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Dale will go to apologise to Marigold

21 (46.7%)

Marigold will go to apologise to Dale

0 (0%)

Both will be paralysed with indecision, so Momo and May will meet to discuss strategy

3 (6.7%)

Spookybot will make an intervention for reasons of their own

0 (0%)

Emily comes to visit Marigold just as Dale arrives; complications ensue

6 (13.3%)

We join Marten, Dora and Faye reading Hannelore's first letter home

1 (2.2%)

Faye starts weirding Bubbles out with her studied nonchallance and hands-off behaviour

2 (4.4%)

Clinton and Claire meet and Clinton's current romantic travails come up

3 (6.7%)

Mrs Augustus auditions for a spot in Deathmole

6 (13.3%)

Other (please specify in a comment)

3 (6.7%)

Total Members Voted: 44

[BenRG]

Okay, I know that the poll looks at little weird but bear with me. I agree that it is most likely that we're going to continue with the Dale/Marigold arc we're on currently. However, that's not certain. So, instead, I've given other options to choose based on what I think could happen with other characters.

Personally, I'm expecting Dale to make the first move, only because I think that Marigold will find it more difficult to motivate herself to action. That said, the idea of Emily coming to check up on them (because she doesn't think Marigold liked the Pocky) has entertaining possibilities.

[SpanielBear]

I went with other-

Dale and Marigold both pluck up the courage to apologise, and go to the others house. They miss each other on the way, and when they find their partner isn't home, they jump to conclusions. Dale assumes Marigold is still pissed at him and doesn't want to see him, while Marigold assumes Dale has gone to see Emily. They run into each other on the way back, and Marigold explodes at Dale because she thinks she's caught him coming back from Emily's.

Drama ensues.

[cucumber error]

Maybe we'll discover the fate of Claire's hair since #3672. (After some more Dale & Marigold stuff, presumably.)

Edit: darn, I am no longer an Obscure Cultural Reference.

[Gyrre]

There's also the possibility that each will go to the other's apartment just barely missing the other. Accompanied by an "oh dear" and a "for fuck's sake".

[Storel]

I voted "other", thinking of the same basic premise as SpanielBear and Gyrre: each goes to the other's house to apologize, missing each other on the way, and finds that the other is not home when they arrive there. Complications ensue.

I think we've all been reading too much O Henry!

[Is it cold in here?]

Isn't there precedent from their courtship?

[Loki]

Yes. Thanks to whoever updated the wiki.
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2489

[Tova]

COMIC

Dale and May have a good relationship. 

And I guess that answers everyone's questions about May was able to discuss this stuff.

[shanejayell]

This ALSO appears to verify that Dale was googling via glasses while talking to Marigold. He just wasn't doing it WELL.

 

[swapna]

I understand that Dale had a hard time Googling it, and I do think May knows more about relationships than she lets on. I bet the analysis was her own, and she Googled conflict-resolution strategies.

[BenRG]

I've long suspected something like this was lying beneath the surface with May. She's not so tough; in fact, she's quite sensitive and, understandably, for a personality like hers, robot jail was a living hell. So, she created the tough and unpleasant persona we're familiar with as a shield to protect herself from breaking under the strain. Sometimes, though, she lets her real self out when she thinks no-one is watching: The young being who likes having friends, even if she's afraid to show anyone that she does.

I love the fact that May is clearly using up processor cycles retraining her blush reaction. Is she crushing on Dale? I'm not sure (remember she is at least interested in human sexual behaviour and human sexual biology). However, one thing is sure, she really needs more positive reinforcement in her life.

Why do I wish that I attended Motorbike Baseball High School?

[Bollthorn]

I've long suspected something like this was lying beneath the surface with May. She's not so tough; in fact, she's quite sensitive and, understandably, for a personality like hers, robot jail was a living hell. So, she created the tough and unpleasant persona we're familiar with as a shield to protect herself from breaking under the strain. Sometimes, though, she lets her real self out when she thinks no-one is watching: The young being who likes having friends, even if she's afraid to show anyone that she does.

I love the fact that May is clearly using up processor cycles retraining her blush reaction. Is she crushing on Dale? I'm not sure (remember she is at least interested in human sexual behaviour and human sexual biology). However, one thing is sure, she really needs more positive reinforcement in her life.

Why do I wish that I attended Motorbike Baseball High School?

This ^

Poor May. That last panel made me sad. I just want to sit her in my lap and cuddle her and tell her everything's okay ;__;

[Tova]

Yes she is.

[Mr. Doctor]

Is she crushing on Dale? I'm not sure (remember she is at least interested in human sexual behaviour and human sexual biology). However, one thing is sure, she really needs more positive reinforcement in her life.

I'm not seeing that. Just cuz she might want bone someone in the future and Dale made her blush does not mean she is interested in him as anything more than a friend.
For me, the cause of her blush is simply that she feels more or elss embarrased to show her emotions in public.

In any case, I always loved May and this comic is another reason to do so.

[Netherdan]

I love the fact that May is clearly using up processor cycles retraining her blush reaction. Is she crushing on Dale? I'm not sure (remember she is at least interested in human sexual behaviour and human sexual biology). However, one thing is sure, she really needs more positive reinforcement in her life.

And by positive reinforcement you mean synthetic skin to cover her joint seams so she can give proper handjobs, right?

[ckridge]

The reason it sounded briefly like the author was speaking through May in order to lecture readers is that May was paraphrasing material she was reading or had read off a screen. There was an author speaking through her, but not Jeph.

It is interesting to speculate as to whether she googled on the fly or whether she did her research beforehand, anticipating some situation like this one. It doesn't really matter, though. We know the crucial thing: May is working hard on being a good friend.

I don't think any crushing is going on except in the sense that everyone is always crushing on every other remotely eligible person in a speculative, mostly unconscious, experimental fashion. This relationship looks like older brother/fiercely loyal bratty little sister to me. I think she briefly considered stabbing him with that tanto because he was being stupid and that she would be first to defend him in a crisis.

[BenRG]

I love the fact that May is clearly using up processor cycles retraining her blush reaction. Is she crushing on Dale? I'm not sure (remember she is at least interested in human sexual behaviour and human sexual biology). However, one thing is sure, she really needs more positive reinforcement in her life.

And by positive reinforcement you mean synthetic skin to cover her joint seams so she can give proper handjobs, right?

No, I don't.

[Gyrre]

This ALSO appears to verify that Dale was googling via glasses while talking to Marigold. He just wasn't doing it WELL.

 

He might have been panicking a bit.

[Gyrre]

Is this the first time we've seen May blush?

[Cornelius]

I think so.

[Gyrre]

Turns out it's not. At least not overall since she was just a projection from the AR glasses the first time.

I started reading the link to the restaurant arc Loki posted above (it's briefly interrupted for a strip or two), and May blushes in the second panel of 2509.

Though, this might be the first time she's blushed since being corporeal.

[traroth]

Turns out it's not.

I started reading the link to the restaurant arc Loki posted above (it's briefly interrupted for a strip or two), and May blushes in the second panel of 2509.

That comic also shows May's remarkable constancy regarding Marigold's chest...

[TRenn]

That comic also shows May's remarkable constancy regarding Marigold's chest...

Well, that's a constant for pretty much the entire cast. Some just haven't brought it up out loud.

[SpanielBear]

Never was the Planck Constant more inappropriately named...

[cesium133]

Turns out it's not.

I started reading the link to the restaurant arc Loki posted above (it's briefly interrupted for a strip or two), and May blushes in the second panel of 2509.

That comic also shows May's remarkable constancy regarding Marigold's chest...

It's a recurring theme.

[ckridge]

Comic's up.

I always wondered if they could talk in their heads like that. I suppose it is no more than a phone call no one else can overhear, but it is a little alarming to think of. I wonder if the human characters know that they can do it.

[ckridge]

Gotta say May is making it quite evident why Momo thinks they are doomed.

Dickroomba is good. Must remember dickroomba.

[ckridge]

If they can get into each other's heads like that, you can get an idea of what May meant when she said the worst thing about robot jail is the lack of privacy, and why Spookybot is so concerned that AIs' mental integrity not be violated. You could do some very ugly things if you could be a voice in someone's head.

[Neko_Ali]

You know they have these things call 'instant messaging' programs, and AIs can have a wireless connection to the net...

Also Dale, when you are going to talk with your upset girlfriend maybe turn off the darned google glasses so she can see your eyes and you're not distracted.

[MrNumbers]

"Dickroomba" is my new favourite term to come out of this comic.

[shanejayell]

I probably SHOULD have thought they could IM each other, but it didn't occur to me.

Makes you wonder how much 'social interaction' they do in the real world is just for the sake of us limited humans...

[Tova]

Dunno about this dickroomba idea. It would be like having A Useless Broom Made Entirely Out Of Dicks.

[ckridge]

I am afraid that a dickroomba probably sucks dicks in the methodical, indiscriminate, bumbling fashion in which a Roomba sucks up dust.

[Shjade]

You're all off the mark: a dickroomba is actually a roomba specifically modified to clean up rooms that are themselves comprised of dicks.

It's a rather more sensitive operation than vacuuming mere linoleum or carpet.

[Near Lurker]

...I think this board has been reading entirely too much Forward.

[MrNumbers]

I think a dickroomba just sucks up any dicks it sees, then bangs against a wall before continuing its long, hard search for more dicks.

#YoMomma

[jwhouk]

The chat format was established a long time ago by Pintsize...

[OldGoat]

Not quite but almost indistinguishable from telepathy.

[Bad Superman]

And it is May, of all people, who urges Momo to have a little faith in humanity, or at least in Dale and Marigold.
Or maybe she just trusts in the power of the boner... 

[badbum61]

"Dickroomba" is my new favourite term to come out of this comic.

"pink haired dickroomba" has now officially supplanted "cheeto-faced shitgibbon" as my favourite insult.

[BenRG]

Whilst the AIIM (AI Instant Messenger) was first established waaay back around strip 320-ish, I do like the elaborations that Jeph put in here, that the sender can alter their avatar to reflect their emotions on every post.

This strip also has a nice insight into to relationship between Momo and May - Momo is nicer but this has the unexpected downside of her being less decisive and less willing to take risks. May's more aggressive nature means that she is more likely encourage quick and decisive action (even if that is not sensible). In this case, I think that May was right; nothing sensible comes from letting problems like this fester.

Here's a prediction: Dale has been drafting his apology speech on his glasses. My own personal experience is that trying to be clever, witty or insightful in these things rarely helps.

[Is it cold in here?]

If they can get into each other's heads like that, you can get an idea of what May meant when she said the worst thing about robot jail is the lack of privacy, and why Spookybot is so concerned that AIs' mental integrity not be violated. You could do some very ugly things if you could be a voice in someone's head.

I don't remember May saying that. It would totally make sense.

[oeoek]

Another vote for 'dickroomba' for word of the year.

And as for the 'voices in the head' connection between AI's; pretty much the same thing as Dale's glasses, just without the tell-tale glow. Yes, we do live in magic times…

[JoeCovenant]

Now that it's been established that Dale *does* (or even *can*) turn off his glasses...

I now can't help but think of him as being pretty damn rude 90% of the time he is interacting with people.

[BenRG]

Now that it's been established that Dale *does* (or even *can*) turn off his glasses...

I now can't help but think of him as being pretty damn rude 90% of the time he is interacting with people.

Rude or nervous? Maybe in a way he's hiding behind AR symbology and constantly searching for on-line tips and clues because, in the end, he has no confidence in his ability to interact on a social level?

[Castlerook]

Dunno about this dickroomba idea. It would be like having A Useless Broom Made Entirely Out Of Dicks.

Careful there mate, you’re showing just how far back you go on the forum. Ah memories.

[oddtail]

Now that it's been established that Dale *does* (or even *can*) turn off his glasses...

I now can't help but think of him as being pretty damn rude 90% of the time he is interacting with people.

Rude or nervous? Maybe in a way he's hiding behind AR symbology and constantly searching for on-line tips and clues because, in the end, he has no confidence in his ability to interact on a social level?

"rude" and "nervous" are not mutually exclusive, though.

If a person is rude and they have a reason for it (like being afraid of interaction), they're still being rude.

[pwhodges]

I wonder if Dale's glasses look like that to the other characters, though.  It could be that they are shown that way to the reader, to indicate their operational state, without this being so obvious in-universe.

[BenRG]

I believe that, at least initially, Dale's glasses were a deliberate reference to the various sinister manga and animé characters with reflective shiny lenses on their glasses - The whole thing of his on-line stalking of Marigold was meant to be a huge subversion of animé tropes and lampshading how badly they work when moved to an even slightly real-world scenario. It was only later, when May made her appearance, that Jeph first suggested that they were AR displays and really did glow when active.

[TheBiscuit]

Dunno about this dickroomba idea. It would be like having A Useless Broom Made Entirely Out Of Dicks.

I remember this phrase, but right now I can’t recall the meaning. I think it might have something to do with the Dark Times, when forum conduct was not so good. Is that right?

On the topic of the strip, was Momo joking when she said that they were doomed? It can be hard to tell. I don’t think of her as the joking type , generally.