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Dinner with Beatrice

A date with someone

She's going to the Church of Gary!

Her Evil Twin Sister is marrying someone (!) and she's going to sit at the back of the chapel

She's helping Arthur out at the Self-Help Group and she likes to look professional

She's agreed to chaperone Brun and Elliott

She's agreed to chaperone Clinton and Emily (I doubt it would be anything anyone would recognise as a date!)

She's wearing a pullover to teach Bubbles how to pull off the cardigan look

She's meeting a venture capitalist to get start-up cash for the cleaning business she wants to start with Brun

Other

[Kugai]

I'd sooner trust Emily more than Miss Creepy at thsi point


"Fasten your Seatbelts boys, it's gonna be a bumpy ride."






And watch out for Lawrence Fishburn.

[St.Clair]

And watch out for Lawrence Fishburn.

"I didn't say it would be easy.  I said it would be the truth."

[Storel]

Wait...

Where is Faye!?

She was sliding all the way to the floor in panel 2; you can see her next to Bubbles' chair.
But in panel 5, Faye's gone and you can see almost all of HIM (like the villain from the Powerpuff girls, because we don't know yet if QC's HIM is a he or a she or both or none) and a good part of the floor, most probably from the perspective of Bubbles. Perhaps even directly from her eyes.

So where is Faye!? 

Given that Faye is already on her feet in a different part of the room in the first panel of the next strip, presumably she got up and walked out of the panel before we got to the panel that would have showed her on the floor. Creepybot said it would "wear off shortly", o ye of little faith!

What disturbs me about the new strip is that apparently Creepybot soundlessly put Dora and Emily to sleep before barging in on Bubbles and Faye's conversation. Kind of suggests she came in from the back of the cafe somehow. At least it probably didn't hurt them, or F&B would have heard something.

[hedgie]

Emily is capable of breaking/hacking/slipping through an encryption that advanced AIs don't even want to touch?

...Did we know this already? I don't remember knowing this already.

No, they said they didn't want to go rooting in Bubble's head. They're just going to be the door opener and probably guidance and let Emily and Bubbles deal with the demons that get let loose.

Emily is, well, Emily.  We're talking about someone who nearly summoned Cthulhu when doing simple coursework (or not so simple work, I guess).

[Nepiophage]

I'd be very disappointed if Jeph let QC jump anything smaller than a blue whale ...

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2337

[BenRG]

I can only say two things here:

Firstly, if they have Emily as an (unwitting) agent, a lot about her activities and the NSA's monitoring of her suddenly makes sense. Sweet, mostly unworldly Emily wouldn't normally worry about silly trivialities like the law when it comes to making people (and reconnaissance satellites) happy. That is why, when it first came up, I noted just how very, very dangerous a person she actually is.

Secondly, Bubbles' decision is entirely comprehensible and believable. That doesn't make me happier about it. They may not require a direct 'price' but I'd be more concerned about the 'favour' they ask for some time later in exchange for not betraying Emily to the NSA for unauthorised access of all the classified defence data in Bubbles's head.

[ZoeB]

Emily is, well, Emily.  We're talking about someone who nearly summoned Cthulhu....

That is the kind of thing that would attract attention in some circles, yes. Unusual too. At least, I hope it's unusual.

[ZoeB]

As someone who's followed QC for near eight years....
This arc is not about people.  I just went back and checked.

Thank you for reminding me that there are many good people who have a blind spot here. I don't wish to pile on or criticise, and to express my deep disappointment without causing hurt is probably impossible. Maybe I can minimise it though. It would be wrong not to try.

I can't run a Marathon. Some can't see AIs as people. Heck, some can't see Intersex humans like me as people. Is my inability to run a Marathon a fault or failing on my part, one I should be criticised and attacked for? I don't think so. So I should treat others the way I feel I should be treated.

I can express deep disappointment though.

[Indicible]

At this points, Emily might be the Leonard of Quirm to their Vetinari: a genius with an attention deficit and a tendancy to blow up things if left unattended. Give her bits of charcoals and things to tinker with and she will be one of the greatest assets you can have.

Why do I have the feeling they mostly want Corpse Witch gone and, maybe, Bubbles suffering because of those memories, à la Planescape Torment?

[BenRG]

As I've said before, their motives may be based around a large-scale holistic analysis of interactions of various lives and events. Corpse Witch out of the way (and her web of corruption and patronage with her) and Bubbles, plus memories (which may be the death knell for several figures in the DoD and State Department), running the Fighting Arena may alter the flow of events in line with their purposes.

It wouldn't even surprise me if Bubbles being in charge of the Fighting Arena and becoming a force for closer human-synthetic integration and trust is more important than having access to all of Bubbles' past secrets.

We'll probably not find out for years (in-universe) if even then, unless Station clues them in about how they've unwittingly tilted the balance.

[EDIT]
Fixed some grammar

[Zog]

"This is as much for our personal satisfaction as for your benefit"
This could mean that it is neither for their personal satisfaction or her benefit.
That would not be any less true than if it was for both.

[oeoek]

I am just very happy to see Emily pop up in this role. I was silently rooting for Marigold in her role as AI-fixer, although that would have been rather unexpected and taking her quite a bit further. Emily is better, much better.

Could we have known? Maybe for someone who can program a thermal extruder to spit out a collapsible cardigan... And of course, how much different can shrinking an AI-head be from whacking it with a rubber mallet? I am sure she will love it! (groan, did I just agree with the buttoned up creep?)

As for jumping sharks (Casual Friday ones or any other); for me we passed that particular bridge around in this early arc. Knocking out a fed and getting away with it? Since than we have happily splashing around in anything goes literature. The fact that we are still enjoying it 3245 comics later shows there is something to be said for leaving the cartilaginous behind. 

[riccostar]

Has Questionable Content jumped the shark?

Probably not, I think what we've seen here is distinct from a writer pulling a ridiculous stunt to try to salvage readership.  At its heart it feels like Jeph got bored and is taking the comic in a different direction (something long time readers of QC are very familiar with).  QC's days of being about indie music or romance angst (or even of Marten being the main character) are far far in the past.  With every art and thematic change old readers are lost and new readers are brought in and as long as overall traffic isn't falling, Jeph is fine.

However, this episode feels different and I think it will end up bringing sweeping and irreversible change to the comic.  The direct intervention of this superhuman entity in the lives of the cast changes the entire genre of the work.  Farewell slice-of-life comedy, hello sci-fi adventure.  Now that Faye is tangled up in a situation of this gravity, the shadow of these events will never allow things to go back to "normal" for the gang.  In addition, we've absolutely seen an explosion in the number of recurring characters and the characters that are getting lines and facetime now are almost entirely different from the characters that were important just a couple of years ago.  The characters that do remain from the original comic have been given rapid character transformations (chalk it up to age maybe).

To me this is less jumping the shark and more "the shining Genji was dead."  I think this comic will be very different in plot and genre from here on out and that the action will revolve around a different set of characters.  What will happen to readership is perhaps not a major concern here for Jeph, he's just drawing what he wants to draw.  He's got a brand and other comics to help him out.

In any case, I expect we'll see more and more (human) characters go the way of Sara and Yelling Bird.

[gopher]

I have no problem with the comic evolving and I think we should have enough faith in Jeph to let him deliver his story. It seems very unlikely that a big old plot-hammer/DM fiat will fix everything, far more likely to develop the plot.

[osaka]

Secondly, Bubbles' decision is entirely comprehensible and believable. That doesn't make me happier about it. They may not require a direct 'price' but I'd be more concerned about the 'favour' they ask for some time later in exchange for not betraying Emily to the NSA for unauthorised access of all the classified defence data in Bubbles's head.

This kind of defeats the point of "No strings attached" that Mercedes here presented, don't you think? Technically nothing would stop Bubbles from breaking her up into her core components after the deal if there really are no strings attached.

Then again I doubt Bubbles would go tell on Emily anyways.

[tupsharru]

Scary Vampire Person is drawing on the same tropes as a crazy person with constantly changing aliases who likes to post on Charlie Stross' blog.  I don't recognize them.  Could someone explain more clearly than "Desire from the Expanse"?  Are we talking about the Neil Gaiman comic?  Where are the specific similarities?

There are some vampire tropes, either White Wolf or the novels that inspired WW, but I don't know enough to 'read' them either.  The name Rocco Basilisk is a joke about the LessWrong community, and that is another area of crazy that I just know a little about.

The comment about similarities with Ian M. Banks' Culture novels rings a bell too, but I only read one of those ... not my thing.

[Case]

Emily is, well, Emily.  We're talking about someone who nearly summoned Cthulhu....

That is the kind of thing that would attract attention in some circles, yes. Unusual too. At least, I hope it's unusual.

Depends on where you're doing your Laundry, I s'pose ... 

[Gyrre]

Huh. Does anybody else feel stupid for not thinking that they should just ask Emily for help?

She was set up quite some time ago (somewhere in the 2012-2014 range) to be an absurdly intelligent and skilled programmer/engineer.

EDIT: Tired brain typos

[zmeiat_joro]

Scary Vampire Person is drawing on the same tropes as a crazy person with constantly changing aliases who likes to post on Charlie Stross' blog.  I don't recognize them.  Could someone explain more clearly than "Desire from the Expanse"?  Are we talking about the Neil Gaiman comic?  Where are the specific similarities?

There are some vampire tropes, either White Wolf or the novels that inspired WW, but I don't know enough to 'read' them either.  The name Rocco Basilisk is a joke about the LessWrong community, and that is another area of crazy that I just know a little about.

The comment about similarities with Ian M. Banks' Culture novels rings a bell too, but I only read one of those ... not my thing.

I know which person from Charlie's blog you're referring to, but I don't see that much similarity -- probably because New Character also physically resembles Desire from the Gaiman comic.

[brasca]

Bubbles consents, but does Emily? Did Emily know this person already?

According to Upscale Envy, Emily will enjoy the experience which makes me as curious about her past as much as our mysterious stranger.  If she didn't then Bubbles would resist since she wouldn't want someone losing their mind exploring her mind.   

[BenRG]

This kind of defeats the point of "No strings attached" that Mercedes here presented, don't you think?

I think that you are missing the point: "No strings attached" only means that they won't directly ask Bubbles for anything; what Bubbles might offer them in exchange for not shopping Emily is another matter altogether. That's her choice, not a 'string attached'.

Upon such technicalities is a demon's empire born.

FWIW, I'm expecting Emily and possibly Faye to have a virtual reality adventure in the inside of Bubbles' mind. The only way to unlock the memories is to be in there and confront the encryption as a physical barrier rather than a computing challenge. That way, the processing ability of Emily and Faye's minds can be used directly rather than through the filter of some crude interfacing computational device.

Naturally, this will end with Faye witnessing the moment that broke Bubbles from practically a first person perspective.

"This is my secret; this is my shame."

[tupsharru]

Scary Vampire Person is drawing on the same tropes as a crazy person with constantly changing aliases who likes to post on Charlie Stross' blog.  I don't recognize them.  Could someone explain more clearly than "Desire from the Expanse"?  Are we talking about the Neil Gaiman comic?  Where are the specific similarities?

There are some vampire tropes, either White Wolf or the novels that inspired WW, but I don't know enough to 'read' them either.  The name Rocco Basilisk is a joke about the LessWrong community, and that is another area of crazy that I just know a little about.

The comment about similarities with Ian M. Banks' Culture novels rings a bell too, but I only read one of those ... not my thing.

I know which person from Charlie's blog you're referring to, but I don't see that much similarity -- probably because New Character also physically resembles Desire from the Gaiman comic.

I could find examples, but that would require reading their posts, and that way madness lies.  The gender-ambiguity, casual arrogance, random changes in topic and metaphor, references to elders and sanctity of mind, and allusiveness feel similar in Grey Face and "Minerva Owl" of the many handles.

But maybe "Minerva Owl"/HB was alluding to that comic? 

I feel like as a reader I am supposed to make a connection between Grey Face and some other characters in other settings, but I am not being given the information (like specific names) which I need to do so.  That is different from art where most of the meaning is at the surface, but there are nuances and side jokes hidden underneath (like  the name Rocco Basilisk).

[islan]

What is even going on?  I think this is the first time this comic has ever completely lost me...

Did I miss somewhere where this character or who they represent were introduced?

[zmeiat_joro]

But maybe "Minerva Owl"/HB was alluding to that comic?

That's possible, but their (Minerva Owl's) style reminds me more of Delirium, only more pessimistic, or a mix of the two. And the sanctity of mind thing is a major thing that points to the Culture novels (for Grey Face). That's why I said they seem like a mix of Desire from the Gaiman comic and an AI from the Culture (specifically the Interesting Times Gang).

[zmeiat_joro]

What is even going on?  I think this is the first time this comic has ever completely lost me...

Did I miss somewhere where this character or who they represent were introduced?

It's a new character. We have yet to see, that's kind of the point.

[zmeiat_joro]

I just talked to an acquaintance who has PTSD and partial amnesia and he said he does not want to get back those memories,  it isineresting that Bubbles wants them back, but I guess it's a different case -- I imagene hew memories were purged more thoroughly.  He mentioned he had to fight child soldiers.

[JimC]

I think it will end up bringing sweeping and irreversible change to the comic.  The direct intervention of this superhuman entity in the lives of the cast changes the entire genre of the work.  Farewell slice-of-life comedy, hello sci-fi adventure.  Now that Faye is tangled up in a situation of this gravity, the shadow of these events will never allow things to go back to "normal" for the gang.

I dunno. Life isn't like that. There's a fault - at least I see it as a fault - that many creators get caught up in of constant escalation. Every new volume has to see the hero in greater peril, a new and more powerful supervillain, you've all seen it. But in real life its not like that. Arguably the most intense and dramatic part of my father's life was 40 odd strike missions at the age of 23 from an aircraft carrier in the Korean War, and, thank goodness, nothing else had that level of intensity. And yes, those few months and the loss of some of his comrades did leave a shadow, but nevertheless things did get back to normal.

I don't find a need for the constant escalation. I can go and read earlier volumes in a series  of books without thinking, gosh I wish this villain was as OTT as the later one.  So if our writer takes this particular arc to its conclusion and never feels the need for something quite so extreme again, that will be just fine by me. If readers grow older with the author then perhaps there are a whole new lost of concerns and slices of life to explore for them without needing an even more puissant and ambiguous character than our current putative hivemind in gray.

[Is it cold in here?]

@stibbons,

Welcome, new person!

An electrical shock across the lower spinal column might do what Albino Creepatron did to Faye.

I don't think her group is the equivalent of Anonymous. They refer to someone with an orbital railgun as "less puissant". The attitude and a subset of the capabilities are similar.

What worries me is that AC seems to feel no concern or friendship toward squishies. Something to the effect "they seem to like us" was how the characters reconciled themselves to the Singularity.

[thedevilissix]

Honestly?

As someone who's followed QC for near eight years, bought books, bought my wife a bear monster shirt, and owns Pintsize and Winslow plushes.... yes.  This story arc does feel like a jump the shark moment.

I blame Alice Grove. 
Nah, joking aside, I welcome the leaping of this here Hammerhead hurdle. As far from the comic's starting premise as it seems to me to be, I find it quite exciting!

[Morituri]

It's my guess that the colloidal-silver overdosed person here has an agenda which includes getting corpse witch the hell out of the way and (possibly) setting up something even worse than her business.

And we haven't seen how they propose to do this yet; for all we know he's going to give Emily something like a way to hack into Corpse Witch's memory and get the key to Bubbles'.  'Cause I bet they don't mind a bit if CW winds up lobotomized.  It just eliminates some potential competition (?).

[Rincewind]

I'm starting to dread the Friday Cliffhanger already.  Will an unsuccessful mind-meld send Bubb-ily out into the streets on a NOMAD-ish rampage? 
Just have to stay tuned to this bat-channel and find out, I guess.

[zmeiat_joro]

I did not initiate the conversation about war, he did, I want to specify that.

[Case]

All these comparisons to "Desire of the Endless" made me realize there's a whole new generation that has no idea who Annie Lennox is ...

Neither Desire, nor Death, nor Dream somehow sprang freshly formed out of the minds of Neil Gaiman & Mike Dringenberg. Their looks are based on, respectively: Annie Lennox (British 80s Pop-icon & Eurythmics Frontwoman), Cinamon Hadley, and a blend of Robert Smith (Frontman of 80s Pop-band The Cure) and Mr. Gaiman himself.





Those are simply iconic, archetypical 1980's looks. Tons of people were trying to emulate them (with more-or-less horrible results). If you were born as a Gen-Xer - like e.g. a certain author of a certain obscure webcomic - you'd meet people dressed like that at school, see them on the street, you'd hang out with them (or mock them, if you were an asshat), or you were one of the people who dressed like that - Goth/Wave was simply a 'normal' subculture look.

Edited: For rantiness ...

[StevenC]

Honestly?

As someone who's followed QC for near eight years, bought books, bought my wife a bear monster shirt, and owns Pintsize and Winslow plushes.... yes.  This story arc does feel like a jump the shark moment.

I blame Alice Grove. 
Nah, joking aside, I welcome the leaping of this here Hammerhead hurdle. As far from the comic's starting premise as it seems to me to be, I find it quite exciting!

The end of QC is going to be the beginning of Alice Grove.
Pintsize is Alice.

[A small perverse otter]

Just because Agent Creepypasta doesn't want anything for their actions doesn't mean that Bubbles won't pay terribly for them.  Those memories were intolerable to her -- does she really want them back?

[Method of Madness]

Honestly?

As someone who's followed QC for near eight years, bought books, bought my wife a bear monster shirt, and owns Pintsize and Winslow plushes.... yes.  This story arc does feel like a jump the shark moment.

I blame Alice Grove. 
Nah, joking aside, I welcome the leaping of this here Hammerhead hurdle. As far from the comic's starting premise as it seems to me to be, I find it quite exciting!

The end of QC is going to be the beginning of Alice Grove.
Pintsize is Alice.

As valid a guess as any!

[Is it cold in here?]

If the strip never changed that would be a kind of death.

[jwhouk]

Now I'm gonna hear Annie Lennox voicing Alucard...

Sent from my Nextbook on Tapatalk

[Tova]

They may not require a direct 'price' but I'd be more concerned about the 'favour' they ask for some time later in exchange for not betraying Emily to the NSA for unauthorised access of all the classified defence data in Bubbles's head.

I think that you are missing the point: "No strings attached" only means that they won't directly ask Bubbles for anything; what Bubbles might offer them in exchange for not shopping Emily is another matter altogether. That's her choice, not a 'string attached'.

I think I'm missing it as well, I'm afraid. Blackmail and volunteered assistance are somewhat different things.

[BenRG]

In the criminal mind, or those minds for whom typical ideas of ethics are curious alien cultural artefacts, they are essentially indistinguishable.

[Case]

In the criminal mind, or those minds for whom typical ideas of ethics are curious alien cultural artefacts, they are essentially indistinguishable.

Uhmmmmhnope? Blackmail requires the blackmailer to take action/do work, voluntary assistance doesn't?

Pretty sure that whoever you have in mind wouldn't fail to notice the difference.

[CrowFairy]

My head feels fuzzy today, so I'm not entirely up-to-date on the thread. I saw a conversation about the color of the agent's eyes and how we would classify them.

I finally came up with "mulberry" and looked it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_(color)

If you do the drop-downs toward the bottom of the page, you can see other colors in the same range.

The color that was linked earlier: http://www.color-hex.com/color/961851

It looks most like red-violet (distinct from red violet), amaranth purple, magenta dye, and telemagenta. I'm personally leaning toward telemagenta.


Also, has anyone suggested that they merely scan Bubbles? Surely Station has the tech to scan without triggering any sensitive systems.

[BenRG]

Pretty sure that whoever you have in mind wouldn't fail to notice the difference.

They're welcome to; the criminal just doesn't have to care about that.

"Did you hear us demand something in exchange for not doing this? No! we're just, as a professional courtesy, letting you know that we're tossing Azuma to the wolves; she's far too dangerous to leave in circulation. Now, on a completely different subject, there's the guy in town that we really, really don't like..."

"Are you asking me to kill someone for you in exchange for you not destroying that young woman's life?"

"We don't know... Why, is that the offer that you're making to us?"

[Case]

"we're just, as a professional courtesy, letting you know that we're tossing Azuma to the wolves"

Even in that further narrowed example you present here (you've already implicitly given up the claim to generality that your previous post implies): That's two actions already - communicating the threat to the victim (exposing yourself - which necessitates further measures from you in order to safeguard yourself against repercussions arising from the target seeking help, e.g. from the police, or seeking vengeance), and setting up the threat (in this case, creating a situation that is threatening the well-being of Emily) that is intended to spur the target into doing smth. they would not normally do. Not to mention the work implied in finding out precisely what action would be likely to make the target pliable.

Voluntary help, otoh, would only require you to communicate your need.

Again, no matter their psychological abnormalities, the criminals you have in mind would not fail to notice the difference between "Intense, risky work and preparation were necessary to create a situation that made them perform an action beneficiary to me" and "I just needed to tell them what I needed".

[BenRG]

I still don't get why you're over-analysing it. You seem to think that someone would care about the difference.

[Kugai]

While I believe that Marten, Faye, Dora and Co will still be the main Core Cast of the Comic, there coes a point where storylines have to change and alter or the Comic simply begins to recycle itself and you begin to loose your readers.

Jeph has shown a willingness to innovate and introduce interesting and diverse characters in order to maintain our interest and keep us both reading and speculating on where he's going next.  This may be one of those moments and I'm well and truly intrigued to see where the current Story Arc is going.

[Storel]

Now I'm gonna hear Annie Lennox voicing Alucard...

Now I'm envisioning "Alucard" doing karaoke of "Walking on Broken Glass"...

[Tova]

If you've given your word that there are no string attached, and you never lie, the difference matters a great deal.

[oeoek]

A couple of things have me wondering. 'Darling, we think you know what we are'. One thing is the 'what we are'. Not 'who we are'... I guess we are talking a very distinct group or organization here, with a clear goal. And while Bubbles does not react to the statement in itself, her consent in the end indicates she does have an idea, and seems to trust them... What does Bubbles know that we don't?

And would I trust someone looking like Emily in panel 2 to mess with my brain?

[danuis]

I think we keep forgetting that this is a world where:

1) Artifical Intelligence exists and it has human, or Turing grade, capability of sapience/sophence.
2) During the adventures of the gang, the FRIGGIN SINGULARITY happened.

Those two things already have, for all intents and purposes, and especially the latter, removed humanity from the focus if we were looking at the world as a whole. From that point forward, Humans are less 'Masters of the world' to 'partners' to 'pets' or, more amicably, 'birds' compared to the AIs. Humans are around, sure, they have their wars and their nation states and populace, but now you have a whole new form of life alongside and increasingly independent of Humanity. And as the first few generations of AI who worked with humanity are superseded by post-singularity AI, stuff like this where Faye herself is more and more 'powerless', for lack of a better world, will logically occur.

For now, I'm interested with how Jeph will compose this storyline. It's not #1777/#1780 anymore, the greater world that QC has built is showing up, is all, at least how I'm seeing it.