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Playing Referee

🕑 Added 2023-07-10 20:47:41 +0000 UTC

Comments

Clifton Royston

I was thinking the same thing. However, Zlata seems more self-aware than Tilly was at first and realizes that Claire needs to decide if she even wants an underling. That's why she seems to be all in for whatever hoops Claire wants to ask her to jump through to prove her worthiness.

Light

Is the rake thing a Sideshow Bob reference?

ValdVin

I was an adult when that movie was promoted. I went to the library and asked the nice lady if they had the book 'Who Censored Roger Rabbit'? 'Is that fiction or non-fiction?' she asked.

ValdVin

Oh yeah!

Clifton Royston

Moray probably has only a few years of actual experience interacting with people and learning emotional maturity. For all that AIs insist age is not equivalent (Yay: "It doesn't work like that!") it's also pretty clear they don't all start out with mature adult personalities. (Pintsize? Beeps? Melon?) Moray's not a 4 year old, but she's not really grown up either.

Solomon Garland

There's gotta be a couple of men like that, given the sheer quantity of aimless indie rock guys... but I can definitely see some sort of Gender Realisation being part of Marten's "getting an actual life path" arc xD (God, imagine if all three of the original love V characters ended up in long-term f/f relationships. The icons.)

Solomon Garland

That's a reasonable assessment, and I guess there's no point in expecting someone with slime where her brain/cpu should be to be particularly mature or rational xD

BookBeard

It's been bugging me but I finally figured out who Zlata reminds me of. The whole "slightly weird but hyper-enthusiastic underling" thing is very reminiscent of Tilly during their brief stint as PA to a reluctant Hanners. I seem to recall that Tilly and Claire were pretty much instant friends so that vibe could work to Zlatas benefit.

Bagge

Beeps?

Holly Nelson

"Dat must be jelly cos' jam don’t shake like dat."

Matt Pedone

I think she feels threatened as she's already acting as Claire's de facto underling, and wants to stay there, even if it's not technically her job (she's already created a spreadsheet for people to sign up to hang with Claire). My guess is that while she's an off-shoot of the Director, and does seem to know everyone in town, she's never seen as particularly important or cool. Now, she's working with The Librarian, whom everyone wants to get near, so she's suddenly important/cool. If Zlata gets the job as Claire's underling, Moray goes back to being "just" Moray, at least in her mind. I think Claire and Marten consider her a friend at this point, and they don't seem to be the types to ditch friends just because they're not "useful".

Sean Kinlin

If anyone can be the chill dad, it is Marten.

Sean Kinlin

I was getting that cookie box last night, every time I reloaded the page, but it seems to be gone this morning. I guess I ate all the cookies.

David Paul

Unfortunately, Moray is making herself every bit as bad at her job as she proclaims to be. Rather than trying to shoot Zlata down in some kind of effort to impress Claire (in front of Marten, who reports directly and exclusively to Claire, no less), Moray should perform her role in "Sentient Resources", to allow Zlata to try to apply for the role (even if they do not actually get along).

Rat

Fool that you are for you dont know that ive been shouting transfem marten from the top of my lungs for months. Ever since jeph threatened us with more queer charecters. The twink hair and the sweaters with exposed collarbones are just the catalyst. Ask any trans woman intrested in men alive on gods green earth, and they will say that any cishetman whose main personality traits are “aimless in life” and “likes indie music”, for them to not be an egg would be a fucking DISGRACE against realism in my slime girl webcomic.

Jeph Jacques

Same, I need to fix that

SilverbackRon

Characters in this comic change hair styles from time to time. Occasionally it grows too and requires a trim. I feel it would be jumping the gun to read any more into it than that.

Bagge

I know Claire has signed up to be mom for all of cube town. I did not forsee how effectively Marten would be roped in as dad. Hopefully he can be the chill dad

Bagge

Would... would she... wobble?

Daniel Rydberg

I think Martens hair in panel 3 looks a little extra shaggy.

Joseph Bonnar

Oh dear LORD. If she did that to ME, I would be bankrupt. *shudders*

Simran Khalsa

Wow, both of those make way more sense than the romance novel version of a rake, which is what my mind went to and made no sense of.

Fart Captor

Marten catching pronouns would be an extremely interesting development, tho I kinda doubt that'll be happening 🤔

Fart Captor

If you don't think spanking would be effective on normal butts, you're very foolish, but you're out of you're damn mind if you think spanking would not be effective on MORAY

Mad Marie

Total tangent…anyone else here keep getting asked if they want cookies, over and over again? It’s like there’s a girl scout at my front door with Finding Dory syndrome…

William Cole

Very same!

Sleepy John

that would only be effective on the AI that had the booty enhancement surgery.

Fart Captor

Spankings, Marten. OBVIOUSLY

Diptych

I think it's a metaphor. Moray keeps making mistakes that Zlata then points out, like conversational rakes that she's stepping on and they're smacking her in the face.

BookBeard

I'm a tad puzzled by that as well. My best guess is that it is a reference to the classic slapstick trope of stepping on a rake and getting hit in the face by the handle, here presumably being used as a metaphor for Moray's debating skills, but if so it's pretty opaque.

Minzoku Bokumetsu

Zlata's last dialogue is making a tangent that's making me very mad tho

Minzoku Bokumetsu

It's like in Who Censored Roger Rabbit? and they have physical dialogue boxes appear over their heads

Holly Nelson

I’m a bit* confused — how do rakes come into this episode? ——- * i. e, completely confused.

Holly Nelson

I was reading a study about what happens when one spouse dies. The remaining spouse can have ongoing memory issues, simply because over the years the couple divided up memories, skills, and duties between each other. The surviving spouse, besides sorrow, now has to cope with the missing skills and memories. Might Moray have a similar problem?

Holly Nelson

A fascinating theory.

ValdVin

Zlata's text box is staying out in the hallway. That is also part of the evaluation process.

Rat

1) Marten continues to look transfem as hell here, you have been doing something with his hair that has made me and all of my friends insane about it. 2) Why is the textbox in pannel 2 just casually playing with perspective like that? it rules, and i dont think its popped up in the comic before

ValdVin

Moray needs to find someone in her own proverbial weight class to spar against. Z is out-underlinging her.

Solomon Garland

Okay, my respect for Moray is draining rapidly. Not sure what her problem is but it seems fairly... pathetic...

lilibat

I was just thinking that.

Yelling Bird

I'm getting the impression that these two have some history.

Doc Gumby

Just watch, this is all Prequel and Cubetown turns into Alice Grove in the future...

Joseph Bonnar

Moray is JEALOUS of Zlata and her freedom from the spreadsheets!

Zygo

Stars have comparatively low energy density at the surface, so any random 50 kg of stellar material is hot, but mostly because it's close to some much hotter material, not because it produces much heat itself; however, stars are huge, so there's a large amount of total energy in an entire star. I wonder if that also works for the Director and intelligence? The Director is huge, so the entire Director is thousands of times more intelligent than human baseline; however, any particular 50 kg of Director material extracted from the far end of a tentacle is, well, Moray.