 95% is all around the skate park and the fights. Expecting here to walk away from 95% of her life because someone in the 5% has anger management problems is well...
Bubbles is the Church to Corpse Witch's Pate.Holy shit, I hope not!
What Faye is aware of is that Corpse Witch is cruel and takes malicious delight in intimidating people and issuing dire threats. She also knows that Corpse Witch seems to prefer for Bubbles to be friendless and socially isolated (because she basically warned Faye off when Bubbles had a meltdown). I don't think it was unreasonable on Faye's part to assume that, if she had an alternative offered, Bubbles would far prefer to live somewhere else and not be around her boss anymore.
i rather disagree with the notion that if you quit your job over a disagreement with the boss, your coworkers are somehow obligated to quit along with you.
Socialising with Faye is, what probably not even 5% of Bubbles' life. The other 95% is all around the skate park and the fights. Expecting here to walk away from 95% of her life because someone in the 5% has anger management problems is well...
You keep trying to make this about Faye and it isn't. Faye thought that she was trying to save Bubbles.
Has anyone considered that possibly Bubbles likes working there? There might be things she doesn't like, but in the end she might have some enjoyment working there.
She may also simply not want to throw away a job that pays over an irrational overreaction.
She mentions she lost people in combat, perhaps she was the one who survived and thus has survivors guilt?
I think that maybe there is something to the speculation that CW 'Knows Things' about Bubbles that she'd rather not have others know - especially Faye. Whether this has to do with her days in the Military and the PTSD/Survivors Guilt she seems to carry around. or more to do with her recent history with CW and Fight Club, is something I hope Jeph is going to explore.
Is she? Corpse Witch is certainly manipulative, but she doesn't appear to go out of her way to be cruel. Bubbles is an asset to her organization so she's been undermining her growing confidence that the outside world isn't so bad. That's not good, but she doesn't appear to be getting any joy out of it. She docked Faye's pay for using her business to do repairs. Again this isn't good, but she could also be the kind of criminal who wants a piece of whatever action you got that is related to her business. And threatening May is protecting her interest since a convicted felon is the kind of target for police looking to leverage information so she has to threaten her with something worse than jail. Seriously it's nothing personal, just business. And while she is certainly bad if I had a choice I'd take Corpse Witch's company over Beatrice Ellicott-Chatham any day.
Hopefully, Faye will keep what May said in mind and not take this as an act of betrayal. If she seeks answers she might find out that Bubbles is being extorted or she stays in Corpse Witch's employment because it's her safe place.
She'd been there before and got repaired for free without issue, she didn't know that Corpse Witch gave Faye shit for it later (and even that was more "oy, don't use company property, I'm docking your pay" and less "I'll have you tortured!"), so why would May be less than comfortable?
I'm sure Bubbles will be seen again. I'm sure that as usual, the Faye apologists will find ways for this to be everyone else's fault but hers.
(giant doggo)I WANT ONE
Faye was happy to pocket the cash all this time of so-called "Corpse Witch" (really?)
She may be the Droid version of Brun's overprotective friend, but I don't see anyone cheering for her to get decked.
It would be very surprising if the rumor mill in Robot Jail was any more trustworthy than it is in human jails.
"And that's where babies come from... for machines."Actually I rather like the concept that a human and an AI are required to co-operate (as Asimov might have put it) in order for a new AI to be generated. In some mental rather than physical manner though. One speculation on AI generation might be that the new entity emerges as a combination of aspects of the mentality of two 'parents', so then if it were then possible to read those aspects of mentality from a human then a new AI could be an assimilation of meatspace and metalspace mental characteristics... Pretty sillly I suppose, but it was fun thinking about it!
Sounds a bit like someone is being taken advantage of (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3312).
I thought the purpose of Officer Basilisk was to show us that the Robot Fights would be around for the foreseeable future.So now both Brün and Faye will be looking for work? poop.
It would be very surprising if the rumor mill in Robot Jail was any more trustworthy than it is in human jails.
Wouldn't they use error correction?! :D
Seriously - I didn't say May would necessarily have heard accurate information. Just that it was likely she'd heard "things." Most likely, things about illegal robot-oriented goings-on on the outside. Like the Robot Fight Club. Or even about Bubbles. Maybe accurate, maybe not, but it would still be consistent with May's speech in 3368. "I heard something, but I don't think you wanna hear it."
(Whatever... it's clear that May has sincerely grown in empathy. Applause!)
Or sometimes she's the deus ex machina just because she ENDS MESSES.
Maybe I'm slow, but I'm not entirely following what CW is threatening Bubbles with. Is it that the traumatic memories are only temporarily locked, and so if Bubbles leaves, the memories come back spontaneously? Or does CW have control over the memories, and can make Bubbles "remember" them remotely? Or does Bubbles want the memories, and CW is threatening that Bubbles will never get the memories back if she obsconds?
Also, who are these "people" that Bubbles took refuge with CW against? Did Bubbles run up gambling debts, or something? Or were the "people" from the Pentagon, looking to find Bubbles and bring her back to the military? Or at least steal her badass chassis?
Finally some news about our favorite warbot.
So Bubbles is hiding frome someone and CW has given her refuge. From whom? And is Bubbles hiding because she´s on the lam or does she simply not want to meet specific people. I think rather the latter, because she is moving around town without much precaution and is rather relaxed around officer Basilisk. Or maybe she´s just trying to hide from her own past?
This leads me straight to the mysterious encryption key. I suppose Bubs has encrypted parts of her own memory and gave the key to CW so she´s not longer able to access them herself. I see two possible explanations for this: those are traumatic memories from her own past, which she no longer wants to remember. Or she has some classified information stored, wich she wants to protect, even from herself.
Maybe she knows something important and no one must ever know she knows!
NO ONE!
EVER!
Something in the line of who shot JFK, what is really hidden in Area51 or who controls Donald Trump. :wink:
And thats why she is hiding herself.
TM
Those last two panels - is that a yes or a no, do you reckon?Whatever it is, that smug smile is gone from CW's face. She's no longer confident that she's in control, no longer sure how things will go.
anthrophobic[pedant]It would be anthropophobic. Anthrophobic doesn't really work. Anthophobic would be fear/dislike of the colour yellow and anthraphobic fear/dislike of coal.[/pedant]
Also, quite frankly, Bubbles has leverage over Corpse Witch, now, by having demonstrated the ability and willingness to kill her.
The tactic that CW has been using is, essentially, "stay with me or you won't get the encryption key". The thing with that, there's no way to win that by playing by CW's game - stay, CW will never give it to her because it's leverage. Leave, CW won't give it to her. Bubbles cannot win (clearly Bubbles wants the key).
Threaten to kill CW, on the other hand, and then Bubbles has an in - "give me the key, or you die". It's an ugly, ugly route, but she's already gone down it now - she literally just threatened CW's life. And, the thing is, if CW doesn't give up the key under that kind of threat? Bubbles isn't getting it under any circumstances anyway.
Those last two panels - is that a yes or a no, do you reckon?Whatever it is, that smug smile is gone from CW's face. She's no longer confident that she's in control, no longer sure how things will go.
This makes me happy.
Moreover, unless Bubbles had a justifiable reason for killing her she'd be sent to robot prison for murder...
Moreover, unless Bubbles had a justifiable reason for killing her she'd be sent to robot prison for murder...
That is assuming that Bubbles isn't smart enough, or capable enough an engineer, to make it look like an unfortunate hardware failure in an old and primitive chassis. A tragedy; Bubbles will, of course, fully cooperate with any investigation into the circumstances. However, it does seem that, possibly due to her debatably-legal lifestyle, Corpse Witch had neglected her proper chassis inspection and certification schedule.
Cold? Yes, but a soldier is trained to pull a trigger on an enemy, no matter whether or not they were shot at first.
..and no one has made the connection as to how similar Bubbles situation is to Faye's?
Sent from my Nextbook on Tapatalk
Bubbles needs to confront those memories; ideally in a controlled environment with the close assistance of one or more of the God AIs like Station. However, if that option doesn't open itself to her then that is just the way the dice have fallen. Running away from them has done nothing good for her and continuing to run can do nothing good.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Mayhaps Corpse Witch and Bubbles are fragments of the same AI, split to save the original AI from cascade failings over its actions in combat.
CW's manipulations is that of someone wishing to keep their other half close by and fearful of their other half leaving them.
Take that how you will because I am too tired to elaborate.
It seems to me that Bubbles encrypted part of her own memories, which she keeps within her own body, but gave the encryption key to Corpse Witch so she could avoid the temptation of accessing those memories. Why she gave the key to CW of all people I don't know, maybe she felt there was no one better she could trust at the time. Hopefully Jeph will go into greater depth about this arrangement in future installments.
In that case, I don't think the threat is to forcefully decrypt Bubble's memories against her will (CW would need direct access to Bubble's body for that which wouldn't be at all easy), but rather that CW would delete/destroy/lose the key, so Bubbles no longer has any chance of accessing those memories she locked away. Either she is reluctant to completely delete those memories, or she simply can't, probably due to the way her brain is built or the way memories are stored in that brain.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Well that took a dark turn
Well that took a dark turn
I just came here to ask what people generally thought of the darkness that QC is becoming.
I'm betting Jeph never explains the exact mechanics of whatever this encrypted memory business is; he may just leave it at saying that CW has some sort of hold over Bubbles based on some sort of secret data.
Another thought is that the memories contain betrayal by humans, possibly humans sacrificing AIs in military conflict to save their own lives. if (probably when) Bubbles recovers those memories we might see a plot twist where Bubbles then relapses and also has to face a deep seated distrust in humans much like CW.
No one has ever claimed that the memories in question are Bubbles' own.
There is an entire other dimension of possibilities if you just imagine that Bubbles may fear the revelation of someone else's memories.
What if she had CW store the memories simply because they were to painful to remember , but CW has convinced her it was because she did something horrible. Maybe she even suspects that this is true and is even more afraid to lose them because of that.
I don't think that Corpse Witch is threatening to unencrypt Bubbles' traumatic memories. It's more nuanced than that. Right now, Bubbles doesn't want to deal with them but the fact that she didn't tell Corpse Witch to just delete the key immediately suggests to me that she wants the option open to confront those memories in her own due time. What Corpse Witch is threatening to do is to take that option away by deleting the key.
I suspect that there is also the possibility that Corpse Witch could be threatening to broadcast the key on an open frequency and then unlock and then reseal the memories at random occasions as an attempt to mentally torture Bubbles.
Pintsize never has, but then he doesn't really have hands.
We don't know why AIs can't be copied, or why less than satisfactory ones can't be deleted.
Yes, deleting an AI is like killing a person. Not stated, but we have seen that strenuous efforts are made to find a niche for the likes of Gordon and Pintsize.
And if AIs could be copied, Winslow would have a million brothers.