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Unicorn Valley and Pegasus Cove; Emily must save her Little Ponies from the Corpse Witch!

Pyroland (Because it's Emily's interpretation);

TRON-style neon blue-on-eternal night;

Bizarro Northampton with QC characters as avatars of parts of Bubbles' psyche;

A battlefield and a battle Emily must help Bubbles win;

Animé world with Corpse Witch as the Dark Queen;

RL Halifax (Jeph: "The Matrix has your friends, Emily!");

Adventure Time with Bembo and the Wolf Queen!

"Emily Azuma? My name is Alice Grove; welcome to the year 7016AD. Welcome to the future."

A 'straight' virtual datascape like something from The Lawnmower Man;

Other (Please specify in comments).

[BenRG]

I don't know how quickly Jeph will move to the actual plot segment where Emliy goes spelunking into the depths of Bubbles' mind seeking to break the encryption lock. However, one wonders how Jeph will present the inside of Bubbles' mind so that Emily can interpret the memory and processes with which she is interfacing. The scenarios presented in my poll are all, to a greater or lesser extent, a 'narrative' world where Emily must seek the destruction of the encryption to reach a 'win state' and filled with various metaphorical avatars that represent parts of Bubbles' psyche, most importantly her fears and hopes.

... With the exception of options 7 and 9, which are intended to be "double-back somersaults over a hammerhead shark" options.

Personally, as I said last week, I think that Emily will probably end up in Unicorn Valley. Given that the mystical horse hallucinations seem to have been established as Bubbles' 'happy place', I can see her inner mindscape using the same concepts and symbolism to present her inner reality to a visitor. This will include a mental avatar using the form of Corpse Witch as a poorly-written comic-book villain which will end up turning out to be either a 'watchdog' process trying to stop anyone from attempting to beat the encryption or Bubbles' own fear of her memories trying to block the de-encryption.

What do you guys think?

[jheartney]

They could do the Deep Space Nine treatment, and have familiar characters show up speaking in a void, where the characters are all avatars of some part of Bubbles' psyche. May as her anger, Hanners as her fastidiousness, Momo as her sense of guilt, Emily as her intelligence, Punchbot as her physicality, Faye as her love, and Pintsize as the encryption lock.

[osaka]

[...] and Pintsize as the encryption lock.

This can only make sense if the password is highly explicity horsecock hentai.

[Kugai]

"The Bubbles is of Northhampton."

[jheartney]

[...] and Pintsize as the encryption lock.

This can only make sense if the password is highly explicity horsecock hentai.

With Pintsize as the lock, you can be sure there's a way in through the back door.

[Storel]

Rats, my finger slipped. Is there any way I can change my vote? I tried hitting the Back button and changing my entry, and it gave me an error thinking I was trying to vote twice.

[osaka]

[...] and Pintsize as the encryption lock.

This can only make sense if the password is highly explicity horsecock hentai.

With Pintsize as the lock, you can be sure there's a way in through the back door.

... Fuck you're right

[Is it cold in here?]

Rats, my finger slipped. Is there any way I can change my vote? I tried hitting the Back button and changing my entry, and it gave me an error thinking I was trying to vote twice.

It's up to the poll originator whether the poll allows changing votes (if memory serves).

[Method of Madness]

My only issue is 7016 is way too early. AG takes place five thousand years after the Blink, which happened after a long war that was preceded by technology far beyond today. So I'd be surprised if the Blink was less than a thousand years from now.

[Tova]

Strip's up.

That's a lot of doors. I guess she's looking for one with a big complicated combination lock?

[Is it cold in here?]

I like the Golden Age feel to the last panel.

What kind of person relishes being hated as much as AC does?

[Tova]

The type that always speaks the truth.

[Is it cold in here?]

There were lots of scrupulously honest things to say that wouldn't have had the same emotional effect.

AC may not really have the claimed degree of power. Rubbing other people's noses in your superiority is the mark of the emotionally insecure.

[Tova]

There were lots of scrupulously honest things to say that wouldn't have had the same emotional effect.

I can't think of anything to say that would have been as convincingly honest. Maybe you can.

[Carl-E]

I love the perspective on Emily.  Jeph's been working hard - I remember his first attempt at that type perspective when Marten was sitting on a couch with his head back, and he looked... like half his jaw was missing or something. 


Bubbles has a very compartmentalized mind...

[JimC]

The doors of perception?

[Is it cold in here?]

There were lots of scrupulously honest things to say that wouldn't have had the same emotional effect.

I can't think of anything to say that would have been as convincingly honest. Maybe you can.

"We haven't hurt her ever. We're not going to start. And take it from me, if Bubbles trusts us you can too". Better than a sneer about being more powerful than Faye, something that if it came from an organic person I would attribute to testosterone poisoning.

[Tova]

Fair enough.

I guess they are, indeed, arseholes.

[Skewbrow]

Ok. So this is what the address space of Bubbles' memory looks like from the ... inside (?). But why did they switch to base five?

[BenRG]

Y'know, the more I see of that white-faced thing, the more frightening it gets. It's the complete and total confidence that it has total impunity in everything it does and that only its personal whim that it wants to help in this case is stopping it from causing harm. Something like that is inherently dangerous because a single data packet going left instead of right could lead to a genocide or worse!

As for what Emily sees... I'm wondering if that is Bubbles' FAT file? The central point from where all parts of her memory are organised. From how Bubbles' explained what Corpse Witch has done, Emily will find some walls with no doorways. What she needs to do is find a way to the root of the partitioned drive. I'm guessing that it will be another 'tower' elsewhere in the 'land'.

[JohnnyDevo]

I'll just... leave this... here.




Life has many doors, ed-boy.

[Case]

Bubbles has a very compartmentalized mind...

Memory palace?

Could also simply be the form of representation chosen by the designers of the induction-waggamathingy.

I like the Golden Age feel to the last panel.

What kind of person relishes being hated as much as AC does?

An Abominator-class Limited Offensive Unit, e.g. Through they're actually quite sweet once you get past the hard outer shell of cheerful nihilism and murderous psychosis.

Mostly, that's just them feeling they have a reputation to defend. Mostly ...

[pwhodges]

The strip title is presumably the answer to the poll.

[Is it cold in here?]

Ok. So this is what the address space of Bubbles' memory looks like from the ... inside (?). But why did they switch to base five?

An error correction bit on each nybble.

[Case]

Ok. So this is what the address space of Bubbles' memory looks like from the ... inside (?). But why did they switch to base five?

An error correction bit on each nybble.

Someone took a nibble from each byte? Small wonder she's having memory trouble ...

[BenRG]

It occurs to me that, structurally, an AI's CPU may more closely resemble a human brain than a conventional computer. In which case, this may be an analogue memory domain than a digital one. In which case, the addresses may more represent the synaptic structure and associations than a linear address. Each door may lead to a memory domain where all associative memories are stored with its own doors to other domains that have broader and less direct associations.

In other words, this a maze that may have four spacial dimensions, much like the tesseract at the end of Interstellar.

This is why I suspect that Emily will need to follow a story to find what she's looking for: Memories tend to be associative chains that dwell in contextual domains rather than isolated and self-contained information packets.

[oeoek]

Missing from the poll and dearly missed indeed: She meets Max Headroom... Hello Thththere!

[blt]

Grey seems to have no concept of personal space either.

[BenRG]

No; it's more that she understands the subconscious implications to humans of breaching personal space in terms of social dominance and threat.

EDIT - P.S.:
Possible twist: Emily and Bubbles get trapped in the mindscape and Alucard sends Faye in after them to snap them back into consciousness. When later comparing notes, Bubbles asks Faye why she appeared as an angel; when Emiliy says she didn't appear that way at all, it becomes clear that it was Bubbles mind that interpreted Faye's presence as an angelic visitation.

[brasca]

There were lots of scrupulously honest things to say that wouldn't have had the same emotional effect.

AC may not really have the claimed degree of power. Rubbing other people's noses in your superiority is the mark of the emotionally insecure.

I actually like that there is someone who isn't intimidated one bit by Faye.  There really is no way she could actually retaliate against them in any meaningful way and they are letting her know that.  Moreover, they seem to respect set boundaries to a point.  When Bubbles told them not to antagonize Faye further they respected her request, however, if Faye persists is impotent threats they will set her straight and it's really for her own good.  This is someone on a much higher level than Corpse Witch. 

[danuis]

There were lots of scrupulously honest things to say that wouldn't have had the same emotional effect.

AC may not really have the claimed degree of power. Rubbing other people's noses in your superiority is the mark of the emotionally insecure.

Nah, I'm going to hinge on the post-singularity card here. There is *nothing* that Faye can do. She can what - damage the avatar - if she isn't incapacitated with a flick of a digit first. Then what about the collective mind/faction behind that avatar? Or even the singular mind within it which can just abscond to the cloud without a worry?

A human can do nothing or relatively nothing. Humanity, as a whole, can do nothing; not without a damaging nuclear-EMP war, and even then there is no guarantee for success. The AI is untouchable, and the more the digital/virtual biosphere obtains and builds its own facilities and resources, the less humanity can even do to slight it.

That's just part of the package.

[MrNumbers]

AC may not really have the claimed degree of power. Rubbing other people's noses in your superiority is the mark of the emotionally insecure.

I think it's the exact opposite. I think she is exceptionally secure and has demonstrated she has the degree of power she claims -- she did just turn off Faye's legs, and knocked everyone else out, just 'cause.

No, this is someone who has complete control over the situation, and Faye is trying to do her best to cajole, threaten and intimidate some of it back. And AC doesn't care, and that's making Faye angrier because that's just making the power imbalance even more obvious.

What AC could do would be to offer token promises or exchanges or collateral or anything to make Faye feel she isn't completely helpless in this situation. But she won't, because she doesn't care and she enjoys Faye knowing just how powerless she is. If anyone is being annoyed at someone else's insecurity here, it would be AC for Faye putting on the "bravado and alpha bullshit" getting in her way.

We know that's as much Faye's profound loyalty as much as anything else. But yeah. Nah.

One must imagine AC as the protagonist to her own story, and see how Faye looks from that perspective.

[A small perverse otter]

Is Jeph setting Agent CreepyPasta up for a fall? Or does Bubbles 'remember' them because of something in the memories Emily is about to unlock?

[WareWolf]

What kind of person relishes being hated as much as AC does?

The Devil.

[markt1964]

AC may not really have the claimed degree of power. Rubbing other people's noses in your superiority is the mark of the emotionally insecure.

I think it's the exact opposite. I think she is exceptionally secure and has demonstrated she has the degree of power she claims -- she did just turn off Faye's legs, and knocked everyone else out, just 'cause.

No... if she were exceptionally secure, she would have no need to verbally remind anyone of anything.  Any verbal threats against her are just so much meaningless noise, and no purpose is served by verbally challenging them with the claim that there is nothing they could do because at worst, it could create a psychological impetus to try.  Unless they *want* humans to try and attack them so they would have a just reason to retaliate and eliminate mankind altogether,  this is not a reasonable response.  Otherwise, such comments are best ignored as being equivalent to silence, or at most something that is just incomprehensible and meaningless.   I am not suggesting that they are not as powerful or capable as they might seem, but only that even if they are that powerful, that they are still (ironically) woefully insecure about it... and such insecurities are, in fact, a weakness... one that may even be exploitable.

[Kugai]

It'll be the red door maked 'Beware of the Leopard'

[cesium133]

It'll be the red door maked 'Beware of the Leopard'

Perhaps Emily can hitchhike her way there.

[WareWolf]

Given AC's (have we settled on that name now?) clear disdain for us humans, I'm terrified for Emily now. They're entirely capable of sacrificing her without a nanosecond's thought.

[pwhodges]

Could our inscrutable interloper be one of Bubbles's former commanding officers, I wonder?

[DonInKansas]

Emily does not skip leg day.

[Storel]

Ok. So this is what the address space of Bubbles' memory looks like from the ... inside (?). But why did they switch to base five?

Because there wasn't enough room to draw walls with ten doors per wall? Or eight?

[celticgeek]

Or sixteen?

[Tova]

It's a virtual environment created purely for Emily's benefit.

It was created to allow Emily's brain to process it, not to have any kind of physical correspondence with Bubbles' memory.

[brasca]

Given AC's (have we settled on that name now?) clear disdain for us humans, I'm terrified for Emily now. They're entirely capable of sacrificing her without a nanosecond's thought.

I think it's more indifference than disdain. 

[Storel]

New comic!

Huh, I would have expected the lock to look much more insanely complicated. Perhaps the complexity is all on the inside?

[WareWolf]

Given AC's (have we settled on that name now?) clear disdain for us humans, I'm terrified for Emily now. They're entirely capable of sacrificing her without a nanosecond's thought.

I think it's more indifference than disdain.

Which means Emily's in even more trouble.

[Tova]

New comic!

Huh, I would have expected the lock to look much more insanely complicated. Perhaps the complexity is all on the inside?

That's what I was expecting as well. It leaves me wondering how she's going to interact with that. Maybe a giant key will now materialise.

I hope she's not affected by what's inside.

[Case]

Panel 4 reminds me a bit of what owning a Kindle paperwhite has done to my reading habits: I catch myself tapping the newspaper, expecting to get a dictionary entry ... 

[Kugai]

Something tells me that this is going to be an insanely complicated, extremely difficult and hazardous undertaking on the same level as taking the Ring to Mordor through the Battle of Thermopylae while fending off the entire Cylon Fleet simultaneously

Or Cropse Witch lied and she's gonna have that unlocked in five seconds flat.

[WoaLG]

"You cannot fast travel when enemies are nearby." - Not Emily's map.