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Brun and the Mystery of Elliott (Why Does He React That Way Around Her?)

The Bubbles and Pintsize Show (Is Pintsize dumb or just suicidal?)

Who are that dark-haired guy and his redheaded girlfriend who live with Faye?

Marigold has come to consider Sam her Sensei in the ways of "Let's Play" shows

Hannelore has a personal life too!

The Return of the Bianchis, the worst parents in Northampton!

The Gods Meet to Discuss Creepybot (Station and Dr E-C dialogues)

Bubbles thinks that there is something odd about Emily and wishes to investigate

Time for the adults (specifically, Veronica and Jim) to have a week in the sun

Other

[Sullivan]

I just want to speculate that the reason Bubbles never takes her armor off is because underneath she's the same size and proportions as Momo's original body

Or... maybe that's so, except for the batteries.

[JoeCovenant]

For what it's worth, I've never bought Creepybot's claim that They were only interested in helping Bubbles; oh, that was a bonus but They simply didn't bother to explain Their other motives. No, I suspect that They wanted something from Bubbles' memories. The only remaining hope of getting them now is Corpse Witch's own memory logs of the procedure.

I'm of exactly the same mind in this.
Otherwise, Creepybot has only been a (literal!) Deus Ex Machina.

And I don't think that's Jeph's style...?

[Akima]

"Don't bring a yellow plastic gun to a Neo fight."

[brasca]

So then you know Alice, Church, and Sedna? 

[St.Clair]

The only remaining hope of getting them now is Corpse Witch's own memory logs of the procedure.

I doubt that They will be particularly gentle in extracting them.

Now we find out whether the Squid Collective is sincere when they say they value sanctity of mind. Will they respect Corpse Witch's mental autonomy?

My guess:
They're not going to do anything to her mind, per se.
They're just going to lock her in, and leave her there.
Forever.

YOU HAVE PERHAPS HEARD THE PHRASE THAT HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE?
"Yes, yes of course."
IN TIME, YOU WILL LEARN THAT IT IS WRONG.

[WareWolf]

The only remaining hope of getting them now is Corpse Witch's own memory logs of the procedure.

I doubt that They will be particularly gentle in extracting them.

Now we find out whether the Squid Collective is sincere when they say they value sanctity of mind. Will they respect Corpse Witch's mental autonomy?

My guess:
They're not going to do anything to her mind, per se.
They're just going to lock her in, and leave her there.
Forever.

I think "there" is another "immersive virtual environment" like the one where Creepybot bid Bubbles goodbye. So it would be CW's consciousness locked in, not her chassis or her physical substrate. Someone (Jeremy?) would discover her chassis unresponsive, and by all appearances dead.

Which opens up some interesting lines of inquiry about the nature of AI consciousness, if it can exist apart from the physical core.

[WareWolf]

You look at the AIbino and you're reminded of something that used to hunt humans so long ago.

Its almost as if someone designed the AIbino to be terrifying on so many levels.

Nailed it.

[Zebediah]

Raccoon City

Take me down to the Raccoon City, where the grass is green and the girls are ZOMBIES OH SHIT.

Take me down to the Racoon City, where the trash is full, and the lids are shitty.

When I first heard the song Paradise City, I thought they were singing "Prairie Dog City". I got very confused.

Fun fact: One of Northampton's nicknames is "Paradise City". No idea where it came from, but it's all over the place - there's a Paradise Road on the Smith College campus that runs by Paradise Pond.


As for Corpse Witch - yeah, she's in deep, deep WD-40 now.

[cesium133]

I'd figured we were done with CW and Creepybot. My bad.

Will Jeph actually show CW's fate, or leave us to imagine what Creepybot will inflict on her?

I was guessing that her fate would be revealed in a newspaper headline in the background of the next comic, a comic which would start the next story arc.
.

Have we ever seen any of the QC characters read a newspaper?

My guess: Pintsize breaks the toaster. Marten brings home a new toaster that, unlike all the other toasters, really really hates being a toaster.

[JimC]

Deus execute machina?

[BenRG]

I'd figured we were done with CW and Creepybot. My bad.

Will Jeph actually show CW's fate, or leave us to imagine what Creepybot will inflict on her?

I was guessing that her fate would be revealed in a newspaper headline in the background of the next comic, a comic which would start the next story arc.

I'm guessing that her fate will remain ambiguous unless there is a vital plot reason to specify it. Bubbles will visit the skate park in a few strips' time to be told that 'the Boss' had vanished and that no-one had seen her since the night Bubbles had stormed out.

If her fate is revealed, I'd still like it vague but with a huge dose of Nightmare Fuel. Maybe her chassis with its head open and the AI drive missing will be found leant against a wall somewhere just outside of town. All indications are that she walked there of her own free will opened her own head and pulled out her own drive. There will be some indication that a VTOL of some sort had been in the area but the ATC radar records will show nothing present during the night in question.

[Stoutfellow]

Have we ever seen any of the QC characters read a newspaper?

We saw Faye reading the classified ads after Dora fired her. It's in strip 2906.

[TinPenguin]

Maybe our pale companion is just there to offer her a job.

[Method of Madness]

I'm still mildly amused by Corpse Witch having physical cash and a passport.

[BenRG]

Physical cash is harder to trace than electronic credit; just the sort of thing for a bottom-middle-ranking crook on the run. As for the physical passport? Once again, harder to hack and generally considered 'more legit' than any form of electronic identification (such as an IFF transponder beacon), even as if, as is likely in this case, it is in a false name.

[Method of Madness]

Oh, I absolutely understand why. Still amusing.

[Mordhaus]

"Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name!"

[Morituri]

I think Creepybot probably has a finely nuanced blue-and-orange morality with many, many ambiguous shades of mauve.

For all we know Corpse Witch is going to spend the next five years making a detailed report on all the different species of seagulls or something, unable to remember why this task is so overwhelmingly important but fully aware that her life depends on it.

Or s/he may just turn CW over to officer Basilisk with a big pile of evidence, just as a black-and-white-with-shades-of-gray entity might, but with utterly different reasons for doing so.

[Method of Madness]

"Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name!"

I'm puzzled. What's the nature of their game?

[WareWolf]

If her fate is revealed, I'd still like it vague but with a huge dose of Nightmare Fuel. Maybe her chassis with its head open and the AI drive missing will be found leant against a wall somewhere just outside of town. All indications are that she walked there of her own free will opened her own head and pulled out her own drive.

Ooooooh! I like this.

[WareWolf]

"Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name!"

I'm puzzled. What's the nature of their game?

Whoo-woo!

[themacnut]

The only remaining hope of getting them now is Corpse Witch's own memory logs of the procedure.

I doubt that They will be particularly gentle in extracting them.

Now we find out whether the Squid Collective is sincere when they say they value sanctity of mind. Will they respect Corpse Witch's mental autonomy?

My guess:
They're not going to do anything to her mind, per se.
They're just going to lock her in, and leave her there.
Forever.

I think "there" is another "immersive virtual environment" like the one where Creepybot bid Bubbles goodbye. So it would be CW's consciousness locked in, not her chassis or her physical substrate. Someone (Jeremy?) would discover her chassis unresponsive, and by all appearances dead.

Which opens up some interesting lines of inquiry about the nature of AI consciousness, if it can exist apart from the physical core.

IMO that would look too much like her consciousness was just deleted. That is what many will think upon seeing CW's chassis in that condition, that she was just "murdered".

Far better I think, if it is found that CW's AI core substrate is active, with her consciousness operating, but no matter what they try, not Bubbles, nor Faye, or anyone else will be able to "reach" her. No physical connections will work, wireless signals will get no response. CW will be there, but locked inside her own head, unable to reach the outside world. For extra horror, we see that CW is aware of the attempts to reach her, and she attempts to respond, but no one "hears" her. Eventually they give up and put her AI core on a shelf, and she's last shown screaming desperately for someone, anyone to hear her. Talk about an And I Must Scream scenario...

[pwhodges]

That's almost as if you've been reading the latest couple of chapters of the manga Noragami (in which a spirit which defies heaven is sealed in a tiny box unable to move and unable to die for eternity).

[TheEvilDog]

What's the AI version of a lobotomy?

Because I get the feeling CW is going to suffer one...

[WareWolf]

Far better I think, if it is found that CW's AI core substrate is active, with her consciousness operating, but no matter what they try, not Bubbles, nor Faye, or anyone else will be able to "reach" her. No physical connections will work, wireless signals will get no response. CW will be there, but locked inside her own head, unable to reach the outside world. For extra horror, we see that CW is aware of the attempts to reach her, and she attempts to respond, but no one "hears" her. Eventually they give up and put her AI core on a shelf, and she's last shown screaming desperately for someone, anyone to hear her. Talk about an And I Must Scream scenario...

"But We did not interfere with her mind...it is completely intact."

[jheartney]

Yes, they are.

[USS Martenclaire]

For some reason, the Christmas special episode of Black Mirror popped into my head.

[Sperry]

What's the AI version of a lobotomy?

Because I get the feeling CW is going to suffer one...

I'm a-thinkin' that whatever CreepyBot does to CW, "suffer" does not begin to describe it. She hurt Bubbles. That is a definite no-no.

[Zebediah]

Hurt? Hell, Corpse Witch tried to kill Bubbles. Using code that she implanted in Bubbles years before, making it very premeditated.

And she pulled the trigger with a smile on her face.

[WareWolf]

Hurt? Hell, Corpse Witch tried to kill Bubbles. Using code that she implanted in Bubbles years before, making it very premeditated.

And she pulled the trigger with a smile on her face.

More unforgivable to the Squid was the violation of Bubble's "sanctity of mind," aka "brainfucking."

AI on AI crime may happen every day, but that's what got Their attention.

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3392

[Is it cold in here?]

If you can judge a society by how it treats its prisoners, I am going to judge the Albino Architeuthis by what they do to Corpse Witch.

[Mr_Rose]

What about ye olde "eye for an eye" retribution? As in taking CW's memories of just why she has to run but leaving the knowledge that she must… and also a nasty surprise in case she ever goes poking around to find out.

[haikupoet]

"How long till CSU gets here?"

"Not too long; they're coming from Springfield. But they want Dr Snyder here, and she's gotta come all the way from Waltham. That could be a couple hours, especially if the Pike's backed up." Basilisk had worked with Gina Copperthwaite and Jack Valdez before, and respected them; the rest of the NPD hadn't struck her as being very savvy, and their failure to provide backup had left her having a close encounter with a raccoon one night when C and V had been off duty.

Valdez adjusted one of the antennas on the RDF box. "I don't think there's anything in here but that one signal. Everything's shut down or left."

Copperthwaite swung a flashlight around the dark room, resisting the temptation to open a windowshade before CSU arrived. "Where did everyone go?"

"The other bots don't stay in here," Basilisk noted. "This is just the workshop - they have a shed on the other side of the park. The other team is already over there."

Copperthwaite's flashlight momentarily swept over a crumpled figure of pink plastic. "There she is."

Corpse Witch had neatly removed the top of her head case and placed it on the table next to her. Two flash drives lay neatly on the table next to the shell, and a third had been partially extracted, just enough to break electrical contact. A diagnostic OLED on her wrist flashed an endless loop of "Device not found - core dumped".

Basilisk took a look at the scene and said "Tell the Doc she can stop for coffee if she wants. There won't be much for her to see here."

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Do Androids Scream of Electric Sheep?

Corpse Witch's night mare has begun.

Will the GreyCreep collective recognize her Sanctity of Mind? Of course.
It's preserved in Write Once, Read Only memory for the edification of future generations.

Sigh... I had hoped we would deal with this in a newspaper sidenote sort of way...

[haikupoet]

"Snyder", by the way, is the last name of the most alpha geek I ever met. She was the only person I knew in my university  who owned her own VAX, she went on to become a security badass of some repute, and was drop-dead gorgeous on top of it.

[Kugai]

This will not end pleasently for Corpse Witch

Not pleasently atall.

[Method of Madness]

Something is puzzling me about #3411; what makes Bubbles so sure Corpse Witch knows about Station and Eminence Gris? CW doesn't seem to have a clue in the latest strip, so who or what did she think she was running from? Possibly EG just doesn't look as expected, but I don't see how CW would have any inkling Station could be a threat to her.

True, but she does know that Bubbles both knows that the memories are gone and disabled the virus. There's no way Bubbles would be able to do that without very powerful assistance. So sure, she doesn't know what that assistance is, but she probably also doesn't want to find out.

[miados]

would an ai have someone to pray to when begging for their life?

[Method of Madness]

There are probably machine gods, sure. I'd say it's hard to pray to a god that's torturing you, but that never stopped Job.

[Welu]

Not someone but maybe a somewhere. Maybe where all the calculators go.

[gopher]

Speaking a role player not a writer, one of the greatest sins as a reference is having a npc solve the problem without the players seeking them out.

[miados]

I like this robot that is in corpse witches mind. I like they they are straight forward and hope to see them again. I dont understand why people keep saying things like creepy though.

[Neko_Ali]

Speaking a role player not a writer, one of the greatest sins as a reference is having a npc solve the problem without the players seeking them out.

This is a story though, not an RPG. There are no 'npcs' in a story. Just characters of greater and lesser significance. But each character is 'main character' of their own story. Creepybot heard about a great injustice done to Bubbles, showed up and offered them a way to fix the problem. The cure was only partially effective though. Bubbles was freed from Corpse Witch's control, but does not have her memories. Then they slipped back into the shadows where they dwell to see what would happen next. Bubbles confronts CW, but walks away and lets CW attempt to flee justice. So our hero, the Great Grey Collective, steps in again to see justice (as they see it) done, rather than let CW slip away to possibly repeat this sort of memory hostage situation someplace else.

Also as a literary way, Bubbles gets to have her moral victory with 'I could destroy you, but I'm better than that, better than you.' And Corpse Witch still gets to be punished for her crimes.

[Gyrre]

I'd figured we were done with CW and Creepybot. My bad.

Will Jeph actually show CW's fate, or leave us to imagine what Creepybot will inflict on her?

I was guessing that her fate would be revealed in a newspaper headline in the background of the next comic, a comic which would start the next story arc.

I'm guessing that her fate will remain ambiguous unless there is a vital plot reason to specify it. Bubbles will visit the skate park in a few strips' time to be told that 'the Boss' had vanished and that no-one had seen her since the night Bubbles had stormed out.

If her fate is revealed, I'd still like it vague but with a huge dose of Nightmare Fuel. Maybe her chassis with its head open and the AI drive missing will be found leant against a wall somewhere just outside of town. All indications are that she walked there of her own free will opened her own head and pulled out her own drive. There will be some indication that a VTOL of some sort had been in the area but the ATC radar records will show nothing present during the night in question.

"BAD BOT BOUGHT THE BIG ONE"
or
"CAN AI COMMIT SUICIDE?"

Nothing really specific, just attention grabbing/clickbait-y.

[JRDelirio]

Weeeelp... was nice knowing you, Corpse Witch.

And may I say some folk seem a bit... delighted... in imagining what might await our imminent recipient of very, very bad news.

True, but she does know that Bubbles both knows that the memories are gone and disabled the virus. There's no way Bubbles would be able to do that without very powerful assistance. So sure, she doesn't know what that assistance is, but she probably also doesn't want to find out.

Right, and Bubbles does not say that CW knows those specific entities are after her, just that with those entities after her she will have no time to try and go after her and Faye. She even said she expects the Gray to see that CW does not go unpunished. (so it seems that yes, Bubbles has "read up" on what's going on behind the curtain in the AI ecosystem and has a respectably fair idea of what may be up, which Gray recognized; CW OTOH may need some picture-drawing to get to the "f**k... it's... they really exist..." realization.)

[retrosteve]

In my personal opinion, there's something vaguely unsatisfying about a villain/antagonist getting their comeuppance from a "God Mode" character. Feels less than natural in a forced sort of way.

YMMV, naturally.

I was thinking that but even more so. Bubbles' troubles were basically unresolvable (even Station said so.) In a reasonable world, that is exactly how they'd stay. Pulling a Deus out of the Machina is all very well for a light comic, but feels dramatically forced, like Jeph had painted himself into a corner and needed to Zamboni his way back out.

[Method of Madness]

Interesting to know that Station isn't even close to the most powerful being in the QCverse, though.

[ZoeB]

If you can judge a society by how it treats its prisoners, I am going to judge the Albino Architeuthis by what they do to Corpse Witch.

Yes. Exactly.

Perhaps rehabilitation is possible. I can think of no other reason for their interest. Investigation of how she became the way she is, maybe? So past mistakes won't be repeated?
At worst, CW has forfeited most of her rights to consideration. But not all. Not respect as a sapient.

[jwhouk]

I like this robot that is in corpse witches mind. I like they they are straight forward and hope to see them again. I dont understand why people keep saying things like creepy though.

That's a Jeph-based moniker. He made a comment about "not creepy at all" in one of the news posts, IMS.

[Morituri]

Keep in mind that the gray one was delighted to act as creepy as possible when offering Bubbles his help, but was still apparently sincere about helping.  Remember the "we're why they wake up screaming" opening line to Bubbles & Faye.

"We are very very bad news" is exactly the same kind of opening line to Corpse Witch.  If Bubbles' experience is anything to go by, it's no indication at all of whether they're there to help, hurt, or just stop her.

Of course, "filthy little brainfucker" would seem to be an indication that They at least disapprove of her.  It's likely a clue that They will ensure that CW is something that Bubbles and Faye never need to worry about again, but how they do that is entirely a mystery. 

If their ethos is Kantian, then we can expect good old fashioned painful Retribution.  If their ethos is Socratic, we can expect that she will be turned over to the state.  If their ethos is Nietzchean, they'll probably make her a job offer she can't refuse.  If their ethos is Aristotelian, they will make an effort to rehabilitate her.  If their ethos is Randian, they'll probably just kill her out of hand. And so on.

But we have no idea what their ethos is.  It seems to be "making the world a better place in the most sinister way possible," which doesn't correspond to any of the major currents of philosophy I'm familiar with.