Questionable Content 10: La Li Lu Le Lo

[Wraith]

I'm interested to know why there are suddenly a lot more AIs around. I know that's been the focus of Faye and Bubbles' recent story, but until now there has almost never been one walking around unless it's a named character. Today there's at least 3 - possibly 4, depending on redhead girl in panel 1 - in 4 panels, wandering around when usually they're only there in specific roles, like Momo, Jeremy and Seven.

It's not even a sudden rush of people wanting to use Union Robotics' services, since they've only been open a half hour and these AI's are walking in different direction. Don't get me wrong, I'm not robophobic or anything, but it's a distinct shift and I'd be interested to hear someone in-comic make a comment on it.

[Morquard]

Over here (Germany) those look like standard hours for pharmacies (except they're likely completely closed on Sundays), but there's an emergency service during those hours, where one of several pharmacies in the area has a night-counter open for those nightly emergencies, and they alternate which pharmacy is it for that day.

[Keltest]

On the other hand, if your cub is running 40C and your tiny baby-sized* acetaminophen bottle turns out to not have enough for one full dose and it's 3 AM, you are damn glad that there are 24h pharmacies around.

Speaking from experience, anyway.

Edit: what I noticed is that the red-haired lady walking in the opposite direction seems to have grown her hair by about 10 cm between the second and third panels.

GW

* The stupid thing practically weighs the same thing when full and when empty, too, so it's hard to tell it's about to run dry, even when not otherwise preoccupied.

Maybe its different where I am, but a pharmacy is generally not the place I would think to go for a medical emergency. We have separate facilities for that, and while they sometimes overlap, pharmacists are not consistently equipped to respond to a medical situation.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Maybe its different where I am, but a pharmacy is generally not the place I would think to go for a medical emergency. We have separate facilities for that, and while they sometimes overlap, pharmacists are not consistently equipped to respond to a medical situation.

It wasn't a medical emergency. That's 41+C. This is "the baby is miserable because they are suffering". You don't take them to ER because of that, you get them some "over-the-counter" medicine to remove inflammation and fever, which allows them to sleep, which helps them heal.

Also, pharmacists are absolutely equipped to deal with this kind of situation.

GW

[Traab]

In my neck of the woods those are normal hours, but there is pretty much always a pharmacy open 24/7 near each hospital. So if you need some meds in a hurry you can go there at 3 am.

[Fawkes]

I'm interested to know why there are suddenly a lot more AIs around. I know that's been the focus of Faye and Bubbles' recent story, but until now there has almost never been one walking around unless it's a named character. Today there's at least 3 - possibly 4, depending on redhead girl in panel 1 - in 4 panels, wandering around when usually they're only there in specific roles, like Momo, Jeremy and Seven.

It's not even a sudden rush of people wanting to use Union Robotics' services, since they've only been open a half hour and these AI's are walking in different direction. Don't get me wrong, I'm not robophobic or anything, but it's a distinct shift and I'd be interested to hear someone in-comic make a comment on it.

Panel 3 is Melon and her friend from last week. So just two unnamed AIs.

[Erik the Green]

Hey, Brun, did you hear about the dinosaur stampede they had at CERN? Yeah, some sort of freak leakage from the Large Hadrosaur Collider...

Sorry ;), I couldn't resist

[Kato]

Over here (Germany) those look like standard hours for pharmacies (except they're likely completely closed on Sundays), but there's an emergency service during those hours, where one of several pharmacies in the area has a night-counter open for those nightly emergencies, and they alternate which pharmacy is it for that day.

Yeah, my thoughts as well. But then, the US do a lot different from us.

So... Does that make Brun joke speciest? It's not like hers was really funnier..

I don't mind seeing Brun again but I hope we don't get love triangle issues...

[Morquard]

She's been doing dog-jokes for a while now, guess she's still stuck on those.

And to yesterday's comic: It's entirely reasonable for him to assume "You set this up!" given Claire's track record...

As for opening times: Those may seem like it's closed for a long time, but that's at night, which is the traditional time for people to do other things. Mainly sleep. Not shop. So while it's convenient for customers to be able to shop 24/7, it really doesn't cut into the shops profit margin a whole lot. About 15 years ago, shops here had to close at 18:30, and when that law was changed, immediately some bigger shops opened longer. Till 22:00 or even midnight, but often they went back on that after a few months (not to 18:30 but maybe 20 or 21), because they found out "We're not actually making more money per day, the daily profit is just spread out more, but we now have to pay more for our employees"

[Kurald Galain]

Welp. Just as I was considering following the comic again, it goes back to the two most bland and boring characters in its run, i.e. brun and clinton. Ok, no bookmark for you.

[eee]

Clinton, this is Brun; don't assume she understands subtle social nuances.

(Clinton's got his glasses back on. He was without them for so long I thought he'd gotten contacts.)

[Traab]

Clinton, this is Brun; don't assume she understands subtle social nuances.

(Clinton's got his glasses back on. He was without them for so long I thought he'd gotten contacts.)

Agreed, put on your big boy pants and try this. /sigh "Sorry Brun, I was trying to ask you out for a date if you were interested."

[Rodin]

Clinton, this is Brun; don't assume she understands subtle social nuances.

I think this is why I don't like Brun or Emily. They're so unsocialized that it's impossible to tell a compelling story with them. Any conversation with Emily only lasts until something shiny catches her attention, and any witty repartee with Brun utterly falls flat.

It makes it really hard to empathize with either character, because they're at such right angles to normal human interaction.

[Shadow of the Sun]

I think this is why I don't like Brun or Emily. They're so unsocialized that it's impossible to tell a compelling story with them. Any conversation with Emily only lasts until something shiny catches her attention, and any witty repartee with Brun utterly falls flat.

It makes it really hard to empathize with either character, because they're at such right angles to normal human interaction.

I like Brun. A lot. Possibly because I'm currently in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, so seeing a character who shows signs of something similar who is nuanced and interesting rather than a caricature is actually really nice.

I have no real opinion on Emily, but complaining that they're bad characters or hard to empathize with because they don't interact in the same way as most people is honestly a little hurtful.

[Comrade]

nuanced and interesting

I think these are pretty much the antithesis of everything Brun is as a character. I find her tremendously flat and boring, not because of her obvious social inhibitions but mostly because she's just not fun or interesting to read. Faye wasn't exactly the most socially adjusted person back during what I've arbitrarily decided was the comic's heyday (approximately 350 - 1350) but it was still fun to read her repartee with Martin and Dora. Brun just... doesn't have that. Neither does Clinton, really. His scenes with Brun are like watching somebody lazily bounce a rubber ball off a wall.

They're not bad characters because their behaviour is out of the norm. They're bad characters because they're boring.

[Shadow of the Sun]

I think these are pretty much the antithesis of everything Brun is as a character. I find her tremendously flat and boring, not because of her obvious social inhibitions but mostly because she's just not fun or interesting to read. Faye wasn't exactly the most socially adjusted person back during what I've arbitrarily decided was the comic's heyday (approximately 350 - 1350) but it was still fun to read her repartee with Martin and Dora. Brun just... doesn't have that. Neither does Clinton, really. His scenes with Brun are like watching somebody lazily bounce a rubber ball off a wall.

They're not bad characters because their behaviour is out of the norm. They're bad characters because they're boring.

It might just be an experience thing. A lot of Brun's issues are ones that I have myself experienced and so she's nuanced and interesting to me because they're things that I have myself run into.

Y'can understand why having people complain about her being used as a character as being boring and dead weight is kind of hurtful, though?

[Comrade]

Y'can understand why having people complain about her being used as a character as being boring and dead weight is kind of hurtful, though?

Not really. If the rationale behind it is 'she's weird and has mental issues, I don't like it', sure, because that would imply a character with mental or social issues is inherently not worth reading, but I don't think anybody has provided that as the crux of their dislike of her. The main issue people have with her, myself included, seems to boil down to simply finding her boring and not particularly compelling.

[Dorath]

You don't like it when a slice of life comic does true to life strips.

[John Cribati]

I don't really want to get to deep into this because I forgot to pack my 10-foot pole, but you do understand that your responses make it sound like Brun's neurodivergence is why you find her uninteresting, right?

[Rodin]

Apparently I stepped on a landmine with my post. I duly apologize.

I guess I'll chalk it up to experience then. I like Marigold a lot because I see a lot of her in me when it comes to being a painfully shy loner. I don't have the same insight into Brun, which makes following her thought processes and motivations really hard. And that impacts my enjoyment of the comic strip. I'm certainly not trying to attack who she is as a person.

[Comrade]

I don't really want to get to deep into this because I forgot to pack my 10-foot pole, but you do understand that your responses make it sound like Brun's neurodivergence is why you find her uninteresting, right?

No, I'm not really seeing how 'I find her boring' is being construed as 'she's a bad character because she's neurodivergent'. I've never even mentioned her thought processes or anything regarding her mental state when criticising her; I've just said I don't find her interesting to read. Obviously, people are welcome to disagree, my personal perspective isn't the only valid one or anything, but people aren't welcome to extrapolate from 'I don't find her interesting' to 'Comrade hates neurodivergent people!'.

[rooster707]

Hey, I like bacon burgers!

[eee]

Yes, Brun, it is possible that you only know people are interested in you when they tell you they are. It is good you consider this. And that both Clinton and Elliot may just have not told you yet.

[dps]

On the other hand, if your cub is running 40C and your tiny baby-sized* acetaminophen bottle turns out to not have enough for one full dose and it's 3 AM, you are damn glad that there are 24h pharmacies around.

Speaking from experience, anyway.

Edit: what I noticed is that the red-haired lady walking in the opposite direction seems to have grown her hair by about 10 cm between the second and third panels.

GW

* The stupid thing practically weighs the same thing when full and when empty, too, so it's hard to tell it's about to run dry, even when not otherwise preoccupied.

If you just need acetaminophen or aspirin or the like, it's available OTC here, so you don't even need to go to a pharmacy; just about any grocery store will have it. And lots of groceries are open 24 hours a day.

[eee]

I'm rather liking her. That hair must be a nightmare to maintain, though. Who is that on her left arm?

[Beelzebub1111]

I swear, these are the kind of hairstyles that they are going to look back on in 20 years and say "Oh god, what was I thinking?"

It's the modern equivalent of a mullet or the Farrah Fawcett. People will see this in 20 years time and say "Wow, did people really wear their hair like that in the 2010s?"

[Kato]

While I agree her hair is quite... Special, I like it. But yeah, it probably takes an hour every morning.
But as someone with tattoos himself, with her it seems too much to me. Especially the broken heart. How much more clichee can you get?

That said... I understand Clinton. Not sure how universal the feeling is but I can very much emphasize.

[Knaight]

I swear, these are the kind of hairstyles that they are going to look back on in 20 years and say "Oh god, what was I thinking?"

It's the modern equivalent of a mullet or the Farrah Fawcett. People will see this in 20 years time and say "Wow, did people really wear their hair like that in the 2010s?"

Probably. Fashion tends to look dumb after it changed though - the beehive was respected in its time and now looks ludicrous, tights, codpieces, and ruffled collars were a think in men's wear for a while that looks completely absurd to modern eyes, dresses with elaborate metal frameworks were around for a while and look absurd to modern eyes, so on and so forth. It's the fairly minimalist stuff that tends to hold up best, and even then there's exceptions (tonsures are pretty easy and practical, but they're not exactly stylish).

[Qwertystop]

The peak of easy-practical-and-no-longer-remotely-fashionable would, I think, be the Ancient Greek chiton. On the one hand, really simple: it''s a tube, partially stitched up along one end. One-size-fits-all to within a reasonable estimation of your height, extremely simple to make, no wasted fabric in off-cuts, just pull it over your head and tie it in at the waist with a belt or something.

On the other hand... no.

[Traab]

Thats why im happy with my look which ive kept since I was 8. Buzzcut, jeans, and a tshirt. That never seems to go out of style. My mom and dad wore those when they were kids and they look fundamentally the same 50 years later and probably will still look the same 50 years from today. No grandkids will look at my pictures as a lad and laugh at the crazy hairstyle, odd outfits, or strange color patterns their grandpa had back in the day.