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Help out Penny with the rota for Coffee of Doom as well as help Dora plan expansion/growth

9 (9%)

Field 'phone calls and make appointments at Union Robotics (including appointments for Sam's 'sprays')

10 (10%)

Act as the 'token fleshie' at Punchbot & Associates (Punchbot needing a stand-in right arm)

7 (7%)

Help Hannelore set up and her charity for disadvantaged synthetics

15 (15%)

Organise all the things that she THINKS Hannelore wants in her life (dates, job interviews, etc)

20 (20%)

Get a job at Smif's library (as Claire and Emily have gone back to their respective classes)

1 (1%)

Sulk at her failure and be corrupted to the Dark Side by Spookybot

7 (7%)

Help Winslow and Arthur out at the self-help groups

4 (4%)

Help Marten organise HIS life (keeping up the blog, band practice, publicity and the like)

13 (13%)

Help Jim organise his back office and make sure Brun isn't sneaking too many day-old pastries

1 (1%)

Help Sven keep his chaotic life in more order (Hannelore's plea for a friend)

9 (9%)

Other (Please specify in your comment)

4 (4%)

Total Members Voted: 37

[brasca]

I don’t think someone as organized as Tilly could make such a wardrobe mistake.  She may be capable of playing head games better than Hannelore’s passive aggressive name forgetting.  Perhaps this is all about coaxing her to seize her destiny.  I can even see Hannelore losing her temper and calling her Taffy to which Tilly will reply calmly “yes ma’am it’s Taffy” because you know if Beatrice mistook her name there’d be no polite correction. 

[citizenfive]

I agree with brasca on the "seize her destiny" thing because Beatrice sent Tilly there to groom Hannelore for business. Regarding Tilly not correcting Hannelore if she got mad and called her Taffy, I think that would require Hannelore's personality to be much closer to Beatrice's, which thankfully it isn't.

[OldGoat]

Hanners knows exactly what she's doing to Ms Matilda.  She knows what she's up against, has probed, and found the chink in Tilly's armor - that name.  It's subtle, which Hannelore likes because she's loath to be overtly mean, but she wants to be rid of "Taffy" and intends to keep calling her that until she blows up and storms out of her own accord. 
So far Jeph has represented the sofly spoken "It's Tilly" corrections in a small font.  Look for them to get louder and louder and louder until it becomes "It's TILLY, God damn-it!  TILLY!  T-I-L-L-Y!!"

The Taffy thing got pretty old for me and now I think Hanners is being kind of an ass even if Tilly is a much bigger annoyance. Although I believe the reason why I simply don't find it funny anymore is because of some co-workers. It's astonishing how many, after year and a half, still can't get through their skulls that my name is Rodrigo and that Rodriguez is a last name... It doesn't matter that I have a friggin nametag right on my chest.

So yeah, Hanners. It's Tilly.

My surname is excellent bait for that kind of teasing, and in HS the assistant manager at my part time job was not a nice person (a co-worker asked, "From what, distemper?" when we learned she'd passed away a few years later).  I just ignored it - as in not responding when she told me to do something using her little nickname.   It actually broke her of the habit.

[DesiArxxy]

  It's the shoes.  I've never seen Hannelore wear heals and don't think she can.

In a shop - where you are on your feet all day and constantly twisting and turning around and changing direction? OK, I don't wear heels and never have, but it sure feels like a recipe for screaming ankles to me. Does anyone who does wear heels want to disagree and correct me?
If test #1 for Tally was "Pick out suitable dress for the day ahead" I'd say that was an abject failure. Suitable for the executive head of the coffee shop chain who doesn't spend time on the shop floor maybe.

I am not even sure Tilly drew heels. Just the way the perspective is makes it seem like drawing-Hanners is up on her toes. However exposed ankles and the top of your feet is a really, really bad idea in a job that involves hot liquids.

As far as wearing heels in that kind of environment, unless they were tall narrow heels it wouldn't be so bad. The big thing is how much support you have. With narrow heels you're putting most of your weight on the front half/toes and if your job involves standing all day that's going to be a big pain. Wearing chunky, low heels like I prefer or wedges means good foot support.

Honestly, the outfit just shows how useless and incompetent Tilly actually is, because she is literally unable to conceive of anything outside the corporate world.

Maybe she misunderstood Hanners' job. Her mother is, after all, a high-powered executive; and I doubt Beatrice bothered to inform her that Hanners is an minimum-wage employee in a tiny coffee-shop, not a manager/executive in a chain or something. And, she chose pretty much exactly what Hanners chose to wear for her 'interview' : http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1707
To Tilly, Hanners' work wouldn't make a lot of sense - she's richer than the average Saudi Prince, she doesn't need a minimum-wage job.

No, Taffy "misunderstood" Hanners' job because, as she's already openly admitted, she believes in ignoring reality whenever it contradicts her instructions from corporate and/or her own ideological viewpoint. Given that Taffy "did her homework" to the point of having memorized detailed profiles of every single person around Hanners, there is no possibility that this is an innocent mistake. None whatsoever.

Also, I'm really bothered by the whole Taffy thing. It's one thing to get confused once, but Tilly said her name for no less than three times. I don't think it's Hanners' being an ass on purpose, it's her not perceiving Tilly as a person - just like her mother.

Taffy really isn't a person, she's a corporate drone. And Hanners needs to not perceive Taffy as a person in order to not be taken advantage of by Taffy, who is basically Beatrice in a passive-aggressive "nice" persona instead of an aggressive "dominant bitch" persona.

[Case]

Also, I'm really bothered by the whole Taffy thing. It's one thing to get confused once, but Tilly said her name for no less than three times. I don't think it's Hanners' being an ass on purpose, it's her not perceiving Tilly as a person - just like her mother.

True. Then and again, Taffy Tilly isn't exactly treating Hanners like a person - with wishes and preferences of her own, or boundaries - either.

(OCD can absolutely tap into your 'imp of the perverse', though I'm not sure whether that's Jeph's intention here: as a sort of 'subconscious revenge-tic'. I wouldn't be entirely out of character for my OCD-addled heatmeats, though ...)

[DaiJB]

My question is - why is everyone calling Hanners passive-aggressive? - just because she keeps calling Tilly, "Taffy"? Hanners' mother inserted that into her head - since that point, she's been responding in an upset and distracted manner, making the same error, but only because the influence that Beatrice still has over Hannelore is still active. In other words, if Beatrice had got the name right, Hanners wouldn't be saying it wrong now.

I suspect that if Hannelore was in a less frazzled state of mind, she wouldn't be getting the name wrong.

[TheEvilDog]

Probably because in her first panel of her first appearance, Tilly did introduce herself to Hannelore.

Hanners is not the kind of person to forget someone's name right after meeting them. So we can infer that her misnaming Tilly is a form of passive-aggressive resistance.

[celticgeek]

But Hannelore's mother called her "Taffy, or something like that."

[Tova]

It's almost as though this is one of those situations where neither of them is one hundred percent in the right.

[Shjade]

Unrelated to The Tilly Situation: anyone else digging Hannelore's just-out-of-the-shower Sonic the Hedgehog hairstyle?

[mikmaxs]

If you're a new QC character and you aren't detested on the forums within about half a dozen appearances, then you've probably been mute.

Hm, not sure, previous characters to my recollection never were that detested, except maybe for Renee and to a lesser degree Brun.

I guess you weren’t here when May was introduced then. There were people who absolutely despised her. Bubbles had a few fanatical detractors also.

On the other hand, Corpse Witch didn’t get a whole lot of hate when she was first introduced. Draw whatever moral you like from that.

Thanks, no I was around, I just didn't recall May being that loathed, at least not after she re-appeared in physical form. Bubbles maybe had few detractors but was AFAIK more or less universally liked here, no?

Anyway, doesn't really matter, as always I have confidence in JJ coming up with an interesting storyline.

A bit late to the show here, but:
Jeph kinda just sucks at introducing new characters in a way that makes them likeable. It's not one of his strengths.
Let's take all the examples here:
May, Brun, and now Tally all have the exact same setup (And Bubbles too, but to a lesser extent.) Take a popular character, have someone else be kind of an asshole to them but also be either impossible to get rid of or get around. Nobody likes reading about people they like getting stuck with annoying conflict that doesn't have a good outcome.

May showed up, screwed with Dale, cussed him out, and was a general pain in the ass.
Brun first harassed Clinton while Clinton was having a bad day, then threatened him with a shotgun. (Yes, this was later edited to be a threat made with a harpoon, but first impressions really do count.)
Bubbles gets off the best here - She just stonewalls Faye and is kinda rude. (But I also don't remember her getting much hate.)
Now, Tiffy is following the same pattern, and in fact is acting in almost the exact same way as May - Show up completely unannounced, harass the likeable character, and force them to either deal with a massive inconvenience or put up with an annoying, unhelpful companion for a short period of time. (It's almost uncanny how similar they are, in fact.)

If the pattern holds true, we will soon learn or see something sympathetic or humanizing about the character (The Tilly/Taffy thing comes to mind,) then we'll either learn some kind of Tragic Backstory or else something Tragic But Not Backstory will happen that will make the character really sympathetic and earn them forgiveness for being a pain in the butt earlier, and then they'll settle in to a more regular swing and develop some actual rapport once they start acting outside of the first person they're introduced with and once they're no longer being shoehorned into the interaction with the Likeable Character.

It's a formula that's getting kind of tired.

[hedgie]

Unrelated to The Tilly Situation: anyone else digging Hannelore's just-out-of-the-shower Sonic the Hedgehog hairstyle?

Hmm.  Not really a fan of the hairstyle in general, but anything involving hedgehogs…

[DaiJB]

Probably because in her first panel of her first appearance, Tilly did introduce herself to Hannelore.

...And then Hanners immediately called her mother, the woman who caused Hanners to attempt to disembowel herself with a guitar the first time she came to visit. During the call, Beatrice offhandedly got the name wrong and presumably, it stuck - with Hanners being in a flap ever since.

I suspect that this is just the sort of situation where neurotic, paranoid, obsessive Hannelore would mess up on the names, particularly when it is the Looming Presence of Ms. Beatrice Chatham who started it...

[Penquin47]

I'm somewhat disturbed by Tilly's reaction to "should we kill her" being "if you do I won't be able to help you hide the body".  Less the joking (I HOPE), more... just how many death threats has Tilly heard if she has a ready quip about it?

[Dr. ROFLPWN]

tfw Hannelore is acting exactly like Beatrice without realizing it
but you have precisely no objections to this

[Storel]

I'm somewhat disturbed by Tilly's reaction to "should we kill her" being "if you do I won't be able to help you hide the body".  Less the joking (I HOPE), more... just how many death threats has Tilly heard if she has a ready quip about it?

I think Hanners was a bit disturbed by it, too, since her response was "How long have you been working for my mother?"   

[A Duck]

Comic!

Also OH MY GOD DORA CASUALLY THREATENING MURDER WHAT IS THIS 2007???

Seriously, how long has it been since Dora behaved this way?

I miss Dora. I wish she got some arcs in focus.

[Storel]

Yeah, it's like she's channeling Faye or something...

[A Duck]

Dora used to be like that, too.

She calmed down with time, specially when Faye's attitude started to be an actual problem.

I'm not complaining, though. Dora's change in behaviour was acknowledged and is natural character growth.

[Tova]

If you're a new QC character and you aren't detested on the forums within about half a dozen appearances, then you've probably been mute.

Hm, not sure, previous characters to my recollection never were that detested, except maybe for Renee and to a lesser degree Brun.

You forgot Claire. She is the one I think of whenever a new character is added and this kind of thing happens.

Pretty sure characters like Angus and Dale copped some hate. Faye and Marten still do from time to time. Maybe Emily is one of the few who didn't?

A bit late to the show here, but:
Jeph kinda just sucks at introducing new characters in a way that makes them likeable. It's not one of his strengths.

I don't think that's on Jeph, really.

No-one's perfect. Jeph excels at introducing imperfect characters. It's what makes him popular. If the character's flaws align with yours, then of course you will love them. And if they happen to touch a sore spot.. as they inevitably will with someone ... well...

It's one thing to dislike someone's character flaw. That's natural. To be provoked to the point of saying someone really isn't a person is something else. Personally, I have never hated any character Jeph has created, because even a character superficially obnoxious like May has some fundamental goodness.

Maybe Jeph is trying to teach us to see people as people not as a single character flaw or as a two-dimensional villain. Maybe he'll keep repeating this "formula" until we get it.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

...
Jeph kinda just sucks at introducing new characters in a way that makes them likeable. It's not one of his strengths.

I suspect a daring researcher could find this somewhere in TVtropes.
Introduce the new character in a way that makes them look like an enemy, but actually it turns out they are a new ally.

I firmly believe Taffie will make herself indispensable.

[brasca]

Yeah, it's like she's channeling Faye or something...

Well somebody had to.  Even if Coffee of Doom is more positive since Faye left you still need someone most likely to commit homicide.  Penelope might, but Cossette would be more likely to die in the process.  Emily and Dale are too mellow and while Hannelore has enough of her mother within her she can't handle the sight of her blood much someone else which you'd think Dora would remember. 

[OldGoat]

It's almost as though this is one of those situations where neither of them is one hundred percent in the right.

I can't put any of it on Hannelore.  She owes Tiffy no debt of courtesy.  Tully's like a telemarketer who won't stop calling or a peddler who won't take his foot out of your door.  She has far more coming than a mangled name.

Imagine what Faye would do to her if Bubbles didn't intervene? 

Bubbles to Tizzy while holding Faye back:  "Run, you fool!  Run for your life!"

[DesiArxxy]

If you think about it, deploying Taffy is a pretty ingenious plot by Beatrice. Either Hannelore is forced to kick a puppy (which makes her more like Beatrice) or Hannelore is forced to accept a "personal assistant" who is actually loyal to Beatrice and will sabotage and manipulate Hannelore every moment of every day from now on.

Tilly has made it crystal clear that her loyalty is to "what the company told me to do, even when it doesn't make sense and is clearly unethical", which absolutely rules out keeping her. The foremost qualification of a personal assistant is they have to be loyal to the person they're assisting, not third parties.

Hannelore can never, ever, ever trust Tilly. Ever.

Fine, Hannelore can't trust Tilly, but if she dismisses her she probably knows what her mother will do next.  Regardless of Tilly's fate another PA would be sent so it's better to employ her, but keep her at arm's length. 

And there seems to be a lot of snap judgment's of Tilly.  She's definitely an abnormal person, but that doesn't mean she's a sociopath.  Hannelore and plenty of others in this strip have some psychological problems of varying degree too.  Perhaps Beatrice screens prospective assistants for just this kind of behavior.

I never argued Taffy is a sociopath; I said she's made it clear where her loyalty lies, and said sense of loyalty is flatly unacceptable for a PA.

. . . .
Now, Tiffy is following the same pattern, and in fact is acting in almost the exact same way as May - Show up completely unannounced, harass the likeable character, and force them to either deal with a massive inconvenience or put up with an annoying, unhelpful companion for a short period of time. (It's almost uncanny how similar they are, in fact.)

If the pattern holds true, we will soon learn or see something sympathetic or humanizing about the character (The Tilly/Taffy thing comes to mind,) then we'll either learn some kind of Tragic Backstory or else something Tragic But Not Backstory will happen that will make the character really sympathetic and earn them forgiveness for being a pain in the butt earlier, and then they'll settle in to a more regular swing and develop some actual rapport once they start acting outside of the first person they're introduced with and once they're no longer being shoehorned into the interaction with the Likeable Character.

It is exceedingly difficult to imagine any plot twist that could make Taffy sympathetic or humanizing, given that she literally demonstrates that she has no respect for boundaries unless backed by force and is, in fact, a terrible PA whose "careful research" has not included the slightest familiarization with what the person she is "assisting" needs or wants. She pretty much openly admits that her actual job is to force Hannelore to become the way her mother wants.

(Note: even if Hannelore doesn't call the police, Taffy is explicitly committing criminal trespass -- and explicitly said, "I will continue criminal trespass unless you call the police to stop me with force.)

[BenRG]

Yeah, Jeph does have a habit of finding humorous ways to introduce ideas or character aspects that ought to be horrifying. I mean, has Tilly been an accessory after the fact of murder before or is that just general job training all PAs at ECI get, whether or nor they ever put it into practice?

I'm pretty sure that Hannelore calling her 'Taffy' is supposed to be some kind of running joke in the same vein as Mr Burns seemingly neurological inability to remember Homer Simpson's name. Personally, I still think that it's associative; Hannelore is still thinking of Tilly as Beatrice's drone and so she's using the name Beatrice gave her. I would laugh my butt off if it turned out that everyone does that to the point where her company ID reads 'Taffy'.

Dora is in a very daring mood today, sartorially speaking. Short-cut shirt with an aggressive motto? I'm wondering if something's going on between her and Tai or whether Sven has been inadvertently picking at her insecurities again.

[Gyrre]

The fourth panel was the one that really put the nail on the coffin for me... There's no way in hell I would spend more than 15 minutes (let alone 23!) with such a mindless individual. I can't even feel sorry for her at this point.

What if she's lead into a back room of CoD and the whole main cast are there holding goblets and chanting "Gooble gobble. Gooble gobble. One of us! One of us!" What then?

[Zog]

Maybe Hanners just needs to give Tilly a sock...?

My first thought after reading this was "Does giving someone a sock have some sort of symbolic signifigance?".

[Pilchard123]

Mistress has presented Tilly with clothes! Tilly is freeeee!

[oddtail]

It's been mentioned by others, and I have nothing insightful to add to the conversation, but I *hate* the way Hanners keeps saying "Taffy" instead of "Tilly", and I find no excuse for it. Especially since I have seen no evidence that I recall that Hannelore is forgetful or prone to missing details (the opposite, if anything).

I... think it's supposed to be funny? To me, it isn't. And I don't even like Tilly so far, as a person or as a character. Still, if she insists on her actual name, it's something that's meaningful to her. It's not even that Hanners is using the wrong name, and Tilly is shrugging and being all "eh, no biggie".

[St.Clair]

"Dah-ta, Day-ta, what's the difference?"
"One is my name.  The other is not."

[traroth]

Am I the only one thinking that narrative arc gets old pretty fast? This Tilly thing was mildly amusing at the beginning, but now, I find it mainly boring. Will we have to put up with Hanners introducing Taffy (actually it's Tilly) to the whole casting, now? Wake me up once it's done. Hopefully, Jeph Jacques has something else up his sleeve...

[Mr. Doctor]

Yey, way to beat a deadhorse with the name thing, Jeff.

[flondrix]

I'm sure it has been remarked before, but Dora has become darn near unrecognizable.

[BenRG]

The fourth panel was the one that really put the nail on the coffin for me... There's no way in hell I would spend more than 15 minutes (let alone 23!) with such a mindless individual. I can't even feel sorry for her at this point.

What if she's lead into a back room of CoD and the whole main cast are there holding goblets and chanting "Gooble gobble. Gooble gobble. One of us! One of us!" What then?

She'd cooperate and do her damned best to be the best treasurer a Cthonic Secret Society has ever had!

[Tova]

I have to admit, I'm starting to wonder myself where this is going.

[JoeCovenant]

I'm sure it has been remarked before, but Dora has become darn near unrecognizable.

I think there has been a sudden shift in some character models which usually go unnoticed over time as changes happen so subtly
(No-ONE looks like their original characters!)

But I think quite a few of the main cast have altered quite noticeably over the last month or so...

[BenRG]

I have to admit, I'm starting to wonder myself where this is going.

I'm expecting a completely 'wham' revelation about Tilly, possibly next week, that totally changes the trajectory of the arc.

Alternately, there may be a 'in pursuit of mediocrity' ending with Tilly cheerfully accepting Hannelore's instructions to go and walking off with the same upbeat attitude. Because she's only obeying her orders and that's all she's ever done. In so many ways, that complete and total rejection of personal responsibility in what she does could be the most frightening thing about her.

[traroth]

Yeah, that's true. Hanners kind of stalked Marten and Faye, in the beginning...

[shanejayell]

I do love how everyone calmly accepts murder as a possible solution.

 

[anahata]

Dora's suggestion of murder might have been in jest, but Tilly's reaction is more unnerving, because she might be taking it literally. Either that or her sense of humour (if she even has one) has been overruled by her "I've got an answer for everything" reflex.

[Is it cold in here?]

Maybe Hanners just needs to give Tilly a sock...?

My first thought after reading this was "Does giving someone a sock have some sort of symbolic signifigance?".

It's from Harry Potter. Giving a house elf (a kind of slave) an article of clothing sets it free.

[swapna]

Also, I'm really bothered by the whole Taffy thing. It's one thing to get confused once, but Tilly said her name for no less than three times. I don't think it's Hanners' being an ass on purpose, it's her not perceiving Tilly as a person - just like her mother.

Taffy really isn't a person, she's a corporate drone. And Hanners needs to not perceive Taffy as a person in order to not be taken advantage of by Taffy, who is basically Beatrice in a passive-aggressive "nice" persona instead of an aggressive "dominant bitch" persona.

She isn't a person, really? I find that disturbing.
If Hanners wanted Tilly to go, she gave her an out. Not a great one, but one that would give Tilly a way to say that she tried everything and would send an unmistakable message to Beatrice.

Is Tillys idiotic commitment to being a PA annoying? Definitely. Is Beatrice incredibly invasive by hiring Tilly and giving her idiotic instructions that basically tell her to override Hanners' wishes? Yeah, she definitely deserves that Hanners has next to no contact with her.

If Hanners doesn't want to give it a try, she should just send her away, but treating her as less than a person? It's just not really funny

[TinPenguin]

If Hanners doesn't want to give it a try, she should just send her away, but treating her as less than a person? It's just not really funny

As mentioned previously, though, Tilly is treating Hanners as less than a person too. She seems to be seeing her as an objective, a task, a nut to crack, not a real person who might find this all very uncomfortable.

[Dr. ROFLPWN]

If Hanners doesn't want to give it a try, she should just send her away, but treating her as less than a person? It's just not really funny

As mentioned previously, though, Tilly is treating Hanners as less than a person too. She seems to be seeing her as an objective, a task, a nut to crack, not a real person who might find this all very uncomfortable.

Yeah dogg someone who is explicitly trained to see to your every need, has been nothing but unfailingly polite and subservient, and whom you agreed to give a chance definitely deserves to be dehumanized and threatened with death lol

Y'all hate on Beatrice, but at least she doesn't try and make these kinds of justifications, damn

[TinPenguin]

Polite and subservient would have fucked off the moment they realised they weren't wanted.

Besides, my comment was in response to a discussion on misnaming, not murder.

As for casual death threats, though, they've been a staple of QC, since, uh, comic #4.

[themacnut]

And please note it wasn't Hanners who made the death threat, but Dora.

[Storel]

As for casual death threats, though, they've been a staple of QC, since, uh, comic #4.

She only threatened wounding in that comic, not killing.

Granted, if you stab someone and then poop in the wound, you are doing your best to give them a nasty infection which might -- I say, might -- eventually kill them, but I can't agree that it counts as an actual death threat.

[OldGoat]

As for casual death threats, though, they've been a staple of QC, since, uh, comic #4.

She only threatened wounding in that comic, not killing.

Granted, if you stab someone and then poop in the wound, you are doing your best to give them a nasty infection which might -- I say, might -- eventually kill them, but I can't agree that it counts as an actual death threat.

The ER physician will most certainly treat it as a life-threatening injury - provided you make it to the ER in time.  Midsummer and out in the boondocks, you might not make it out to the county road to meet the aid car (if you had enough of a cell signal to call 911) before it goes septic.

[BenRG]

You know, I really am filled with disbelief that anyone here actually thinks that Dora was being serious. The real story here isn't that Dora idly made the suggestion that Hannelore should kill her way out of this predicament. The story here is that Tilly first took it seriously and, secondly, has the skill set to abet such a crime!

[DesiArxxy]

Yeah dogg someone who is explicitly trained to see to your every need, has been nothing but unfailingly polite and subservient, and whom you agreed to give a chance definitely deserves to be dehumanized and threatened with death lol

Y'all hate on Beatrice, but at least she doesn't try and make these kinds of justifications, damn

Taffy has repeatedly demonstrated that despite being polite and socially subservient, she is not actually seeing to any of Hannelore's needs, she is executing Beatrice's agenda to manipulate Hannelore. Again: she's Beatrice's agent, not Hanners' assistant in any meaningful sense.