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Abandon The Old Ways

🕑 Added 2018-06-11 01:54:30 +0000 UTC

Comments

Am Queue

Wow, I thought that was a guest comic. Jeph, your style has evolved so much, that's cool!

John Ridley

<a href="https://topatoco.com/collections/jeph-jacques/products/qc-bearmonster" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://topatoco.com/collections/jeph-jacques/products/qc-bearmonster</a>

Derrik Pates

Here I thought it was the Baptists.

Auros Harman

There's an old Jewish joke in which a young Orthodox couple is consulting with their rabbi, and they ask about whether a series of increasingly gonzo sex acts are permissible under Jewish law. After hemming and hawing he signs off on each one. But eventually they get to the (relatively vanilla) sex standing up in the shower, and at that point he says, "No, absolutely not! THAT could lead to DANCING."

awgiedawgie

I suspect the answers are Yes, No, and Yes. ;)

Joseph H.

I want her shirt.

Ol' Firebones

Unstable molecules.

Kerin Schiesser

I was gonna remark on the same thing, but Nena beat me to it. So... as Bubbles somewhat more generously proportioned, I have to wonder: a) is it just a REALLY STRETCHY shirt b) Did Bubbles decide to go BUY A MATCHING SHIRT, or c) is it now just REALLY TIGHT? ... any of which, actually, have potential for SQUEE! with Faybles fans, really! :D Just wonderin[ for, you know, accuracy, or authenticness, or some shit like that LOL <3

Creepy Cat Lady

I'm sure others picked up on this yesterday but I just noticed today that Bubbles is wearing Faye's shirt and that makes me so happy.

Matt Grayson

And why does embarrassment make them overheat? Rule of funny.

Philip D Jones

How do AI/robots blush?

Huh, it appears Marten and Faye have replaced the poster on the left side of the door since then. Actually wasn't that a whole different apartment ago?

Dustin

omg Faye and Bubbles have GOT to look into this for the shop! <a href="http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=348" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=348</a>

Ack

And some partial foreshadowing: <a href="http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=346" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=346</a>

Mark P.

Because someone had to check, this is the earliest reference of post-coital booty dancing that I could find: <a href="http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=278" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=278</a>

I am pretty sure I would have identified as a high-performance aircraft if offered the option before puberty. Whee! I don't know that I would insist on being genderless, though I am having a little trouble imagining what gender would be like in aircraft. Maybe the females would all be bombers, and would drop their eggs on cities. Maybe they would all be female except for in-flight refueling planes.

Ol' Firebones

I know that it's just a show, and that I should really just relax. Still, I wonder how he eats and breathes, and other science facts.

Ol' Firebones

Seems to me like it would be hard *not* to muse on gender at this juncture. I keep thinking back to Winslow, and how quickly he felt at home in his new body. He went from "I would like this" to "I can't go back" in a few seconds. My take on it is that AI's don't have anything resembling human gender identity, but they do have a questing, curious nature comparable to that of humans. The upshot of this is that, prior to embodiment, they are relatively content because they lack any atavistic urge to be embodied at all, let alone to be a gender. But the moment they're decanted into a body, they experience an unprecedented expansion of their sensorium, and they come to identify with that. In short, they don't have a predefined form, so their emotional intensity brings them to identify passionately with the form into which they are poured. This is the only way I can reconcile the seeming lack of desire for AIs to upgrade to a more humanoid chassis. I mean, you gotta figure humans relate differently to Bubbles, May, Melon, Roko, etc. than they do to Pintsize and Punchbot because of the disparate levels of anthropomorphism. And the droids with the cartoon faces can see that difference, yet they choose not to upgrade. I gotta figure it's a combination of identity politics, a strong imprinting on the first body they get, and a lack of genetic "preconceptions" about their physicality.

Wow, thank you. I was expecting, "Relax, it's a webcomic." Nope. It's definitely a universe. :P

Ben Russell-Gough

'Birth' is a different thing for AIs. From what Jeph has said before, they are not first embodied until after completing a 'childhood' period during which their algorithm settles. So, at the time they are assigned their first chassis, the likelihood is good (mostly due to civil rights legislation) that the chassis will be compatible with their self-identity. That doesn't mean that there weren't some pre-Singularity hiccups. For example, May seems to have identified as a genderless high-performance aircraft but was initially assigned to be an unembodied actuary system before being stuffed into a low-fidelity female humanform chassis for her probation. She's come to a degree of contentment with her new form (mostly because it connects her with Dale, her first real friend, from all accounts) but something tells me that it's still only second-best for her.

quarridors

Aww Bubbles has come so far, I've been reading back through from her first appearance and this is all just d'awwww emotional growth and love!

Apropos of nothing, I can't stop thinking about Bubbles' gender (and all the AIs' gender) in the QC-verse. What are the odds that an AI would be comfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth? Probably pretty low, right, if this is the Singularity and they were designed by another AI? Or extremely high, if the gender was coded right in by a human? I guess there's a fair amount of evidence that the humans still have a lot of design influence and power over AIs in the QC-verse, but idunno.

Derrik Pates

But they already did the fornicating!

Ben Russell-Gough

"Hey, whatya doin' Bubs?" "Faye! I... er... was recalibrating my hip joints!" "Really? I thought that you were doin' a booty dance!" *Walks off; Bubbles blushes and goes FWEEE*

Matt Grayson

I am content (no pun intended) to let Jeph write the comic. The Faybles arc is extremely moving - he sets up two damaged characters who find a purpose in healing each other. I can't think of another equally well executed example. Pride and Prejudice? Eliza has a better effect on Darcy, although both benefit. Go Jeph!

Evgeniy Semyonov

Come on, there is only one iconic dance fitting former super-soldier - Commander Shepard's dance! <a href="https://youtu.be/H8VVnEaOh4w" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/H8VVnEaOh4w</a>

>I've gotten the sense that he just finds this stuff creepy< I suspect that we collectively look like a single voracious, deeply perverse multi-mouthed entity that he must feed but which alternately demands deeply unsuitable things and rises up in self-righteous wrath about perfectly unobjectionable things. Like a combination of Pintsize and Officer Basilisk, in short. Though, come to think of it, Officer Basilisk is a combination of Pintsize and Officer Basilisk all by herself, what with the bread fetish. Anyway, now that the idea has entered his mind, I bet we will eventually get to see Bubbles do a discreet, experimental booty dance in private. We must never mention it.

Ol' Firebones

Also, is anyone else thinking of the dance in "A Charlie Brown Christmas"? Bubbles would make a pretty good Charlie Brown in that scenario, come to think of it. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1LUXQWzCno" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1LUXQWzCno</a>

Ol' Firebones

That's a nice thought. After reading a lot of the comments here and in Jeph's forum, I've gotten the sense that he just finds this stuff creepy, and I've been feeling chagrined about that. So it's pleasing to think of this reflecting his attitude.

Ol' Firebones

When I look at Bubbles in that last panel I think of Angel's thousand-yard-stare as he visualizes why he doesn't dance. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCYlsFagq_k" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCYlsFagq_k</a>

Dylan T

BUT BUBBLES

I'm doing it right now. DANCE!

Dancing WILL happen. Pintsize DEMANDS it!

Douglas E. Smith

Awww...no dancing :(

David Paul

I know, right? We must try harder!

Miyaa

It’s usually an involuntary response anyway, Bubbles. You can’t fight it anyway.

Ben Russell-Gough

*Chirping crickets*

Thomas Boys

Wouldn't it be a Reboot-y Dance for an AI that's just got out of bed?

Unanimous D

but the hips tho

Philip D Jones

It’s the blushing.

Dolan

*Yelling Bird booty dance, flanked by a retinue of disinterested whores

I want to see May, Melon and Pintsize doing a booty dance. Or just yelling bird booty dancing on the lonesome.

Ben Russell-Gough

Am I the only one that thinks that Jeph is addressing the fans directly in Bubbles's voice in panels 2 and 3?

Ben Russell-Gough

Claire actually asked Marten to go ahead of her and tell her what's happened so she could get her reaction out of the way beforehand and not embarrass Faye and Bubbles. She's probably on the way back now!

Ben Russell-Gough

Poor Bubbles! Faye or maybe Pintsize should have handed her a cheat sheet with all the apartment's relationship traditions listed so she could be ready in advance. That said... I think that she thinks it is a nice surprise. I wonder how long it's been since she's been part of a community that cares to that degree about her happiness? I also get the 'no dancing' decision. I mean, she's hardly a Jaeger but, even so, her getting too enthusiastic about it could easily affect the building's structural stability!

Dean Reilly

Cut to Claire and Pintsize doing the Patrick Swayze lift from 'Dirty Dancing'.

Brent Catherman

Dancing's forbidden! (voice of Shake)

Obliviontoad

No. I demand booty dancing. Wait, request booty dancing... No, hope there is booty dancing. Is there going to be any booty dancing?

Bagge

That concludes the discussion about the booty dance

Maybe they could sneak up on the Booty Dance by starting first with the Safety Dance (participation is, of course, optional)

Dude, we ALWAYS know what you mean.

Cole Blackblood

I honestly don't mind the missed booty dance - we once again got a happy couple that many of us ship, let's enjoy it.

giacomo vaghi

Booty Dance

giacomo vaghi

Ok lads. I propose everyone interested to write down “booty dance” to convince Jeph. And if he doesn’t draw a booty dance strip then we should ... should... do that dance by ourselves.

Sally Fields

Hah this is the best joke yet. "No Booty Dance" HAH, who does Jeph think he's fooling?

BobC

How is Claire not there already? Doesn't a sufficiently energetic squee lead to an extreme warping of spacetime, and trigger teleportation? I mean, I can imagine Dora's holding back Tai. But what's stopping Claire?

Geo (Overand)

Fanboy/fangirl/fanppl behavior deviates from the norm *significantly.* I believe they have to exclude the data from most studies...

LH

more like "fornication leads to dancing"

Captain Button

Speaking of which how did they get here without a musical interlude?

Benzy

No... no dancing? (sniffles)

Ol' Firebones

Agreed.

Ol' Firebones

Yeah, *nothing* could prepare her for seeing Bubbles in Faye's shirt, like some impossibly adorable Hulk.

Denizen Blue

I'm willing to bet that Claire has not, in fact, gotten all of the gleeful shrieking out of her system. She might think she has, but once she actually *sees* Bubbles and Faye together, it's gonna be like hearing the news all over again.

MikeT

Faye is abnormally non-aggressive about this...

Ol' Firebones

I am just absurdly happy when I look at panel three. Bubbles is opening herself up to the possibility that she could be happy like other people. *melts*

Ol' Firebones

FAYE BLUSH!!! 😃

Michael Lazare

Faye is totally doing the dance offpanel behind Bubbles in that last frame.

Ol' Firebones

Hahahaha! Ohhhh, Bubbles just keeps coming up with new ways to make me laugh. 😄

Populuxe

Faye is blushing. I’ll take that in place of the cancelled Booty Dance.

Forrest L Norvell

Nice shirt, Bubbles. It almost fits you!

The Shadow's Lair

Squee

Bob Ellis

Thank you, Jeph. No ironic twist, no despairing downturn to toy with your readers. What seems to be a genuinely happy ending between two folk who much deserve it. Thank you.