Questionable Content 8: OMG I SHIP IT

[Jayngfet]

Well, it looks like she's not dawdling when it comes to rock bottom.

[Mith]

I guess I shouldn't had been surprised with tonight's comic, but i wasn't expecting hospitalization.

And yeah, Faye's hit rock bottom so hard that she's going to wake up in the mantle.

[CoffeeIncluded]

...He didn't just kill off Faye, did he?

[memnarch]

...He didn't just kill off Faye, did he?

Don't think so, but it's certainly a very serious situation.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Don't think so, but it's certainly a very serious situation.

How do you interpret the dying beeps? As I read it, she's coming in and out of consciousness, and the last time she sees herself hooked up to the monitor. Then, it fades to black and the beeps die, suggesting she no longer has a pulse.

Now, as far as I know that is not how ethylic coma works (although my knowledge of the topic is third hand at best), but in any case, this is a textbook case of a situation were the story absolutely trumps realism anyway.

Grey Wolf

[Fawkes]

...He didn't just kill off Faye, did he?

I thought that for a second, too, but I think she just loses consciousness at the end of the strip. I think if the intention was for her to die, we would have been left with one final, drawn-out 'beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep'.

[memnarch]

How do you interpret the dying beeps? As I read it, she's coming in and out of consciousness, and the last time she sees herself hooked up to the monitor. Then, it fades to black and the beeps die, suggesting she no longer has a pulse.

Now, as far as I know that is not how ethylic coma works (although my knowledge of the topic is third hand at best), but in any case, this is a textbook case of a situation were the story absolutely trumps realism anyway.

Grey Wolf

Beeps fading out mean that they aren't heard anymore, in my opinion. No longer having a pulse would be a longer beeeeeeep like Fawkes said.

[Fjolnir]

I think she just passes out, we don't hear the beeps because she's no longer registering them...

[Razanir]

...He didn't just kill off Faye, did he?

He probably didn't. He probably would have included a beeeeeeeeep if he was. That said, it's still pretty bad. I'm expecting a coma.

[Jimorian]

Yikes!

Spoiler

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Since this is from her point of view, I think it's just a deeper unconsciousness, not what you'd first think. The beeps are fading, not getting farther apart.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, I'm going with 'passed out, possible coma' as well, not 'dead'. The beep-beep-beep-beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep imagery of a flatline is just too indemic to modern thought, I can't see Jeph ignoring that symbolism just for a one-day cliffhanger.

[Morquard]

SHe's been slipping in and out of consciousness and the last time she was awake physically attacked someone. She's hooked up to an IV then and it fades to black.

I think she was sedated, that's all, for her and everyone else's protection till the alcohol is out of her system.

[Eldan]

Well, as I said.

[Kato]

Well, as I said.

What? The bit about "having no sympathy at all for alcoholics/Faye"? That's... a bit harsh, me thinks. But oh well...

So, I also don't think this is a death but... it could be? I mean, the number of characters has been ever growing. And Marten is way too happy these days. Jeph needs to reign him in. No better way than to kill his best friend, huh?

[Talderas]

How do you interpret the dying beeps? As I read it, she's coming in and out of consciousness, and the last time she sees herself hooked up to the monitor. Then, it fades to black and the beeps die, suggesting she no longer has a pulse.

It's difficult to convey something like sound in a purely visual medium yet sound is particularly relevant when interpretting the final frames. As you pointed out it is a point of view comic between blackouts and moments of consciousness. In the second to last frame the beep keeps the same font, size, and space as in the previous frame which implies that the rate is staying steady. It mearly changes in coloration towards fading out which is highly suggestive that it is simply fey losing consciousness again with the beeping getting muffled.

[Silfir]

I don't think Faye's dead. Something Positive could conceivably pull something like that, but QC?

I'd bet on at least twenty-four hours of sleeping like a person that almost died followed by the worst hangover of her life, in more ways than one.

[Rodin]

I don't think Faye's dead. Something Positive could conceivably pull something like that, but QC?

If this was Something Positive, we'd see Faye getting loaded into the ambulance, and then Marten would be run over by a car in the background.

I agree that Faye isn't likely to die here. It's just too fast - standard QC angst, to slightly-more-serious angst which QC occasionally dips into (like the Dora-Marten breakup), to the first character death in the series, all within 3 comics? Not happening.

Heck, even at hospitalization it's the most serious storyline QC has ever done.

[Flickerdart]

We're toeing the CAD line here, folks.

[Ibrinar]

Also people are forgetting an obvious solution to a death being a bit dark for QC. Kill her and then bring her back as a cyborg. With inbuilt weapons.
That seems to be the logical route.

[Flickerdart]

Upload Faye's consciousness into Pintsize's body.

[Traab]

I knew it, she done poisoned herself real good with the booze. And woke up long enough to deck marten. Because even going into a coma faye has to be a violent @%#$ Welp, drama time. Dora is either going to go full witch mode, or guilt riddled mess mode, im thinking more likely option 2. There will be lots of talks, lots of recriminations, lots of therapy (hopefully) I just how it doesnt last too long, the only humor I see related to this is gallows humor type jokes, and those really only work for awhile imo.

[eee]

RE the beeps: Having been around those monitors more than I ever wanted to, I can tell you that if they stop picking up signals, either because the leads disconnect or the heart stops, the result is an alarm that people CAN'T ignore. The noise doesn't fade out, it escalates a lot. I think Faye just passed out. Again.

Wild speculation: Pintsize was turned off. Faye chugged down at least one full bottle of booze and maybe two. Zooming in, it looks like there might have been pill like objects in her vomit. Is it possible this was a deliberate suicide attempt? Is THAT what Faye was talking about when she spoke of knowing the right thing to do but being afraid to do it???

[Mith]

Anyone else curious with how Pintsize might deal with this? He is supposed to be a companion Anthro PC that helps others in some capacity or another. I am curious if there will be a part of his character revealed that we haven't really seen.

[Razanir]

to the first character death in the series

Second. It's only the first main character to die or almost die.

Upload Faye's consciousness into Pintsize's body.

Why would you wish that upon the world?!

[Flickerdart]

Why would you wish that upon the world?!

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

[Traab]

Anyone else curious with how Pintsize might deal with this? He is supposed to be a companion Anthro PC that helps others in some capacity or another. I am curious if there will be a part of his character revealed that we haven't really seen.

Im thinking they switch him on and he is mid sentence. "...TO STOP, FAYE!" Or something to that effect. Basically, he tried to get her to take a break, or whatever and she shut him down to shut him up so she could go back to chugging her second bottle of burbon.

As for the guy who said the vomit pile having pills, I dont THINK so, I think he drew it that way so we knew it wasnt just spilled booze or something. It took me a second to even realize it was vomit instead. But you may be right, I dunno.

[stsasser]

Faye's dead. QC's over. Move along...nothing to see here.

[TechnoWarforged]

Faye's dead. QC's over. Move along...nothing to see here.

This gives me a serious idea: How would this comic look if we delete Faye out of all previous QC comic strip? You know just like how someone did "Garfield without Garfield"?

In fact we should take it one step further and remove all characters out of the QC strip except for Marten and call it "Really Questionable Content"

[Traab]

This gives me a serious idea: How would this comic look if we delete Faye out of all previous QC comic strip? You know just like how someone did "Garfield without Garfield"?

In fact we should take it one step further and remove all characters out of the QC strip except for Marten and call it "Really Questionable Content"

Considering how many comics dont have marten, there would be a large number of comics with no dialogue, just backgrounds.

[Vinyadan]

Just some thoughts which I for some reason really wanted to spit out. If you drink a lot, you can end up in a coma, even in just one evening. As Marten arrives, it's surely past midday, likely late afternoon (he immediately understood he wouldn't have had the thing solved before evening, even though he wasn't sure of Faye's conditions). She has been drinking since the day before. Aggressive behaviour isn't exactly a thing drunken people refrain from. (Had she been a year-long alcoholic, hallucinations also could have come in). Had she drunk some more, she could have just lost the ability to breath right and have died. She also could just have chocked in her own vomit.

Realistically speaking, I don't think that she could be in a real ethyl coma, because she eventually woke up and hit Marten, and that they had to load her with chemicals to keep her under control. Or maybe her liver or her brain mutinied afterwards.

Comic-speaking, it could be ethyl coma - or, maybe, drugs-induced coma - but I somehow think Jeff will be quite accurate. I surely don't see this as being a three-page death arc, more like a "descent in misery" arc of Faye through making a surely wrong choice (being drunk all the time) after choosing, be it right, be it wrong, not to try harder to make things work with Angus.