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Emily just erased the memories that were disguised as Monooculus Trihornus.

This room is a blind trap and the Memories are actually hidden behind the back wall which is a very cleverly disguised Security Firewall.

The memories exist, but Corpse Witch has actually removed them and has them stored in a place only she knows while implanting a false memory about the Encryption Key.

This isn't actually the room with the locked memories - THAT is hidden elsewhere and this has been a false trail.

There is no spoon. Wait... I mean, there are no memories. It's all a bluff CW used to control Bubbles.

No wait, I know what really is going on, and I will explain all in ludicrous detail in the thread below.

[Is it cold in here?]

EG's reaction and facial expression make it believable that success was genuinely important to them and that failure left them too gut-punched to keep up the swagger.

Getting back to what Zoe said about the Creepy Collective's values, they don't intervene in poverty, anti-robot racism, or unfair treatment by parole departments. But let them catch word of a mind-rape and the gloves come off. I can respect that.

So, does Officer Basilisk re-appear? After a mysterious leak triggers a corruption scandal that sends several of her superiors to prison? The EG collective does seem to prefer working in the shadows.

[Storel]

Anticlimactic is the word, all right. I just didn't expect Creepybot's utility suite to be so powerful that breaking a powerful encryption and overcoming protective malware would be so easy that Emily -- who, we thought, was selected for her quirky brilliance, for what she could add to the fight -- never had to do anything more than turn a key and pull a trigger. And then to find there's simply nothing there on top of that? Huh.

I guess Emily was selected more for her emotional detachment than her brilliance -- that Creepybot figured if the memories were still there, Emily would be less likely to be traumatized by them than, say, Faye. Which makes sense, in a way; anybody who could be that blase about vomiting probably is less prone to emotional trauma than most people. But still, some explanations would have been nice.

[Zog]

It looks to me as if Creepybot left behind her tools. Maybe Emily will go back in and find the memories.

[BenRG]

No, sorry Jeph. I fully understand the desire on your part to fast-track this part of Bubbles' story and move on to its consequences. I also understand the urge to introduce an interesting new character when they pop into your brain. However, the whole way this arc has been handled has just been on long narrative hand-wave. Simply put, there was no need to use Creepybot whatsoever. It would have been just as simple to use existing characters like Station and 'one of my colleagues who has an out-of-the-box idea on how to fix this'. This would avoid creating expectations for the Creepybot character that are never going to be fulfilled.

Okay, that aside, it looks like Jeph is going with the 'the memories were erased - be it malice or incompetence matters not' angle (once again downgrading Corpse Witch as a threat by several notches). I think it's pretty obvious that the rest of this week will be Faye trying to help Bubbles come to terms with the fact that she's lost some very important things; she'll never remember her squad-mates faces or be able to recall their fates, something that I'm sure was important to her as remembering them would give their sacrifice meaning. It's hard to understate just how devastating that fact will be to her.

Yeah, I'm disappointed in this outcome. Jeph could have done some excellent things with this character and this set-up but chose to just use it as window-dressing for a hand-wave of the whole dilemma. I guess we need to move forwards but I'm sorry to say that this was one of his worse arcs because of how it was handled and how it was resolved.

[anahata]

I'm disappointed in this outcome. Jeph could have done some excellent things with this character and this set-up but chose to just use it as window-dressing for a hand-wave of the whole dilemma. I guess we need to move forwards but I'm sorry to say that this was one of his worse arcs because of how it was handled and how it was resolved.

I'm open to the possibility that it's not fully resolved, and that the inclusion of EG in the plot is going to be relevant to what follows.
If it does fizzle out meaninglessly, I'll be disappointed too...

[USS Martenclaire]

Aye. I suspect we haven't seen the last of Creepybot and hopefully when Bubbles wakes up, we'll get a little background from her on them.

[pwhodges]

My disappointment in this storyline continues to increase.

[Cheesefondue]

My disappointment in this storyline continues to increase.

I'm the complete opposite. I was expecting to get disappointed because the eminence grise solves all the problems for them. Instead, it's added a layer of mystery (where did the memories go?) and tension (how could such powerful AIs fail?). This is the groups first attempt to solve the problem, and it fails; they're right back to the beginning. In a movie, this would be about 80% of the way in...

[JRDelirio]

Okay, that aside, it looks like Jeph is going with the 'the memories were erased - be it malice or incompetence matters not' angle (once again downgrading Corpse Witch as a threat by several notches). I think it's pretty obvious that the rest of this week will be Faye trying to help Bubbles come to terms with the fact that she's lost some very important things; she'll never remember her squad-mates faces or be able to recall their fates, something that I'm sure was important to her as remembering them would give their sacrifice meaning. It's hard to understate just how devastating that fact will be to her.

This also involves some aspects of the AI mind vs. human mind scenario -- we know a human mind undergoing a traumatic experience may experience amnesiac episodes about detail ("I turned around to ask what was up and next thing I knew I was waking up in this hospital room; people TELL me what happened") but the subconscious can still be subject to triggers (a smell, a sound, a phrase).  An AI mind unless something actually corrupted the data would be expected to record and recall faithfully the experience.  CW claimed to be able to mitigate Bubbles' condition by leaving her only with general knowledge of what had happened (she remembers things like that they gave her the nickname, so she is not devoid of ALL memories about her service) and that it was bad, but suppressing things like looking into the eyes of a dying man, seeing someone choose to make a suicide run rather than burn in place, and feeling powerless knowing they could not possibly survive but she'd come out with broken but repairable parts.  Bubbles' situation now is extremely distressing, as any actual details of what DID happen are most likely classified and whatever the incident was, if bad enough to be part of the rethink of the notion of men and droids fighting together, conflicting info about it is probably making the rounds of conspiracy sites in distorted forms.

[brasca]

I think it's premature to conclude the memories are gone forever and this the last we'll see of Creepy Bot.  If Corpse Witch could seemingly compile all of Bubbles memories into what appeared to be a monster what could stop her from copying the memories to keep in a separate storage facility?  Consider Creepy Bot's last words to Faye.  It is entirely within their ability to subvert this situation for their own purposes and then implores her to be there for Bubbles when she wakes up.  Perhaps Creepy Bot suspects Corpse Witch has the memories and wants to pay her a visit before Bubbles does.  And even if the memories are gone for good after what seemed like the beginning of a fantastic mission the outcome isn't always going to be success.  Sometimes it will fall flat on its face.  Bubbles knew the risk and she agreed to it twice.  She agreed to let Corpse Witch encrypt the memories so it would stop haunting her and she agreed to let Creepy Bot try to retrieve it. 

I can see the next few strips dealing with Bubbles coming to terms with the loss, but wouldn't be shocked if when she returns to confront Corpse Witch she finds her missing or in pieces because Creepy Bot got exactly what they wanted all along. 

[mikmaxs]

Yeah, I'm disappointed in this outcome. Jeph could have done some excellent things with this character and this set-up but chose to just use it as window-dressing for a hand-wave of the whole dilemma. I guess we need to move forwards but I'm sorry to say that this was one of his worse arcs because of how it was handled and how it was resolved.

For once, I think you and I are in pretty much agreement. I was immediately interested by this storyline and the incredibly diverse story options it presented. Having your own memories being held captive by a third party who uses it to control you is a really cool idea. Adding the twist that the memories were bad and undesired, but still wanted, gives an extra little twist that makes this a top-notch setup, the kind of stuff that really great sci-fi stories are built off of. How do you stop someone like that? How do you beat her? Comparisons could be made to abusive relationships, blackmail, even slavery, but none of them are perfect fits because it's such a cool, unique situation.

Then creepy robot lady showed up, and I was like 'Oh, so you're just going to solve the problem through that, okay'. It felt kind of hand-wavey, since these creepy robots had never been seen or heard of before, and yet were immensely, even unfathomably more powerful than all of Hannelore's connections, who we've seen in the past to have cartoonish amounts of power.
When they brought up Emily, though, I was more along the lines of, 'OH! That's kind of neat! Because you've established that she's also absurdly smart, so they'll be using her skills in combination with theirs in order to do the hack!' It was still a bit of a letdown since it was such a quick unravelling of the original concept, but it was a neat idea.

Now, though? Emily didn't actually do anything that a middle-schooler with basic motor skills couldn't have managed, the actual quest inside Bubbles' brain wasn't particularly deep or interesting, and the final reveal was hugely anticlimactic. At this point, the story is basically over - Bubbles has no reason to continue working for Corpse Witch. In fact, Bubbles has no reason not to go to the cops and turn Corpse Witch over, or simply just go down to the skate park and use her military-grade chassis to beat Corpse Witch into a scrap heap.

Barring some extra twist that fixes everything, (And I don't honestly think Jeph's skillset includes masterfully intricate plot twists, seeing as his stories have never actually used any,) I just don't see this story resolving itself in any satisfying way. At the very least, I'm not interested in what's going to happen next, because it's just a question of what method Bubbles wants to use to go through anger management.

[WareWolf]

It's slightly odd for an entity that never lies to use the phrase, 'to be honest.'

This is an excellent point. As a criminal defense attorney, I get lied to a LOT. And one of the surest tells is "I ain't gonna lie to you..."

[WareWolf]

I'm disappointed in this outcome. Jeph could have done some excellent things with this character and this set-up but chose to just use it as window-dressing for a hand-wave of the whole dilemma. I guess we need to move forwards but I'm sorry to say that this was one of his worse arcs because of how it was handled and how it was resolved.

I'm open to the possibility that it's not fully resolved, and that the inclusion of EG in the plot is going to be relevant to what follows.
If it does fizzle out meaninglessly, I'll be disappointed too...

Seconded. I'll keep reading, because I still have some hope for a non-lame resolution. Some.

[Mad Cat]

[Radium_Coyote]

This was an interesting diversion, but it does put everything right back at Faye attempting to solve things the old Fashioned way, with a lot less on the line now.  I hope Bubbles hasn't lost sight of her own longer-term goals, there's a lot of opportunity for this story to get messier.

[dsvella]

Throwing in my £0.02:

As a start, I have been very interested in this arc. The idea of a computer mind being treated much like a hard drive is an interesting one and the concept of someone opening it up and messing with the contents is also pretty cool. I also think that Emily's role isn't done here. I see a more forensic investigation to answer the question that must be on her mind "Were the memories ever here, to begin with?"

For me, the interesting is looking forward to the next comics. Firstly, Bubbles isn't going to stay at the skate park that is pretty much a given. I suspect her meeting with corpse witch is either going to be spectacular or non-existent. After that then what? Faye still needs work and now so will Bubbles. Fay's work has been what has helped her with her drink problem.

I also would like to see the situation of Bubbles going to the military to make enquiries (again assuming that the memories still exist).

[Neko_Ali]

People seem to be forgetting that her memories are only one of the things Bubbles was worried about if they turn in Corpse Witch. There's also all the other robots at the skate park. Bubbles has nothing to keep her there now, unless CW pulls out some other leverage she's been keeping secrets.. Like say she still has those memories, downloaded to another source. But even if Corpse Witch has no more hold over Bubbles, will she just walk away from the other robots there?

[hedgie]

CW might start go get a lot thinner after Bubbles is done with her.

[Penquin47]

They may have needed Emily because someone else's mind - like Faye, or even Clinton - wouldn't be able to construct the mindscape to poke around in.  Once in there, all Emily had to do was follow the video game tutorial, but that's because she was able to construct the mindscape to BE that easy.  Faye wouldn't know what to do.  Clinton would go in expecting hard and therefore the mindscape would be hard.  Emily thought it sounded like a fun challenge and why not?

[Kugai]

That.....

Cant be it, that can't be it!!


There has to be more to this than that.  And I think Faye may feel the same way

[Perfectly Reasonable]

I think I have made the reasons for my dissatisfaction very clear.

I'll say again: too much has been invested in the buildup for it to be over like this.

For one thing GreyCreep has given up on those memories way too easily.

[Akima]

So far, this storyline has been a damp squib for me, full of ideas not really followed through, and ending (apparently, at least) with an anticlimax.

[jheartney]

Looking back, I'll say that this storyline proceeded nicely. Perhaps our CGI-movie-conditioned selves expected more razzle-dazzle in the mindscape panels, and a longer bit of struggle with overcoming the encryption lock. But doing that would have been a lot of work to pull off, and wouldn't have added anything important to the story. (I think lots of Hollywood CGI-fest movies buy lots of pointless computer-generated spectacle, and are poorer as a result.) Introducing the Grey One adds another layer to the world-building of QC, but we don't learn enough about them to nail down their exact place in the order of things. Like the earlier throwaway reference to "Gary," this adds to a vague sense that the commanding heights of the new post-singularity world are much different from ours, but doesn't spell out how (which is fine, I think).

What this storyline does do is move us past the old status quo of "Bubbles and Faye as wacky pals at the skate park." We get more of a sense of Bubbles as a tragic figure, and at the same time pay off all those "hmmms" aimed at Corpse Witch. Faye and Bubbles' bond is strengthened, so now we can start a new status quo for these two in some new venture (assuming Bubbles doesn't end up taking over the robot fights).

[Is it cold in here?]

My disappointment in this storyline continues to increase.

I'm the complete opposite. I was expecting to get disappointed because the eminence grise solves all the problems for them. Instead, it's added a layer of mystery (where did the memories go?) and tension (how could such powerful AIs fail?). This is the groups first attempt to solve the problem, and it fails; they're right back to the beginning. In a movie, this would be about 80% of the way in...

Welcome, new person!

CheeseFondue has a good point that when the first attempt fails it's not the end of the story.

[Shmee]

I've been itching to say it, but Creepybot looks JUST like Desire from Sandman.

[Is it cold in here?]

What state of consciousness is Bubbles in?

Her CPU is running. She's not conscious but is holding a conversation.

[davidv]

I though this story arc was pretty awesome. This comic doesn't do much but slice of life and I think we're seeing a setup of the wider universe. If it had taken weeks of searching people would have been dissatisfied with the pacing and demanded the arc end sooner.

[FuzzyFace]

Now that's an interesting followup. I had thought them gone; if malevolent and deceptive, this was totally unnecessary.

[TheEvilDog]

Just goes to show that you can't judge a book by it's cover.

Though the AIbino did appear to have a malevolent vibe coming off them, they truly did seem to have the best intentions for Bubbles.

Which raises a possible point for this collective AI. They might not quite be the boogeymen of the AI world, but rather they watch out for the worst offenders and help their victims in the AI community. They might be brusque in dealing with people outside of that community and they might affect the slightly sinister appearance, but that might be for show. Its possible that they want people to keep out of their way, or the AI/Chassis version of poisonous animal colouring; the stark appearance and duo tone sends out a clear message - Keep Away.

Dark is not always evil and good doesn't have to be nice.

[DSL]

I think it premature to act as though this storyline is over.

[ZoeB]

I though this story arc was pretty awesome. This comic doesn't do much but slice of life and I think we're seeing a setup of the wider universe.

Bubbles is in good hands. From this strip, so is humanity, and everyone else.

If they weren't in the background, they'd sorta dominate this whole "Life" thing. Omnipotent they're not, either, and ethically constrained from becoming so. They only intervene in issues they in their inscrutable - but not *that* inscrutable - ethical philosophy think are *Important* . Matters of principle.

But it is necessary for the QCverse that they exist, there have been hints before. Which is why Roccos Basilisk in the QCverse is merely a cop of uncertain ability, trying to do the right thing, not the name of the Big Bad that destroyed everything after the Singularity.

Their existence answers many questions about how the rather innocent postSingularity QCverse can exist.

Just forget about them, or rather, put them to the back of your mind, and concentrate on what's important around you. Hugs. Healing. Kindness. In the QCverse and in real life. Aim to be better, as they do too. None of us have manuals, just guidelines.

[Method of Madness]

No text on the bottom right. Interesting.

[ZoeB]

I think it premature to act as though this storyline is over.

While you may be right, it was *necessary* that something like EG/AIbino exist. It was plausible that they'd find what was done to Bubbles a really bad precedent, worse than mere murder. But having briefly and with no fuss decloaked, they'll now depart.

CW's existence is about to become complicated and interesting though.

[SomeCanadianWeirdo]

I hope our mystery friend has dealings with May.  I suspect May will either be completely freaked out by her, or completely unimpressed.

[Celly]

...So was I right about nanobot swarm? 

I do hope we will see more from Legion in the future.  I quite like them.

[mikmaxs]

Looking back, I'll say that this storyline proceeded nicely. Perhaps our CGI-movie-conditioned selves expected more razzle-dazzle in the mindscape panels, and a longer bit of struggle with overcoming the encryption lock. But doing that would have been a lot of work to pull off, and wouldn't have added anything important to the story. (I think lots of Hollywood CGI-fest movies buy lots of pointless computer-generated spectacle, and are poorer as a result.) Introducing the Grey One adds another layer to the world-building of QC, but we don't learn enough about them to nail down their exact place in the order of things. Like the earlier throwaway reference to "Gary," this adds to a vague sense that the commanding heights of the new post-singularity world are much different from ours, but doesn't spell out how (which is fine, I think).

I think you're kind of misunderstanding the complaints here. We're not saying that it was solved too fast because it was visually uninteresting or didn't literally take a long time, we're saying that it was solved too fast because none of the characters had to struggle or overcome anything. There's some rising and falling action when they discover Bubbles' problem and start brainstorming ways to try and decrypt the information, (Contacting Station, talking about the problem with each other, trying to come up with alternative ways.)
Then a character we've never heard of or seen before just shows up, hands over the key, and solves the problem. They imply that Emily needs to do it, but then just hand her all the tools she needs to do it - She doesn't explore, they hand her a teleporting map. She doesn't open the lock, they hand her the key. She doesn't overcome the bad guy, they hand her a gun.

The only conflict lies in 'Do we trust this creepy robot or not?', and that question is moot, because they are OBVIOUSLY going to accept, because otherwise there's no story motion.

So it's serviceable as an emotional beat, but the plot was clearly building up to something greater than that. If they wanted to simply reveal that the memories were deleted, they just could have brought in Station, who could poke around for a moment and be like 'Yo, there's nothing here,' but instead the story decided to introduce a threat that was vastly too big to ever be solved by our characters, only to then hand over the solution within a couple of pages of presenting the issue. It's the comic equivalent of an RPG dungeon with a key sitting in the box right next to the door.

[Method of Madness]

If you really think nobody's struggling, I don't think we're reading the same comic.

[mikmaxs]

If you really think nobody's struggling, I don't think we're reading the same comic.

Emotional turbulence is not the same thing as struggling to complete a goal. There was a problem presented that needed to be solved: How do we get Bubbles' memories back? And then the solution just appeared from thin air, mere moments after being introduced. I go pretty in-depth in explaining what I mean by this, so I'm not sure how you read my post and decided that I was talking about anything except the problem solving done by these characters during this arc.

[Clubman8]

Yeah, I knew with how rushed this was that this little deus ex machina anticlimax would end as such. I'm just glad it's over.

I hate to be one of those people, but can we go back to Marten now? We've spent long enough chasing this no-outcome plot.

[War Sparrow]

I am starting to wonder if Creepy are, in fact, from the government, checking in on former military AI they suspect of being exploited, or of having psychological issues.. The sort of government employee that isn't encouraged to mention their employer. And maybe not one that's officially on the books.

I have no real basis for this except the private discussion here.

[Celly]

It was more fun reading the comic when I didn't read community commentary that tries really hard to ruin it.

[Killspree]

Random thought that just hit me.

What if Agent Creepybot was actually Corpse Witch in a different chassis?

Maybe she's been on overwatch on Bubbles the whole time and it's all been a deep cover smoke and mirrors job the whole time.

[Wagimawr]

Why are we assuming that just because the memories are not in Bubbles anymore...that they're actually gone forever?

[mikmaxs]

Why are we assuming that just because the memories are not in Bubbles anymore...that they're actually gone forever?

Because that's the way Jeph is telegraphing it. Yes, the information all comes from subjective sources and could *technically* be wrong, but since nobody in-story has even raised the question of 'What if it's saved elsewhere?', it is either a case where that possibility is never going to come up, or else Jeph is simply awful at foreshadowing or plotting out storylines, and I don't want to believe that the latter is true.

[Is it cold in here?]

Random thought that just hit me.

What if Agent Creepybot was actually Corpse Witch in a different chassis?

Maybe she's been on overwatch on Bubbles the whole time and it's all been a deep cover smoke and mirrors job the whole time.

That would account for the smugness!  Also for the antipathy to squishies. What doesn't fit is the encouragement for Bubbles to rely on her organic friends. CW has constantly tried to drive emotional wedges between Bubbles and the carbon-based.

In other business, welcome, new people!

A final thought is that Eminence Gris did at last refer to the organics as "people" so they're not the worst sort of racist.

[BenRG]

That panel 5 though! Damn you, Jeph, I'm not crying! You're crying!

Seriously, you can say a lot about how Creepybot feels about Bubbles as a person and their personal responsibility towards her that, instead of leaving it to Faye and Emily to explain, they decided to do it themselves. So, not the 'intelligence without a consciousness' or, if they started out that way, time and processing of input changed them considerably.

So, no, Bubbles, you haven't been left with 'nothing'. You've been left with friends to help rebuild your life and move forwards. That may not seem like so much but something tells me that you'll look back on it as a major step in your life.

[pwhodges]

I guess we now get back to the personal interactions that Jeph does so well; that I can look forward to.

[gopher]

I tend to view stories through the prism of being a role-player and a ref. I would expect as a player, and intend to as a ref, to deliver a big old twist in the tail. Otherwise big bad being defeated by an NPC is the laziest kind of writing there is.

[Shjade]

I think you're kind of misunderstanding the complaints here. We're not saying that it was solved too fast because it was visually uninteresting or didn't literally take a long time, we're saying that it was solved too fast because none of the characters had to struggle or overcome anything. There's some rising and falling action when they discover Bubbles' problem and start brainstorming ways to try and decrypt the information, (Contacting Station, talking about the problem with each other, trying to come up with alternative ways.)
Then a character we've never heard of or seen before just shows up, hands over the key, and solves the problem.

In turn, I think you may be misunderstanding "the problem." Bubbles' memories and whether or not they can be recovered are really more symptom than cause. The driving conflict here isn't "will Bubbles recover her memories?" It's an important part, to be sure, but not the core struggle.

The bigger issue is how Bubbles is going to choose to change, or not, how she lives her life in the immediate future. Whether she recovers her memories contributes to that, no doubt, but that's the major shift in play. Faye cares about getting Bubbles' memories back not for the memories themselves, but because of what they would mean for Bubbles' continued integration back into a real life after having spent so much time purposely isolated and underground. This is a struggle that's exacerbated by the present circumstances for reasons others have already posted in this thread re: trauma and loss and etc., and it certainly wasn't "solved" by anything that happened in the last week.

That said, everything about this stretch with the anon android has felt pretty amateur hour. I'm not gonna dissect it - not worth the time or energy - it's just been a weak approach to what could have been an interesting turn, a hand wave as someone posted earlier, and it was probably a mistake to devote this much space to, essentially, an excuse to move on to more important parts of the story. Hell, in QC fashion this all could've happened off-page and been brought up as someone's one-liner CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED with minimal explanation of what even transpired, make the nonsensical nature of it sort of a meta joke, but eh, whatever. Sometimes misses happen.

[oeoek]

Hmm, Creepy Grey did do well in this telling Bubbles the outcome and not leaving it to the meaties to disappoint her. And her consolation shows care for Bubbles. All in all not a creepy way to end this action.