Print

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

Enceladus

Aldebaran

Arcturus

Something closer to home like Europa

Station

Chiron Beta Prime

Anywhere on this blue marble but no further

The Moon

other [please specify]

Sven, drink more spathe ham.

[Gyrre]

Melon's new skin is in! But did the suppliers have the shade for Melon in? 

EDIT: option 6 is from a Jonathan Coulton song for those curious.

[Farideh]

I voted for the lyric - don't want to go into space.

[St.Clair]

Melon, no

[DaiJB]

Last week I said that I believe Melon's work involves just keeping her occupied so that she "doesn't do anything irretrievably stupid that results in casualties or lawsuits".
I take it back.
Melon's work keeps her fully occupied so that she doesn't destroy herself.

Poll: "Other" - I would love to visit Babylon Five...

[Gyrre]

I voted for the lyric - don't want to go into space.

That's fair.

This blue marble may not seem the best place at times, but right now it's the best place we know of overall.

[Farideh]

Oh, Melon.

[theMarc]

I'm concerned that Faye and Bubbs having a predefined term ("grazer") implies that this has happened multiple times before.

[BenRG]

Fixing Melon will be a breeze. Keeping her fixed is a lifetime quest.

[Farideh]

Also: faaace meeeeats

[Mr_Rose]

I'm concerned that Faye and Bubbs having a predefined term ("grazer") implies that this has happened multiple times before.

It’s like that line in Broken Arrow about not being sure whether it’s more troubling that a nuclear weapon has gone missing, or that it happens often enough that there’s a specific code name for it…

Also: faaace meeeeats

Oh, hey, Bubbles even mentions the “goop” (gel) there too.

[DaiJB]

I'm concerned that Faye and Bubbs having a predefined term ("grazer") implies that this has happened multiple times before.

...Which also implies that there are other weird robots like Melon out there.
Somehow, I didn't picture The Singularity as being like this...

[Perfectly Reasonable]

'Hand in the goop?' I think this is a check to make sure that this batch of goop is compatible with this type of  myomer.

How many different restraints is Melon going to eat before they give up and deactivate her motor cortex?

[BenRG]

QUESTION: Does anyone think that Melon is going to look radically different after this procedure? I mean with a different colour palette and possibly a different base hair colour? This is Union Robotics, after all. They may be in the position of 'getting whatever they can' in terms of replacement part and precise cosmetic matches may be a bit out of their price range (and Melon's at that).

[snubnose]

They should have told her its corrosive or explosive, because "poisonous" doesnt really stop a robot.

On the other hand neither corrosive nor explosive makes much sense for something that you use for robot skin, does it now ?

Maybe "it would harden in your insides and then you'd need a LOT more repairs" would work ? That 100% makes sense.

On the other hand Melon is so dramatically out of control I'm not sure anything would reliably work.



By the way, how are they planning on applying this to the whole body ?

[flondrix]

Fixing Melon will be a breeze. Keeping her fixed is a lifetime quest.

While Melon has been a reliable moneymaker for Union Robotics, I have to wonder...where was she going before Faye and Bubbles started their business?  From the bits of "home life" we saw shortly after the character was introduced, it was pretty clear that she has always been making holes in her surroundings and herself.

[flondrix]

Poll: "Other" - I would love to visit Babylon Five...

Everyone said I was daft to build a space station in the swamp, but I built it all the same.  It blew up.  So I built another one...

[flondrix]

I'm concerned that Faye and Bubbs having a predefined term ("grazer") implies that this has happened multiple times before.

All those years living with Pintsize have provided Faye with some useful experience.

By the way, how are they planning on applying this to the whole body ?

What exactly was the nature of Melon's (most recent) disaster?  I saw her going around with a partially de-dermalized face, but now we see her with no skin below the neck as well.  Has she been like that for a while, or did Faye and Bubbles strip off the old covering so they could start from scratch, except for her face?  Which strip shows the disaster, or did it happen offscreen?

[Mr_Rose]

I bet they have something like a combination spray-tanning/auto-bodywork booth where their clients can stand and get hosed down.
I expect that they do fiddly bits like hands, feet, faces etc. manually to make sure they get everything.

[shanejayell]

I do like seeing Bubbles and Faye.

[SmilingCat]

I'm concerned that Faye and Bubbs having a predefined term ("grazer") implies that this has happened multiple times before.

...Which also implies that there are other weird robots like Melon out there.
Somehow, I didn't picture The Singularity as being like this...

AI's in this setting are essentially minds that initially appeared accidentally and are created and allowed to develop on their own.

Just like with people, you gonna get some weird iterations of the original concept, and filtering them out would be... well...

[Farideh]

I can sympathize with Melon here - I do often want to see things being done to me. E.g. watch myself getting a C-section. Fortunately I never needed a C-section so that point is moot, but still.

Love Bubbles' eye roll in the last panel

[Scarlet Manuka]

...Which also implies that there are other weird robots like Melon out there.

I mean, we've already seen Lemon.

They should have told her its corrosive or explosive, because "poisonous" doesnt really stop a robot.

Corrosive or explosive wouldn't be likely to stop Melon, either. Remember this incident?

By the way, how are they planning on applying this to the whole body ?

Perhaps something like this, but with a taller container? And of course she wouldn't need to be suspended upside down for it, although hey, why not.

[Gyrre]

I'm concerned that Faye and Bubbs having a predefined term ("grazer") implies that this has happened multiple times before.

All those years living with Pintsize have provided Faye with some useful experience.

By the way, how are they planning on applying this to the whole body ?

What exactly was the nature of Melon's (most recent) disaster?  I saw her going around with a partially de-dermalized face, but now we see her with no skin below the neck as well.  Has she been like that for a while, or did Faye and Bubbles strip off the old covering so they could start from scratch, except for her face?  Which strip shows the disaster, or did it happen offscreen?

I forgot how exactly, but she set half of herself on fire off screen a week or two ago.

EDIT: We got to see the early warning signs when Melon turned her drunk dial 'up to 11'. It's mentioned in 4777 that she caught fire.

I can sympathize with Melon here - I do often want to see things being done to me. E.g. watch myself getting a C-section. Fortunately I never needed a C-section so that point is moot, but still.

Love Bubbles' eye roll in the last panel

I watched my finger get stitched up when I had an accident withan exacto knife.

Ah yes, Faye's entrepreneurial instincts.

[Cornelius]

They should have told her its corrosive or explosive, because "poisonous" doesnt really stop a robot.

Corrosive or explosive wouldn't be likely to stop Melon, either. Remember this incident?

Corrosive is just spicy for robots.

[pwhodges]

I watched my finger get stitched up when I had an accident with an exacto knife.

I watched as they put a stent in one of my heart blood vessels after my heart attack.  They even asked me to move my shoulder to help the catheter round a bend.

[SmilingCat]

I didn't get to watch my own nephrectomy, but I was curious enough to watch a nephrectomy on youtube beforehand.

[shanejayell]

I was awake when they cut my toe off. Ick. So, not recommended...

[shanejayell]

New comic.
Oooh, ouch...

[Farideh]

Strife! Fingers crossed for some healthy, adult, communication.

[Elder Sign]

Well, this is distinctly headed downhill in a hurry.

Now that I look back at the current arc (i.e. since 4790) Faye's pretty clearly been in an underlying, if not overt, bad mood the entire time.  I wonder what the cause was, if it was anything more complex than simply "having a bad day".

[Gyrre]

First fight as a couple or just first one in a while?

[Penquin47]

Other - I wanna go to some of the promising targets Kepler's planetary survey has discovered to see if they are, in fact, Goldilocks.  Or Mars.

[Farideh]

First fight as a couple or just first one in a while?

They've had misunderstandings before (like when Faye walked out during Claire's graduation party), but I'm not sure if they've had a 'real' fight before.

[Thrillho]

...

...

...


...

uh



y'okay Bubz?

[Dr. ROFLPWN]

lmao is it time for Faye to have a breakup/breakdown combo again

(fingers crossed it is)

[Perfectly Reasonable]

QUESTION: Does anyone think that Melon is going to look radically different after this procedure? I mean with a different colour palette and possibly a different base hair colour?  ...

I am reminded of when May's face was damaged and she went to the fighting ring to get it fixed. They had orange and khaki. May chose khaki. (3174) It looked fine. But it quickly faded to dead white. Never explained. May wanted her face to match her ass (3358) so she bought the correct color at a shop and went back and got it installed. (off screen between 3363 and 3365) So I am sure that Union Robotics is quite capable of returning Melon to her original appearance.

[Elder Sign]

lmao is it time for Faye to have a breakup/breakdown combo again

(fingers crossed it is)

I mean, I can't quite imagine what drives people to actively hope for such things, it seems more than a little sociopathic to me, but you do you I guess.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Faye and Bubbles seem to be the only standing human/AI romantic relationship in the strip at the moment, so with all the focus on AIs for the past while, I can't imagine Jeph would break them up without some replacement in the wings -- kind of like how Faye and Angus broke up to make storyline way for Marten and Claire as the "hetero relationship with focus".

Jeph does, however, love to toss an abrupt bomb between two characters in a relationship and then see where they settle in a (hopefully) healthier configuration afterwards.

[oddtail]

I mean, I can't quite imagine what drives people to actively hope for such things, it seems more than a little sociopathic to me, but you do you I guess.

...they're fictional characters. Character conflict and drama can make for interesting stories.

I don't particularly need them having a big fight as a story seed, but the idea that hoping for a certain kind of storyline involving fictional characters is "sociopathic" is... wild.

[hedgie]

For the poll, I chose Aldebaran, partially since it's in the constellation of Taurus, and I am one,[1] as well as the Lovecraftian associations.  Right now, I'd much rather deal with horrors of a tentacular nature than I do the horrors around that walk on two legs.


[1] Not that I believe in that sort of thing, but to err is human, to moo bovine.

[Elder Sign]

I mean, I can't quite imagine what drives people to actively hope for such things, it seems more than a little sociopathic to me, but you do you I guess.

...they're fictional characters. Character conflict and drama can make for interesting stories.

I don't particularly need them having a big fight as a story seed, but the idea that hoping for a certain kind of storyline involving fictional characters is "sociopathic" is... wild.

Well yes, I'm well aware that "conflict drives drama", every new arc in QC has that as some element.  Duh.

Where I'm coming from on that is that the last time Faye had a "breakup/breakdown combo", didn't she end up in hospital and nearly dying (or at least implied so) due to alcohol poisoning?  And somebody eagerly wants more of that and thinks it's funny?

Like, yes, I want to see characters grow and develop, but I don't want to see them suffer unnecessarily and/or pointlessly just for shock value and "entertainment".

[oddtail]

I don't either. I still don't see what it has to do with sociopathy that someone else in the forum does.

Again, they are fictional characters. They are not being hurt when a storyline happens when they're in a shitty situation.

[zioninavision]

i seem to remember Jeph saying a few years ago that he is not interested in having any of the characters go through too much stress!!  whatever is happening now, i am sure it will really have a good outcome that wouldn't have happened otherwise!!

In particular, they have had the shop for this long just as a couple and maybe Yay or Hanners knows some specialists who can start working alongside them!! 

[Elder Sign]

I don't either. I still don't see what it has to do with sociopathy that someone else in the forum does.

Okay, then let me try and illustrate it as simply as I can:

lmao is it time for Faye to have a breakup/breakdown combo again

(fingers crossed it is)

Emphasis is mine.  Does nobody else see how laughing at and rooting for someone potentially descending into another self-destructive trainwreck is all kinds of problematic?

For context, the sort of "breakup/breakdown combo" they're talking about, last time around, started about here and spiralled until it culminated in a near-death experience.  So that's the sort of thing that they've stated they want to see happen again.

Again, they are fictional characters. They are not being hurt when a storyline happens when they're in a shitty situation.

Yes, I'm well aware of that fact.  Jeph, of course, will do whatever he wants with his fictional characters and their storylines.  That's not what I'm objecting to here.

[dutchrvl]

Wow, this is a pretty strong sign that bubbles finds Faye’s approach to the work an issue, does not consider her professional enough, and probably has felt growing resentment while never actually bringing it up to Faye.
When your both lovers and business partners, not openly discussing these things from the start is a recipe for blowups down the road.

Unclear if bubbles has simply allowed it to build up inside while never voicing her dissatisfaction, or whether she has brought it up multiple times and simply had enough of Faye not becoming more professional

[Farideh]

This is an interesting one to me. AFAICS, Faye is usually pretty professional, provides good quality work, and is willing to listen to and learn from Bubbles if needed. For Bubbles to get so worked up over this incident comes out of left field. There's probably something else that is bothering her (worries about money and/or the long term prospects of UR? Relationship issues?) After all, it's never about the Iranian yogurt.

[hedgie]

I think that it’s Faye’s cavilier/joking attitude about the whole thing (particularly with AIs being a minority that faces serious discrimination).  If they were doctors, and the patients human, most people *wouldn’t* like someone joking around like that.

[Gyrre]

lmao is it time for Faye to have a breakup/breakdown combo again

(fingers crossed it is)

[Pulls out spray bottle]

No. Bad. No.

[alanari]

I have a workplace relationship. We can switch from "arguing about work loud enough for the colleagues next door to understand everything" to "leaving the building after end of work holding hands" in half a minute. Literally. It seems to confuse our colleagues a lot. We separate work and relationship.
I hope that faye and bubbles can figure out a way that works for them, too.

[Torlek]

Bubbles has probably had a long-simmering resentment of Faye's cavalier and, frankly, irresponsible attitude about safety (see, pretty much every time Sam has been in the shop) and integrity of work (if she had just slapped the repair on there, it had failed later and Melon were a more litigious AI, she could sue them into the ground). Faye's attitude has never been cut out to be a managing business partner. She's an employee at best.

[St.Clair]

I think that it’s Faye’s cavilier/joking attitude about the whole thing (particularly with AIs being a minority that faces serious discrimination).  If they were doctors, and the patients human, most people *wouldn’t* like someone joking around like that.

The people I know in healthcare make jokes all the time.
Usually not in earshot of the patients, though.