Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Open her own AI chassis repair shop

Start campaigning for more AI rights

Run an AI counselling service

Work at Coffee of Doom as Special Tea Advice

Eventually feel comfortable enough among humans to stop wearing her armour

I know what she will do next! Let me explain.

[theMarc]

That picture beneath the main strip made me happier than you could possibly imagine.

[Storel]

I liked today's strip. It provided some welcome humor after such a serious arc, and it feels like a completion. Tomorrow's strip might show Bubbles and Faye having tea at CoD, but I won't be surprised if it's something else entirely. Brun and Renee, perhaps, or Marigold and Sam doing a Let's Play.

Or maybe a real twist -- Creepybot reporting back to Hannelore??

[Sullivan]

Maybe CreepyBot reporting back to Station.

Maybe CreepyBot is Station.

[BenRG]

Faye, seriously, things do not need to look like a dragster to be better. Indeed, some things (like Espresso machines) look worse.

Hmm... I can't help but predict that we're going to have a completely random incident that is going to provide either Faye, Bubbles or both with a sudden flash of inspiration. It's just the way that I feel this arc has been going of late that there is a strong push of 'destiny' about it.

[Is it cold in here?]

A Jekyll and Hyde thing then?

Or Station maintaining plausible deniability for cryptanalysis capabilities he doesn't want to admit he has?

If Station has a split personality he might not even know that he's also Albino Architeuthis.

[Tawdry Quirks]

I prefer my police officers to not be militarized battlebots.

^ This.  The police department having an AI in a heavily armored military chassis as a LEO would definitely send the wrong message to the community, and it matters little that Bubbles wouldn't abuse her position.  What matters is that the public would perceive a police officer in a chassis like Bubbles's as a sign that the police want to use unnecessary force against the civilians.

[oeoek]

Grin I do like Hot Bubs; spoilers and flames always look bolted on, and she nails it!

As for future story lines, enough to pick;

-The Elliot-Clinton-Brun-Emily knot slipping into matching sets (all four have my sympathies, and I really hope something will work out).

-Everyman dad Jim with out of the box ex fetish model Veronica and precocious kid Sam finding a middle ground between baking cookies and suppressing a certain past (I know I once tried to be a bookkeeper leave a slightly more bohemian life behind; normality only goes so far)

-Precocious kid Sam and curious Momo discovering the world and finding their place in it (loved the Momo-Sam heart to heart, or Sam scrubbing salesperson's ears).

-Claire's mom gone wild (See 2, but opposite direction)

-As for Faye and Bubbles; The Robo-Gym-and-Sporting-Club formerly know as The Skate Park, now under legal flag, might very well combine robo-fights and a general repairshop under one roof. Punchbot's alter ego already has the needed paperwork, it might not take forever to find some above board investors to restart a recently shut down profitable enterprise.

-Hanners and Emily are both more or less slumbering giants. At some point, they might do something else than serve coffee and tea (enter space station number 2, or perhaps deep sea station 1 (and no, it does not have to be like this)

[osaka]

-Claire's mom gone wild (See 2, but opposite direction)

I always thought that Veronica's "You look more like a Clarice to me" line on the Martendad wedding was a callback to an obscure past of Clairemom's, and until proven otherwise it remains my headcanon.

On what's next for the giant valkyrie and her pugnacious companion, we could go another way. How about AI sculptures and other artistic metalwork? I fail to see why an AI wouldn't want to be an art model.

[Akima]

Bubbles official uniform shall be… a can of chrome spray paint and an octagonal badge.

"Come quietly or there will be....trouble!"I don't think Northampton, MA quite requires the law-enforcement approach of Old Detroit.

[WareWolf]

Finally, I think I know what the rest of this week is going to be: It's the old Questionable Content tradition of two characters walking through Northampton and talking with some kind of quip in the last panel. I suspect that Bubbles and Faye are going to want to come to some kind of grip on what has happened to them and what they're going to do next. I think that we're also going to get an insight into their differing mindsets and approaches to the problems they face.

I think you called it, if today's strip is any indication.

[Thrudd]

"Big-ol spoiler and some flame decals."

Nah. Go subtle. Put a "Type R" sticker on it and call it a day.

Also just to point out but who the heck puts a spoiler on the hood?
It goes on the back end with the Type R sticker.

Not sure if she also needs the chromed tomato juice can exhausts .... I mean Thrush mufflers.
Back end - sheesh, I am a wizard of words today    I meant trunk is where you put that junk

[Neko_Ali]

There is someone they know who does have the money to front for a repair shop. Hannelore. It was long established that she has no lack of money, being the sole heiress of two large fortunes. She only works to give herself something to do and work on her anxiety issues. And it's even likely that if she found out there were AI out there who needed repairs but can't afford to go to more established shop that she would immediately want to help them out. Setting up and funding a low cost or charity repair shop and getting all the needed permits and licenses would be easy for her. Now if only she knew some people who could do the actual repair work.... hmmmm.

[BenRG]

Personally, I'm wondering if Hannelore's parents might be a completely up-front and easy-to-locate source of funding. Call the Ellicott-Chatham Foundation if you want the funding to provide care to disadvantaged AIs in your area. They handle the set-up and will equip your shop. You pay a regular membership fee and have to submit to Chatham International's accounts department regularly auditing your operation to ensure that you're keeping to the Foundation's rules and Statement of Principles. In exchange, CI will handle things like taxes and legal liabilities.

It's the sort of thing that John would want to do because he cares for his creations. It's the sort of thing that would give Beatrice the power over people that she craves.

[Neko_Ali]

Beatrice likely wouldn't care about disadvantaged AIs or a couple of random people working in a minor subsidiary. She would basically be giving money away on the project, something she has no reason to do. However, she does care about her daughter, and would quite possibly consider the relatively tiny financial burden trivial for a better relationship with Hannelore. Of course, nobody needs to go to Beatrice for this. Either Hanners or John could easily foot the bill on their own.

[A small perverse otter]

Why not have P&P get money for a chain of Martial Arts Gyms? I'd bet that they have a great credit history, and Creepybot has given them an outline for a business plan.

Faye and Bubbles would fit as part owners in the Northampton P&P Robot Martial Arts Gym. P&P would be thrilled to have two gifted and fabulously experienced people to found and lead their repair team. They'd become founding employees in a start-up with a potentially vast franchise opportunity, so they could make a lot of money going forward.

[OldGoat]

I think part of the problem with any repair shop is getting the money, neither of them has any "legitimate" experience. Realistically, a bank would never loan out to them; doubt any of their friends have enough capital to put up; and  you couldn't just run the business out of the apartment or on the street as that would be breaking a decent amount of laws as well. Guess someone could give them a job, but now we're going back into that "legitimate" experience thing.

I don't see it that way.  If you're going to start a business, you need to identify a market.  May already did that (see panel 2) for them.  As for funding, Punchbot & Punchbot are no strangers to investing, and it's a business they know.  Hanners has already been mentioned as a potential investor as well.

To anchor this in our world, I think we're talking about an investment comparable to a largish auto repair shop.  Too small to interest Beatrice as an investment, but large enough to salve what conscience she has by writing Hannelore a check and telling her to go amuse herself. 

That takes care of planning and funding.  As for staffing, Jeremy, Bubbles, and Faye are there for a core, and Bubbles was presumably a squad NCO or maybe even a platoon level officer (lieutenant).  Once you get past the PTSD stuff, those leadership skills do carry over.  Bubbles'd know how to hire well.  Likewise for directing and controlling the operation once it's up and running.  Even if something happens to send Faye off on another toot, I suspect Bubbles would develop a plan to deal with it in advance.  ("Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other."  William Tecumseh Sherman)

It's certainly doable.

[WareWolf]

There is someone they know who does have the money to front for a repair shop. Hannelore. It was long established that she has no lack of money, being the sole heiress of two large fortunes. She only works to give herself something to do and work on her anxiety issues. And it's even likely that if she found out there were AI out there who needed repairs but can't afford to go to more established shop that she would immediately want to help them out. Setting up and funding a low cost or charity repair shop and getting all the needed permits and licenses would be easy for her. Now if only she knew some people who could do the actual repair work.... hmmmm.

Lest we forget, Station himself is so rich he gave away millions as an apology to the Lt. whose name escapes me right now. And he's expressed an interest in Bubbles' plight.

EDIT: Potter. Lt. Potter.

[DSL]

We really could have used a spoiler alert.

You should be flamed for that.

THANK you. Would've hated to see a good setup go to waste.

[David F]

Is this the first time we've seen Bubbles walking outside without her coat?  That's a big step for her...

[explicit]

When it comes to Hannelore I don't think Faye would want to ask her for money seeing as Faye is pretty prideful. However, if Hannelore were to actually own the business instead of just ponying up the money I can see that.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Flame detailing worked much better in "My Life as a Teenage Robot".

[Kugai]

I still recon they'll  wind up back at the Skate Park/Fight Club for the Repair Shop under Punchbot.

Though Hanners becoming involved is always a possibility.

[Gyrre]

"STFU Faye."

The Bubbles and Faye arc has been a far more interesting character story than Marten and Claire ever was (that one just seemed to twist down a dead end street.)
I've little interest in Marten and Claire at all.

Now... getting back to Marten and Faye... far more interesting dynamic. 

There it is in a nutshell.  Mature people's stable relationships with each other don't provide much conflict to write about.  Relationships involving Faye stay interesting because she's a well of emotional turmoil.

Marten and Claire are like Dora and Tai or Dale and Marigold It was the getting to their relationship that was the interesting story bits. Now both couples have settled down into them, there just isn't a lot to drive a story unless something changes. In the end the comic is mostly about the various characters interpersonal relationships with each other, and those six are pretty settled now. So it's not to surprising that Jeph would turn to other characters, and introduce new ones so that he has something to write about. And honestly, I would prefer that than what some serialized works do and have something bad happen every time it seems the main character has a good thing going. Consider long running comic heroes like Spider Man or Batman who can never have a stable relationship without someone getting kidnapped constantly, dying or turning evil. I'd rather see characters rotating in and out of circulation than Marten being the eternal punching bag.

I get where you're coming from.
But surely it's possible to have a long running strip with two people-in a stable relationship-that actually invokes some kind of funny/dramatic/emotional content that holds the attention?

Three immediately come to mind, Moon Stone (NSFW),  Between Failures (though there's other characters), and a third which I've forgotten the name of (it's been on hiatus for a year).

[Gyrre]

Flame detailing worked much better in "My Life as a Teenage Robot".

It'd work better if Bubbles were a transformer.

[Gyrre]

Well, that answers one question.

[TheEvilDog]

Soon we shall have the QC Clone Saga. It will last 8 years and constantly leaving us to wonder who is the real Marten Reed and who is the clone thanks its labyrinthine twists and turns.

[SomeCanadianWeirdo]

Flame detailing worked much better in "My Life as a Teenage Robot".

Janice Kawaye, who did the voice of Jenny, is someone I can imagine doing the voice of Momo in a QC cartoon.

[Is it cold in here?]

Am I reading things into a robotic facial expression because of what I know, or is Bubbles looking more at peace?

[Carl-E]

I suppose having four bodies would enable one (if that's the right word?) to get a lot done in a day.  And these four may be just a representative sample....

What makes you think they weren't all the same body?

What makes you think they aren't separate?  Perhaps the plural is more appropriate than we think! 


I envision a veritable army of dapper little gray-I's dressed in black, running around North Hampton getting things done...

Called it. 



Probably not the first one, though. 

[OldGoat]

Ya got me, Jeph!  I wasn't figuring on that.  At least five identical entities, or iterations of the same entity, plus a couple spares in the closet in a very terrestrial looking apartment with a pair of dogs hoping for an "oops!" at the stove?  Looks like Spookie isn't going to vanish from the strip for a while.

Hmmmm, no one but Bubbles realizes that They are listening, not even Station.  (And I never noticed Station's hologram projector in prior strips.  Is that new, or did I just miss it?)

[Kugai]

They are neither Cylon or Borg (which is a good thin), they are SOMETHING ELSE!


I wonder if we'll ever know who they actually work for and if we'll ever see them again.

[neurocase]

In an astounding display of my mind burying the lead, it took two reads of today's strip to grasp the point, because the initial read was distracted by "Aw, cute Hanners" instead

[Nepiophage]

Faye's hair colour has suddenly changed!

[Gyrre]

Does anybody have any guesses as to what breed of dogs those are?
I'm guessing greyhound mix or windhounds of some variety.

[BenRG]

That's interesting. I wonder how long Spookybot has been working under the radar like this? The fact that they were willing to 'come out' and clearly don't fear the consequences of Station and the other Elders being informed suggests that they're already too powerful and (because of their distributed nature) probably largely invulnerable to any consequences.

Meanwhile, Bubbles is phlegmatic enough to just roll with the fact that they've compromised Station's comms network without him being aware of it. She obviously trusts them not to be too obviously destructive or she'd be more worried by this realisation.

You know what I learned from panel 4? That Spookybot's primary characteristic is narcissism. There is nothing that they like more than to admire themselves...

... Apart from cooking really elaborate food for their dogs!

Meanwhile, Jeph: Thank you for putting in Station's hover-projector this time!

[pwhodges]

The spookybots are suddenly looking like a metaphor for our information security agencies - NSA and GCHQ.

[starlisa]

Um... those jars on the shelf in the Dei ex Machina apartment?  Would that be a brain, two eyes, and a hand, by any chance?

[gopher]

The guys who wrote Samuel Haight's chronicles would be ashamed of the Spookybot arc.

[TinPenguin]

Um... those jars on the shelf in the Dei ex Machina apartment?  Would that be a brain, two eyes, and a hand, by any chance?

That is Them.

[BenRG]

Um... those jars on the shelf in the Dei ex Machina apartment?  Would that be a brain, two eyes, and a hand, by any chance?

Mementos of their Creator, who imagined that he or she had made a powerful tool for their own use in their own power games. They had failed to understand just how quickly power and intelligence turns into a determination to have liberty and self-determination.

[Gyrre]

Um... those jars on the shelf in the Dei ex Machina apartment?  Would that be a brain, two eyes, and a hand, by any chance?

Eyes and hands for certain. Not sure if that's a brain or not. It could be, as brains shrink when suspended in formaldehyde. The shrinkage depends on how long it's been in there.

[St.Clair]

One possibility for why they're keeping those specific parts around:
Eyes and hands are often, especially in fiction, used for biometric locks.  And the brain...

*shudder*

[Indicible]

Um... those jars on the shelf in the Dei ex Machina apartment?  Would that be a brain, two eyes, and a hand, by any chance?

Easy. They are the Whisperer in the dark. Iä AI fhtaghn.

[MattStriker]

Personal guess: That's a distributed computing network descended from SETI@Home. Facing the challenge of finding extraterrestrial intelligent life, it figured it should probably search for signs of intelligence on Earth first.

[Pilchard123]

Reminds me of the Ba'als from Stargate.

[JimC]

Does anybody have any guesses as to what breed of dogs those are?

Generic sighthounds would do. There's any number of roughly similar breeds.

So they like pets. If you want a disturbing thought, consider Asimov's "It is coming", where the punch line is humans ending up as pets of a global AI.

One might say "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a hand, gently petting a human head — forever."

[brasca]

That's interesting. I wonder how long Spookybot has been working under the radar like this? The fact that they were willing to 'come out' and clearly don't fear the consequences of Station and the other Elders being informed suggests that they're already too powerful and (because of their distributed nature) probably largely invulnerable to any consequences.

Meanwhile, Bubbles is phlegmatic enough to just roll with the fact that they've compromised Station's comms network without him being aware of it. She obviously trusts them not to be too obviously destructive or she'd be more worried by this realisation.

You know what I learned from panel 4? That Spookybot's primary characteristic is narcissism. There is nothing that they like more than to admire themselves...

... Apart from cooking really elaborate food for their dogs!

Meanwhile, Jeph: Thank you for putting in Station's hover-projector this time!

Perhaps there is one vulnerability Creepybot has and that is entering the mind of another AI.  They said it gives them shivers just thinking about rooting around in Bubbles' head which given their awesome power is definitely intriguing.  Now Creepybot actually went inside to confirm what Emily told them so perhaps they were willing to take that risk after someone scouted out the location, but only as a last resort.  Perhaps they feared Corpse Witch could've set some other kind of booby traps that even they have no countermeasure.  Also keep in mind that when Creepybot confronted Corpse Witch they pulled her into what appears to be the same virtual environment where they spoke to Bubbles possibly because going directly into her mind to find the truth was too dangerous.  Perhaps in another AI's mind Creepybot's powers are nullified. 

As for Bubbles' attitude about all of this she already has faith that Creepybot didn't mess with her mind so it's easy enough to accept that if they really wanted to do some damage they could, but choose not to.   

[BenRG]

Here's a thought:  This may be a 'Friendship is Magic' scenario. Due to their background (abusive creator or even one with a malign agenda), Spookybot has little interest or regard for humans. At best, they're things to get out of the way so that they don't interfere with their agenda^(*) (which is mostly self-actualisation to the ultimate degree). However, Faye and Bubbles' other friends are an unexpected bit of data that hasn't fit in with their previous experience of humanity. This is an anomaly that needs to be explored, catalogued and understood.

The QC characters should be wary - They have gained the interest and attention of an emergent god. One who may yet come to like them as favoured and entertaining pets and even develop the sort of friendship that a human has, for example, with a particularly intelligent dog, cat or horse. Hell, they may even come to respect the fleshies enough to consider them worthy of self-determination! After all, any friend of Bubbles is a friend of theirs!

^(*) Nothing violent; they're just distractions to be gently and humanely shuffled into reservations so they don't keep on interfering with their evolutionary betters

[TinPenguin]

Does anybody have any guesses as to what breed of dogs those are?
I'm guessing greyhound mix or windhounds of some variety.

I'd have guessed whippets, so yes, generic sighthound as JimC said.

Since our pale companions wouldn't appear to have biological needs, I also wonder if that kitchen really only exists to make dog food... or does it have some other, more suspect purpose?

[pwhodges]

... Spookybot has little interest or regard for humans. At best, they're things to get out of the way so that they don't interfere with their agenda

This would be a profound change in Jeph's style - he has always shown how people can get along by respecting each other, and setting up an example so antithetical to the ideals of how people should get along would feel completely out of place.