The Bare Essentials

Like I said, she doesn't want to go back to robot jail.

Czarzhan

don't you worry that May would think that taking a lead pipe to a few femurs might be an easy way to drum up biz??

Joe

And it’s still illegal in Massachusetts to feed prisoners lobster more than three times a week. Yesterday’s prison food is tomorrow’s fine dining.(Mind you, my mother eats lobster with implements and intensity more like Marten’s mother’s job.)

Oren

Alas, good intentions don’t take the place of regular meals.

Sleepy John

Beriberi destroyed a lot of Australian soldiers that were unwilling "guests" of the Japanese in WW2.

Jamie Ellen

Of course, and she would very likely consider it, but (1) it's a nice subversion of expectations and (2) she doesn't want to go back to robot jail.

Czarzhan

OR, May could go around knee-capping AIs. It fits her personality better.

William Cole

it's hard to recognise when you're not the best placed person to help. offering her less than enough might prevent her from finding something better, yknow? she could offer to be a reference!

Boots McGoot

It's been time for that for a while now, IMHO. But Faye has enough pride to keep that from happening. They might be willing to accept advertising from Yay and Hanners, but I'm pretty sure Faye would object to talking with them about it for fear of getting a handout. I think Bubbles would prefer taking the handout rather than having Faye starve, but she is (reluctantly) going along with Faye on this while it's still borderline.

Some Ed

These two. These two make me happy. 💚

Daniel Blom Paulsen

It's still "down home cookin" in the southern US where Faye is from - to her it's comfort food. Flavored with ham or (my favorite) hot sausage it becomes a real treat. Poverty foods tend to become delicacies a generation or two later. Clams from our Pacific Northwest, lobster from New England, barbequed "junk meat" like brisket and ribs, they're all foods served at celebrations now. Cassoulet was peasant food in France that you now find in swanky restaurants.

OldGoat

I saddens me that Beans and Rice is both the most traditional food of my country, Brasil, and a staple of poverty in the US....

Bubbles presumably insists on the brown variety for that reason.

Mark

Brown rice for the win!

09Klr650

And beriberi if she sticks to white rice. Almost destroyed the Japanese military in the 1800's

Unless Faye is also drinking some citrus with those beans, she could still develop scurvy!

Grace Kieser

Melon posts a glowing Yelp review, bringing in the detachable ass fetishists.

Dean Reilly

This I'm sure will be consistent. I mean if there's one thing we can always trust QC for, it's realistic depictions of economics and requiring actual solutions to problems.

TV4Fun

Yeah beans and rice is a super nutritional meal. You get all your amino acids too. I started making basmati garlic butter rice in the instant pot recently. 4 minutes and slow release and the house smells amazing while it cooks. A can of black beans with some spices. Epazote is a mexican herb that's supposed to stop the beans from being so musical. And some cheese and sour cream on top is ftw. I knew how to cook before the plague hit, but it made me cook at home more so I'm trying new things.

Kuragari

Perhaps they should co-build their brand with Sam's. Sprays + standard maintenance. Try to build traffic and get customers to lingers. A few years ago there was a suggestion of tea sniffings at the shop. Get them into that, and send them CoD for home products.

Michael Boettger

Yuppers. Basically, the rice is just carbs. The beans are doing all the detailed nutrition.

KCkittysnores

Mind you, knowing how AIs react to the smell of tea, maybe leaving those senses on could be more fun 😂

Jono Hayward

Being in a relationship with a robot can be handy I guess. When Faye starts stinking up the bedroom with bean farts, Bubbles can just switch off her olfactory senses

Jono Hayward

Wait, beans are good for scurvy? I thought that was just citruses

Nicolas Demers

"If you can bring in more business, you can have a percentage of it" is a pretty tried and true tactic.

Shane Wegner

Scurvy? But pirates are cool, right?

Shane Wegner

We gotta get more clients to these two.

Thomas Halpin

Union Robotics logo spray on her stomach and an OnlyFans

Valraven

Thought: they tell May they wish they could hire her, but that they don't have they income to. May asks if they would be able to if their business picked up (not necessarily a given, an increase in customer repairs also means more parts to buy and possibly prioritizing hiring more repair staff. We don't know if they're underselling their labor costs, which would undercut their profitability when expanding). If the answer is yes, then May starts to show a knack for advertising and PR. :)

Czarzhan

She had that dancing-with-a-sign-idea. Gotta be worth something

Bagge

Aww such good people. I wanna get May a job. Maybe she can somehow learn to be advertising. That would make them more money?

SingingTurtles

Don't knock beans and rice. I got hooked on that stuff in Costa Rica. Done right I would be happy to eat that every day (and I have) Beats the hell out of ramen from my college days.

Chris Gallaty

beans, beans, good for your heart better still, they make you fart 😉

Same here. I just assumed they would be doing a bit better by now.

Andrew Mitchell

That's an awesome idea!

Andrew Mitchell

I really want Bubs and Faye to get a contract to do all the maintenance for the bots that Roko is fighting to help.

Man,.... didn't recognize they were so close to destitute.

Darnel D Cooper

Huh? Wha? Did I miss anything? Went into cute-overload at panel 3. But I'm back now.

BobC

can.....can we set them up a gofundme????

Gary Huntress

bless 'em

obw

Faye and Bubbles are just so great. Almost wish I could give up my Skullmaster career.

SpookyPenguin

"My darling, I..." - Now I want to hear Bubbles covering Barry White.

Summer Sudbrink

Brown rice has fiber, that's pretty important

Julie Chan

Obvs faye should cut out the rice. That's mostly just starch and empty calories.

fluffy

Faye definitely would help a small child figure out how to open a can of beans, & probably give it to the small child before herself.

Pejo

"My darling" - Bubbles the romantic

Dylan T

Also, the Bear King will miss his bean tribute...

Kenneth

The beans and rice thing is so you get all eight essential amino acids, which are, like, essential.

Captain Button

"my darling" don't mind me just over here gayly sobbing ❤️

Kurt Lewis

A lysine deficiency will not help matters.

Captain Button

that's probably just Jeph's constantly evolving art style ("if you don't like the art style, come back in two weeks")

LH

From going to being a bit hostile to willing to starve in order to help May. I love Faye. Wonder how Marten and Clare are doing financially? Perhaps they could take over the food situation at the apartment?

Michael Boettger

Sounds like it’s time to go to Yay or Hanners for help.

Miyaa

Poor Faye. I really hope she and Bubbles will experience financial gain soon.

Andrea Andrew

Well now my thoughts that her character was starting to look like she was loosing weight is not me going crazy!

ffvvvt

Alacrity Fitzhugh

You are here. That means you have.

Marshall Gates

There's vitamin C in beans?

Petsinwinter

I wanna donate real money to their fictional enterprise

Hope

God they're such good beans

dirtknight