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The Reed/Bean family vacation (Marten, Claire (and Pintsize?) along for the ride; lots of coincidental background characters returning)

27 (16.2%)

The Fairy Girl ropes the ladies into some weird Summer Solstice festival

12 (7.2%)

Dora decides to add iced teas and iced coffees to CoD's repetoire; there are teething troubles

6 (3.6%)

Northampton's medieval-themed Summer Faire (Bubbles mentors Sam to win the Tournament)

30 (18%)

Claire's final exams looms; later the graduation is a significant thing

27 (16.2%)

Angus's show is on hiatus; he comes back to try to make peace with Faye

23 (13.8%)

Pintsize, having cleaned up at the poker game, goes on tour to several world casinos with Melon as his sidekick/assistant

8 (4.8%)

For the first time, Bubbles is able to face the annual reunion of the survivors of her unit

22 (13.2%)

Sven is going on tour to the summer Country festivals; somehow, May gets a Roadie job

8 (4.8%)

Other (please specify in a comment)

4 (2.4%)

Total Members Voted: 60

Voting closed: 26 Jun 2018, 15:18

[awgiedawgie]

Hello,

Does anybody know what kind of modification (if any) Hannelore did to her nose in the latest comic?
I'm unable to discern it from the panel and I'm not knowledgeable enough to just guess what it was. Here's a reference image:

To reference your reference image: “Nothing new in nose area?” Yes, there is something new. If you’ll look closer, you can see a small nose ring in her left nostril (the side facing us).

[SordidEuphemism]

Hello,

Does anybody know what kind of modification (if any) Hannelore did to her nose in the latest comic?
I'm unable to discern it from the panel and I'm not knowledgeable enough to just guess what it was. Here's a reference image:

There's an extra line on her nostril. If her ear rings are any guide, that's how they're presented. I assume the eyebrow sparkles are sweat drops.

[Welu]

I'm really proud of Hanners in this strip. Being symmetrical was a big thing to her and this is a big step and sign of overcoming past challenges.

[Bad Superman]

Sooo I just need to vent. Apparently ignorance towards AIs does exist in the real world. I shared the Faye/Bubbles storyline with an online friend and he said some pretty closed minded stuff.

A long time ago, there was an episode of Star Trek:TNG where Tasha Yar (I think?) had sex with Data, and I remember reading some pretty ugly stuff on-line about it. About the most polite was "He's just a fancy dildo."

Yes, it was Tasha in The Naked Now.

"What I want now is gentleness, and joy, and love from you, Data. You are fully functional aren't you?"
"Of course, but..."
"How fully?"
"In every way, of course. I am programmed in multiple techniques. A broad variety of pleasuring."
"Oh, you jewel! That's exactly what I hoped."
    - Data and Tasha Yar

Sadly, followed by this on the day after:

"Data, I'm only going to tell you this just once: it never happened."
    - Tasha Yar, to Data

[BenRG]

FWIW, I always wonder if Data actually deleted the entire incident from his memory or if that was even possible.

[JoeCovenant]

FWIW, I always wonder if Data actually deleted the entire incident from his memory or if that was even possible.

No, he did not wipe it.

There are a LOT of references from Data throughout the series where he recalls his intimacy with Tasha, and in a melancholy manner. (Mostly in "Measure of a Man" (a very pertinent episode given this discussion.) And he also keeps a small holograph of Tasha.

In fact, Brent Spiner revealed that Tasha herself did NOT feel the same way as she 'suggested' she did . ("It never happened") As when she died and her hologram (recorded in case of death) was played, she gave Data high praise and (VERY sadly) in a line that was edited out of the final cut she said "Oh by the way Data... It did happen!"

It should also be remembered that Tasha was not Data's only *girlfriend* in TNG...
He had a relationship with ... I wanna say Desora?... In the 'In Theory' episode (another pertinent one!) which ends as the female is incapable of ignoring the factthat data (from a human perspective) cannot 'love'.

(Which the rest of the series kinda fights to show otherwise, even before he gets the emotion chip)

Yep... Old TNG fiend here..

ONE THOUSANDTH POST!
GO ME!! 

(I was gonna save it til my birthday, but couldn't go another week and a half saying nothing!)

[Bad Superman]

Also, if I remember the scene correctly, after her 'it never happened'-line, Tasha turns away from Data and smirks a little. 

[NemesisDancer]

Yay Hannelore

The piercer in today's strip looks familiar - has she been in a previous comic?

[BenRG]

I believe that she did Claire's ears and septum peircing. She may have also been the lady who handled Tai's piercing in a somewhat... er... 'intimate' area.

[Welu]

Claire's ears and septum was a different person. They do work in the same shop as who did Tai's piercing. This new place has the same wording sign but a different design. The character design might be based on the same person as Tai's piercer, probably a real person Jeph knows, but it's hard to tell because we're seeing different sides and can't compare tattoos easily.

[Undrneath]

Tai's piercer had blue eyes and Hanner's seems to have brown.

[A small perverse otter]

If depositing your girlfriend's heroin sales proceeds in the bank is a felony then how could Faye be in the clear?  I can guess but shouldn't.

Hang on. Is this one of those things where what-it-is and what-you-can-get-imprisoned-for are two different things?

Yeah, guessing in a case like this is always bad.

There are lots of ways the two cases could be different.

That actual laundering step is not the initial deposit, but rather how that money is later handled. In the case of someone who is trying to hide her girlfriend's drug profits, the fact that she worked with her girlfriend to hide her *girlfriend's* illicit income by accepting if from the girlfriend and then depositing it in *her* bank account? Boom: money laundering, but not by virtue of the deposit itself. It's money laundering by virtue of being a channel through which the source of the money was being concealed.

Someone depositing their own money in their own account with no intent to conceal the source of that income? Probably not money laundering.

In the middle? Selling someone a truckload of Rubber Duckies for a grossly inflated price on the basis of the buyer's deposit in a bank account when you have reason to believe that money was obtained illicitly? Not necessarily a wise choice; that's an archetypal first step in a laundering pipeline. Not in itself illegal, but...retain an attorney and consult with them.

[Theta9]

I believe that she did Claire's ears and septum peircing. She may have also been the lady who handled Tai's piercing in a somewhat... er... 'intimate' area.

Am I the only one who remembers the server who gave Clinton advice about Brun and then shook him down for a Ben?

[brasca]

I remember a lot of people were surprised at how tan Hannelore got when we saw her tending the yaks and forgot they hadn’t seen this bonus strip.  I wonder what she was doing prior to this.

[Is it cold in here?]

I don't know the details of Piper Kerman's criminal involvement, but if the prosecution can make a reasonable case that she knew the money was obtained illegally and that her actions were intended to hide their illegal origin, then she was probably criminally liable. If she could make the case that she legitimately didn't know that the money was ill-gotten or that she had received the money legally, she probably would not have been culpable.

I suspect that Roko knows that Faye and Bubbles were doing honest work for a dishonest organization and simply doesn't see any benefit in bringing the hammer down on two people who just needed work, even if they knew that work was facilitating an illegal gambling operation.

Faye knew that the money was obtained illegally. If she made a bank deposit, her intention would have been to do normal bank account things. The foreseeable effect, one legal standard for intent, would be to put dirty money into the clean part of the system.

[A small perverse otter]

I don't know the details of Piper Kerman's criminal involvement, but if the prosecution can make a reasonable case that she knew the money was obtained illegally and that her actions were intended to hide their illegal origin, then she was probably criminally liable. If she could make the case that she legitimately didn't know that the money was ill-gotten or that she had received the money legally, she probably would not have been culpable.

I suspect that Roko knows that Faye and Bubbles were doing honest work for a dishonest organization and simply doesn't see any benefit in bringing the hammer down on two people who just needed work, even if they knew that work was facilitating an illegal gambling operation.

Faye knew that the money was obtained illegally. If she made a bank deposit, her intention would have been to do normal bank account things. The foreseeable effect, one legal standard for intent, would be to put dirty money into the clean part of the system.

Now things get really complicated and fast. Intent matters here: did she intend to obscure the source of the money? Then the subsequent transaction might constitute money laundering.  If not, then, no, she really didn't launder money. Now, if Corpse Witch had intended to obscure the source of money by giving it to Faye, and Faye had known that was Corpse Witch's intent, *that* might well have been money laundering. But the deposit *itself* was not the crime in either case.

Money laundering is about corrupt transactions and intent.

• Take your girlfriend's drug money and put it in your bank account to hide it? The *taking* with the intent of concealment is money laundering. The mechanism merely demonstrates that.
• Take Corpse Witch's cash payment as compensation for work done? Maybe so, maybe no. Did CW intend to conceal the origin of the money by overpaying you and did you know that? Possibly money laundering. Did you merely accept overpayment? Possibly not. Roko and the US Attorney with jurisdiction would have to decide whether to pursue the charge.
• Take Faye's illegally gotten gains and use them to pay her share of the rent? Possibly, at least if you knew their source. It comes down to intent: did you intend to obscure the source of the money? If not, not money laundering

But these are all guesses. The point I'm making is that (a) the deposit itself is not money laundering and (b) it's all case by case. My only advice: if you have reasonable cause to sincerely suspect you might be part of such a pipeline? Get legal advice. Now.

[Bad Superman]

Regarding today's comic... am I the only one who gets a somewhat... manic(?) vibe from Hannelore..?

Especially her face in the last panel.
The little lines below her eyes? The way she's grinning? Crocodile wrestling?

I don't know... It doesn't look... healthy.

[Undrneath]

To be fair this comic was not long after Hanners told her mom off and was off on her soul searching adventure. So she probably wasn't in the best state of mind even for Hanners.

[A small perverse otter]

Regarding today's comic... am I the only one who gets a somewhat... manic(?) vibe from Hannelore..?

Especially her face in the last panel.
The little lines below her eyes? The way she's grinning? Crocodile wrestling?

I don't know... It doesn't look... healthy.

The reason the Hanners is off traveling the world is that she realized she had experienced a slough of new emotions when she told her mother off. She'd always been limited and defined by her disabilities and she felt like she'd very suddenly transcended many of them. (We, looking in from the outside, saw her gradual transition, but Hanners had not perceived that.)  Suddenly, she's free!

But what does that do to her limits? What can she do now that she couldn't do before? Suddenly, this collared person is loose. She's experiencing something the rest of experience as we become adults: freedom from external constraints and acquisition of normal internal self-regulation. What can she do?

She's got to find out by testing her limits. Most of us do that during our teen years -- and we get the pure joy of learning "hey, I *can* do that" as well as the occasional "You know that thing you just did? Don't do it again."

So, crocodile wrestling and yak herding? You can't know until you try. 

And besides, it's a very small crocodile.

[Bad Superman]

Regarding today's comic... am I the only one who gets a somewhat... manic(?) vibe from Hannelore..?

Especially her face in the last panel.
The little lines below her eyes? The way she's grinning? Crocodile wrestling?

I don't know... It doesn't look... healthy.

The reason the Hanners is off traveling the world is that she realized she had experienced a slough of new emotions when she told her mother off. She'd always been limited and defined by her disabilities and she felt like she'd very suddenly transcended many of them. (We, looking in from the outside, saw her gradual transition, but Hanners had not perceived that.)  Suddenly, she's free!

But what does that do to her limits? What can she do now that she couldn't do before? Suddenly, this collared person is loose. She's experiencing something the rest of experience as we become adults: freedom from external constraints and acquisition of normal internal self-regulation. What can she do?

She's got to find out by testing her limits. Most of us do that during our teen years -- and we get the pure joy of learning "hey, I *can* do that" as well as the occasional "You know that thing you just did? Don't do it again."

So, crocodile wrestling and yak herding? You can't know until you try. 

And besides, it's a very small crocodile.

And that's the part I'm not really buying.

I may not be an expert in that field, but I think it's fair to assume, that one does not get rid of years and years (and years!) of severe mental health problems in one single "Heureka!"-moment.

To me it seems too much and too sudden.

[A small perverse otter]

Regarding today's comic... am I the only one who gets a somewhat... manic(?) vibe from Hannelore..?

Especially her face in the last panel.
The little lines below her eyes? The way she's grinning? Crocodile wrestling?

I don't know... It doesn't look... healthy.

The reason the Hanners is off traveling the world is that she realized she had experienced a slough of new emotions when she told her mother off. She'd always been limited and defined by her disabilities and she felt like she'd very suddenly transcended many of them. (We, looking in from the outside, saw her gradual transition, but Hanners had not perceived that.)  Suddenly, she's free!

But what does that do to her limits? What can she do now that she couldn't do before? Suddenly, this collared person is loose. She's experiencing something the rest of experience as we become adults: freedom from external constraints and acquisition of normal internal self-regulation. What can she do?

She's got to find out by testing her limits. Most of us do that during our teen years -- and we get the pure joy of learning "hey, I *can* do that" as well as the occasional "You know that thing you just did? Don't do it again."

So, crocodile wrestling and yak herding? You can't know until you try. 

And besides, it's a very small crocodile.

And that's the part I'm not really buying.

I may not be an expert in that field, but I think it's fair to assume, that one does not get rid of years and years (and years!) of severe mental health problems in one single "Heureka!"-moment.

To me it seems too much and too sudden.

But you're right: it would be too much and too sudden -- if it hadn't been foreshadowed by other events in the comic. That's why it's important that we've seen Hanners' growth from the outside.  It isn't that she grew suddenly, but rather that she suddenly realized that she had grown.  In confronting her mother, she realized that however she'd been in the past, she could be scared and work through it. We see that in the first two panels where she self-coaches that she *can* do it, and that it will be all right and it will be cute and (most importantly) that she isn't going to panic.

Being scared is a rational response to doing something scary, and, as her companion AI points out, there are things which could go wrong with the piercing. Differentiating between that fear and the irrational fear which lies in overresponding to it is also rational. Hanners is scared -- as she should be -- but she doesn't panic. Seriously, if I were her -- speaking for a friend here, of course -- I'd be utterly thrilled.

[awgiedawgie]

Yay Hannelore

The piercer in today's strip looks familiar - has she been in a previous comic?

I believe that she did Claire's ears and septum peircing. She may have also been the lady who handled Tai's piercing in a somewhat... er... 'intimate' area.

Claire's ears and septum was a different person. They do work in the same shop as who did Tai's piercing. This new place has the same wording sign but a different design. The character design might be based on the same person as Tai's piercer, probably a real person Jeph knows, but it's hard to tell because we're seeing different sides and can't compare tattoos easily.

Am I the only one who remembers the server who gave Clinton advice about Brun and then shook him down for a Ben?

We have now seen two different girls working at the tattoo/piercing place, plus the guy who did both of Claire's piercings. The waitress who shook Clinton down was not one of them. All of the girls are a similar type, but their tattoos are all different. So is their hair, but hair is easier to change than tattoos are.

• The girl who pierced Tai's lady bits
• The girl at the front desk
• The guy who did both Claire's ears and septum
  

The shop Hanners went to is a different one (the exterior and interior of the building are completely different), and is probably not anywhere near Massachusetts, since this was at least a few days after Hanners started off on her walkabout (it was originally posted on Patreon right before this strip).

[Bad Superman]

But you're right: it would be too much and too sudden -- if it hadn't been foreshadowed by other events in the comic. That's why it's important that we've seen Hanners' growth from the outside.  It isn't that she grew suddenly, but rather that she suddenly realized that she had grown.  In confronting her mother, she realized that however she'd been in the past, she could be scared and work through it. We see that in the first two panels where she self-coaches that she *can* do it, and that it will be all right and it will be cute and (most importantly) that she isn't going to panic.

Being scared is a rational response to doing something scary, and, as her companion AI points out, there are things which could go wrong with the piercing. Differentiating between that fear and the irrational fear which lies in overresponding to it is also rational. Hanners is scared -- as she should be -- but she doesn't panic. Seriously, if I were her -- speaking for a friend here, of course -- I'd be utterly thrilled.

I agree that, for someone like Hannelore, confronting her mother was a big thing. Perhaps even the biggest thing in her life, in terms of a personal breakthrough. Maybe I did not see that at the time, since I was one of the people who did not like the "Tilly / Hannelore vs. Beatrice"-storyarc, to say the least.

So, yes, Hannelore may have made some significant progress in that arc, but I still think that a majority of her anxieties and other issues are still there. Such things don't just vanish. Maybe she's riding on a wave of endorphins and adrenaline right now, I don't know, but I am concerned with what happens when that wave breaks...

In other words, should Hannelore come back from her journey and just be 'completely healed', I would consider that to be pretty unrealistic...


Lastly, regarding the piercing:
When I had my tattoo done back in 2008/09, I was rather calm. Or better: I was calm, until the tattoo-artist drew the first real line of ink near my elbow. At that point I had a sudden flash of realization:

"I cannot back out anymore! This will stay there FOREVER! Hell, I'm really doing this!"

Then the adrenaline kicked in and everything was fine. I would say it was a pretty enjoyable experience, even with the pain that is necessarily involved. The finished product now covers my upper right arm, including the deltoid, and I would not have it any other way. 

[A small perverse otter]

[...] So, yes, Hannelore may have made some significant progress in that arc, but I still think that a majority of her anxieties and other issues are still there. Such things don't just vanish. Maybe she's riding on a wave of endorphins and adrenaline right now, I don't know, but I am concerned with what happens when that wave breaks...

In other words, should Hannelore come back from her journey and just be 'completely healed', I would consider that to be pretty unrealistic...

No question about it, she's never going to be completely 'healed', but she has developed a set of coping behaviors which bring her mental illnesses under more, if not complete, control. She can self-coach to get past the some anxiety attacks. She can vent enough to handle cleaning out a stable. That doesn't mean she won't have to wash her hands a few times extra every day, and it doesn't mean she won't ever panic, it just means she can function in ways she could never manage before.

[Theta9]

Am I the only one who remembers the server who gave Clinton advice about Brun and then shook him down for a Ben?

We have now seen two different girls working at the tattoo/piercing place, plus the guy who did both of Claire's piercings. The waitress who shook Clinton down was not one of them. All of the girls are a similar type, but their tattoos are all different. So is their hair, but hair is easier to change than tattoos are.

Ah, well, all these tattooed women with colored hair look the same to me.

[OldGoat]

At least a few recoveries from emotional disorders do happen rapidly.  It may take a long time to "get to the corner," but when you get there, turning it takes as long as, well, turning a corner.  (We probably have a clinical psychologist on board who's qualified to comment on that.)  You're never "cured" of emotional trauma, you just learn to work with it and make it a part of you.  When Hanners returns, she'll be changed.  Recovery is being able to function in spite of it, and Hannelore will be a functions adult.

Whether she will whisper discretely or shout to the world no one but Jeph can tell, but when she reunites with Marigold she will say, "I found out what wieners smell like!"

[Bad Superman]

No question about it, she's never going to be completely 'healed', but she has developed a set of coping behaviors which bring her mental illnesses under more, if not complete, control. She can self-coach to get past the some anxiety attacks. She can vent enough to handle cleaning out a stable. That doesn't mean she won't have to wash her hands a few times extra every day, and it doesn't mean she won't ever panic, it just means she can function in ways she could never manage before.

Again, the underlined parts are where we seem to disagree.

Coming back to the beginning, I mentioned that, going by today's comic, I get the impression that Hannelore in fact is not in control. As I said, to me she looked manic. And, yes, this one, and the comic with the yak are not in chronological order, and we don't know how much time has passed between them in comic-time. I get that.

You say the change in her behavior has been foreshadowed. I disagree, but I'm willing to say that maybe I just didn't pay as much attention to certain details as you did.

If I interpret your comment correctly, you say that, at the time of the yak stable cleaning, Hannelore has developed enough coping techniques do deal with her anxiety, because she was finally able to break out of her inner prison. Not always, but often, and to a high degree of success.
Once more I seem to be unable to connect the dots here.
My view of Hannelore was that, even taking into account how far she has come since we first met her, she still has a long long way to go before she can be a functioning adult. There can be breakthroughs and little leaps and bounds of progress, but what we currently see (in the yak stable scene) strikes me as a very big leap of progress with very little in-comic explanation. That is why I would call her supposed change too much and too sudden. To me it almost feels like a revamping of her character.

I think I'll have to wait and see...

[awgiedawgie]

We have seen Hanners deal with the spiders in the basement of the coffee shop. When Cosette injured herself at the shop - clearly not for the first time - Hanners remarked that she was becoming blasé about cleaning up blood. She helped Marigold through her little drunken puking emotional breakdown - for what was probably hours - and didn't panic once.

Even with nothing more (and there is more - those are just what came readily to my mind) than those examples to go on, her being able to clean out a yak stable is no longer an insurmountable leap in her progress, but merely a very large step. Her progress has been steady ever since we first met her. Not only has she been steadily able to handle more things that she ever could before, but she has also been steadily realizing that she can do these things.

[Is it cold in here?]

Here's a question. Given how long it took to legalize marriage between same-sex humans, is it even legal for humans and robots to marry each other? AIs have full civil rights but so did gay people and it wasn't enough by itself to allow them to marry.

[A small perverse otter]

Here's a question. Given how long it took to legalize marriage between same-sex humans, is it even legal for humans and robots to marry each other? AIs have full civil rights but so did gay people and it wasn't enough by itself to allow them to marry.

Oh, Lord. Think of the cries about Weakening the Human Race Miscegenation Sterility of the Marriage WeCanFindSomethingJustLetUsThinkAboutIt there would be.

I wonder if AIs can even marry one another?

[Zebediah]

Pintsize went to a robot bachelor party, which implies that robots can marry each other. At least in Massachusetts.

I also expect that robots can marry humans in QC Massachusetts, given our recent record on marriage equality issues. And they can probably marry in the rest of the US as soon as the Supreme Court gets around to ruling that the Loving v. Virginia decision applies to AIs.

[A small perverse otter]

Pintsize went to a robot bachelor party, which implies that robots can marry each other. At least in Massachusetts.

I also expect that robots can marry humans in QC Massachusetts, given our recent record on marriage equality issues. And they can probably marry in the rest of the US as soon as the Supreme Court gets around to ruling that the Loving v. Virginia decision applies to AIs.

It would probably depend more on Obergefell v. Hodges, since that recognized a fundamental right to marry. There would still be a huge hill to cliimb -- AI/human marriages would be a great extension of the Southern strategy to another batch of bigots -- but in the end, the couples would win.

I am so looking forward to watching _Whittaker v. Twenty-seven-I_ proceed through the courts. (Twenty-seven-I is the current Secretary of State of Georgia in my headcanon.)

[Akima]

Here's a question. Given how long it took to legalize marriage between same-sex humans, is it even legal for humans and robots to marry each other? AIs have full civil rights but so did gay people and it wasn't enough by itself to allow them to marry.

I would argue that a person who may not legally marry the adult partner of their choice does not have full civil rights, and that gay people do not have full civil rights until they can do so.

Yeah, sure, that’s all well and good in their perfect little world, but when Joe Nobody comes in off the street and says “I want my name in Kanji”, it’s just plain irresponsible (and yes, I would agree, fraudulent) for the artist to just whip out a bunch of random (cuz basically, that’s what it is) characters, and say “here you go”, since they are not, in fact, giving the customer what they asked for.

I agree entirely. I would say that an ethical and professional tattooist should refuse to do the work in those circumstances unless they are themselves competent to "translate" the customer's chosen name or message into Japanese, Chinese, or whatever the target language and writing-system happens to be.

Names, however, are especially difficult, at least in Chinese, because non-Chinese names are written phonetically using the sound of the characters when spoken aloud. For example Albert Einstein is 阿尔伯特 爱因斯坦 (Ā'ěrbótè Àiyīnsītǎn) and Helen Keller is 海伦 凯勒 (Hǎilún Kǎilē). Any decent on-line Chinese dictionary will give you the normally-accepted Chinese version(s) of common Western personal names, but then someone seeking a tattoo will have to choose the style in which the characters should be written, and Chinese calligraphy is a lifetime's study in itself. If you must get a hanzi tattoo, please don't get it done in a style that looks like the label on a can of beans.

[Dandi Andi]

Oh, Lord. Think of the cries about Weakening the Human Race Miscegenation Sterility of the Marriage WeCanFindSomethingJustLetUsThinkAboutIt there would be.

"It's a slippery slope, you know! Next thing you know, people will be marrying their tables and chairs! When will the degenerate liberals stop destroying the foundations of America!?"

I actually heard that exact complaint in my coffee shop after Obergefell v Hodges. That's not even hyperbole. Tables and chairs. I doubt it will be any better in the QC universe.

[awgiedawgie]

... someone seeking a tattoo will have to choose the style in which the characters should be written, and Chinese calligraphy is a lifetime's study in itself. If you must get a hanzi tattoo, please don't get it done in a style that looks like the label on a can of beans.

Unless, of course, you want your upper arm to look like a can of beans with your name on it. 

Thank you. You've just given me a horrifying idea for a tattoo (not 'an idea for a horrifying tattoo').

[A small perverse otter]

Oh, Lord. Think of the cries about Weakening the Human Race Miscegenation Sterility of the Marriage WeCanFindSomethingJustLetUsThinkAboutIt there would be.

"It's a slippery slope, you know! Next thing you know, people will be marrying their tables and chairs! When will the degenerate liberals stop destroying the foundations of America!?"

"I mean, think about it: what is an AI except a talking chair? Can a chair care about someone? Then why do you think an AI can?"

"Besides, it's just a scam to hide real people's assets."

Oh, boy, this is going to be fun, isn't it?

I actually heard that exact complaint in my coffee shop after Obergefell v Hodges. That's not even hyperbole. Tables and chairs. I doubt it will be any better in the QC universe.

I'm sorry about that.

[wlewisiii]

If you must get a hanzi tattoo, please don't get it done in a style that looks like the label on a can of beans.

Heh. I'd rather go with bad latin that at least I can understand. I've pondered getting a nice gothic cross on my sword arm with "bellator iustitia socialis" inscribed on it 

[fayelovesbubbles]

Cute memory of Faye and Bubbles.

Hmm, if it doesn't matter, why are you blushing, Bubbles?

Haha, sorry. Carry on.

[Thrillho]

Knowing what we know now, that sounds like self-loathing from Bubbles. Why would a human find her attractive, after all? Perhaps she has had unrequited feelings for a human in prior life.

[fayelovesbubbles]

She had more or less accepted that she’d never be with Faye. That killed me.

[fayelovesbubbles]

Faye was excited to finally know someone whose bum was as fascinating as her own...

[awgiedawgie]

She had more or less accepted that she’d never be with Faye. That killed me.

I'd have to go back and read through it, but I thought that scene was well before Bubbles had developed any feelings of affection - possibly even friendship - for Faye. I could be remembering it wrong, but I am inclined to think that this was when she still found Faye abrasive and pushy.

[fayelovesbubbles]

Oh yeah, I know. I was talking about more recently.

She liked Faye and considered her a friend at this point but still found her really annoying at times. Their conversations during that time period were so cute and funny.

You make a good point. Bubbles may have been too polite to correct Faye when she said “this is my friend Bubbles.” She may not have shared those friendship feelings.

[jwhouk]

Knowing what we know now, that sounds like self-loathing from Bubbles. Why would a human find her attractive, after all? Perhaps she has had unrequited feelings for a human in prior life.

How much of this may have contributed to her wanting her memories wiped of her squad?

[fantasticalice]

My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.

How about talking about my sex life in Sumerian? Would using a dead language to talk about something dead somehow make it alive? Like using a double negative? No, actually I think it would just make it deader. And people still wouldn’t understand.

How about talking about someone's dead sex life in the language of the Great Old Ones? Would that serve?

I tried searching for that on google translate, and my laptop assumed a non-Euclidean geometry while my mouse turned Cyclopean. Writing this on my iPhone.

Lucky you. I tried looking it up on Bing, and my laptop grew tentacles and is now chasing me around the house.

Great. I have a shoggoth in my flat. Thanks everyone!

Do you know what shoggoth goo does to the floor???

[Carl-E]

That's OK, some blood buffed in afterwards makes a nice, warm finish. 






What?  I do janitorial work at a church part-time...

[A small perverse otter]

My talking about my sex life would be like talking in Sumerian. It's dead and very few understand it.

How about talking about my sex life in Sumerian? Would using a dead language to talk about something dead somehow make it alive? Like using a double negative? No, actually I think it would just make it deader. And people still wouldn’t understand.

How about talking about someone's dead sex life in the language of the Great Old Ones? Would that serve?

I tried searching for that on google translate, and my laptop assumed a non-Euclidean geometry while my mouse turned Cyclopean. Writing this on my iPhone.

Lucky you. I tried looking it up on Bing, and my laptop grew tentacles and is now chasing me around the house.

Great. I have a shoggoth in my flat. Thanks everyone!

Do you know what shoggoth goo does to the floor???

Actually, no. I'll try looking it up on Google Images...just as soon as my laptop stops chasing me.

[A small perverse otter]

That's OK, some blood buffed in afterwards makes a nice, warm finish. 

What?  I do janitorial work at a church part-time...

Oh, you must be the guy who's sexton at First Universal Church of the Black Pharaoh in R'leah! 

[BenRG]

After looking back through the Faybles arc, I think that the cutest panel is panel 1 in strip 3749. It tells you a lot about Faye's feelings. Yes, there has been the make-outs and sex but, in the end, the thing that causes a strong enough emotional reaction to make her blush is asking Bubbles for permission to describe them as being a 'couple'.

[fayelovesbubbles]

Did you notice her expression and what she did with her hands was the same cute thing that Claire did when asking Marten if she should move in? So cute!