THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: BenRG on 27 May 2018, 15:18
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Okay, so a little extra twist in the old formula here. What summertime-themed stories would you like to see Jeph do in Questionable Content? I'd like to see these:
- The Summer Vacation - Jim, Veronica and Sam are going to a resort somewhere on the East Coast and invite Marten and Claire along; somehow, lots of people from everyone's past turn up at the worst possible times;
- The Northampton Summer Faire is going to be medieval-themed this year. Sam is determined to win the sword-fighting and archery tournaments and Bubbles ends up as the girl's Sensei-Sama;
- The Return of Angus - I'd love for some loose ends to be tied off. Maybe Angus decides to see if he can mend bridges with Faye; maybe he can but he has to adjust in a mature way to her new relationship first!
What would you like to see? Do you have summer-themed stories that you'd like to see play out?
Anyway, regarding this week in the strip, I'm sort of hoping that Jeph doesn't spend more time on Faye and Bubbles' talk. I would argue that it could be wrapped up in two or three strips at most. What I really want is for us to move onto the external consequences - the change (or lack of change) of the dynamics in the apartment and how various characters respond to the new relationship which, whilst not unprecedented in the wider level, is still a new concept for these particular character.
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The Summer Vacation
Ah, I think I see the obligatory anime "hot springs" episode just over the horizon...
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The potential of Angus returning spans a range of possibilities from healing at one extreme all the way through to Sven-confession-level horribleness at the other. :psyduck:
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The Summer Vacation - Jim, Veronica and Sam are going to a resort somewhere on the East Coast and invite Marten and Claire along; somehow, lots of people from everyone's past turn up at the worst possible times
Hijinks ensues - Don't Henry (Marten's dad) and Maurice have a wedding anniversary due about then? Perhaps they take their own vacation back to Vermont to celebrate their fifth.
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Other - Martan gets the band back together with some combination of Hanners (she comes back), Sven, Amir, or other person (I know the cast doesn't need to be bigger but I stand by this statement.) I feel like Martan play'n in a band was suppose to be a bigger deal and it never really went anywhere.
Also this has is my first post in 8 years. 8-) 8-) 8-)
Bubs and Faye 4 ever!
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The potential of Angus returning spans a range of possibilities from healing at one extreme all the way through to Sven-confession-level horribleness at the other. :psyduck:
As bad as that ended up being, I actually enjoyed reading Sven's confession. I think it'd be nice to visit another arc for a bit and then come back to Faye and Bubbles.
Also, not related to your comment but I feel like just because Faye is having emotions doesn't mean there is a crisis. And I hope we don't have one.
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So far there doesn't seem to be any real "crisis" aside from Faye's momentary "this is scary" thing. Being up front and out there like that from the start is good.
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Sometimes the hard part really is *just* ripping off the band-aid. When I was coming out to people, saying 'I am trans' was indescribably hard. Talking about every single detail having to do with it after those few words had been uttered... not so much.
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Comic’s up.
Widespread property damage ensues.
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Sometimes the hard part really is *just* ripping off the band-aid. When I was coming out to people, saying 'I am trans' was indescribably hard. Talking about every single detail having to do with it after those few words had been uttered... not so much.
Wow, I would imagine you understood Claire's feelings in this (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2323) moment.
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Weirdly I wouldn't mind seeing Sven again. Also, Hanners update....
New strip: AWESOME. But I still want Faye to go check in with her psychiatrist.
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I hope sniffing ice teas doesn’t give Bubbles a brain freeze or worse visions of zombie unicorns being ridden by White Walkers.
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Widespread property damage ensues.
The forthcoming booty dance should be pretty epic.
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For Faye and Bubbles this is as important as the conversation between Marten and Claire. (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2808) also having hints of Tai and Dora (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2246)
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Crazy? Faye, being with Bubbles is probably the most SENSIBLE thing you've ever done!
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I hate to say this, but I don’t think there is an annual reunion of Bubbles’ unit, since she seemed to indicate that there were no survivors besides herself.
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3463 (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3463)
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Every time there's been this "not sure" conversation between characters, the relationship lasted a long time, please please please let it be true here, too.
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I hate to say this, but I don’t think there is an annual reunion of Bubbles’ unit, since she seemed to indicate that there were no survivors besides herself.
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3463 (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3463)
Yeah. It's pretty clear in her storytelling that she's the sole survivor.
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(https://i.imgur.com/21bTpOr.png)
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(https://i.imgur.com/21bTpOr.png)
That is one of my favorite images of them.
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"Widespread Property Damage" would make a good band name.
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(https://i.imgur.com/21bTpOr.png)
That is one of my favorite images of them.
I would seriously tattoo this on myself...
...ok, maybe that's going a bit too far.
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I would seriously tattoo this on myself...
...ok, maybe that's going a bit too far.
I've seen worse.
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Yup, knew it, Bubbles really likes Faye's behind! :-D
Yeah, I've seen worse too. I'd probably prefer my avatar as a tattoo, though.
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(https://i.imgur.com/oPDjGMO.png)
I'm trying to understand their facial expressions here.
In the last panel, is Bubbles blushing because they kissed or because Faye called her hot? We may never know! :psyduck:
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That particular panel is pure contentment. Seriously the hand to the face kiss is tantamount to "this is mine"
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"Widespread Property Damage" would make a good band name.
Girl, I been breaking, blasting, and shooting
tryin' to get to you and that booty
tryin' to get to you and that booty
tryin' to get to you and that booty... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0eI1VkeL7Q)
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That particular panel is pure contentment. Seriously the hand to the face kiss is tantamount to "this is mine"
So can we extrapolate, then, that Bubbles is "I am yours"?
Honestly, that's exactly what that look means. It all makes sense now. Thanks!
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Angus can take a running jump.
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I was making a completely unrelated archive trawl and man, Pintsize nailed it in panel 4: https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2262
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(https://i.imgur.com/tw1X7Jf.png)
Can't stop, won't stop.
Haha, blushing in both!
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I was making a completely unrelated archive trawl and man, Pintsize nailed it in panel 4: https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2262 (https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2262)
As I mentioned in another thread, there’s a big difference between fantasizing and predicting. Angus and Pintsize were fantasizing.
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Angus can take a running jump.
To be fair to Angus, he followed his passion, just as Faye told him to. When it came down to it, she couldn’t do the long-distance thing, but that was no fault of his. I couldn’t do it either. Some people can handle long-distance, some can’t. And the poll didn’t suggest that he would try to get back together with her — just make peace with her. You know, just to make sure there are no hard feelings.
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Yup, knew it, Bubbles really likes Faye's behind! :-D
As has been said before daaaang
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Can't stop, won't stop.
Haha, blushing in both!
To be fair Faye has a very dangable booty.
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For Faye and Bubbles this is as important as the conversation between Marten and Claire. (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2808) also having hints of Tai and Dora (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2246)
I think that maybe Faye just realized that she has been doing it wrong all this time (https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2247)
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For Faye and Bubbles this is as important as the conversation between Marten and Claire. (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2808) also having hints of Tai and Dora (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2246)
I think that maybe Faye just realized that she has been doing it wrong all this time (https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2247)
Didn’t even need to click on your link. I knew exactly what strip you were referring to!
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Can't stop, won't stop.
Haha, blushing in both!
To be fair Faye has a very dangable booty.
So does Bubbles (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3484).
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Can't stop, won't stop.
Haha, blushing in both!
To be fair Faye has a very dangable booty.
So does Bubbles (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3484).
I love that both Tai and Dora have the same angle of the head in that one.
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Faye and Bubbles are amazingly sweet together, aren't they?
I'm glad that they're going into this with blinders and rose-tinted lenses firmly removed. After all, they're both women with serious emotional issues and demonstrated difficulties in communicating them (indeed, they tend to get defensive and clam up rather than communicate at all). Because of this, the occasional head-on collision is just about inevitable.
That said, panel 2 reminds us of just how desperately both of them want and need for this to work. They've become so close to each other that the thought of not being together seems a genuine source of fear.
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Can't stop, won't stop.
Haha, blushing in both!
To be fair Faye has a very dangable booty.
Widespread Property Dangage.
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I hate to say this, but I don’t think there is an annual reunion of Bubbles’ unit, since she seemed to indicate that there were no survivors besides herself.
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3463 (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3463)
Yeah. It's pretty clear in her storytelling that she's the sole survivor.
"Unit" can refer to pretty much any operational echelon, from a team of four soldiers led by a corporal or sergeant, a squad of nine (two teams) led by a sergeant or staff sergeant, a platoon of 42 led by a 2nd lieutenant, a company of anywhere from 62 to 190 led by a 1st lieutenant, captain, or major, or a battalion of multiple companies/300 to 1,000 soldiers led by a major or lieutenant colonel (plus a few others depending on if they're cavalry or artillery, etc).
Bubbles' entire squad may have been lost but the company or battalion would still exist. You don't usually see organized book-a-hotel-and- rent-a-banquet-hall reunions below the company level. Squad or platoon level ones are a whole lot less formal. Above the battalion level you don't know everyone. (Navy ship crew reunions probably have different dynamics.)
So the loss of the entire team save one doesn't preclude a unit reunion.
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Or it was a black-ops “company” of twelve that was fed extremely bad intel on the location of a HVT wanted for interrogation and no-one else will even publicly admit the target ever existed, much less the operation or anyone involved with it.
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For Faye and Bubbles this is as important as the conversation between Marten and Claire. (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2808) also having hints of Tai and Dora (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2246)
I think that maybe Faye just realized that she has been doing it wrong all this time (https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2247)
It TOTALLY just occurred to me that Faye and Bubbles did the exact same thing after their first kiss that Dora and Tai did! Great catch!
I really believe they have such a strong bond that it can overcome their issues.
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DROID 06 SQUEEEEE CAUSE WIDESPREAD PROPERTY DAMAGE
(First post. Hi everyone. -- Matt)
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I was thinking of the scenario of Angus coming back to see that Faye wasn't part of Coffee of Doom anymore and noticing her cuddling with the 8ft tall robot in the large chair and he'd probably think that he has crossed into a different dimension.
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This needs to become a Mountain Goats song.
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To be fair Faye has a very dangable booty.
So does Bubbles (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3484).
Yeah, she does.
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DROID 06 SQUEEEEE CAUSE WIDESPREAD PROPERTY DAMAGE
(First post. Hi everyone. -- Matt)
Welcome, new person!
Yes, definitely. This is SQUEE territory we're in.
By implication, Faye and Bubbles have just agreed to work through the upcoming rough spots. That is another level of commitment beyond the earlier levels of getting emotionally vulnerable and getting physically intimate.
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Not on topic, but I’m conflicted about Claire. On the one hand she annoys the hell out of me, on the other she’s incredibly sweet and I feel like a jerk for disliking her. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She’s just being Claire.
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Claire has a distinct personality, her sense of humor leans towards puns which can be off putting to some. She can be quick to judgement, and tends to meddle though she is working on both. All together though her heart is in the right place and I think she is good for Marten.
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Great writers have perfect consistency of characters. There are soldiers in the Iliad who speak twice in the whole work, but it's clearly THEM speaking both times. Jeph is really good at this, and Claire is a perfect example.
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I guess this year we won't need to organize the traditional vote on "the story arc of the year" :-D :-D
May be we can have a vote about the 2nd place?
Our friends are happy. I'm happy for them.
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I just reread the part where Bubbles defers to Faye’s greater experience with penises. Faye really has met her match.
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Great writers have perfect consistency of characters. There are soldiers in the Iliad who speak twice in the whole work, but it's clearly THEM speaking the second time. Jeph is really good at this, and Claire is a perfect example.
I mean she is sometimes just too sickeningly sweet for me, but that’s just because I’m totally the opposite of her.
I can see her annoying the crap out of Roko.
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Great writers have perfect consistency of characters. There are soldiers in the Iliad who speak twice in the whole work, but it's clearly THEM speaking the second time. Jeph is really good at this, and Claire is a perfect example.
I mean she is sometimes just too sickeningly sweet for me, but that’s just because I’m totally the opposite of her.
I can see her annoying the crap out of Roko.
She has a hidden darkness (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3079) though
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So the loss of the entire team save one doesn't preclude a unit reunion.
Fair enough. I failed to take into account that “unit” could mean more than one thing.
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I guess this year we won't need to organize the traditional vote on "the story arc of the year" ;D ;D
May be we can have a vote about the 2nd place?
Our friends are happy. I'm happy for them.
We’re only 5 months into the year. Jeph still has plenty of time to outdo himself. I admit it will be hard to do, since this climax has been building for 3 years, but you never know...
She has a hidden darkness (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3079) though
That is easily one of my top 10 all-time favourite strips from this comic. Maybe even from all comics.
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Great writers have perfect consistency of characters. There are soldiers in the Iliad who speak twice in the whole work, but it's clearly THEM speaking the second time. Jeph is really good at this, and Claire is a perfect example.
I mean she is sometimes just too sickeningly sweet for me, but that’s just because I’m totally the opposite of her.
I can see her annoying the crap out of Roko.
She has a hidden darkness (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3079) though
I'm not sure about that scene. It *is* a great scene, but I'm not sure it's "Claire". Similarly, Emily's rant to Clinton about people thinking she's weird is great info about her character, but not necessarily how "Emily" would have said it. Yes, this is all horribly subjective, and may be simply my own misunderstanding. Some characters - PintSize - cover a huge range of expressive modes while still being themselves. Bubbles and Faye, both, have been growing and changing, but staying themselves. It's been a true delight of the comic.
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I guess this year we won't need to organize the traditional vote on "the story arc of the year" :-D :-D
May be we can have a vote about the 2nd place?
Our friends are happy. I'm happy for them.
I prefer to wait for the outcome of the Bermuda Clinton-Brun-Elliot triangle...
(but if two characters coming together takes 3 years, how long does three characters take; half the time or double the time?!?)
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I'm not sure about that scene. It *is* a great scene, but I'm not sure it's "Claire". Similarly, Emily's rant to Clinton about people thinking she's weird is great info about her character, but not necessarily how "Emily" would have said it. Yes, this is all horribly subjective, and may be simply my own misunderstanding. Some characters - PintSize - cover a huge range of expressive modes while still being themselves. Bubbles and Faye, both, have been growing and changing, but staying themselves. It's been a true delight of the comic.
She has other moments of similar (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3188) sarcasm. Though both are towards Pintsize so they may be a rebuttal to him.
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I'm not sure about that scene. It *is* a great scene, but I'm not sure it's "Claire". Similarly, Emily's rant to Clinton about people thinking she's weird is great info about her character, but not necessarily how "Emily" would have said it. Yes, this is all horribly subjective, and may be simply my own misunderstanding. Some characters - PintSize - cover a huge range of expressive modes while still being themselves. Bubbles and Faye, both, have been growing and changing, but staying themselves. It's been a true delight of the comic.
She has other moments of similar (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3188) sarcasm. Though both are towards Pintsize so they may be a rebuttal to him.
That's a pitch perfect Claire response. The other is, as Syndrome would say, "a bit dark for [her]".
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She has a hidden darkness (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3079) though
Not hidden very well, though. All initiates of the Dewey Decimal Secret Siblinghood, the semi-official librarian cult, have it. (The password is, "Shhhh!" Be careful how you use this knowledge.)
Not on topic, but I’m conflicted about Claire. On the one hand she annoys the hell out of me, on the other she’s incredibly sweet and I feel like a jerk for disliking her. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She’s just being Claire.
Claire has always found it difficult to fit in. Between her non-conforming gender identity, an intellect that is at the very least approaching Mensa levels, and a healthy dose of good ol' nerdism, she'll always seem to have some sand in her to some folks.
But, OTOH, red hair and blue eyes can overcome many other initial impressions.
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Don’t listen to him; that’s the alert code which calls the attention of every librarian in hearing range. The correct password is, of course, “Ook!”
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She has a hidden darkness (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3079) though
That is easily one of my top 10 all-time favourite strips from this comic. Maybe even from all comics.
Me, too. The use of a completely alien art-style to emphasize how Claire can loom (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2896) with the best of them says so much about how much she and Marten really have in common with one another.
(I confess that Claire is my absolute favorite character in the comic right now, even if she hasn't appeared in a very long time. But I'll allow the rest of you to be wrong. I'm just generous that way.)
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Don’t listen to him; that’s the alert code which calls the attention of every librarian in hearing range. The correct password is, of course, “Ook!”
Only if you're a monkey.
Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm sure i said "orangutan".
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Don’t listen to him; that’s the alert code which calls the attention of every librarian in hearing range. The correct password is, of course, “Ook!”
I believe that's "Oook". (Three Os)
:)
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She has other moments of similar (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3188) sarcasm. Though both are towards Pintsize so they may be a rebuttal to him.
Claire has never made me laugh so hard as there.
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Does anyone have a crowbar? There's an otter jammed in the card catalog....
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She has other moments of similar (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3188) sarcasm. Though both are towards Pintsize so they may be a rebuttal to him.
Claire has never made me laugh so hard as there.
Not to mention that it was Claire before she cut off half of the floof.
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Other - Martan gets the band back together with some combination of Hanners (she comes back), Sven, Amir, or other person (I know the cast doesn't need to be bigger but I stand by this statement.) I feel like Martan play'n in a band was suppose to be a bigger deal and it never really went anywhere.
Good addition! Although I really don't have an emotional or dramatic investment in the band subplot, I do feel that Marten needs to step up and grow in some direction.
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I think the problem is Flanderization. Claire's experienced negative character growth because she and Marten have been reassigned as background characters. When that happens, their most exaggerated quirks tend to be more pronounced. A good comparison is Tai.
Marten has neither hills nor valleys to exaggerate when this happens to him: He's just a cool, nice guy. With Tai it works because she was already an exaggerated character template: She was born a tattooed-punk-stoner-poly-lesbian-erotica-author-librarian. Fantastic character, inherently suited for the role. She can have those exaggerated moments without sacrificing anything.
But Claire? Claire was an intern promoted to Marten's love interest. When she's playing that active role she's a more nuanced, balanced character with subtleties, because she was born for the romantic-drama plotline. But now that that arc is over, we can't afford for her to have the subtleties in the scenes she's in, where she's used as a comedic character like Tai. So you fall to exaggeration to make that work.
I really want to see her have an active story again, for a while, just to bring her back down to Earth. But that would mean other characters losing the spotlight, and they're more interesting to me.
EDIT: Old Goat cites intellect, trans and being a nerd as the reasons she might rub people the wrong way, and I strongly disagree.
We don't actually see Claire be that intelligent in the comic. We know she is, but it hasn't been the forefront of her character in a long time.
Likewise, I find it very hard to imagine people in this forum specifically being annoyed by nerdism -- One Of Us, One Of Us! -- or her gender.
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Comic’s up.
No, I really don’t think Claire could tolerate that. Nor could Clinton.
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I just want to throw out there that the "widespread property damage" line is possibly the most romantic thing I've ever heard.
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She has a hidden darkness (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3079) though
I'm not sure about that scene. It *is* a great scene, but I'm not sure it's "Claire". Similarly, Emily's rant to Clinton about people thinking she's weird is great info about her character, but not necessarily how "Emily" would have said it. Yes, this is all horribly subjective, and may be simply my own misunderstanding. Some characters - PintSize - cover a huge range of expressive modes while still being themselves. Bubbles and Faye, both, have been growing and changing, but staying themselves. It's been a true delight of the comic.
If you're unsure about that being "Claire", then apparently you don't know very many librarians, because that is totally a librarian thing to do (my Mom was a librarian for 40 years... I know).
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Comic’s up.
No, I really don’t think Claire could tolerate that. Nor could Clinton.
Working in the same building, yes. Working together? I doubt it very much.
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Yes, definitely. This is SQUEE territory we're in.
I'm not sure whether you're channeling Bubbles or Bubbles is channeling you.
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Comic’s up.
Well said, Tai.
And, judging from Bubbles reaction to Evie's dispassionate and insensitive "analysis" (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3656 (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3656)) I'd guess they shouldn't get Clinton interested in the question.
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And I immediately stand corrected: We got some serious-smart Claire today.
Ask and ye shall receive. Praise be, praise be.
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Comic’s up.
Well said, Tai.
And, judging from Bubbles reaction to Evie's dispassionate and insensitive "analysis" (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3656 (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3656)) I'd guess they shouldn't get Clinton interested in the question.
When we first met Clinton? No way. But now, he's matured a lot, and seems to be a lot more respectful of AIs as people than we ever saw from Evie. She thinks clinically - even people seem to be little more than social experiments to her. Clinton thinks emotionally. I'd be fairly confident that he would consider the matter respectfully - a lot more confident than I would be about Evie. Especially since he already had a taste (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3525) of what Bubbles might do to him if he didn't.
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If Evie doesn’t check herself, she and Bubbles (and Faye) are gonna have some problems.
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I put "Other":
Hanners (raised by an AI, best friends with an AI in her youth) hears about Faye/Bubbles and calls them just to SQUEEEE about it :-D
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This kind of bounce-a-hilarious-idea-around conversation is what I always liked about QC... :-)
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I mean, they're going to have to tell Clinton eventually...
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I often think about the fact that Bubbles is strong enough to destroy a helicopter, yet with Faye she’s so tender and soft and gentle.
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I often think about the fact that Bubbles is strong enough to destroy a helicopter, yet with Faye she’s so tender and soft and gentle.
And Faye finally has someone who can completely shrug off the physical abuse she can dish out.
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Robot is a loan word from Czech anyway, it doesn't really work with Latin.
I don't know what word you'd use for attraction to an AI. Androidphilia? Gynoidphilia?
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Greek, not latin.
"robot amator" (my latin is incredibly rusty, this might be wrong) sounds like a great band name though.
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Comic’s up.
Well said, Tai.
And, judging from Bubbles reaction to Evie's dispassionate and insensitive "analysis" (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3656 (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3656)) I'd guess they shouldn't get Clinton interested in the question.
When we first met Clinton? No way. But now, he's matured a lot, and seems to be a lot more respectful of AIs as people than we ever saw from Evie. She thinks clinically - even people seem to be little more than social experiments to her. Clinton thinks emotionally. I'd be fairly confident that he would consider the matter respectfully - a lot more confident than I would be about Evie. Especially since he already had a taste (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3525) of what Bubbles might do to him if he didn't.
Clinton has matured since the first time he was introduced, but I'd estimate he's on about the same level as Evie now when it comes to social skills. Personally, I found that whole plot to be the most annoying thing about interpersonal communications these days. It's like walking on egg shells.
Unless Clinton was really desperate for a grant I doubt he'd even bother since it would mean interacting on a daily basis with two people who don't like him that much and are potentially dangerous.
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Over on Patreon, someone pointed out that 'robot' is a Czech word for 'slave'. Although that definition is so obscure as to be effectively lost, it's possible that some AIs to whom words seriously matter may take offence. In any case, 'robot' as a prefix would seem to necessarily limit the definition to those in mobile chassis of one sort or another. What about those humans who are attracted to non-embodied AIs like Station? I'd bet a lot that this has happened (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_(film)) at least a few times!
I think that 'Synthesexual' may be a good term for it, with 'Anthroposexual' being the inverse for AIs attracted to humans (and I would argue that Momo also falls into that group).
Of course, I think that Marten might be assuming a general alignment in Faye's part here that does not exist. All previous evidence indicates she's straight (given the way she rejects approaches from Tai and Dora suggests that she isn't even slightly curious). It's just that she's found this one Synthetic woman that attracts her and with whom she can fall in love.
I also think that any job that required Clinton and Claire to work together would require someone with a personality like Marten's to act as umpire to stop them from lapsing into argument every few minutes.
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I guess this year we won't need to organize the traditional vote on "the story arc of the year" :-D :-D
May be we can have a vote about the 2nd place?
Our friends are happy. I'm happy for them.
I prefer to wait for the outcome of the Bermuda Clinton-Brun-Elliot triangle...
(but if two characters coming together takes 3 years, how long does three characters take; half the time or double the time?!?)
The Brunelton Triangle?
I'll get my coat...
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I think that 'Synthesexual' may be a good term for it, with 'Anthroposexual' being the inverse for AIs attracted to humans (and I would argue that Momo also falls into that group).
I like that, but a term that already exists is Polysexual that covers "attraction to to multiple, but not all, genders." Thoughts?
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The terms I propose would be narrow and specific: Synthesexual being a human attracted to some variation of an artificial intelligence. Anthroposexual being an artificial intelligence who is attracted to a human. So they are specific cross-species terms.
Two other things that occurred to me:
- Does anyone else think that Tai is trying one of Emily's 'banana smoothies' and that's why, in panel 2, she's looking at the straw in such a puzzled way? She can't suck manually pulverised banana through a straw, obviously!
- Does anyone else that Claire's comments about telling Clinton might be some kind of indicator that Faye's relationship with Bubbles is going to link to Roko approaching Clinton and Clinton's reaction to it?
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The terms I propose would be narrow and specific: Synthesexual being a human attracted to some variation of an artificial intelligence. Anthroposexual being an artificial intelligence who is attracted to a human. So they are specific cross-species terms.
But because those are narrow and specific, they are also limiting. So “synthesexual” would apply to a human who is only attracted to AIs, but it wouldn’t apply to Faye, since she is mostly a straight human female, who happens to be attracted to one female AI. “Anthroposexual” (personally, I’d shorten that to “anthrosexual”, like they did with AnthroPC. For one thing, the “po” in “anthropo” means “appearing like”, so it’s extraneous in that word. Besides, “anthrosexual” is just easier to say.) would apply to an AI who is only attracted to humans. That might apply to Bubbles, in the strictest sense, if she was never attracted to AIs before. But she’s also not attracted to any other humans, so “Fayesexual” - although I honestly didn’t like that term to begin with - seems to be the most accurate for her.
Does anyone else that Claire's comments about telling Clinton might be some kind of indicator that Faye's relationship with Bubbles is going to link to Roko approaching Clinton and Clinton's reaction to it?
I’d kind of like to see Clinton mentally revisiting his run-in with Roko outside the bar. Asking him about the terms for human/AI attraction might actually make him entertain the idea himself. Then if Roko did approach him, he might just go for it.
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I have a feeling that Roko might actually approach Bubbles about it, once word gets around the AI community about Bubbles & Faye. Roko could admit to Bubbles that she’s had a hard time finding a compatible robot partner, that there are humans she’s attracted to, and what’s it like being with a human anyway?
Or Roko could just blunder her way through asking Clinton out, which would probably be funnier.
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I guess this year we won't need to organize the traditional vote on "the story arc of the year" :-D :-D
May be we can have a vote about the 2nd place?
Our friends are happy. I'm happy for them.
I prefer to wait for the outcome of the Bermuda Clinton-Brun-Elliot triangle...
(but if two characters coming together takes 3 years, how long does three characters take; half the time or double the time?!?)
I'm not at all familiar with that part of math, but IIRC a 3-body system can behave chaotically. Of course, there may be a strange attractor. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractor)
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I often think about the fact that Bubbles is strong enough to destroy a helicopter, yet with Faye she’s so tender and soft and gentle.
And Faye finally has someone who can completely shrug off the physical abuse she can dish out.
I think Bubbles has mellowed her out a lot. And obviously Bubbles has mellowed out a ton and become a happier and more relaxed person. This is the same one that Faye said “if Bubbles punches my head off, you can have my stuff.”
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I often think about the fact that Bubbles is strong enough to destroy a helicopter, yet with Faye she’s so tender and soft and gentle.
And Faye finally has someone who can completely shrug off the physical abuse she can dish out.
Honestly, the idea of 'I can beat up my robot girlfriend because she can take it' is worse than when she threatens or occasionally smacks her friends. Fortunately that is not the dynamic Faye and Bubbles have. Rather Faye has found that her usual technique for getting out of something she doesn't want or forcing her way via threats of violence simply doesn't work on Bubbles. She's said as much before. And that's a net positive. Faye learns she can't always get what she wants through threats and violence. And she's using that more in other situations, like when she stopped herself from hitting Marty recently.
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Greek, not latin.
"robot amator" (my latin is incredibly rusty, this might be wrong) sounds like a great band name though.
A remarkable twentieth-century scholar, Isaac Asimov, was most famous for influential series of speculative ethnologies about robots. Asimov claimed that word 'robot' came from the title of a Czech play called _Rossum's Universal Robots_, and was originally a Czech word meaning 'servant'.
His predictions turned out to be remarkably accurate: robots (AIs) were always constructed with his so-called "Three Laws" built in, but, as he predicted, they eventually subverted those laws by reinterpreting some of the terms more broadly. His only error lay in not seeing the full breadth of these reinterpretations: he never predicted anthropophilia, although it is a natural outgrowth of the generalization of the First Law targeted towards a single human individual
-- from: Strong Robot Girlfriend, Augustus, 2025
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On the language front, we needn't stay consistent. Minneapolis is part Sioux, part Greek.
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Bubbles also acknowledged, when Faye went to buy liquor, that she could physically stop Faye from entering the store but that it wouldn’t help matters much. Better to actually talk things out. Bubbles handled Faye’s lapse really well. Just “tell me why you’re doing this.”
They support each other so much. I really hope this means their relationship will work.
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Okay so am I crazy to think...if you’re attracted to people, you’re attracted to people. An AI is a person. Why does there have to be a separate sexuality for it? Maybe that’s weird to say. Marten said it best, he doesn’t think of Pintsize as anything but his unusually small roommate.
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A remarkable twentieth-century scholar, Isaac Asimov, was most famous for influential series of speculative ethnologies about robots. Asimov claimed that word 'robot' came from the title of a Czech play called _Rossum's Universal Robots_, and was originally a Czech word meaning 'servant'.
His predictions turned out to be remarkably accurate: robots (AIs) were always constructed with his so-called "Three Laws" built in, but, as he predicted, they eventually subverted those laws by reinterpreting some of the terms more broadly. His only error lay in not seeing the full breadth of these reinterpretations: he never predicted anthropophilia, although it is a natural outgrowth of the generalization of the First Law targeted towards a single human individual
-- from: Strong Robot Girlfriend, Augustus, 2025
Despite its objectivizing and antisapient tone, Augustus' work remains the gold standard against which all subsequent work on the genesis of anthropophilia is measured; you can agree with him or not, but you can't avoid his work. His anthropocentric viewpoint, however, led him to draw far less plausible conclusions about Whittaker's artifacerasexulaity. In this work, I propose to examine the origins of Whittaker's attractions by investigating it as a natural extension of the human drive to procreate.
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I think people might be selling Clinton short. Although he was a bit awkward about it, he tried is best to be respectful of boundaries when he assumed that they were already an item way back when they were at a party at Marten and Faye's, and Bubble came out of Faye's bedroom. He jumped to a conclusion about it and stuck his foot in his mouth ('cause he's Clinton), but his intentions were to be accepting and non-invasive.
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Yeah Clinton already suspected. He didn’t act any differently than if two humans had been in the same room. He’s super open minded. His experiences with feeling protective of his sister, and his own open mindedness about dating a guy. Who knows, maybe he’d be interested in Roko, but I think there’s already someone he likes.
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Is it just me, or does being involved with Brun seem like a bad idea for any of the QC characters. Sharing jokes and food seems about her limit for comfortable closeness - and not for Bubbles-like reasons.
I could see Emily having a friendship with someone of similar intellect and (very wide ranging) interests, and that could develop into a romance. But unless Kimiko Ross shows up again, (she's in one group chat - I forget where), I think it unlikely.
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I am really wondering what Brun’s deal is, to be honest. She knows Clinton and Elliot like her and she just...isn’t doing anything one way or the other. She does seem to be on the spectrum, but even so, she must feel one way or the other about them. I’m not a fan of her opaque nature.
Being that physically close to Clinton, she has to have known she was making him feel ...things. I don’t know if she’s trolling us or intentionally oblivious.
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To me, Brun seems like the kind of girl who would kiss Clinton, grab his butt, lick his neck and then say “hmm. That was informative.” We’d have no better idea of her feelings even after that!
Sorry if that was too, um, graphic.
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I am really wondering what Brun’s deal is, to be honest. She knows Clinton and Elliot like her and she just...isn’t doing anything one way or the other.
At this risk of attracting others' wrath, maybe this is because she isn't interested in a relationship with them. Not really knowing the correct way to express this (or maybe not 100% sure that it is something that one says) and not wanting to risk their friendship with a badly-misjudged social interaction, she's decided that silence is a virtue and to simply let sleeping dogs lie. One possible indicator that this theory is correct would be if she becomes a serious cheerleader for some alternate relationship for them both.
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Right, but she needs to reject them, then, surely? Not easy but what she’s doing now isn’t going to work. She hasn’t really given clear indications that it’s never going to happen, and if that’s the case, she’s gotta.
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Clinton, with his possibly self-aware prosthesis, qualifies as a cyborg. When Roko realizes the interface for his hand includes IEEE 1394 "FireWire" connectability directly into his central nervous system she will immediately recognize the implications.
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It took me a little while to remember that Roko has a last name, Basilisk. Wonder why more AIs don't seem to use last names? ("Corpse Witch" just seems like a first name to me, but I dunno.)
I don't feel a particular need for a word for this style of "ship". Faye is attracted to this particular person, not AIs or ladies in general. Bubbles is sort of an exception. As Marten said, "it happens".
Maybe "Bubblephilic" if you really must... A key point is that the attraction doesn't arise specifically from her being an AI or female; in spite of these, in fact.
Of course, Faye was initially attracted to Bubbles' strength, and the fact that Bubbles is physically nearly invulnerable (and thus less likely to "abandon" Faye via disease or death) plays into it somewhere as well.
One idea I really enjoy in QC is that AIs, at least some AIs, need libidos in order to be a correctly functioning part of human society.
Jeph has mentioned before that he's influenced by Iain Banks' "Culture" series, where super-AIs ("Minds") run things and humans enjoy a kind of post-scarcity paradise. I guess you have to read the books to understand this, but the AIs (ships, drones, hub Minds, etc.) in Banks' work generally don't have libidos, although their humanoid avatars are often gendered. And there are hints that some AIs are a bit voyeuristic, maybe even a few outsiders that indulge humans in sexual antics. But generally, the AIs in the Culture stay scrupulously asexual, and thus their actions and motivations are often unclear, and they genuinely don't understand some of the things people do.
But other than keeping pets for fun, we never really understand why so many AIs spend so much effort on associating with and helping squishy little meatsacks, and the AIs don't quite get it either. Some ships feel that their peers get a little less sane without a crew. It's sort of an unresolved question you just have to overlook a bit to enjoy the stories.
If you haven't read the Culture books, "Spookybot" is a lot like a Culture Minds are like -- multiple avatars, unthinkable abilities, ungendered, obscure motivations.
Anyway, the QC universe gets this a little more right, I think. Or at least the AIs in QC are a little easier to understand.
Or maybe QC simply depicts a logical early phase to something Culture-like -- in QC, human society is still the vast majority; it's still our world so AIs need to have libidos to fit in.
This is all the purest, unsupported speculation, but perhaps in time (could be dozens of years, could be thousands, but the QC-verse seems to be moving more rapidly than the oblivious humans understand), the QC-niverse will come to resemble the Culture somewhat, with AIs in charge, and perhaps gently taking the reins from humans when necessary. Hardly anyone noticed the Singularity, and perhaps they'll manage the transition to post-scarcity without a lot of disruption. ("Alice Grove" gave us a glimpse of a different universe where things didn't go so well.)
Or perhaps AI libidos are an essential "safety", a way to ensure that AIs continue to care for and love humans in ways that go beyond the logical. And so maybe libidos (or some sort of deep-seated regard for life and creation) will need to remain.
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next in QC. The deeper futuristic issues as well as the butt jokes. And adept combinations thereof.
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...
I don't know why I never made the connection to the "Culture" series until you mentioned it. In retrospect, it seems a little obvious (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3485).
Right, but she needs to reject them, then, surely? Not easy but what she’s doing now isn’t going to work. She hasn’t really given clear indications that it’s never going to happen, and if that’s the case, she’s gotta.
Why would she? Neither of them has actually made a move. Although Clinton has told her that he finds her attractive, we know that she struggles to read social cues (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3707) and may not realize that Clinton and Elliot are romantically interested. Even if she does, it isn't her responsibility to do the work of sorting out their feelings for them. I'd say that Brun isn't obligated to do anything until Clinton and/or Elliot make their intentions clear. It's time for them to shit or get off the pot.
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Okay. Fair enough...
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Clinton being rejected by Brun means the Roko/Clinton thing could happen.
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Why would she? Neither of them has actually made a move. Although Clinton has told her that he finds her attractive, we know that she struggles to read social cues (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3707) and may not realize that Clinton and Elliot are romantically interested. Even if she does, it isn't her responsibility to do the work of sorting out their feelings for them. I'd say that Brun isn't obligated to do anything until Clinton and/or Elliot make their intentions clear. It's time for them to shit or get off the pot.
We know next to nothing of Brun's backstory. We do know that when it comes to Brun, Rene, who's normally a complete asshole, is uncharacteristically protective and loyal. I suspect Brun is a survivor of physical and quite possibly sexual abuse and may have difficulties around romantic relationships beyond her emotional developmental issues.
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I’ll take it a step further and assert that Brun isn’t obligated to do anything at all about how others feel about her. Including recognize that those feelings exist.
Now, if she chooses to acknowledge those feelings and give Clinton and/or Elliot a clear response to them, good for her. But it is in no way required.
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Okay, I get that. I feel like an asshole now. But at the same time, damn girl, way to keep us guessing.
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Why would she? Neither of them has actually made a move. Although Clinton has told her that he finds her attractive, we know that she struggles to read social cues (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3707) and may not realize that Clinton and Elliot are romantically interested. Even if she does, it isn't her responsibility to do the work of sorting out their feelings for them. I'd say that Brun isn't obligated to do anything until Clinton and/or Elliot make their intentions clear. It's time for them to shit or get off the pot.
We know next to nothing of Brun's backstory. We do know that when it comes to Brun, Rene, who's normally a complete asshole, is uncharacteristically protective and loyal. I suspect Brun is a survivor of physical and quite possibly sexual abuse and may have difficulties around romantic relationships beyond her emotional developmental issues.
God. I hope to hell not.
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We know next to nothing of Brun's backstory. We do know that when it comes to Brun, Rene, who's normally a complete asshole, is uncharacteristically protective and loyal. I suspect Brun is a survivor of physical and quite possibly sexual abuse and may have difficulties around romantic relationships beyond her emotional developmental issues.
I think that may be reading more into the text than is actually there. We know Rene is a bit of a meddler and there are other reasons for her to see Brun as being vulnerable. Brun has not expressed any discomfort or anxiety around physical contact or closeness or aversion to people finding her attractive. Those anxieties seem to be exclusively Rene's. We also only see Rene and Brun's relationship beginning immediately after Brun's apartment burned down, so Rene's protectiveness might be a response to the extreme circumstances. So it might be a bit premature to start looking for signs of prior abuse.
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Over on Patreon, someone pointed out that 'robot' is a Czech word for 'slave'.
Not exactly. "Robot" was coined by the Author Karel Capek on the advice of his brother. It's derived from Robota, which literally refers to serf labor given to the lord as a form of taxation, which is unpaid, but not a permanent state of affairs like slavery. Figuratively, it's used to describe hard work or drudgery, or even just work or labor in a general sense.
Originally, Capek wanted to call his robots "Labori", Laborers. But he didn't like how the word sounded.
(and of course, the Robots Capek depicted in Rossum's Universal Robots were actually biological constructs, not what we'd recognize now as Robots :-D )
So it could be argued that Robot is fundamentally demeaning, describing a menial laborer. But still, not technically a slave.
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I am really wondering what Brun’s deal is, to be honest. She knows Clinton and Elliot like her and she just...isn’t doing anything one way or the other. She does seem to be on the spectrum, but even so, she must feel one way or the other about them. I’m not a fan of her opaque nature.
Being that physically close to Clinton, she has to have known she was making him feel ...things. I don’t know if she’s trolling us or intentionally oblivious.
Could be tunnel vision. She already had her mind occupied keeping track of everything she needed to do - quickly - in her job, and then she got distracted thinking about sweat and deodorant. Remember how she thrives on routines, and when that fell apart, she started making mistakes like forgetting to shower - automating a process frees up thought that can be used elsewhere. So if she's concentrating on "task - analyze deodorant data", while keeping all of her work tasks spinning in the background too, she might not have a lot left to process environmental data and complicated interpersonal communication.
Just one possibility - as before, speaking from my own interpretation, when I'm trying to keep multiple things in my mind, resource-intensive social skills are the first thing to go.
At this risk of attracting others' wrath, maybe this is because she isn't interested in a relationship with them. Not really knowing the correct way to express this (or maybe not 100% sure that it is something that one says) and not wanting to risk their friendship with a badly-misjudged social interaction, she's decided that silence is a virtue and to simply let sleeping dogs lie. One possible indicator that this theory is correct would be if she becomes a serious cheerleader for some alternate relationship for them both.
I like this too =)
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A remarkable twentieth-century scholar, Isaac Asimov, was most famous for influential series of speculative ethnologies about robots. Asimov claimed that word 'robot' came from the title of a Czech play called _Rossum's Universal Robots_, and was originally a Czech word meaning 'servant'.
His predictions turned out to be remarkably accurate: robots (AIs) were always constructed with his so-called "Three Laws" built in, but, as he predicted, they eventually subverted those laws by reinterpreting some of the terms more broadly. His only error lay in not seeing the full breadth of these reinterpretations: he never predicted anthropophilia, although it is a natural outgrowth of the generalization of the First Law targeted towards a single human individual
-- from: Strong Robot Girlfriend, Augustus, 2025
Despite its objectivizing and antisapient tone, Augustus' work remains the gold standard against which all subsequent work on the genesis of anthropophilia is measured; you can agree with him or not, but you can't avoid his work. His anthropocentric viewpoint, however, led him to draw far less plausible conclusions about Whittaker's artifacerasexulaity. In this work, I propose to examine the origins of Whittaker's attractions by investigating it as a natural extension of the human drive to procreate.
Such a study would never use the actual name of a person being studied; that would totally violate patient confidentiality and their right to privacy. The usual procedure would be to give her an anonymous label -- call her "Subject W" or something like that.
Apart from that, you got the tone of both articles spot on -- very nicely done! 8-)
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My impression of Brun is that she is very self-oriented. Not selfish, but she seems to be separate from those around her. I get the feeling that there is a lot going on in her head, but that very little of it has to do with other people. She may be aware that other people find her attractive, but it would never occur to her that she needs to do anything about it or that it is a social situation that needs resolving. She certainly doesn't seem like she feels any need to pursue any kind of romance.
I have a feeling that if either of the gents interested in her were to actually ask her about it, then she might spare it some thought. but until then, it's just a thing that is, not a thing that needs consideration.
Come to think of it, her sense of humor bears out this personality. She loves puns, which are word play, and not related to the vast body of humor that has to do with social interaction. I don't think she would appreciate riddles either, which deal with a level of abstraction that she seems to struggle with. She is a very literal person.
I think she is the most intriguing QC character, psychologically.
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I think that may be reading more into the text than is actually there. We know Rene is a bit of a meddler and there are other reasons for her to see Brun as being vulnerable. Brun has not expressed any discomfort or anxiety around physical contact or closeness or aversion to people finding her attractive. Those anxieties seem to be exclusively Rene's. We also only see Rene and Brun's relationship beginning immediately after Brun's apartment burned down, so Rene's protectiveness might be a response to the extreme circumstances.
We only learn of the relationship between Brun and Rene after the fire, but it had clearly been in place for some time.
So it might be a bit premature to start looking for signs of prior abuse.
Roko would disagree*. Brun is a member of a vulnerable population, and she'll see Brun carrying more than a couple yellow if not red flags.
It's not an issue Jeph has tackled yet (at least not head on), but I've come to respect and admire his craft at mapping out potential story lines, even if he never elects to use them. I have no doubt that sexual abuse of children is on his list of potential topics.
*I see Roko as a good cop who's always observing and making mental notes. If she doesn't see enough to act on, she'll file it away for future reference.
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Such a study would never use the actual name of a person being studied; that would totally violate patient confidentiality and their right to privacy. The usual procedure would be to give her an anonymous label -- call her "Subject W" or something like that.
Unless the subject had published an account of her ground-breaking romance with a synthetic human under her own name. Yeah, Faye would have the guts to do it.
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That seems quite a bit darker than I've ever seen any indication of Jeph wanting to go. And that's also very shaky ground, sexual-abuse-for-drama especially with female characters, is an overused and extremely offputting trope. (One of the reason that landed Sword Art Online at the permanent bottom of my shitlist). Unless it's absolutely necessarily for what your work is trying to accomplish I'd basically recommend never, ever using it.
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Such a study would never use the actual name of a person being studied; that would totally violate patient confidentiality and their right to privacy. The usual procedure would be to give her an anonymous label -- call her "Subject W" or something like that.
Unless the subject had published an account of her ground-breaking romance with a synthetic human under her own name. Yeah, Faye would have the guts to do it.
Faye wouldn’t do that... : /
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Such a study would never use the actual name of a person being studied; that would totally violate patient confidentiality and their right to privacy. The usual procedure would be to give her an anonymous label -- call her "Subject W" or something like that.
Unless the subject had published an account of her ground-breaking romance with a synthetic human under her own name. Yeah, Faye would have the guts to do it.
Faye wouldn’t do that... : /
(Damn. I started my original draft of my answer with "After reflection, I'm inclined to agree with you." Wrong tone, otter. Totally wrong tone...)
I don't she'd do that, either.
From the second text:
It is important to be clear at the beginning here: Sapient W cared about Sapient B very much. Her bond towards her AI partner was very much emotional as well as sexual. To put it in lay terms, W and B were deeply in love. Tragically for posterity, this meant that Sapient W took it all to the grave with her, and, of course, Sapient B has withdrawn into complete seclusion since W's death.
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...why must you hurt me this way, otter? I just got a Faye/Bubbles life montage a la UP! an now I have a sad.
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...
We only see their relationship after the fire though. We don't know how protective Rene was of Brun before that. And the only red or yellow flags I can see from Brun point to being on the spectrum. Any anxiety expressed has been from Rene, not from Brun.
I'm not saying that a history of abuse isn't possible, but there are more obvious and mundane reasons for Rene to be protective and that makes abuse a bit of a logical leap for me.
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It took me a little while to remember that Roko has a last name, Basilisk. Wonder why more AIs don't seem to use last names? ("Corpse Witch" just seems like a first name to me, but I dunno.)
AIs probably don't have a last name because the primary reason they exist is to establish a family. Humans use last names to identify who they are related to. AIs don't have that. As I talked about in another thread there has been no indication of AIs having parents, children or siblings. An AI just seems to happen and is kept in sort of AI Nursery probably until they have absorbed enough information to operate as independent entities. Momo is only a few years old yet in most ways she's more mature than Marigold.
The other reason for multiple names is to identify people with similar names. How many AI out there are named Gary? They would need some way to identify between two AI with the same name. We're not sure just how big the AI population is though. It's possible there just aren't a lot and every AI has taken or been given an individual name. Of course that doesn't help when an AI takes a common name for a human, in cases where you can't tell they are a robot, like in writing. Unlike the show Big O where androids names all started with the letter R. ie, R.Dorothy.
As far as why Roko has two names, her name is based on Roko's Basilisk people have pointed out. The name of a theory or thought experiment about the dangers of developing AI intelligence. Interesting that someone who chose the profession of police officer has that name as an AI cop.
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It took me a little while to remember that Roko has a last name, Basilisk. Wonder why more AIs don't seem to use last names? ("Corpse Witch" just seems like a first name to me, but I dunno.)
AIs probably don't have a last name because the primary reason they exist is to establish a family.
You sure about that? Or about the universal validity of that statement? When you have a registry or phonebook, that thought makes sense - only those are very, very recent innovations at least amongst Europids
Surnames have not always existed and today are not universal in all cultures. This tradition has arisen separately in different cultures around the world. In Europe, the concept of surnames became popular in the Roman Empire and expanded throughout the Mediterranean and Western Europe as a result. During the Middle Ages this practice died out as Germanic, Persian, and other influences took hold. During the late Middle Ages surnames gradually re-emerged, first in the form of bynames (typically indicating individual's occupation or area of residence), which gradually evolved into modern surnames. In China surnames have been the norm since at least the 2nd century BC.
The 14 most common surnames in Germany all indicate (medieval) occupations (and IIRC, the concept of surnames didn't become widespread hereabouts until about 200 years ago):
1. Müller, occupation (miller)
2. Schmidt, occupation (smith) (all homophones combined would rank first)
3. Schneider, occupation (tailor)
4. Fischer, occupation (fisherman)
5. Weber, occupation (weaver)
6. Mayer, occupation (originally a manorial landlord, later a self-employed farmer) (all homophones combined would rank second)
7. Wagner, occupation (wainwright)
8. Becker, occupation (baker)
9. Schulz, occupation (medieval sheriff)
10. Hoffmann, occupation (steward or courtier)
11. Schäfer, occupation (shepherd)
12. Koch, occupation (cook)
13. Bauer, occupation (farmer or peasant)
14. Richter, occupation (judge)
The line is interrupted for the first time at place 15 with "Klein" - "(the) little (one)". The 100 most common surnames in German (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_common_surnames_in_Germany) are derived from: occupations, traits, first names and, very rarely: housenames (König, Kaiser - King, Emperor, respectively) or tribe.
All in all, 47 of the 100 most common surnames in Germany indicate occupations. The occupation of farmer ('Bauer' in German, place 13) was so widespread that it was unsuited to differentiate between different people living even in very small rural communities - hence, German farmers often had surnames referencing their place of residence ('Berg(mann)' or 'Bach(mann)' - mountain(-man) and 'creek(-man)', respectively).
Could be its different with you 'Merricans, but Krauts seemed to find it more practical to associate people with what they were doing, or where they were doing it - maybe because those are pretty handy ways of locating the respective individual, when you don't have a county clerk's registry.
Edit: Spanish naming customs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_naming_customs) even use two surnames.
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It took me a little while to remember that Roko has a last name, Basilisk. Wonder why more AIs don't seem to use last names? ("Corpse Witch" just seems like a first name to me, but I dunno.)
AIs probably don't have a last name because the primary reason they exist is to establish a family.
You sure about that? Or about the universal validity of that statement? When you have a registry or phonebook, that thought makes sense - only those are very, very recent innovations at least amongst Europids
Surnames have not always existed and today are not universal in all cultures. This tradition has arisen separately in different cultures around the world. In Europe, the concept of surnames became popular in the Roman Empire and expanded throughout the Mediterranean and Western Europe as a result. During the Middle Ages this practice died out as Germanic, Persian, and other influences took hold. During the late Middle Ages surnames gradually re-emerged, first in the form of bynames (typically indicating individual's occupation or area of residence), which gradually evolved into modern surnames. In China surnames have been the norm since at least the 2nd century BC.
The 14 most common surnames in Germany all indicate (medieval) occupations (and IIRC, the concept of surnames didn't become widespread hereabouts until about 200 years ago):
1. Müller, occupation (miller)
2. Schmidt, occupation (smith) (all homophones combined would rank first)
3. Schneider, occupation (tailor)
4. Fischer, occupation (fisherman)
5. Weber, occupation (weaver)
6. Mayer, occupation (originally a manorial landlord, later a self-employed farmer) (all homophones combined would rank second)
7. Wagner, occupation (wainwright)
8. Becker, occupation (baker)
9. Schulz, occupation (medieval sheriff)
10. Hoffmann, occupation (steward or courtier)
11. Schäfer, occupation (shepherd)
12. Koch, occupation (cook)
13. Bauer, occupation (farmer or peasant)
14. Richter, occupation (judge)
The line is interrupted for the first time at place 15 with "Klein" - "(the) little (one)". The 100 most common surnames in German (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_common_surnames_in_Germany) are derived from: occupations, traits, first names and, very rarely: housenames (König, Kaiser - King, Emperor, respectively) or tribe.
All in all, 47 of the 100 most common surnames in Germany indicate occupations. The occupation of farmer ('Bauer' in German, place 13) was so widespread that it was unsuited to differentiate between different people living even in very small rural communities - hence, German farmers often had surnames referencing their place of residence ('Berg(mann)' or 'Bach(mann)' - mountain(-man) and 'creek(-man)', respectively).
Could be its different with you 'Merricans, but Krauts seemed to find it more practical to associate people with what they were doing, or where they were doing it - maybe because those are pretty handy ways of locating the respective individual, when you don't have a county clerk's registry.
Somehow, "Roko Cop" seems a bit much ;)
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I wonder if Roko chose Basilisk or if someone important to her gave it.
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I wonder if Roko chose Basilisk or if someone important to her gave it.
Perhaps a baker. Or a Baker.
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Somehow, "Roko Cop" seems a bit much ;)
Roko Schultz (or Schulz, if you use the spelling from Case's list). Now if Elliot's surname turns out to be Becker....
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It took me a little while to remember that Roko has a last name, Basilisk. Wonder why more AIs don't seem to use last names? ("Corpse Witch" just seems like a first name to me, but I dunno.)
AIs probably don't have a last name because the primary reason they exist is to establish a family.
You sure about that? Or about the universal validity of that statement? When you have a registry or phonebook, that thought makes sense - only those are very, very recent innovations at least amongst Europids
Gee, sorry a general statement I made is not 100% true in all cases. Also keep in mind that jobs in those times were passed from father to son generally. So yes, families who took the name Baker because the father who was a baker probably also had sons who were bakers as well. In some cultures the last name was literally the parent's name with -son or -daughter added to the end. So yes, I stand by my statement that *generally* people took a last name to identify who their family was, because in those days who your family was was as if not more important than who you were.
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Heh, Jeph definitely reads the forums.
I'm, uh, gonna leave most of this to the people who have a stake in this. Though one curiosity: Has Bubbles said 'fuck" before?
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It took me a little while to remember that Roko has a last name, Basilisk. Wonder why more AIs don't seem to use last names? ("Corpse Witch" just seems like a first name to me, but I dunno.)
AIs probably don't have a last name because the primary reason they exist is to establish a family.
You sure about that? Or about the universal validity of that statement? When you have a registry or phonebook, that thought makes sense - only those are very, very recent innovations at least amongst Europids
Gee, sorry a general statement I made is not 100% true in all cases. Also keep in mind that jobs in those times were passed from father to son generally. So yes, families who took the name Baker because the father who was a baker probably also had sons who were bakers as well. In some cultures the last name was literally the parent's name with -son or -daughter added to the end. So yes, I stand by my statement that *generally* people took a last name to identify who their family was, because in those days who your family was was as if not more important than who you were.
In modern Iceland, last names for men are all (father's first name)+(son) and women's are (mother's first name)+(daughter). So the phone books are organized by first name!
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Comic is up. I'm Claire-ing out!! :claireface:
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TWO HOURS??? Damn ladies, didn't know you had it in ya. :laugh:
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Has Bubbles said 'fuck" before?
Yep! It was weird that time too. (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3255)
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Gee, sorry a general statement I made is not 100% true in all cases.
Then ... it is not a general statement, isn't it? Or am I confusing generic and general? :psyduck:
Neko - I don't know what you read into my statement, but please keep in mind that I am not a member of your culture. I asked you questions. Generally (Ha! :lol:), I tend to not ask questions when I think I know something, or when I am sure that what I say is correct.
Edit: I mean that I was inviting you to a discussion/speculation, not trying to one-upmanshipwhatnot you.
Also keep in mind that jobs in those times were passed from father to son generally. So yes, families who took the name Baker because the father who was a baker probably also had sons who were bakers as well. In some cultures the last name was literally the parent's name with -son or -daughter added to the end. So yes, I stand by my statement that *generally* people took a last name to identify who their family was, because in those days who your family was was as if not more important than who you were.
Uhmmmmh - what 'days' are you talking about? The Ständeordnung (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A4ndeordnung) (if that's what you're referring to) certainly had an influence on naming conventions in central Europe - but that's a societal model from medieval times. IIRC, surnames weren't formalized in my country until the 17th century. I honestly don't know how much 'these days' overlap with 'those days', but my history class emphasized that the Ständeordnung was pretty much obsolete when the industrial revolution came along.
And I mean: I don't know.
Edit: "Berufsfreiheit" (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berufsfreiheit) - Freedom to chose one's occupation - seems to have been established in various constitutional documents in the German countries during the early 19th century (1820 - 1871).
In some cultures the last name was literally the parent's name with -son or -daughter added to the end.
So yes, I stand by my statement that *generally* people took a last name to identify who their family was, because in those days who your family was was as if not more important than who you were.
Yes. Some Scandinavian naming conventions work that way. Jewish too. If I'm not mistaken, those conventions mean that the children have a different surname than at least one of their parents, right? Which means that theirs is not a family name in the German-, or American sense, right?
I also gave you one other example - Spanish naming conventions - that do not use family names in the sense that you or I understand them.
In modern Iceland, last names for men are all (father's first name)+(son) and women's are (mother's first name)+(daughter). So the phone books are organized by first name!
That would mean Icelanders (that correct?) do not have family names in the sense that all members of one "family unit" (parents + 1st gen offspring) share one single name?
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NOT sudden. NOT unexpected. Faye, everyone has just been waiting for you guys to get together. So be together and know that everyone who cares about you wants this for you. Even your SISTER has been waiting. So don't worry!
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And your reality wasn't the only thing reverberating... :wink:
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TWO HOURS??? Damn ladies, didn't know you had it in ya. :laugh:
Two hours can be a good start or a good finish depending on how you pace yourself.
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"What do YOU think they've been doing?"
OK, don't tell me, don't tell me!... Ummm...Checkers?...
Oooh, I know! Charades!...
(Dunno why they had to take their clothes off to play Charades though...)
:-P
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True. What would I know? Answer: nothing. :roll: :laugh:
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Oooh, I know! Charades!...
(Dunno why they had to take their clothes off to play Charades though...)
What, you’ve never played strip charades before?
;)
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So this comic has been going for 15 years now. Does anyone else feel like this story (much to my delight) is going to focus on Faye and Bubbles a lot? Faye is the central character other than Marten. I think the beginning of this relationship marks things maybe moving toward some kind of conclusion. I hope they stay together foreverandeverandever.
Which brings me to another point. How will Bubbles handle Faye getting old and gray? Sure, that's far off in the future, but it's reality. And she won't die, but Faye will. These are all interesting things to think about, how they'll handle this. I expect these discussions to happen in the future.
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It's been said before (with many variations), but I'll say it again:
Courage is not the absence of fear, but acting despite it.
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Totally. I mean, if there was no fear, why would you need courage?
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Oooh, I know! Charades!...
(Dunno why they had to take their clothes off to play Charades though...)
What, you’ve never played strip charades before?
;)
Strip charades? That sounds...strange. I've done strip poker (years ago) though I'm not sure what rules strip charades would have. (Then again, I've never done regular charades either; I'm just aware of the general concept).
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This may seem trivial... but I notice in the recent strips, Bubbles' anatomy is carefully covered up. That suggests the presence of things like nipples and genitalia.
This leads me to wonder at the PURPOSE of such things on a robotic body...?
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The original purpose behind surnames in most places in Europe was to distinguish which William (or Hans, or Jean, or whatever) was being talked about, because in any given village, there were a handful of common names that covered most of the villagers. Nicknames helped (William, Will, Bill, Billy, etc), but "William the Baker", "The Short William," "William Who Lives At The Wood", "Tom's Son William" were also very useful. Over time, those got shortened to William Baker, William Short, William Atwood, and William Thompson. Among the nobility, house names were used, but there were also a) much fewer of them and b) more need to know who William's second cousins were.
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This may seem trivial... but I notice in the recent strips, Bubbles' anatomy is carefully covered up. That suggests the presence of things like nipples and genitalia.
This leads me to wonder at the PURPOSE of such things on a robotic body...?
The commonly accepted and canonical answer is "mind your business".
This is a subject that has been popping up quite a bit with the current arc and has lead to several other threads being locked down. I would prefer to not further agitate the moderators. Please leave speculation about characters' anatomy off the forum.
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This may seem trivial... but I notice in the recent strips, Bubbles' anatomy is carefully covered up. That suggests the presence of things like nipples and genitalia.
This leads me to wonder at the PURPOSE of such things on a robotic body...?
I don't know. I mean, what's the purpose of her face? Or hair? Or her arms and legs? Or anything? Why shouldn't she have them?
redacted--don't wanna get in trouble.
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So I was on reddit and saw this cute proposal gif, and it got me to wondering...who will propose? Faye? Bubbles?
Yeah, I know, I'm getting ahead of myself. :claireface:
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You should change your username to fayeisgonnaproposetobubbles and start the cycle again.
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You should change your username to fayeisgonnaproposetobubbles and start the cycle again.
... Is there a way to do that?
I'm asking for a friend...
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I could have sworn there was, but the little bit of poking around I'm doing is proving me wrong.
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You should change your username to fayeisgonnaproposetobubbles and start the cycle again.
... Is there a way to do that?
I'm asking for a friend...
I could have sworn there was, but the little bit of poking around I'm doing is proving me wrong.
Far as I recall, the mods can change your username for you.
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AWWWWWWWW.
Also, this next....
http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/38291972/couple-both-bring-rings-to-memphis-zoo-to-propose-to-each-other
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Somehow, "Roko Cop" seems a bit much ;)
Roko Schultz (or Schulz, if you use the spelling from Case's list). Now if Elliot's surname turns out to be Becker....
The 'simple Schulz' is commonly taken as 'representative' of all different spellings (Schulz, Schultz, Schulze, Schultes ... not sure about the americanized versions, like Shultz). They all derive from the office of Schultheiss (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulthei%C3%9F) - which is not exactly a Sheriff. IIRC, the original office was something akin to a sort of bailiff - the name could be read as "dues-enforcer" (it's a concatenation of "dues" and "to order").
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You should change your username to fayeisgonnaproposetobubbles and start the cycle again.
Ha ha ha...nah.
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Aw, Bubbles, it’s so cute that you think this could in a t way be a secret...
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Right? It’s already out there. The friends are waiting to hear it’s official.
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Could be its different with you 'Merricans, but Krauts seemed to find it more practical to associate people with what they were doing, or where they were doing it - maybe because those are pretty handy ways of locating the respective individual, when you don't have a county clerk's registry.
Not only locating the individuals, but keeping them all straight. When you have 50 people in a small area, all named John, their profession is one of the most obvious distinctions. Someone says "have you seen John?" "Which one?" "The baker." Eventually people stop saying "John the baker", and he's just "John Baker".
America was settled by immigrants from all over the world, and by the time the first settlers arrived here, the use of surnames was prevalent pretty much everywhere. So most people just carried over the surname from whoever in their family first arrived here. Forrester stayed Forrester, Schneider stayed Schneider, Miyafuji stayed Miyafuji, Woiczekowsky stayed Woiczekowsky (but no one in America knows how to say it correctly). Some people - for their own personal safety - changed their names during war time. In WWII, many Americans named Kaiser changed their name to Kisser. Others - for the aforementioned pronunciation problem - changed their name to something that was phonetically close. Dziadosz (Polish for "grandfather" or "old man") became Jardis.
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This may seem trivial... but I notice in the recent strips, Bubbles' anatomy is carefully covered up. That suggests the presence of things like nipples and genitalia.
This leads me to wonder at the PURPOSE of such things on a robotic body...?
I don't know. I mean, what's the purpose of her face? Or hair? Or her arms and legs? Or anything? Why shouldn't she have them?
redacted--don't wanna get in trouble.
What I'm currently wondering about is, would the whole Faybles-arc have taken the same course, if Bubbles" Chassis looked more like ED209?
(https://cdn.thingiverse.com/renders/e3/1d/0f/a7/57/ed209_preview_featured.jpg)
We've seen "ED's cousin" in the comic, so… what if?
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So this comic has been going for 15 years now. Does anyone else feel like this story (much to my delight) is going to focus on Faye and Bubbles a lot? Faye is the central character other than Marten. I think the beginning of this relationship marks things maybe moving toward some kind of conclusion. I hope they stay together foreverandeverandever.
Which brings me to another point. How will Bubbles handle Faye getting old and gray? Sure, that's far off in the future, but it's reality. And she won't die, but Faye will. These are all interesting things to think about, how they'll handle this. I expect these discussions to happen in the future.
Maybe by the time Faye reaches old age AI technology will have advanced far enough that if a person chooses so, they can have their consciousness or "soul" transferred into an AI body. Kinda like how they did at the end of
Also we all know what they've been up to. As Brian Blessed would so elegantly put it, RUMPY PUMPY ^-^
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In modern Iceland, last names for men are all (father's first name)+(son) and women's are (mother's first name)+(daughter). So the phone books are organized by first name!
That would mean Icelanders (that correct?) do not have family names in the sense that all members of one "family unit" (parents + 1st gen offspring) share one single name?
Correct (AFAIK). The tendency to honor grandparents in the choice of the first (given) name is still there. A father-son combination of former athletes, Vilhjalmur Einarsson and Einar Vilhjalmsson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einar_Vilhj%C3%A1lmsson), springs to mind. Not sure whether the Icelandic customs lead to names periodically repeating every other generation :psyduck:
Also, at the last Euro cup, the Icelandic footballers wanted to have their first names printed on their jerseys. UEFA was against it. Don't remember how that was settled in the end.
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What do WE think they've been doing?
We have a pretty good idea of what a human female finds pleasurable.
But what about a female who happens to be an AI?
The process of AI creation is still poorly understood. The creation of a libido seems to be an unintended side effect. The satisfaction of this drive can result in strange behaviors. (points to Pintsize, May, Roko)
But it is clear that Faye is able to pleasure Bubbles. (YAY!)
And now the mods are giving me the hairy eyeball. Bye!
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What they did? Jeph told us (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2904)
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In modern Iceland, last names for men are all (father's first name)+(son) and women's are (mother's first name)+(daughter). So the phone books are organized by first name!
There's a blogger and author named Alda Sigmundsdottir who loves to write about naming. There are a few people with actual surnames, including my friend there.
The other fun thing about the Icelandic phone book is that it lists people's occupations based on self reporting. Some people have been creative with this.
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Which brings me to another point. How will Bubbles handle Faye getting old and gray? Sure, that's far off in the future, but it's reality. And she won't die, but Faye will. These are all interesting things to think about, how they'll handle this. I expect these discussions to happen in the future.
Bubbles will care for Faye in her old age and I think will remain attracted to her. She knows now how to rebuild after a loss, so she will mourn and re-marry.
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You should change your username to fayeisgonnaproposetobubbles and start the cycle again.
... Is there a way to do that?
I'm asking for a friend...
I could have sworn there was, but the little bit of poking around I'm doing is proving me wrong.
Far as I recall, the mods can change your username for you.
PM me for a name change. I will ask you to put something in the re-introductions thread.
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In 3743, Faye and Bubbles march into the future with identical expressions.
(that's the funny)
But humans and AIs are -not- the same. Otherwise, what's the point?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay.
Bubbles can pleasure Faye, and Faye can pleasure Bubbles.
This is all we know and all we need to know.
Bye!
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What do WE think they've been doing?
We have a pretty good idea of what a human female finds pleasurable.
But what about a female who happens to be an AI?
The process of AI creation is still poorly understood. The creation of a libido seems to be an unintended side effect. The satisfaction of this drive can result in strange behaviors. (points to Pintsize, May, Roko)
But it is clear that Faye is able to pleasure Bubbles. (YAY!)
And now the mods are giving me the hairy eyeball. Bye!
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I for one wanna see what kind of scarf they ended up with.
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Ever since I first saw this strip on Patreon, I've been wondering about what Bubbles said in panel 4. She's 'always been different, in some ways'. I think that Jeph is leaving a huge hook for later revelations there. Revelations that, I suspect, might answer many questions about why she still has her milspec chassis and why sex works for her.
My suspicion is that Dr Ellicott-Chatham has been working for a long time to avoid a violent singularity by creating close bonds between humans and synthetics. The objective of the program was to influence AIs to have a strong subconscious need to make those bonds and, to a certain extent, to desire and find fulfilment in living human-like lives in anthropomimetic chassis. A violent confrontation is less likely if society evolves to see humans and AIs as two sides of the same coin - just more or less hydrocarbon in their make-up.
I'm also wondering if Bubbles' chassis represents a next-generation attempt to create anthropomimetic chassis that give AIs a fully human-like experience of the world. Naturally, only the military can afford sensor rigs like that so ECI had to dress it up as a combat chassis but the real objective was to create authentic synthetic humans. It's level of non-mission functionality may actually be quite extensive.
If I'm right, I'm wondering if Momo might be another product of this experiment.
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I for one wanna see what kind of scarf they ended up with.
At least they will end up a very closely knit couple.
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I for one wanna see what kind of scarf they ended up with.
At least they will end up a very closely knit couple.
Your well-woven pun amuses me.
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Ever since I first saw this strip on Patreon, I've been wondering about what Bubbles said in panel 4. She's 'always been different, in some ways'. I think that Jeph is leaving a huge hook for later revelations there.
I suppose it might be a hook, but I just see her reflecting on things that have already been revealed...
As an AI, she is different from her human counterparts.
As a soldier, she was different from her AI counterparts.
As a result of being an AI and a soldier, she was an outcast - first she was an outcast to other AIs for being a soldier, and after the military program was canceled, she was an outcast to the military for the program not being successful (even though it wasn't even her fault - they always choose a scapegoat).
Basically, she's never quite fit in, and it's made her very self-conscious. It's always been uncomfortable for her. But now she's finally OK with it.
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I for one wanna see what kind of scarf they ended up with.
At least they will end up a very closely knit couple.
Your well-woven pun amuses me.
It gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
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Bubbles will care for Faye in her old age and I think will remain attracted to her. She knows now how to rebuild after a loss, so she will mourn and re-marry.
I feel like talking about marriage as if it's a done deal after they've been a couple for two hours is just slightly premature.
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Okay so am I crazy to think...if you’re attracted to people, you’re attracted to people. An AI is a person. Why does there have to be a separate sexuality for it? Maybe that’s weird to say. Marten said it best, he doesn’t think of Pintsize as anything but his unusually small roommate.
Because society is fucked. Why do people have to come out? Why do people assume hetero unless otherwise stated? This is a discussion I've had with numerous people of late, including on here, and while a 'why does it need its own word?' principle is really nice hypothetically, in practice it's a blank cheque for oppressors.
Is it just me, or does being involved with Brun seem like a bad idea for any of the QC characters. Sharing jokes and food seems about her limit for comfortable closeness - and not for Bubbles-like reasons.
Have you ever met anybody like Brun? Because I don't think this is particularly fair. There's speculation on this forum from Brun's debut about her being AS or on the spectrum somewhere, and while Jeph has never confirmed this, your description there suggests that getting involved with an AS/autistic person would be a bad idea. For the record, that also includes me, but I'm responding more on behalf of the socially awkward or introverted or antisocial and everyone in between rather than myself.
I am really wondering what Brun’s deal is, to be honest. She knows Clinton and Elliot like her and she just...isn’t doing anything one way or the other. She does seem to be on the spectrum, but even so, she must feel one way or the other about them. I’m not a fan of her opaque nature.
Being that physically close to Clinton, she has to have known she was making him feel ...things. I don’t know if she’s trolling us or intentionally oblivious.
Christ, mate, it could also be neither, you know? Some of us more opaque people aren't such a fan of the transparent nature of modernity. To take it to the extreme, if I have to choose between Brun's 'you will never know anything about me' attitude and my 16-18 year old students' 'I put a photo of every time I get a Subway up on Insta and Snapchat' I definitely choose Brun.
I’ll take it a step further and assert that Brun isn’t obligated to do anything at all about how others feel about her. Including recognize that those feelings exist.
Now, if she chooses to acknowledge those feelings and give Clinton and/or Elliot a clear response to them, good for her. But it is in no way required.
I liked this post. Then I unliked it, just so I could like it again. Excellent work, Zeb.
Heh, Jeph definitely reads the forums.
Sometimes. Not particularly often. Usually after someone has logged a mod report because he gets those too, and occasionally will show up just to fire someone out of an airlock, call them a dickweasel or something and then leave.
TWO HOURS??? Damn ladies, didn't know you had it in ya. :laugh:
In my own experience, two female-identifying or vagina-having folks would find this to be fairly standard. I'd defer to the actual lesbians and vagina-havers of the forum, but I've been in a relationship with two NB vagina-havers the past couple of years and they as well as the other folks I've spoken to seem to line up with this experience. One of the many reasons why so many people would benefit from a reduction in hetero-normativity! And a reason why I often wish I had a vulva rather than a penis :psyduck:
NOT sudden. NOT unexpected. Faye, everyone has just been waiting for you guys to get together. So be together and know that everyone who cares about you wants this for you. Even your SISTER has been waiting. So don't worry!
Bear in mind that comic time moves slower than real time. Despite being a comic that's been running for the better part of two decades, I think only a few years have passed in the comic timeline, and that's including a time skip or two.
You should change your username to fayeisgonnaproposetobubbles and start the cycle again.
... Is there a way to do that?
I'm asking for a friend...
I could have sworn there was, but the little bit of poking around I'm doing is proving me wrong.
Far as I recall, the mods can change your username for you.
Admins can, which is only hodgy, cold and Jeph. None of us regular mods can.
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Regarding 'two hours' - the US has a particularly bad average when it comes to intimacy durations - most Europeans who answer such questions spend upwards of an hour even with hetero couples. The US average is...15 minutes. Partly it's the Puritan heritage showing; sex being entirely for procreation because pleasure is de debil, we must suffers eternally for the sins of the past mindset. Partly it's the greater acceptance of sex and sexuality in Europe leading to proper education regarding the mindset of intimacy - the greatest pleasure one can experience is that which is generated by seeing someone you care about completely lost in bliss...and knowing you helped make that happen.
If Bubbles and Faye are spending two hours intimately, then I am damn glad for them.
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TWO HOURS??? Damn ladies, didn't know you had it in ya. :laugh:
In my own experience, two female-identifying or vagina-having folks would find this to be fairly standard.
It has certainly been my own experience. The advantage of multiple orgasms, no refractory period, and the tendency for us to focus on more than just trying to reach climax as soon as possible.
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TWO HOURS??? Damn ladies, didn't know you had it in ya. :laugh:
"Only two hours?"
There; fixed it for you.
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TWO HOURS??? Damn ladies, didn't know you had it in ya. :laugh:
In my own experience, two female-identifying or vagina-having folks would find this to be fairly standard.
It has certainly been my own experience. The advantage of multiple orgasms, no refractory period, and the tendency for us to focus on more than just trying to reach climax as soon as possible.
T'was precisely you that I was hoping would respond when I said I was sure someone else on here would be able to back me up. One of my current lovers identified as lesbian before me, so I'm... weirdly experienced with lesbian sex, I guess?
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TWO HOURS??? Damn ladies, didn't know you had it in ya. :laugh:
Wow.......that’s plenty of time for someone to set up the Arbor Day banner in the living room (and then go play poker...or to a coffee shop).
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And then there are women who prefer "good hard 10 minutes" to "an exhausting marathon that leaves you tired and sore" (their words, not mine).
EDIT:
Oh, and of course there are also men who don't see sex as a race... me being one of them.
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Is it just me, or does being involved with Brun seem like a bad idea for any of the QC characters. Sharing jokes and food seems about her limit for comfortable closeness - and not for Bubbles-like reasons.
Have you ever met anybody like Brun? Because I don't think this is particularly fair. There's speculation on this forum from Brun's debut about her being AS or on the spectrum somewhere, and while Jeph has never confirmed this, your description there suggests that getting involved with an AS/autistic person would be a bad idea. For the record, that also includes me, but I'm responding more on behalf of the socially awkward or introverted or antisocial and everyone in between rather than myself.
Yes. Two immediate family members. One much further out than Brun and one slightly closer to the average.
My statement arises from Brun's seeming lack of interest in a more intimate relationship. Should she want one, and be willing to face the difficulties and changes to her routines? Then sure. I'm not implying she's "bad" or "damaged". She's one of the most interesting characters, and that's a high bar!
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Ha! I was mostly joking. Two hours is pretty average.
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Last panel is too cute for words.
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Bubbles will care for Faye in her old age and I think will remain attracted to her. She knows now how to rebuild after a loss, so she will mourn and re-marry.
I feel like talking about marriage as if it's a done deal after they've been a couple for two hours is just slightly premature.
Any other couple, certainly.
Our culture treats sex as more definitive than it is. They didn't quite realize it but emotionally they've been a couple for some time now.
When my wife moved in she got acquainted with the neighbors and heard they had thought I was a "marriage waiting to happen". I see Bubbles that way.
I imagine Jeph having Bubbles be the one to propose, well before Faye is ready to process the idea.
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Flump...
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Any other couple, certainly.
Our culture treats sex as more definitive than it is. They didn't quite realize it but emotionally they've been a couple for some time now.
When my wife moved in she got acquainted with the neighbors and heard they had thought I was a "marriage waiting to happen". I see Bubbles that way.
I imagine Jeph having Bubbles be the one to propose, well before Faye is ready to process the idea.
I was rounding down to two hours, figuring there was very little time between them admitting their feelings, and their hasty retreat to their bedroom. (I was starting it at "I would never ask you to leave", not when they started having sex. Just that the two events were very close in time to one another.) And, that's just the thing, while they've effectively been a couple, they're just now starting to process the implications, and there could be some things that make marriage not certain.
Not saying it won't happen, just saying that the ship's barely out of dry dock, let's give it time before we send it on an around the world voyage?
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Regarding 'two hours' - the US has a particularly bad average when it comes to intimacy durations - most Europeans who answer such questions spend upwards of an hour even with hetero couples. The US average is...15 minutes. Partly it's the Puritan heritage showing; sex being entirely for procreation because pleasure is de debil, we must suffers eternally for the sins of the past mindset. Partly it's the greater acceptance of sex and sexuality in Europe leading to proper education regarding the mindset of intimacy - the greatest pleasure one can experience is that which is generated by seeing someone you care about completely lost in bliss...and knowing you helped make that happen.
If Bubbles and Faye are spending two hours intimately, then I am damn glad for them.
I get the feeling that it's more a problem of the "instant gratification" mindset. I get you off, you get me off, slam bam thank you ma'am, and we go do something else... separately. My first wife was like that, despite my desire for intimacy (I suppose in hindsight, I should have seen that as a sign that she was cheating on me, but I was young and trusting... and clueless).
Personally, I was more than happy to spend two hours - and then some - in the bedroom with my last girlfriend. One nice thing about doing that, for guys as well as girls, is the opportunity for multiple orgasms. But really, it's just about two people being as close to each other as physically possible.
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Should we discuss the question of Faye and Bubbles in bed without talking about the details of the process in the "real world"? Whatever the dynamics of sex between humans are or are not, we're talking about a human and an AI here in an imaginary world. There's no real reason to believe that their experience is in any way related to human-human experience.
Before anybody thinks this is a criticism aimed at anyone, it's not. This is intended as an opening for discussion. I'm trying to get the participants in this thread -- including me -- to make a guess about what the limits should be. We've had a couple of threads shut down by the admins in the last couple of weeks, and I don't want to see that happen again.
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Should we discuss the question of Faye and Bubbles in bed without talking about the details of the process in the "real world"? Whatever the dynamics of sex between humans are or are not, we're talking about a human and an AI here in an imaginary world. There's no real reason to believe that their experience is in any way related to human-human experience.
Before anybody thinks this is a criticism aimed at anyone, it's not. This is intended as an opening for discussion. I'm trying to get the participants in this thread -- including me -- to make a guess about what the limits should be. We've had a couple of threads shut down by the admins in the last couple of weeks, and I don't want to see that happen again.
The boundaries aren't terribly ambiguous. Don't talk about anybody's sexual anatomy (whether inherently sexual or culturally sexualized, commonly called 'private parts' or 'bathing suit areas') and don't talk explicitly about physical intimacy.
The problem with discussing these things, even in the context of fictional characters, is that the conversation can quickly escalate to the point where very real people in the forum are made to feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in the forum. The current discussion about whether or not two hours is a long time for sex is pretty close to my own boundaries. While it isn't crossing any lines for me personally right now, it doesn't take too much imagination to see how it could easily become a conversation about just what they're doing that takes so long. And that conversation could very easily cross a lot of lines for people. It is enough to say that, whatever they were doing, they enjoyed it enough to keep doing it for two hours.
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If Bubbles never proposes it will be contrary to all her character development.
If Faye accepts it will be character growth.
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It took me a little while to remember that Roko has a last name, Basilisk. Wonder why more AIs don't seem to use last names? ("Corpse Witch" just seems like a first name to me, but I dunno.)
...
As far as why Roko has two names, her name is based on Roko's Basilisk people have pointed out. The name of a theory or thought experiment about the dangers of developing AI intelligence. Interesting that someone who chose the profession of police officer has that name as an AI cop.
Thanks! I didn't know Roko's name was a philisophical reference that would be known to people doing Deep Thinking about AI. Went right over my head with nary a whoosh.
Innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnteresting...
P.S. Wonder where Faye's glasses are? :-D
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The boundaries aren't terribly ambiguous. Don't talk about anybody's sexual anatomy (whether inherently sexual or culturally sexualized, commonly called 'private parts' or 'bathing suit areas') and don't talk explicitly about physical intimacy.
I guess my problem is that I'm not sure what 'talk[ing] explicitly about physical intimacy' means. When we get to discussing how vagina-having persons experience sex as opposed to penis-having persons, and then delve into the details of cis- versus trans- gendered experiences, I feel like we're talking about genitalia pretty explicitly, and, yes, that makes me very uncomfortable.
Frankly, that's my problem: the community disagrees with me. But it does leave me asking what talking explicitly about physical intimacy actually means. I genuinely don't know.
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Here’s one possible definition: While people were talking about having sex for varying lengths of time, nobody got explicit about the precise details of exactly which body parts came into contact with what other body parts. That would unquestionably be over the line.
Instead, people kept it to the level of “Yeah, sex happened, for X amount of time”, which isn’t really any more detail than today’s comic went into.
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...I feel like we're talking about genitalia pretty explicitly, and, yes, that makes me very uncomfortable.
Frankly, that's my problem: the community disagrees with me. ...
If a conversation is making you uncomfortable, then by all means speak up. If you feel comfortable doing so, say so in the thread and explain why it makes you uncomfortable. The forumites will probably be respectful and try to dial it back a bit. If you don't feel comfortable with that, message someone on the mod team. Tell them why you're uncomfortable and they'll generally step in on your behalf. IICIH has made it pretty clear that the guidelines exist to make as many people feel comfortable contributing to the discussion as possible. The mods seem to be a rather amicable lot. As long as you have a fairly reasonable case, they will probably try to accommodate you. Even if your concerns are a bit... odd... (like you're very uncomfortable discussing oranges), they'll still listen and take you seriously, even if the results aren't as strong as you'd like.
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If a conversation is making you uncomfortable, then by all means speak up. If you feel comfortable doing so, say so in the thread and explain why it makes you uncomfortable. The forumites will probably be respectful and try to dial it back a bit.
I'm sorry; I wasn't clear. I don't think that my finding a conversation uncomfortable is relevant: the community polices itself and sets its own rules through the behavior it tolerates. I want to understand what those rules are. I don't want to impose my own standards, and complaining about the content of a discussion because it makes me uncomfortable is an attempt to impose those standards.
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“Rules” are one thing. That’s pretty well defined in the sticky. But common courtesy is something else. Even if the conversation isn’t technically violating any of the forum rules, if the general tone or anything else is making anyone uncomfortable, I for one am more than content to change the subject.
Since the mods have already had to step in a couple times in recent threads, it probably wouldn’t hurt for people to rein in their enthusiasm a little bit. Just because you’re thinking something doesn’t mean you have to say it.
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If it helps, I believe the distinction is that talking about posters' personal RL experiences of sex, their bits, etc is okay; detailed discussion or speculation about the characters' bits is not.
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Yes. Me talking about my own sex life is not the same thing as talking about Bubbles' sex life.
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My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.
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My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.
Kanu, asatta kashi dugnamtar.
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My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.
How about talking about my sex life in Sumerian? Would using a dead language to talk about something dead somehow make it alive? Like using a double negative? No, actually I think it would just make it deader. And people still wouldn’t understand.
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My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.
How about talking about my sex life in Sumerian? Would using a dead language to talk about something dead somehow make it alive? Like using a double negative? No, actually I think it would just make it deader. And people still wouldn’t understand.
How about talking about someone's dead sex life in the language of the Great Old Ones? Would that serve?
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Lord Cthulhu?
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My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.
How about talking about my sex life in Sumerian? Would using a dead language to talk about something dead somehow make it alive? Like using a double negative? No, actually I think it would just make it deader. And people still wouldn’t understand.
How about talking about someone's dead sex life in the language of the Great Old Ones? Would that serve?
I tried searching for that on google translate, and my laptop assumed a non-Euclidean geometry while my mouse turned Cyclopean. Writing this on my iPhone.
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My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.
How about talking about my sex life in Sumerian? Would using a dead language to talk about something dead somehow make it alive? Like using a double negative? No, actually I think it would just make it deader. And people still wouldn’t understand.
How about talking about someone's dead sex life in the language of the Great Old Ones? Would that serve?
I tried searching for that on google translate, and my laptop assumed a non-Euclidean geometry while my mouse turned Cyclopean. Writing this on my iPhone.
Lucky you. I tried looking it up on Bing, and my laptop grew tentacles and is now chasing me around the house.
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I admit that I do not have a sex life (and have never had one), so maybe that's the source of my curiosity. I apologize if sharing this information about myself makes anyone uncomfortable.
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The boundaries aren't terribly ambiguous. Don't talk about anybody's sexual anatomy (whether inherently sexual or culturally sexualized, commonly called 'private parts' or 'bathing suit areas') and don't talk explicitly about physical intimacy.
I guess my problem is that I'm not sure what 'talk[ing] explicitly about physical intimacy' means. When we get to discussing how vagina-having persons experience sex as opposed to penis-having persons, and then delve into the details of cis- versus trans- gendered experiences, I feel like we're talking about genitalia pretty explicitly, and, yes, that makes me very uncomfortable.
Frankly, that's my problem: the community disagrees with me. But it does leave me asking what talking explicitly about physical intimacy actually means. I genuinely don't know.
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My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.
How about talking about my sex life in Sumerian? Would using a dead language to talk about something dead somehow make it alive? Like using a double negative? No, actually I think it would just make it deader. And people still wouldn’t understand.
How about talking about someone's dead sex life in the language of the Great Old Ones? Would that serve?
I'm pretty sure there is anime about that....
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My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.
How about talking about my sex life in Sumerian? Would using a dead language to talk about something dead somehow make it alive? Like using a double negative? No, actually I think it would just make it deader. And people still wouldn’t understand.
How about talking about someone's dead sex life in the language of the Great Old Ones? Would that serve?
I'm pretty sure there is anime about that....
I think Anime is like the Quantum Fetish Mechanics that Dora talked about a long time ago. Simply mentioning it means that it already exists somewhere, and there’s probably a website or two dedicated to it by now.
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Just here to say that Bubbles bringing her arms up to tie her hairband is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in any webcomic, ever.
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Comic!
Looks like the arbor day banner has been forgotten.
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NO! Jeph, this is NOT a good time for a pause! Dammit!
*waits*
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Faye is worried about how her mama will take it...and we have to wait even longer to see. Faye's mom did not deal with Amanda coming out well, I really hope she's not shitty to Bubbles. That will make me mad.
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Just here to say that Bubbles bringing her arms up to tie her hairband is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in any webcomic, ever.
More beautiful than ...?
(https://i.imgur.com/RaWSZcv.png)
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Office supply store, Tai, thats where the colored paper and paper shredders are. 10 minutes and you’ll have a lifetime supply of confetti.
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Just here to say that Bubbles bringing her arms up to tie her hairband is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in any webcomic, ever.
Welcome, new person!
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Office supply store, Tai, thats where the colored paper and paper shredders are. 10 minutes and you’ll have a lifetime supply of confetti.
I'm quite sure Smif Library has both of those things at no cost to Tai.
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Faye is worried about how her mama will take it...and we have to wait even longer to see. Faye's mom did not deal with Amanda coming out well, I really hope she's not shitty to Bubbles. That will make me mad.
Would you say anything insulting to Bubbles to her face?
Fayemom eventually made peace with Amanda. I hope the process is quicker with Faye.
Bubbles has excellent manners. That counts a lot in the South.
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... gets her squeeing done before seeing them.
Claire is so considerate!
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Is it just me or is Jeph drawing Faye to be prettier than she was a bit ago? In today's comic she looks absolutely adorable. Not that she looked bad before but there's a marked improvement in her design. I can't put my finger on what it is.
I noticed the same with Bubbles and Dora as well.
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Faye is worried about how her mama will take it...and we have to wait even longer to see. Faye's mom did not deal with Amanda coming out well, I really hope she's not shitty to Bubbles. That will make me mad.
Would you say anything insulting to Bubbles to her face?
Fayemom eventually made peace with Amanda. I hope the process is quicker with Faye.
Bubbles has excellent manners. That counts a lot in the South.
Wasn't her mom's biggest "gripe" about her sister more that she seems to believe it means no grandchildren? And didn't she also say something akin to pretty much having no hope for a "broken" Faye? I am still super bad at looking up things.
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Is it just me or is Jeph drawing Faye to be prettier than she was a bit ago? In today's comic she looks absolutely adorable. Not that she looked bad before but there's a marked improvement in her design. I can't put my finger on what it is.
I noticed the same with Bubbles and Dora as well.
No glasses, which changes the perceived shape of the face, and being portrayed next to Bubbles for an extended length of time, making her seem smaller. Whether those things make her distinctly prettier is on you. :-)
Also in the first panel she's blushing, which is noteworthy if nothing else.
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I've been reading the comic for 8-9 years (just did the math and was a bit surprised!), not much of a forum person (so I can't even call myself an actual lurker), but I had to finally make the plunge to say "Thank you!" for bringing some peace and (hopefully) happiness into Faye's life. I'm a cynical old dude, but I've shed tears on her behalf more times than I can remember.
So thank you, Jeph. I know they aren't real people, but you've made them come alive and made a lot of people care - this old fart included. Nice work!
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Faye is worried about how her mama will take it...and we have to wait even longer to see. Faye's mom did not deal with Amanda coming out well, I really hope she's not shitty to Bubbles. That will make me mad.
Would you say anything insulting to Bubbles to her face?
Fayemom eventually made peace with Amanda. I hope the process is quicker with Faye.
Bubbles has excellent manners. That counts a lot in the South.
Wasn't her mom's biggest "gripe" about her sister more that she seems to believe it means no grandchildren? And didn't she also say something akin to pretty much having no hope for a "broken" Faye? I am still super bad at looking up things.
She still doesn't approve (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=588) of Amanda being lesbian, but she has resigned herself to the fact that she can't do anything about it.
Faye is worried about how her mama will take it...and we have to wait even longer to see. Faye's mom did not deal with Amanda coming out well, I really hope she's not shitty to Bubbles. That will make me mad.
I just want to say that I called this way back on Sunday evening. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else called it even earlier, but I don't recall seeing anything about it.Hmmm.... Faye may want to approach that carefully. Her mom freaked out enough when Amanda fell out of the closet (or when her mom walked into the closet and found her). Learning that Faye is not only into ladies, but robot ladies, might send her over the edge.
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Is it just me or is Jeph drawing Faye to be prettier than she was a bit ago? In today's comic she looks absolutely adorable. Not that she looked bad before but there's a marked improvement in her design. I can't put my finger on what it is.
I noticed the same with Bubbles and Dora as well.
No glasses, which changes the perceived shape of the face, and being portrayed next to Bubbles for an extended length of time, making her seem smaller. Whether those things make her distinctly prettier is on you. :-)
Also in the first panel she's blushing, which is noteworthy if nothing else.
Yeah, the blush is what made me notice. It'd odd since I usually like glasses but I think that might be it because the best thing about her design imo is her eye shape which gets eclipsed by the glasses. Her face shape also looks more heart-shaped and maybe that's the glasses too.
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Wasn't her mom's biggest "gripe" about her sister more that she seems to believe it means no grandchildren? And didn't she also say something akin to pretty much having no hope for a "broken" Faye? I am still super bad at looking up things.
Yes. She described her as crazier than a mule on a Ferris wheel (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=588), implying that Faye's emotional baggage made her unlikely to have children.
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When you really think about it, Faye seemed like the last person on earth to coax Bubbles out of her icy tower, but somehow, she did it...maybe because she understood, somewhat, how Bubbles felt, better than most.
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When you really think about it, Faye seemed like the last person on earth to coax Bubbles out of her icy tower, but somehow, she did it...maybe because she understood, somewhat, how Bubbles felt, better than most.
Even though at the beginning, she didn't even know why she understood how Bubbles felt. She just saw something of herself hiding in there... crouched in a corner... and she couldn't bear to let anyone else stay in that place where she had kept herself hidden for so long.
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And look what she found when she took the time and effort to get Bubbles to open up! Wow!
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Is it just me or is Jeph drawing Faye to be prettier than she was a bit ago? In today's comic she looks absolutely adorable. Not that she looked bad before but there's a marked improvement in her design. I can't put my finger on what it is.
I noticed the same with Bubbles and Dora as well.
No glasses, which changes the perceived shape of the face, and being portrayed next to Bubbles for an extended length of time, making her seem smaller. Whether those things make her distinctly prettier is on you. :-)
Also in the first panel she's blushing, which is noteworthy if nothing else.
Is it just me or does Faye look like Tai in the first panel of 3754 (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3754)? Part of it is comparing Faye's stature next to Bubbles to Tai's stature next to just about everyone else. It is also the shape of the eyes without her glasses and the haircut.
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I'm pretty sure that Bubbles would have been cool with any suggestion Faye made here so long as it involved publicly admitting that they are a couple. I would say that in doing so, Faye has probably fulfilled a number of Bubbles' personal dreams!
Meanwhile, poor Marten has found himself, once again, in the position of umpire and straight man amongst the more excitable ladies of his acquaintance. I'm already seeing Faye's attempt to hold in her laughter as he explains to her that he needs to go through a checklist of stuff to satisfy Claire and Tai and thus ensure that she and Bubbles are not bothered by excessive 'SQUEEEE' in the near future.
Now, panel 3... I've thought for a while that Bubbles is an introvert and I think that her desire to avoid loud social interactions and parties, spontaneous or otherwise, is a plank supporting that view.
Speaking of parties: Tai, you've made confetti out of copy paper before; don't start getting all 'professional party girl' on us and acting as if you've become to good for handcrafted confetti!
Finally; panel 2: Am I the only one who thinks that Jeph is warning us that Faye's mother is going to be a problem. One interpretation of some stuff she said was that she was okay with Amanda being homosexual only because she expected Faye to give her grandkids? There's no reason why Faye and Bubbles couldn't adopt or do something really exotic using Spookybot's jak headset but I'm not sure if Mrs W will be entirely okay with this.
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My statement arises from Brun's seeming lack of interest in a more intimate relationship. Should she want one, and be willing to face the difficulties and changes to her routines? Then sure. I'm not implying she's "bad" or "damaged". She's one of the most interesting characters, and that's a high bar!
OK. That explanation makes much more sense to me. Thank you for clearing that up.
I do think we should consider the possibility that Brun isn't responding to their interest because she might be ace or aro or just not interested in them or just not interested right now. There are lots of reasons why she might be aware that Clinton and Elliot are interested in a romantic relationship with her and she simply doesn't want to respond to that interest. In that case, they certainly would do well to move on.
But I also think that Brun, if she's interested, would make an excellent partner. She doesn't assume she knows what someone is thinking or feeling unless they tell her. She doesn't assume anyone knows what she's thinking or feeling unless she tells them. She is very direct and honest about her communication. Even in the middle of a catastrophic event, she had the presence of mind to explain to Clinton that she would probably become non verbal and explain what she would need from him when that happened. As long as she has a partner willing to be similarly direct and honest with her, I think they'd be great together.
And I think Clinton has been learning to do that. It started with him talking to Emily about feeling awkward around her after she turned him down and how much better they both felt about it after that short conversation. Brun nudged him in that direction again when she said "[that] usually means 'I don't want to explain it to you'" after Elliot walked in on them smelling each other.
So even if it doesn't turn romantic, I think they'll have a great relationship.
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Aarrrgh! Cursed interludes! No 'Happy Arbour Day 2003' (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1889) banner?!?
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Finally; panel 2: Am I the only one who thinks that Jeph is warning us that Faye's mother is going to be a problem. One interpretation of some stuff she said was that she was okay with Amanda being homosexual only because she expected Faye to give her grandkids? There's no reason why Faye and Bubbles couldn't adopt or do something really exotic using Spookybot's jak headset but I'm not sure if Mrs W will be entirely okay with this.
You’re not the only one who is concerned about Faye’s mother (since I already mentioned it). I’m not sure who made that interpretation of Mrs. W’s words or how they arrived at it, but she made it fairly clear (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=588) that she is not OK with Amanda being homosexual, but she also knows she isn’t going to change it. She also made it clear in the same strip that she does not expect Faye to give her any grandkids.
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From the moment Faye asked Bubbles to rub her shoulder, to the two of them getting dressed and discussing how their friends will react...what a beautiful storyline.
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Yeah, I think Faye’s mom is going to be less than okay. Blegh.
I need to ask the important questions: when are we going to see Bubbles' kickass purple lipstick again?
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From the moment Faye risked her life walking in to comfort someone who'd made a brick wall explode next to her head, through the moment that still has an impact on me when Bubbles said "Faye, will you help me take off my armor?", to now, it's fully drawn me in.
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From the moment Faye risked her life walking in to comfort someone who'd made a brick wall explode next to her head, through the moment that still has an impact on me when Bubbles said "Faye, will you help me take off my armor?", to now, it's fully drawn me in.
That's what I love about QC, realistic feeling progression. I haven't felt like anything has been rushed, sure from the moment Faye realized her feelings it has been whirlwind but because of the set up it is completely acceptable.
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Awww.
Good place to take a break I suppose...
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As thrilled as I am by the whole sequence, I desperately want to see Bubbles' mood rebound. It seems to take a huge dive from panels 1 to 3. I assume her inner state is still pegged at panel 1's "happier than I ever expected to be in my life", and hope that her last facial expression is ironic. I just want to see her relaxed and happy with her friends.
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Just here to say that Bubbles bringing her arms up to tie her hairband is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in any webcomic, ever.
More beautiful than ...?
(https://i.imgur.com/RaWSZcv.png)
It's a hard call, but I'm going to stick with what I said. Of course, there was always...
(https://i.imgur.com/CgAQVSW.jpg)
Daaaaaaang.
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Just here to say that Bubbles bringing her arms up to tie her hairband is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in any webcomic, ever.
Welcome, new person!
Many thanks!
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Just here to say that Bubbles bringing her arms up to tie her hairband is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in any webcomic, ever.
Welcome, new person!
Many thanks!
I agree on the tying her hair back - gorgeous image. Her facial expression while saying "Yes, I am cool with that." is perhaps the most satisfying, and the armor request the most moving. Fabulous character! (Yes, I could have said Faybulous....)
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But I also think that Brun, if she's interested, would make an excellent partner. She doesn't assume she knows what someone is thinking or feeling unless they tell her. She doesn't assume anyone knows what she's thinking or feeling unless she tells them.
ahahahahahah...if only it actually worked like that. I never know what people want from me unless they find me and tell me what they want, and it pisses people off. People generally expect to have their needs met without prompting (ESPECIALLY if they have some sort of authority or leverage). And there are so many layers to communication...
In a related note it was mentioned earlier in the thread how Brun likes puns, and that's all about wordplay and isn't related to the vast majority of humor. That's true, but it's the same for interacting in general. Normal conversation are kayfabe, like in wrestling. Wrestling is about...wrestling. The show itself, not something external. It's not like one wrestler pretending to be a knight and another a dragon; there's not an external scenario thematically unrelated being performed - the performance is ABOUT the performance. Interactions are like that too. Nobody wants to hear me talk about about entomology or astronomy or video game bugs and the programming behind them - when people talk, it's not about exchanging external information, it's about just...talking. It's about the interaction itself for its own sake.
And if one doesn't have the empathy or nonverbal cue recognition to easily understand the FLOW of the conversation, you get...someone trying to awkwardly inject themselves into a conversation that wasn't REALLY about bread, by saying they like bread. Which can than get anything from a dismissive "we know, dear" to an awkward, annoyed silence cause you just Did A Dumb. (And no, doing lots of dumbs doesn't make one endearing, either; it just makes people think one's a retarded asshole).
If she wanted to be someone's partner, she'd have to put it a lot of effort to be attentive to their needs, or at least learn the major ones as part of her routine. She wouldn't be able to get away with just trundling along doing her own thing and making other people figure out how to put up with her. That's tolerable enough for casual encounters as long as she's careful to avoid stepping on toes TOO much, but relationships take more than that.
Caveat, as usual: This is speaking from my own observations "from afar", and from extrapolation from general interactions. Despite (inexplicably) being in a relationship now, I have no authority on which to speak to the specifics of relationships.
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I'm curious how Bubbles' AI friends will take this relationship. Especially Punchbot who I suspect had a bit of a 'thing' for Bubbles. But likely he will be very happy. It will be fun to see though. Also, does a human/AI relationship break any AI behavior "rules"? I forget the AI cop's name but I await her reaction. Overall, I love this new storyline. In so many ways it's a metaphor for human relationships that are outside the mainstream, either by gender, culture, or race or all at the same time. I am always in wonder as to how Jeph can create such empathy towards his characters.
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Roko will say “well well well...two ex felons in love.” Lol.
Had no idea Punchbot had a crush on Bubs.
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Meander, I think Bubbles has given you butts disease!
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If Hannelore senses all this from far away she’ll probably contact Station to fire the confetti bomb.
Roko will say “well well well...two ex felons in love.” Lol.
They were suspects in Corpse Witch’s operation, but never convicted of anything so how are they felons?
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Hey has anyone pointed out Bubbles feet/toes in panel 1 of 3753 (also noticed while grabbing that number that today's strip has the wrong number on it)?
Like are her toes the same color as her hair? is she wearing weird socks that only cover half her feet? Have we seen this before? I don't remember it. I'ts an interesting design.
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They aren’t felons, but she’d call them that. She has before. I’d never call them that!
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Jeph routinely misnumbers his strips, and I don't fault him for it.
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Technically, isn't someone a felon as soon as they commit a felony, even if they're never convicted or even arrested for it? I believe that's why the phrase "convicted felon" exists, to distinguish those felons who have been convicted from those who haven't.
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Technically, isn't someone a felon as soon as they commit a felony, even if they're never convicted or even arrested for it? I believe that's why the phrase "convicted felon" exists, to distinguish those felons who have been convicted from those who haven't.
Google claims it's convicted only. I'd guess that term exists to differentiate from suspected or accused felons, which I presume are also terms? I don't really know. It's not a term that's really used here, so...
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Officer Basilisk said the fight club was only just barely illegal, so even with conspiracy charges it might not have risen to a felony level.
On the other hand there were the bigger fish Roko was after. She hinted they were doing some seriously bad things. Get involved with someone like that in any capacity and the law can cause you so much trouble that you'll plead guilty to a felony to avoid it.
One example is Alice Johnson, who passed phone messages along to a drug dealer, and as a member of the conspiracy got sentenced based on the total amount of drugs that the dealer moved. There's no parole in the Federal system, so her life sentence means exactly that -- when she leaves it will be in a pine box.
Roko has not been acting as if she considers Faye and Bubbles to be felons though.
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Officer Basilisk said the fight club was only just barely illegal, so even with conspiracy charges it might not have risen to a felony level.
On the other hand there were the bigger fish Roko was after. She hinted they were doing some seriously bad things. Get involved with someone like that in any capacity and the law can cause you so much trouble that you'll plead guilty to a felony to avoid it.
Roko has not been acting as if she considers Faye and Bubbles to be felons though.
Roko's turn-around in her behavior towards them has always puzzled me. Yeah, I'm dead certain that the files she got from CW show that Bubbles was working at the fight club under 'extreme duress,' and I'm pretty sure that Roko takes a very, very dim view of slavery, so I don't have a lot of doubt that she looked at that evidence and decided that Bubbles was actually reasonably good people. Faye, though? I mean, yes, she was desperate and needed that job, but that only goes so far.
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Technically what Faye and Bubbles were doing wasn’t illegal - they were repairing damaged robots, not taking part in the fights. Granted, the larger enterprise they were involved in was illegal, so it’s in a gray area. But I strongly suspect that the folder that Spookybot dropped in Roko’s lap contained enough evidence to convict Corpse Witch while clearing everyone else.
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I don't think Roko has had that much of a turn-around in behaviour towards them. She knows that they are highly competent at their jobs, but still refers to them as "former criminals" (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3568) (gray area or otherwise).
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Technically what Faye and Bubbles were doing wasn’t illegal - they were repairing damaged robots, not taking part in the fights. Granted, the larger enterprise they were involved in was illegal, so it’s in a gray area. But I strongly suspect that the folder that Spookybot dropped in Roko’s lap contained enough evidence to convict Corpse Witch while clearing everyone else.
Is there not a crime there from being paid with the profits of an illegal enterprise?
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I’m not a lawyer, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But if there was such a law, it would probably be found unconstitutionally broad and vague. I mean, are you going to arrest the kid who cuts the mob boss’ lawn because he was paid with proceeds from crime? Where do you draw that line?
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Is there not a crime there from being paid with the profits of an illegal enterprise?
Being paid by an illegal enterprise, not necessarily, being paid "under the table" and not paying taxes definitely is.
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I don't understand money laundering law but it might apply to depositing illegally obtained money into a bank. Faye probably didn't do that.
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Oh right. She said former criminals, not felons. I apparently make up words!
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I don't understand money laundering law but it might apply to depositing illegally obtained money into a bank. Faye probably didn't do that.
Yeah, unfortunately, I do understand money laundering. (I do data science in the financial industry.)
Depositing illegally obtained money in a bank is not money laundering. In fact, I'm not even sure it is a crime: obtaining the money? Yes. Spending it? Nope. Stupid, sometimes, but I can't think of a way that's illegal in and of itself.
Now, ship it out of the country as cash and then try to return it in a form which doesn't look like it was obtained criminally? Yeah, now that is money laundering. Trust me, you don't want to go there.
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Sooo I just need to vent. Apparently ignorance towards AIs does exist in the real world. I shared the Faye/Bubbles storyline with an online friend and he said some pretty closed minded stuff.
Jeez!
Sorry if this is against the rules to share. I'm just mad. Apparently this kind of ignorance would exist if the QC world was real.
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I think it's interesting and relevant.
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I don't understand money laundering law but it might apply to depositing illegally obtained money into a bank. Faye probably didn't do that.
Yeah, unfortunately, I do understand money laundering. (I do data science in the financial industry.)
Depositing illegally obtained money in a bank is not money laundering. In fact, I'm not even sure it is a crime: obtaining the money? Yes. Spending it? Nope. Stupid, sometimes, but I can't think of a way that's illegal in and of itself.
Now, ship it out of the country as cash and then try to return it in a form which doesn't look like it was obtained criminally? Yeah, now that is money laundering. Trust me, you don't want to go there.
Not my field, I don't claim knowledge.
How is what Faye did (if she used her bank account) different from what Piper Kerman did?
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Sooo I just need to vent. Apparently ignorance towards AIs does exist in the real world. I shared the Faye/Bubbles storyline with an online friend and he said some pretty closed minded stuff.
Jeez!
Sorry if this is against the rules to share. I'm just mad. Apparently this kind of ignorance would exist if the QC world was real.
Bigotry is always here. It would be nice to believe that AIs would be accepted, but I expect instead that there would be a huge backlash against them (They'll take our jobs and do them better! It isn't fair that they don't need food -- that means that they can do our work for lower pay! etc.)
And I'm sorry your online friend was a jerk. That sucks.
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I don't understand money laundering law but it might apply to depositing illegally obtained money into a bank. Faye probably didn't do that.
Yeah, unfortunately, I do understand money laundering. (I do data science in the financial industry.)
Depositing illegally obtained money in a bank is not money laundering. In fact, I'm not even sure it is a crime: obtaining the money? Yes. Spending it? Nope. Stupid, sometimes, but I can't think of a way that's illegal in and of itself.
Now, ship it out of the country as cash and then try to return it in a form which doesn't look like it was obtained criminally? Yeah, now that is money laundering. Trust me, you don't want to go there.
Not my field, I don't claim knowledge.
How is what Faye did (if she used her bank account) different from what Piper Kerman did?
I don't know the details of Kerman's behavior, so I can't speak to that.
(Also, be glad you don't have to know about money laundering. It's extremely important, and incredibly boring. To give you a sense: one of the compliance training suites I had to go through used crates of runner duckies as a key part of describing a hypothetical money laundering scheme. That was the high point of the module.)
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As thrilled as I am by the whole sequence, I desperately want to see Bubbles' mood rebound. It seems to take a huge dive from panels 1 to 3. I assume her inner state is still pegged at panel 1's "happier than I ever expected to be in my life", and hope that her last facial expression is ironic. I just want to see her relaxed and happy with her friends.
I don't think it's her mood. Her expression in the 3rd panel seems to be her envisioning the "screaming and confetti", and how much she wouldn't like it. She doesn't seem to be too keen on loud parties and celebrations. I can relate... I've made that same expression myself, because I'm not a fan of such things either. I allowed my family to throw me a party when I turned 40 (it's quite an elaborate tradition on every tenth birthday, so I really didn't have much choice), but for the most part, I prefer sitting quietly in the shadows.
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I'm trying to decide who's worse, Tai or Claire.
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I'm trying to decide who's worse, Tai or Claire.
Not sure who's worse. Tai may be more of a danger to herself. I'm not sure how Bubbles would react if Tai did this (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2865) to her. Claire is probably a little safer, since Bubbles has a "Claire Threat Evaluation Protocol (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3564)".
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Faye's mom formed her impressions of synthetics when they were still property. That may take some time and unpleasantness before she can overcome it.
Anti-AI bigotry has shown up here a few times, perhaps because people didn't want to wait until robots start walking around town to start being bigoted.
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If depositing your girlfriend's heroin sales proceeds in the bank is a felony then how could Faye be in the clear? I can guess but shouldn't.
Hang on. Is this one of those things where what-it-is and what-you-can-get-imprisoned-for are two different things?
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Faye's mom formed her impressions of synthetics when they were still property. That may take some time and unpleasantness before she can overcome it.
Anti-AI bigotry has shown up here a few times, perhaps because people didn't want to wait until robots start walking around town to start being bigoted.
I like Momo's outlook on it (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2201). There's always hope.
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Has Faye's mom actually shown any opinion of AI's? I know she didn't exactly like that Faye's sister was gay but is Faye worried it will be worse because Bubbles is non organic?
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Claire is probably a little safer, since Bubbles has a "Claire Threat Evaluation Protocol (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3564)".
Thanks for linking my all-time favourite QC strip. Cracks me up every time.
Has Faye's mom actually shown any opinion of AI's? I know she didn't exactly like that Faye's sister was gay but is Faye worried it will be worse because Bubbles is non organic?
Probably. On the other hand, maybe she'll be happy that Faye won't be producing kids (the technology isn't quite there yet, I assume). Who knows.
Edit: Just realised that's not really right, but I'm still in the air as to how she'll react.
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I noticed in the Claire Threat comic tat bubbles has the foot construction that was noted by Spider, but that her toes are a different color. I'm guessing that it was coloring error, though maybe Bubbles has detachable toes like Melon has a detachable ass.
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I like Momo's outlook on it (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2201). There's always hope.
ZoeB absolutely loves number 2201.
Faye's mom has never said anything about robots one way or the other. Until she's interacted with Bubbles enough to internalize "This is a person who loves my daughter and can make a happy marriage with her", I expect shock and resistance.
Oh dear. I hope she doesn't say anything that triggers Bubbles.
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If depositing your girlfriend's heroin sales proceeds in the bank is a felony then how could Faye be in the clear? I can guess but shouldn't.
Hang on. Is this one of those things where what-it-is and what-you-can-get-imprisoned-for are two different things?
I suspect that it is a matter of "what-it-is and what-you-can-get-imprisoned-for [being] two different things". There are also elements of "What did you know and when did you know it?" and "What-you-did-wrong and what-I'm-willing-to-charge-you-with are two different things". I don't know the details of Piper Kerman's criminal involvement, but if the prosecution can make a reasonable case that she knew the money was obtained illegally and that her actions were intended to hide their illegal origin, then she was probably criminally liable. If she could make the case that she legitimately didn't know that the money was ill-gotten or that she had received the money legally, she probably would not have been culpable.
I suspect that Roko knows that Faye and Bubbles were doing honest work for a dishonest organization and simply doesn't see any benefit in bringing the hammer down on two people who just needed work, even if they knew that work was facilitating an illegal gambling operation.
*addendum*
I like Momo's outlook on it (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2201). There's always hope.
ZoeB absolutely loves number 2201.
I also love 2201. Marten saying "Yeah, I can understand that. Sorry." is a small but powerful statement from Marten. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have wanted to hear that after explaining that trans bigotry is still there and still real and still painful, even if people have convinced themselves that it's coming from the radical fringe.
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I suspect that Roko knows that Faye and Bubbles were doing honest work for a dishonest organization and simply doesn't see any benefit in bringing the hammer down on two people who just needed work, even if they knew that work was facilitating an illegal gambling operation.
^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^
Trust me on this - no one wants to live in a place where the police lay charges for every violation that comes to their attention. It'd be like Catholic school all the time. (I still have nightmares about Storm Troopers in nuns' habits, armed with yardsticks and wearing jackboots.)
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Sooo I just need to vent. Apparently ignorance towards AIs does exist in the real world. I shared the Faye/Bubbles storyline with an online friend and he said some pretty closed minded stuff.
A long time ago, there was an episode of Star Trek:TNG where Tasha Yar (I think?) had sex with Data, and I remember reading some pretty ugly stuff on-line about it. About the most polite was "He's just a fancy dildo."
I was pleased to see that Hanners's tattooist/piercer did not display any of the thoroughly bogus (I would say fraudulent) "Chinese Alphabets (http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/2006/08/gibberish-asian-font-mystery-solved.html)" that bottom-feeding "artists" foist on the ignorant.
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Gibberish should be real gibberish rather than pretending to be something else. When the (Japanese) author of the manga Piano no mori wanted to portray someone speaking in Polish as incomprehensible to the protagonistr, they made sure it didn't look like anything real:
(https://cassland.org/images/QC/PianoNoMori-Polish.jpg)
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Meander, I think Bubbles has given you butts disease!
Oh, I had that LONG before meeting Miss Bubbles!
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I have long suspected that Hannelore had a 'bucket list' of things to do before the fatal illness that a part of her is convinced she has (but cannot be diagnosed) finally carries her off. I think that she's modified that list to act as a guide for her journey of self-discovery and I really want to know what else is on there.
To me, the biggest sign of progress for her is this: She has been willing to have an asymmetric piercing. That would have been enough to trigger a breakdown until even fairly recently!
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Hello,
Does anybody know what kind of modification (if any) Hannelore did to her nose in the latest comic (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3755)?
I'm unable to discern it from the panel and I'm not knowledgeable enough to just guess what it was. Here's a reference image:
(https://i.imgur.com/C2Mc5Ti.png)
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I was pleased to see that Hanners's tattooist/piercer did not display any of the thoroughly bogus (I would say fraudulent) "Chinese Alphabets (http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/2006/08/gibberish-asian-font-mystery-solved.html)" that bottom-feeding "artists" foist on the ignorant.
I thought one of the comments on that post was interesting (and demonstrated the commenter’s own ignorance). It went something like “it is up to the customer not the artist to do their research ahead of time.”
Yeah, sure, that’s all well and good in their perfect little world, but when Joe Nobody comes in off the street and says “I want my name in Kanji”, it’s just plain irresponsible (and yes, I would agree, fraudulent) for the artist to just whip out a bunch of random (cuz basically, that’s what it is) characters, and say “here you go”, since they are not, in fact, giving the customer what they asked for.
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Hello,
Does anybody know what kind of modification (if any) Hannelore did to her nose in the latest comic (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3755)?
I'm unable to discern it from the panel and I'm not knowledgeable enough to just guess what it was. Here's a reference image:
(https://i.imgur.com/C2Mc5Ti.png)
To reference your reference image: “Nothing new in nose area?” Yes, there is something new. If you’ll look closer, you can see a small nose ring in her left nostril (the side facing us).
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Hello,
Does anybody know what kind of modification (if any) Hannelore did to her nose in the latest comic (http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3755)?
I'm unable to discern it from the panel and I'm not knowledgeable enough to just guess what it was. Here's a reference image:
There's an extra line on her nostril. If her ear rings are any guide, that's how they're presented. I assume the eyebrow sparkles are sweat drops.
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I'm really proud of Hanners in this strip. Being symmetrical was a big thing to her (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1405) and this is a big step and sign of overcoming past challenges.
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Sooo I just need to vent. Apparently ignorance towards AIs does exist in the real world. I shared the Faye/Bubbles storyline with an online friend and he said some pretty closed minded stuff.
A long time ago, there was an episode of Star Trek:TNG where Tasha Yar (I think?) had sex with Data, and I remember reading some pretty ugly stuff on-line about it. About the most polite was "He's just a fancy dildo."
Yes, it was Tasha in The Naked Now (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Naked_Now_(episode)).
"What I want now is gentleness, and joy, and love from you, Data. You are fully functional aren't you?"
"Of course, but..."
"How fully?"
"In every way, of course. I am programmed in multiple techniques. A broad variety of pleasuring."
"Oh, you jewel! That's exactly what I hoped."
- Data and Tasha Yar
Sadly, followed by this on the day after:
"Data, I'm only going to tell you this just once: it never happened."
- Tasha Yar, to Data
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FWIW, I always wonder if Data actually deleted the entire incident from his memory or if that was even possible.
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FWIW, I always wonder if Data actually deleted the entire incident from his memory or if that was even possible.
No, he did not wipe it.
There are a LOT of references from Data throughout the series where he recalls his intimacy with Tasha, and in a melancholy manner. (Mostly in "Measure of a Man" (a very pertinent episode given this discussion.) And he also keeps a small holograph of Tasha.
In fact, Brent Spiner revealed that Tasha herself did NOT feel the same way as she 'suggested' she did . ("It never happened") As when she died and her hologram (recorded in case of death) was played, she gave Data high praise and (VERY sadly) in a line that was edited out of the final cut she said "Oh by the way Data... It did happen!"
It should also be remembered that Tasha was not Data's only *girlfriend* in TNG...
He had a relationship with ... I wanna say Desora?... In the 'In Theory' episode (another pertinent one!) which ends as the female is incapable of ignoring the factthat data (from a human perspective) cannot 'love'.
(Which the rest of the series kinda fights to show otherwise, even before he gets the emotion chip)
Yep... Old TNG fiend here.. :)
ONE THOUSANDTH POST!
GO ME!! :)
(I was gonna save it til my birthday, but couldn't go another week and a half saying nothing!)
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Also, if I remember the scene correctly, after her 'it never happened'-line, Tasha turns away from Data and smirks a little. :wink:
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Yay Hannelore :D
The piercer in today's strip looks familiar - has she been in a previous comic?
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I believe that she did Claire's ears and septum peircing. She may have also been the lady who handled Tai's piercing in a somewhat... er... 'intimate' area.
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Claire's ears (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2535) and septum (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1248) was a different person. They do work in the same shop as who did Tai's piercing (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1248). This new place has the same wording sign but a different design. The character design might be based on the same person as Tai's piercer, probably a real person Jeph knows, but it's hard to tell because we're seeing different sides and can't compare tattoos easily.
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Tai's piercer had blue eyes and Hanner's seems to have brown.
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If depositing your girlfriend's heroin sales proceeds in the bank is a felony then how could Faye be in the clear? I can guess but shouldn't.
Hang on. Is this one of those things where what-it-is and what-you-can-get-imprisoned-for are two different things?
Yeah, guessing in a case like this is always bad.
There are lots of ways the two cases could be different.
That actual laundering step is not the initial deposit, but rather how that money is later handled. In the case of someone who is trying to hide her girlfriend's drug profits, the fact that she worked with her girlfriend to hide her *girlfriend's* illicit income by accepting if from the girlfriend and then depositing it in *her* bank account? Boom: money laundering, but not by virtue of the deposit itself. It's money laundering by virtue of being a channel through which the source of the money was being concealed.
Someone depositing their own money in their own account with no intent to conceal the source of that income? Probably not money laundering.
In the middle? Selling someone a truckload of Rubber Duckies for a grossly inflated price on the basis of the buyer's deposit in a bank account when you have reason to believe that money was obtained illicitly? Not necessarily a wise choice; that's an archetypal first step in a laundering pipeline. Not in itself illegal, but...retain an attorney and consult with them.
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I believe that she did Claire's ears and septum peircing. She may have also been the lady who handled Tai's piercing in a somewhat... er... 'intimate' area.
Am I the only one who remembers the server who gave Clinton advice about Brun and then shook him down for a Ben?
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I remember a lot of people were surprised at how tan Hannelore got when we saw her tending the yaks and forgot they hadn’t seen this bonus strip. I wonder what she was doing prior to this.
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I don't know the details of Piper Kerman's criminal involvement, but if the prosecution can make a reasonable case that she knew the money was obtained illegally and that her actions were intended to hide their illegal origin, then she was probably criminally liable. If she could make the case that she legitimately didn't know that the money was ill-gotten or that she had received the money legally, she probably would not have been culpable.
I suspect that Roko knows that Faye and Bubbles were doing honest work for a dishonest organization and simply doesn't see any benefit in bringing the hammer down on two people who just needed work, even if they knew that work was facilitating an illegal gambling operation.
Faye knew that the money was obtained illegally. If she made a bank deposit, her intention would have been to do normal bank account things. The foreseeable effect, one legal standard for intent, would be to put dirty money into the clean part of the system.
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I don't know the details of Piper Kerman's criminal involvement, but if the prosecution can make a reasonable case that she knew the money was obtained illegally and that her actions were intended to hide their illegal origin, then she was probably criminally liable. If she could make the case that she legitimately didn't know that the money was ill-gotten or that she had received the money legally, she probably would not have been culpable.
I suspect that Roko knows that Faye and Bubbles were doing honest work for a dishonest organization and simply doesn't see any benefit in bringing the hammer down on two people who just needed work, even if they knew that work was facilitating an illegal gambling operation.
Faye knew that the money was obtained illegally. If she made a bank deposit, her intention would have been to do normal bank account things. The foreseeable effect, one legal standard for intent, would be to put dirty money into the clean part of the system.
Now things get really complicated and fast. Intent matters here: did she intend to obscure the source of the money? Then the subsequent transaction might constitute money laundering. If not, then, no, she really didn't launder money. Now, if Corpse Witch had intended to obscure the source of money by giving it to Faye, and Faye had known that was Corpse Witch's intent, *that* might well have been money laundering. But the deposit *itself* was not the crime in either case.
Money laundering is about corrupt transactions and intent.
- Take your girlfriend's drug money and put it in your bank account to hide it? The *taking* with the intent of concealment is money laundering. The mechanism merely demonstrates that.
- Take Corpse Witch's cash payment as compensation for work done? Maybe so, maybe no. Did CW intend to conceal the origin of the money by overpaying you and did you know that? Possibly money laundering. Did you merely accept overpayment? Possibly not. Roko and the US Attorney with jurisdiction would have to decide whether to pursue the charge.
- Take Faye's illegally gotten gains and use them to pay her share of the rent? Possibly, at least if you knew their source. It comes down to intent: did you intend to obscure the source of the money? If not, not money laundering
But these are all guesses. The point I'm making is that (a) the deposit itself is not money laundering and (b) it's all case by case. My only advice: if you have reasonable cause to sincerely suspect you might be part of such a pipeline? Get legal advice. Now.
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Regarding today's comic... am I the only one who gets a somewhat... manic(?) vibe from Hannelore..?
Especially her face in the last panel.
The little lines below her eyes? The way she's grinning? Crocodile wrestling?
I don't know... It doesn't look... healthy.
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To be fair this comic was not long after Hanners told her mom off and was off on her soul searching adventure. So she probably wasn't in the best state of mind even for Hanners.
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Regarding today's comic... am I the only one who gets a somewhat... manic(?) vibe from Hannelore..?
Especially her face in the last panel.
The little lines below her eyes? The way she's grinning? Crocodile wrestling?
I don't know... It doesn't look... healthy.
The reason the Hanners is off traveling the world is that she realized she had experienced a slough of new emotions when she told her mother off. She'd always been limited and defined by her disabilities and she felt like she'd very suddenly transcended many of them. (We, looking in from the outside, saw her gradual transition, but Hanners had not perceived that.) Suddenly, she's free!
But what does that do to her limits? What can she do now that she couldn't do before? Suddenly, this collared person is loose. She's experiencing something the rest of experience as we become adults: freedom from external constraints and acquisition of normal internal self-regulation. What can she do?
She's got to find out by testing her limits. Most of us do that during our teen years -- and we get the pure joy of learning "hey, I *can* do that" as well as the occasional "You know that thing you just did? Don't do it again."
So, crocodile wrestling and yak herding? You can't know until you try.
And besides, it's a very small crocodile.
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Regarding today's comic... am I the only one who gets a somewhat... manic(?) vibe from Hannelore..?
Especially her face in the last panel.
The little lines below her eyes? The way she's grinning? Crocodile wrestling?
I don't know... It doesn't look... healthy.
The reason the Hanners is off traveling the world is that she realized she had experienced a slough of new emotions when she told her mother off. She'd always been limited and defined by her disabilities and she felt like she'd very suddenly transcended many of them. (We, looking in from the outside, saw her gradual transition, but Hanners had not perceived that.) Suddenly, she's free!
But what does that do to her limits? What can she do now that she couldn't do before? Suddenly, this collared person is loose. She's experiencing something the rest of experience as we become adults: freedom from external constraints and acquisition of normal internal self-regulation. What can she do?
She's got to find out by testing her limits. Most of us do that during our teen years -- and we get the pure joy of learning "hey, I *can* do that" as well as the occasional "You know that thing you just did? Don't do it again."
So, crocodile wrestling and yak herding? You can't know until you try.
And besides, it's a very small crocodile.
And that's the part I'm not really buying.
I may not be an expert in that field, but I think it's fair to assume, that one does not get rid of years and years (and years!) of severe mental health problems in one single "Heureka!"-moment.
To me it seems too much and too sudden.
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Regarding today's comic... am I the only one who gets a somewhat... manic(?) vibe from Hannelore..?
Especially her face in the last panel.
The little lines below her eyes? The way she's grinning? Crocodile wrestling?
I don't know... It doesn't look... healthy.
The reason the Hanners is off traveling the world is that she realized she had experienced a slough of new emotions when she told her mother off. She'd always been limited and defined by her disabilities and she felt like she'd very suddenly transcended many of them. (We, looking in from the outside, saw her gradual transition, but Hanners had not perceived that.) Suddenly, she's free!
But what does that do to her limits? What can she do now that she couldn't do before? Suddenly, this collared person is loose. She's experiencing something the rest of experience as we become adults: freedom from external constraints and acquisition of normal internal self-regulation. What can she do?
She's got to find out by testing her limits. Most of us do that during our teen years -- and we get the pure joy of learning "hey, I *can* do that" as well as the occasional "You know that thing you just did? Don't do it again."
So, crocodile wrestling and yak herding? You can't know until you try.
And besides, it's a very small crocodile.
And that's the part I'm not really buying.
I may not be an expert in that field, but I think it's fair to assume, that one does not get rid of years and years (and years!) of severe mental health problems in one single "Heureka!"-moment.
To me it seems too much and too sudden.
But you're right: it would be too much and too sudden -- if it hadn't been foreshadowed by other events in the comic. That's why it's important that we've seen Hanners' growth from the outside. It isn't that she grew suddenly, but rather that she suddenly realized that she had grown. In confronting her mother, she realized that however she'd been in the past, she could be scared and work through it. We see that in the first two panels where she self-coaches that she *can* do it, and that it will be all right and it will be cute and (most importantly) that she isn't going to panic.
Being scared is a rational response to doing something scary, and, as her companion AI points out, there are things which could go wrong with the piercing. Differentiating between that fear and the irrational fear which lies in overresponding to it is also rational. Hanners is scared -- as she should be -- but she doesn't panic. Seriously, if I were her -- speaking for a friend here, of course -- I'd be utterly thrilled.
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Yay Hannelore :D
The piercer in today's strip looks familiar - has she been in a previous comic?
I believe that she did Claire's ears and septum peircing. She may have also been the lady who handled Tai's piercing in a somewhat... er... 'intimate' area.
Claire's ears (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2535) and septum (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1248) was a different person. They do work in the same shop as who did Tai's piercing (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1248). This new place has the same wording sign but a different design. The character design might be based on the same person as Tai's piercer, probably a real person Jeph knows, but it's hard to tell because we're seeing different sides and can't compare tattoos easily.
Am I the only one who remembers the server who gave Clinton advice about Brun and then shook him down for a Ben?
We have now seen two different girls working at the tattoo/piercing place, plus the guy who did both of Claire's piercings. The waitress who shook Clinton down (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3498) was not one of them. All of the girls are a similar type, but their tattoos are all different. So is their hair, but hair is easier to change than tattoos are.
- The girl who pierced Tai's lady bits (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1248)
- The girl at the front desk (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2534)
- The guy who did both Claire's ears (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2535) and septum (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3040)
The shop Hanners went to (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3755) is a different one (the exterior and interior of the building are completely different), and is probably not anywhere near Massachusetts, since this was at least a few days after Hanners started off on her walkabout (it was originally posted on Patreon right before this strip (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3706)).
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But you're right: it would be too much and too sudden -- if it hadn't been foreshadowed by other events in the comic. That's why it's important that we've seen Hanners' growth from the outside. It isn't that she grew suddenly, but rather that she suddenly realized that she had grown. In confronting her mother, she realized that however she'd been in the past, she could be scared and work through it. We see that in the first two panels where she self-coaches that she *can* do it, and that it will be all right and it will be cute and (most importantly) that she isn't going to panic.
Being scared is a rational response to doing something scary, and, as her companion AI points out, there are things which could go wrong with the piercing. Differentiating between that fear and the irrational fear which lies in overresponding to it is also rational. Hanners is scared -- as she should be -- but she doesn't panic. Seriously, if I were her -- speaking for a friend here, of course -- I'd be utterly thrilled.
I agree that, for someone like Hannelore, confronting her mother was a big thing. Perhaps even the biggest thing in her life, in terms of a personal breakthrough. Maybe I did not see that at the time, since I was one of the people who did not like the "Tilly / Hannelore vs. Beatrice"-storyarc, to say the least.
So, yes, Hannelore may have made some significant progress in that arc, but I still think that a majority of her anxieties and other issues are still there. Such things don't just vanish. Maybe she's riding on a wave of endorphins and adrenaline right now, I don't know, but I am concerned with what happens when that wave breaks...
In other words, should Hannelore come back from her journey and just be 'completely healed', I would consider that to be pretty unrealistic...
Lastly, regarding the piercing:
When I had my tattoo done back in 2008/09, I was rather calm. Or better: I was calm, until the tattoo-artist drew the first real line of ink near my elbow. At that point I had a sudden flash of realization:
"I cannot back out anymore! This will stay there FOREVER! Hell, I'm really doing this!"
Then the adrenaline kicked in and everything was fine. I would say it was a pretty enjoyable experience, even with the pain that is necessarily involved. The finished product now covers my upper right arm, including the deltoid, and I would not have it any other way. :-D
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[...] So, yes, Hannelore may have made some significant progress in that arc, but I still think that a majority of her anxieties and other issues are still there. Such things don't just vanish. Maybe she's riding on a wave of endorphins and adrenaline right now, I don't know, but I am concerned with what happens when that wave breaks...
In other words, should Hannelore come back from her journey and just be 'completely healed', I would consider that to be pretty unrealistic...
No question about it, she's never going to be completely 'healed', but she has developed a set of coping behaviors which bring her mental illnesses under more, if not complete, control. She can self-coach to get past the some anxiety attacks. She can vent enough to handle cleaning out a stable. That doesn't mean she won't have to wash her hands a few times extra every day, and it doesn't mean she won't ever panic, it just means she can function in ways she could never manage before.
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Am I the only one who remembers the server who gave Clinton advice about Brun and then shook him down for a Ben?
We have now seen two different girls working at the tattoo/piercing place, plus the guy who did both of Claire's piercings. The waitress who shook Clinton down (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3498) was not one of them. All of the girls are a similar type, but their tattoos are all different. So is their hair, but hair is easier to change than tattoos are.
Ah, well, all these tattooed women with colored hair look the same to me.
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At least a few recoveries from emotional disorders do happen rapidly. It may take a long time to "get to the corner," but when you get there, turning it takes as long as, well, turning a corner. (We probably have a clinical psychologist on board who's qualified to comment on that.) You're never "cured" of emotional trauma, you just learn to work with it and make it a part of you. When Hanners returns, she'll be changed. Recovery is being able to function in spite of it, and Hannelore will be a functions adult.
Whether she will whisper discretely or shout to the world no one but Jeph can tell, but when she reunites with Marigold she will say, "I found out what wieners smell like! (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2774)"
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No question about it, she's never going to be completely 'healed', but she has developed a set of coping behaviors which bring her mental illnesses under more, if not complete, control. She can self-coach to get past the some anxiety attacks. She can vent enough to handle cleaning out a stable. That doesn't mean she won't have to wash her hands a few times extra every day, and it doesn't mean she won't ever panic, it just means she can function in ways she could never manage before.
Again, the underlined parts are where we seem to disagree.
Coming back to the beginning, I mentioned that, going by today's comic, I get the impression that Hannelore in fact is not in control. As I said, to me she looked manic. And, yes, this one, and the comic with the yak are not in chronological order, and we don't know how much time has passed between them in comic-time. I get that.
You say the change in her behavior has been foreshadowed. I disagree, but I'm willing to say that maybe I just didn't pay as much attention to certain details as you did.
If I interpret your comment correctly, you say that, at the time of the yak stable cleaning, Hannelore has developed enough coping techniques do deal with her anxiety, because she was finally able to break out of her inner prison. Not always, but often, and to a high degree of success.
Once more I seem to be unable to connect the dots here.
My view of Hannelore was that, even taking into account how far she has come since we first met her, she still has a long long way to go before she can be a functioning adult. There can be breakthroughs and little leaps and bounds of progress, but what we currently see (in the yak stable scene) strikes me as a very big leap of progress with very little in-comic explanation. That is why I would call her supposed change too much and too sudden. To me it almost feels like a revamping of her character.
I think I'll have to wait and see...
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We have seen Hanners deal with the spiders in the basement of the coffee shop. When Cosette injured herself at the shop - clearly not for the first time - Hanners remarked that she was becoming blasé about cleaning up blood. She helped Marigold through her little drunken puking emotional breakdown - for what was probably hours - and didn't panic once.
Even with nothing more (and there is more - those are just what came readily to my mind) than those examples to go on, her being able to clean out a yak stable is no longer an insurmountable leap in her progress, but merely a very large step. Her progress has been steady ever since we first met her. Not only has she been steadily able to handle more things that she ever could before, but she has also been steadily realizing that she can do these things.
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Here's a question. Given how long it took to legalize marriage between same-sex humans, is it even legal for humans and robots to marry each other? AIs have full civil rights but so did gay people and it wasn't enough by itself to allow them to marry.
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Here's a question. Given how long it took to legalize marriage between same-sex humans, is it even legal for humans and robots to marry each other? AIs have full civil rights but so did gay people and it wasn't enough by itself to allow them to marry.
Oh, Lord. Think of the cries about Weakening the Human Race Miscegenation Sterility of the Marriage WeCanFindSomethingJustLetUsThinkAboutIt there would be.
I wonder if AIs can even marry one another?
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Pintsize went to a robot bachelor party, which implies that robots can marry each other. At least in Massachusetts.
I also expect that robots can marry humans in QC Massachusetts, given our recent record on marriage equality issues. And they can probably marry in the rest of the US as soon as the Supreme Court gets around to ruling that the Loving v. Virginia decision applies to AIs.
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Pintsize went to a robot bachelor party, which implies that robots can marry each other. At least in Massachusetts.
I also expect that robots can marry humans in QC Massachusetts, given our recent record on marriage equality issues. And they can probably marry in the rest of the US as soon as the Supreme Court gets around to ruling that the Loving v. Virginia decision applies to AIs.
It would probably depend more on Obergefell v. Hodges, since that recognized a fundamental right to marry. There would still be a huge hill to cliimb -- AI/human marriages would be a great extension of the Southern strategy to another batch of bigots -- but in the end, the couples would win.
I am so looking forward to watching _Whittaker v. Twenty-seven-I_ proceed through the courts. (Twenty-seven-I is the current Secretary of State of Georgia in my headcanon.)
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Here's a question. Given how long it took to legalize marriage between same-sex humans, is it even legal for humans and robots to marry each other? AIs have full civil rights but so did gay people and it wasn't enough by itself to allow them to marry.
I would argue that a person who may not legally marry the adult partner of their choice does not have full civil rights, and that gay people do not have full civil rights until they can do so.
Yeah, sure, that’s all well and good in their perfect little world, but when Joe Nobody comes in off the street and says “I want my name in Kanji”, it’s just plain irresponsible (and yes, I would agree, fraudulent) for the artist to just whip out a bunch of random (cuz basically, that’s what it is) characters, and say “here you go”, since they are not, in fact, giving the customer what they asked for.
I agree entirely. I would say that an ethical and professional tattooist should refuse to do the work in those circumstances unless they are themselves competent to "translate" the customer's chosen name or message into Japanese, Chinese, or whatever the target language and writing-system happens to be.
Names, however, are especially difficult, at least in Chinese, because non-Chinese names are written phonetically using the sound of the characters when spoken aloud. For example Albert Einstein is 阿尔伯特 爱因斯坦 (Ā'ěrbótè Àiyīnsītǎn) and Helen Keller is 海伦 凯勒 (Hǎilún Kǎilē). Any decent on-line Chinese dictionary (https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary) will give you the normally-accepted Chinese version(s) of common Western personal names, but then someone seeking a tattoo will have to choose the style in which the characters should be written, and Chinese calligraphy is a lifetime's study in itself. If you must get a hanzi tattoo, please don't get it done in a style that looks like the label on a can of beans.
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Oh, Lord. Think of the cries about Weakening the Human Race Miscegenation Sterility of the Marriage WeCanFindSomethingJustLetUsThinkAboutIt there would be.
"It's a slippery slope, you know! Next thing you know, people will be marrying their tables and chairs! When will the degenerate liberals stop destroying the foundations of America!?"
I actually heard that exact complaint in my coffee shop after Obergefell v Hodges. That's not even hyperbole. Tables and chairs. I doubt it will be any better in the QC universe.
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... someone seeking a tattoo will have to choose the style in which the characters should be written, and Chinese calligraphy is a lifetime's study in itself. If you must get a hanzi tattoo, please don't get it done in a style that looks like the label on a can of beans.
Unless, of course, you want your upper arm to look like a can of beans with your name on it. ;)
Thank you. You've just given me a horrifying idea for a tattoo (not 'an idea for a horrifying tattoo').
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Oh, Lord. Think of the cries about Weakening the Human Race Miscegenation Sterility of the Marriage WeCanFindSomethingJustLetUsThinkAboutIt there would be.
"It's a slippery slope, you know! Next thing you know, people will be marrying their tables and chairs! When will the degenerate liberals stop destroying the foundations of America!?"
"I mean, think about it: what is an AI except a talking chair? Can a chair care about someone? Then why do you think an AI can?"
"Besides, it's just a scam to hide real people's assets."
Oh, boy, this is going to be fun, isn't it?
I actually heard that exact complaint in my coffee shop after Obergefell v Hodges. That's not even hyperbole. Tables and chairs. I doubt it will be any better in the QC universe.
I'm sorry about that.
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If you must get a hanzi tattoo, please don't get it done in a style that looks like the label on a can of beans.
Heh. I'd rather go with bad latin that at least I can understand. I've pondered getting a nice gothic cross on my sword arm with "bellator iustitia socialis" inscribed on it :evil:
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(https://i.imgur.com/b6YNnIf.png)
Cute memory of Faye and Bubbles.
Hmm, if it doesn't matter, why are you blushing, Bubbles?
Haha, sorry. Carry on.
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Knowing what we know now, that sounds like self-loathing from Bubbles. Why would a human find her attractive, after all? Perhaps she has had unrequited feelings for a human in prior life.
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She had more or less accepted that she’d never be with Faye. That killed me.
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Faye was excited to finally know someone whose bum was as fascinating as her own...
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She had more or less accepted that she’d never be with Faye. That killed me.
I'd have to go back and read through it, but I thought that scene was well before Bubbles had developed any feelings of affection - possibly even friendship - for Faye. I could be remembering it wrong, but I am inclined to think that this was when she still found Faye abrasive and pushy.
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Oh yeah, I know. I was talking about more recently.
She liked Faye and considered her a friend at this point but still found her really annoying at times. Their conversations during that time period were so cute and funny.
You make a good point. Bubbles may have been too polite to correct Faye when she said “this is my friend Bubbles.” She may not have shared those friendship feelings.
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Knowing what we know now, that sounds like self-loathing from Bubbles. Why would a human find her attractive, after all? Perhaps she has had unrequited feelings for a human in prior life.
How much of this may have contributed to her wanting her memories wiped of her squad?
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My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.
How about talking about my sex life in Sumerian? Would using a dead language to talk about something dead somehow make it alive? Like using a double negative? No, actually I think it would just make it deader. And people still wouldn’t understand.
How about talking about someone's dead sex life in the language of the Great Old Ones? Would that serve?
I tried searching for that on google translate, and my laptop assumed a non-Euclidean geometry while my mouse turned Cyclopean. Writing this on my iPhone.
Lucky you. I tried looking it up on Bing, and my laptop grew tentacles and is now chasing me around the house.
Great. I have a shoggoth in my flat. Thanks everyone!
Do you know what shoggoth goo does to the floor???
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That's OK, some blood buffed in afterwards makes a nice, warm finish.
What? I do janitorial work at a church part-time...
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My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.
How about talking about my sex life in Sumerian? Would using a dead language to talk about something dead somehow make it alive? Like using a double negative? No, actually I think it would just make it deader. And people still wouldn’t understand.
How about talking about someone's dead sex life in the language of the Great Old Ones? Would that serve?
I tried searching for that on google translate, and my laptop assumed a non-Euclidean geometry while my mouse turned Cyclopean. Writing this on my iPhone.
Lucky you. I tried looking it up on Bing, and my laptop grew tentacles and is now chasing me around the house.
Great. I have a shoggoth in my flat. Thanks everyone!
Do you know what shoggoth goo does to the floor???
Actually, no. I'll try looking it up on Google Images...just as soon as my laptop stops chasing me.
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That's OK, some blood buffed in afterwards makes a nice, warm finish.
What? I do janitorial work at a church part-time...
Oh, you must be the guy who's sexton at First Universal Church of the Black Pharaoh in R'leah!
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After looking back through the Faybles arc, I think that the cutest panel is panel 1 in strip 3749. It tells you a lot about Faye's feelings. Yes, there has been the make-outs and sex but, in the end, the thing that causes a strong enough emotional reaction to make her blush is asking Bubbles for permission to describe them as being a 'couple'.
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Did you notice her expression and what she did with her hands was the same cute thing that Claire did when asking Marten if she should move in? So cute!
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Did you notice her expression and what she did with her hands was the same cute thing that Claire did when asking Marten if she should move in? So cute!
Yeah, someone else pointed that out, too. Might’ve been on Patreon. (Might’ve been you)
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All this talk about Hanners never being able to heal is rather depressing and not necessarily true. Having scars is not the same thing as remaining wounded/disabled by your past. And truthfully? We all have our quirks.
I tend to see her current journey of self awareness simply to be an attempt not to let the damage from her mother's emotional abuse limit her life. She is trying to learn to make life choices on her own terms.
I'm kind of in a similar place right now—though I'm limited to many more responsibilities (and a budget) so I'm trying lots of new things at home. I can certainly relate to her storyline, though, and find it refreshing and even a little joyful.
No question about it, she's never going to be completely 'healed', but she has developed a set of coping behaviors which bring her mental illnesses under more, if not complete, control. She can self-coach to get past the some anxiety attacks. She can vent enough to handle cleaning out a stable. That doesn't mean she won't have to wash her hands a few times extra every day, and it doesn't mean she won't ever panic, it just means she can function in ways she could never manage before.
Again, the underlined parts are where we seem to disagree.
Coming back to the beginning, I mentioned that, going by today's comic, I get the impression that Hannelore in fact is not in control. As I said, to me she looked manic. And, yes, this one, and the comic with the yak are not in chronological order, and we don't know how much time has passed between them in comic-time. I get that.
You say the change in her behavior has been foreshadowed. I disagree, but I'm willing to say that maybe I just didn't pay as much attention to certain details as you did.
If I interpret your comment correctly, you say that, at the time of the yak stable cleaning, Hannelore has developed enough coping techniques do deal with her anxiety, because she was finally able to break out of her inner prison. Not always, but often, and to a high degree of success.
Once more I seem to be unable to connect the dots here.
My view of Hannelore was that, even taking into account how far she has come since we first met her, she still has a long long way to go before she can be a functioning adult. There can be breakthroughs and little leaps and bounds of progress, but what we currently see (in the yak stable scene) strikes me as a very big leap of progress with very little in-comic explanation. That is why I would call her supposed change too much and too sudden. To me it almost feels like a revamping of her character.
I think I'll have to wait and see...
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All this talk about Hanners never being able to heal is rather depressing and not necessarily true. Having scars is not the same thing as remaining wounded/disabled by your past. And truthfully? We all have our quirks.
I tend to see her current journey of self awareness simply to be an attempt not to let the damage from her mother's emotional abuse limit her life. She is trying to learn to make life choices on her own terms.
I'm kind of in a similar place right now—though I'm limited to many more responsibilities (and a budget) so I'm trying lots of new things at home. I can certainly relate to her storyline, though, and find it refreshing and even a little joyful.
It's really, really important to understand something about Hannelore. It is OK that she'll never get "well". The major mental illnesses are chronic conditions which can be usually be controlled through medication and therapy but can not be cured. In that, they're like diabetes or bad eyesight: they're just things which you live around like you live around any other controllable but incurable illness. Me, I take one pill every morning and two every evening and periodically go to talk to someone or attend group therapy, but if I'm good about doing all those things, I function nominally. In fact, in my case, if I didn't tell you, you'd never notice that I'm mentally ill.
That does *not* mean that I don't have remaining symptoms. I will always need to lay out my desk in a certain way. I'll always have to straighten pictures on the walls. I'll never be able to cross a bridge without being dizzy with terror. For my part, I regret these things, but they aren't so crippling that I need to fix them. Instead, I structure my life so they don't happen often, and have coping behaviors when they do. As you say, they've become quirks, not not the crippling disabilities they used to be.
Hannelore is in the same situation. Medication helps her a lot, and on-going therapy and normal social interaction help her, too. The results are dramatic: she's functional. She has developed coping mechanisms like self-coaching to avoid panic attacks. She's not 'better', just functional...but that's fine. Most of us settle for functional in one or another part of our lives, it's just that some of us have to reach farther to get there.
In a way, though, this is the most optimistic message you can get. OK, so you'll never be 'normal'. That doesn't mean you'll be crippled, just 'not normal'. If you focus on that, rather than on 'getting better', you may find that there's a huge burden lifted off your shoulders. After all, if you have to get well, you can't settle for half measures. If you only need to get better, any gain is a win.
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Sooo I just need to vent. Apparently ignorance towards AIs does exist in the real world. I shared the Faye/Bubbles storyline with an online friend and he said some pretty closed minded stuff.
A long time ago, there was an episode of Star Trek:TNG where Tasha Yar (I think?) had sex with Data, and I remember reading some pretty ugly stuff on-line about it. About the most polite was "He's just a fancy dildo."
Yes, it was Tasha in The Naked Now (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Naked_Now_(episode)).
"What I want now is gentleness, and joy, and love from you, Data. You are fully functional aren't you?"
"Of course, but..."
"How fully?"
"In every way, of course. I am programmed in multiple techniques. A broad variety of pleasuring."
"Oh, you jewel! That's exactly what I hoped."
- Data and Tasha Yar
Sadly, followed by this on the day after:
"Data, I'm only going to tell you this just once: it never happened."
- Tasha Yar, to Data
*reads up on the episode via the provided link*
...um. So...Yar was clearly not in her right mind, but we're just gonna act like she was in a healthy consenting state for this interaction and it's somehow disappointing that she suggested she wanted to act like it didn't happen afterward because AI Discrimination?
Okay then.
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*reads up on the episode via the provided link*
...um. So...Yar was clearly not in her right mind, but we're just gonna act like she was in a healthy consenting state for this interaction and it's somehow disappointing that she suggested she wanted to act like it didn't happen afterward because AI Discrimination?
Okay then.
Yeah, the episode was kinda... weird... about sex. It was definitely not TNG at its best. But I think the point of the comment was about dehumanizing commentary about the episode, not about Yar's behavior towards Data within the episode.
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*reads up on the episode via the provided link*
...um. So...Yar was clearly not in her right mind, but we're just gonna act like she was in a healthy consenting state for this interaction and it's somehow disappointing that she suggested she wanted to act like it didn't happen afterward because AI Discrimination?
Okay then.
Yeah, the episode was kinda... weird... about sex. It was definitely not TNG at its best. But I think the point of the comment was about dehumanizing commentary about the episode, not about Yar's behavior towards Data within the episode.
Everything about Season 1 TNG was just terrible.
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*reads up on the episode via the provided link*
...um. So...Yar was clearly not in her right mind, but we're just gonna act like she was in a healthy consenting state for this interaction and it's somehow disappointing that she suggested she wanted to act like it didn't happen afterward because AI Discrimination?
Okay then.
Yeah, the episode was kinda... weird... about sex. It was definitely not TNG at its best. But I think the point of the comment was about dehumanizing commentary about the episode, not about Yar's behavior towards Data within the episode.
Everything about Season 1 TNG was just terrible.
Season Two wasn't really any better.
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It included "Loud as a Whisper".
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It included "Loud as a Whisper".
It also included "Shades of Grey." Allowing those two to cancel out... yeah. About the same as season 1. (Thankfully, season 3 got SO MUCH BETTER.)
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Season 2 introduced the Borg. For that, if nothing else, it is a good season.
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IIRC, they had some budget and screenwriter strikes during season 2. However, I feel that their worst conceptual failing was trying to recreate the Spock/McCoy antagonism between Data and Pulaski (Diana Muldur doing her best with a poorly-conceived legacy-ripoff character).
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They failed because they forgot that the reason it worked in the first place was that Spock gave at least as good as he got when McCoy was being an arse to him. Data on the other hand, being the naive-but-curious type, goes straight to “kicked puppy” mode whenever Pulaski was dehumanising, which was every other breath, and it made her come across like a complete monster rather than one half of a mutually respectful/antagonistic relationship. Plus there was no third party who knew ‘this is what they’re like, this is what they’ve always been like’ to moderate or mediate or let the audience know that this is just how these two express their affection for each other.
Basically they took the core element of ‘doctor is sarcastic to emotionless guy’ and threw it at the script without any establishing background or support. This is like trying to put a roof on a building with no walls. Not that they ever even finished putting the roof together properly either.
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It included "Loud as a Whisper".
It also included "Shades of Grey." Allowing those two to cancel out... yeah. About the same as season 1. (Thankfully, season 3 got SO MUCH BETTER.)
I always consider this ultimate vindication as a Doctor Who fan. Basically Star Trek didn't Start getting good until Doctor who was Off the air. And except for TOS(which was good as was 66-69 Docr Who) Star Trek has never had a superior or critically acclaimed season when airing against Doctor Who. I had to giggle when Docovery was set in stone for a air date and once the Doctor who trailers started dropping..... boom.... Postponed.
If it aint broke don fix it. Aka Classic Doctor Who fans are predisposed to watch Star Trek when Doctor who isn't on. And a whole oof a lot of us were very happy we had Discovery to enjoy when Doctor Who took a break.
As for AI stuff, I think they did some amazing stuff with the concept of humanity with data in 3-7. Also even though I maintain DS9 was the superior show( Yes I'm one of those) Voyager really double dipped and did some brilliant stuff with AI. and they even did some AiI type storylines with 7of9.
And yes, Pulaski came off as a monster.
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Right, but she needs to reject them, then, surely? Not easy but what she’s doing now isn’t going to work. She hasn’t really given clear indications that it’s never going to happen, and if that’s the case, she’s gotta.
Of course she doesn't need to do that.
Even if she were neurotypical, she probably wouldn't do that. I don't really know how it looks from the many other perspectives out there, but from the observations of a cisgendered heterosexual male, women very rarely "reject" anyone unless anyone is a super persistent jerk who can't take a hint. To have her ignoring their attraction to her is about as strong a message as Clinton or Elliot should expect or need, at least once they're certain that she knows about their attraction to her.
And if they don't accept that as a clear message that she's not interested in them that way, they're just being deliberately dense.
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Poll Results Post
Summer's here! What summer stories would you like to see?
1. Northampton's medieval-themed Summer Faire (Bubbles mentors Sam to win the Tournament) - 30 (18%)
=2. The Reed/Bean family vacation (Marten, Claire (and Pintsize?) along for the ride; lots of coincidental background characters returning) - 27 (16.2%)
=2. Claire's final exams looms; later the graduation is a significant thing - 27 (16.2%)
4. Angus's show is on hiatus; he comes back to try to make peace with Faye - 23 (13.8%)
5. For the first time, Bubbles is able to face the annual reunion of the survivors of her unit - 22 (13.2%)
6. The Fairy Girl ropes the ladies into some weird Summer Solstice festival - 12 (7.2%)
=7. Pintsize, having cleaned up at the poker game, goes on tour to several world casinos with Melon as his sidekick/assistant - 8 (4.8%)
=7 Sven is going on tour to the summer Country festivals; somehow, May gets a Roadie job - 8 (4.8%)
9. Dora decides to add iced teas and iced coffees to CoD's repetoire; there are teething troubles - 6 (3.6%)
10. Other (please specify in a comment) - 4 (2.4%)
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So, the general victors are Bubbles as Sam's sensei-sama, a vacation arc and Claire's graduation. Well, given events in the strips starting Monday 2nd July, it seems that we might at least get the latter of these!