Questionable Motivations

There has to be a community of sci-fi nerds who will recognize it immediately. I know I read it in print, so I could just go through my 100 or so short-story collections...

Matt Grayson

Matt - Now you've done it! I remember that story, but I've now spent HOURS looking for it online!

My headcanon is that Yay is nonbinary and even with the ability to get a custom chassis that doesn't need to bind, they use that one and have made a safe and effective method for binding. That allows them to visibly wear the binder in order to try to normalize it. This plays in to their concept of the sanctity of the mind by working to normalize trans and nonbinary bodies, helping humans to not try to warp their own minds or minds of others in order to fit in to a cisgender society. I think part of why Yay is so strong on their stance about the sanctity of the mind is because of conversion therapy

Carin Maja Brooks

But to her credit, she ACKNOWLEDGED that she was a asshole!

David Howe - Speaking as a not-necessarily-representative man, I'd prefer models that are not bound!

WOW! I hadn't known that there was an index!

I feel like Yay has been diminished from Bubbles' assessment of them- "If the spectrum of artificial intelligence is a coral reef ecosystem, that being is an Archteuthis lurking in the deep water beyond." https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3407

Mark

Mmm. I understood that, I thought there was something more that I was missing. IMHO it’s a bit forced. It’s something already addressed before. Thank you anyway

giacomo vaghi

Could be taken as character softening, could be taken as a side to them we weren't privy to before. Think of how you act to customers at work versus how you act towards friends. That and it was an admittedly unpleasant situation for everyone involved. Not to justify Yay's rather chilling line to Faye. That was still a bit out there.

Streb

Yay! like to wear tight tops to show off Yay!'s well sculpted abs.

z

I couldn't have done it without the Unofficial character tag list thingamajig http://cesiumcomics.com/qctags/

Constantine Hannaher

I always remember that the golden giant had so much insight into the human's nature it not only knew his home planet, it put him in Olduvai Gorge.

Chloë Salzenberg

Yay is many things, as well as many yays in fact. The softening is connected to their journey. They've met several AI and humans over the last year+. A few interactions that resulted in positive responses seems (IMO) to be the trigger. More attention with honey vs BS. Also, I suspect Yay is just expecting everyone to acknowledge their unique position. The few times they have received positive responses were related to kitties and some who didn't know they were an ass to begin with.

dcy665 .

I think Yay can afford any chassis they want, so why would they buy a large number of ones that need to be bound?

Brian

There is a chilling SciFi story (I wish I could remember its name or author - Lem?) about a space traveler stranded in his ship many light-years from home. A gigantic golden swimming humanoid shape approaches, and hurls him towards home at many times light-speed. The golden giant then realizes that the poor stricken ship will not be able to slow down, and it arranges for a safe return to Earth. Later, the narrator of this story sees a child pick up a caterpillar from the sidewalk and deposit it safely on the grass and staggers with the realization that an adult would have just stepped on it. Yay makes me think of that story often.

Matt Grayson

Yeah, that one was so forceful that I was actually disappointed in the subsequent softening of Yay's character. We're bugs to them. Why would they suddenly want to make friends with a bug?

Matt Grayson

rereading, I'd say this one did it. https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3396 Yay was an asshole then.

Jessie Cook

Reminded of Bubbles' and Momo's comments about AI intelligence; A distributed AI is just a single AI with more resources, but for a sufficiently large AI, human-style thought is just a subroutine it runs. A logical conclusion could then be that yey is a specific instance of that subroutine, although not necessarily always running with the input of a specific spookybot node, only experiencing the world though a single sensory set (although of course they would "know" things the other sensors picked up, they wouldn't "experience" them) So if there are differing models of spookybot, yay may prefer one that needs binding (for body integration reasons)

David Howe

Looking back at that whole section you can almost believe that Yay did actually delete those memories in order to push Faye and Bubbles closer together as part of a long-running intention to integrate humans and AIs better. We'll never know...

David Durant

Constantine, thank you so much for the link! So good to reread that arc.

Digi

Yay seems diminished in more than one way since then.

Mark

Being multiply embodied is weird if you run multiple instances, so having some bodies that look better in a dress but preferring to bind them is perfectly reasonable

You swank around akting like a smug asshole and suddenly people treat you like a smug asshole

Bagge

Or worse, what if Bubbles regains her memories and decides to leaves Faye for this "first love"? I don't believe that will happen, but Faye is imagining all the possible bad alternatives. Because that is what a fear of abandonment is all about.

SilverbackRon

I feel like this is going to be a good week of comics.

Populuxe

Correct answer is correct.

Populuxe

In some of the comics in which Yay appears, it looks like their chest is being compressed. I've read it as a binder since.

Faye has just been reminded that Bubbles has lost a big chunk of her memories, and this has triggered Faye's well-established fear of abandonment. If Bubbles had a previous partner who she no longer remembers, what's to stop her forgetting Faye as well?

Dean Reilly

I can’t understand why Faye is angry with Bubbles. She knows Bubbles can’t remember

giacomo vaghi

I am going to assume Yay was wearing heels back then as part of the suit. Because the height difference between Yay and Faye is not now what it was then. (#3402 panel 3)

Richard

Wouldn't Yay already have figured out their ideal configuration and have all their nodes running the same body?

Why do I always feel that the top Yay is wearing athleasure is a binder?

Carin Maja Brooks

Yay and Faye rhyme. That could be the problem.

BobC

I mean, Roko did ask nicely.

MikeT

No, Faye was paralyzed while remaining conscious, if that makes a difference https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3392

Constantine Hannaher

Faye, you want to talk to them because they're expressing genuine concern, despite you being so catty to them.

awgiedawgie

Perhaps if Yay had been LESS OF AN ARROGANT SPIT WAD, yes, but if you check back on those strips you will understand that Faye has good reasons.

Joseph Bonnar

And Yay is apparently aware of Bub's and Faye's relationship and seems to approve after a fashion. Perhaps a long term program they're engaged in?

Michael Boettger

I think we also need to remember that Faye (and the rest of the coffee shop) were knocked out when Yay first showed up. It's not unreasonable to be angry about being knocked out by a super powered AI with questionable morality. Also Faye is in a upset state as it is, with her confusing thoughts on Bubbles at the moment, and Faye's default response is still anger when she's upset. So yeah, I get where she's coming from here.

Spookybot/Yay's only interaction with Faye thus far has been to appear out of nowhere, disable and selectively re-enable the entire CoD staff, do things to Bubbles that even Emily's apparent technical savant-ness couldn't fully grasp without a heavy duty GUI, and then take down Corpse Witch and transfer control of the entire property into Jeremy's hands - and all of this without breaking a metaphorical sweat. Whatever good she may have done, Faye has ever reason to remain extremely cautious/doubtful of her and her true intentions.

Reyn Goldfur

Most people seem to lose muscle definition when relaxed. She hasn't done anything physically strenuous in at least a few hours, what with the party and all. I think that's all it is.

Czarzhan

judging by the fact that the non-patreon version of todays comic has round bubbles, i think we can surmise its an error

Tamara Macadam

and round again!

Tamara Macadam

Did Faye lose her big robot-repair muscles?

Carl Fink

I mean, the people I associate with arnt exactly law abiding citizen so I think my answer might be a little biased.

I am the captian now

She's looking at that hand quite suspiciously. Morgellons?

Simon Green

In this case, the issues isn't really what they did, but rather how they went about it. Say you have a friend that's being black mailed into a bad situation, would you prefer to have a detective or police officer arrest the blackmailer and force them to stop via legal means, or would you rather have a complete stranger show up, shoot out the blackmailers kneecaps and threaten to continue torturing them?

Professor Harmless

Or her eyes.

Michael

I'm actually kind of confused as to why Faye is so mistrustful of Yay. All Yay did was try to help Bubbles and punish Corpse Witch. Both of those were good things, weren't they?

Creepy Cat Lady

I really don't understand Faye's huge hatred for Yay? Like we've seen a lot more of them than she has, granted, and yeah their initial appearance had them being very sinister but Faye IS aware that they did what they did to help Bubbles, it's not like they gained anything out of it.

BioYuGi

No one would want Faye's liver.

Tara Cook