Questionable Content 10: La Li Lu Le Lo

[Morquard]

We've seen the agent a few times watching the fighting place, and no indication that she's even aware of May.

So suggesting that she was actually following May around is more than just a stretch.

Now May goes in, and never comes back out again (Well she does but with a new face), so she's going to assume they murdered the poor, innocent robot.

[Rysto]

May's on probation, isn't she? Having any connection at all with an illegal operation could easily be a probation violation for her. The robot cop could use that as leverage to get information out of May.

[AvatarVecna]

We've seen the agent a few times watching the fighting place, and no indication that she's even aware of May.

So suggesting that she was actually following May around is more than just a stretch.

Now May goes in, and never comes back out again (Well she does but with a new face), so she's going to assume they murdered the poor, innocent robot.

I was not suggesting it as a probability, but as a (very slim) possibility. Regardless, though, an ex-con vising the illegal robot fights isn't gonna look good on Faye necessarily.

[eee]

For someone who said she had bigger fish to fry, Lady Robocop seems to be spending a lot of time focusing on the Robo-Fights.

May's on probation, isn't she? Having any connection at all with an illegal operation could easily be a probation violation for her. The robot cop could use that as leverage to get information out of May.

More probably out of Faye. May knows squat (and is surly enough to go to jail rather than squeal); Faye knows a lot, and is responsible enough to talk to protect May from being sent back to Robot Jail.

The thing is, it's not clear what L.R. is after. It may be there's more to this than meets the eye.

[Keltest]

For someone who said she had bigger fish to fry, Lady Robocop seems to be spending a lot of time focusing on the Robo-Fights.



More probably out of Faye. May knows squat (and is surly enough to go to jail rather than squeal); Faye knows a lot, and is responsible enough to talk to protect May from being sent back to Robot Jail.

The thing is, it's not clear what L.R. is after. It may be there's more to this than meets the eye.

I suspect that CW is going to get unnecessarily nasty upon discovering Faye doing the face thing again, even (or perhaps especially) for pay, and that is going to trigger Lady Robocop to come in and things will go downhill from there.

[AMX]

Putting it on nobody important? Sure. Putting it on May, potentially giving the ex-con a disguise? Probably not. Potentially viewable as "aiding and abetting" if May actually uses her "disguise" to perform a crime? Potentially, but that's not a thing I expect to happen. Of course, that Faye is associating with May is probably viewed as questionable; it's entirely possible that the agent was following May for some reason and is now suspicious because it lead back to the illegal bot fight mechanic, rather than that she was stalking Faye and happened to witness this meeting.

More simply, do you need a license to perform cosmetic robo-surgery?

[Traab]

Im thinking this is more of a suspicious thing thats being seen out of context. Its possible she is aware of May being an ex con. So seeing one ex con go into a place thats already suspected of performing illegal activities is going to look bad no matter what. Also, if she is staking out the place its possible this is all about her keeping track of every potential accomplice the site has. Now she has a new ai to add to the list.

[Shadow of the Sun]

I'm surprised Jeph is resolving this storyline so soon. Thought he'd drag it out more.

[AvatarVecna]

...so, this lady cop had "robot fights/repair shop" and "getting their face peeled off"...and either came to the conclusion that it was a human face (obviously some kind of crime peeling off a person's face) or came to the conclusion that it was a robot synthetic face (and that's illegal for some reason). The first one seems a weird conclusion to draw, even with the odd way the scene is set up, and the second...why would this be illegal? What does she think is going on here? I hope she has a better explanation for drawing her weapon than she did for threatening to implicate Faye in unspecified illegal activities, or this is going to lead to a very awkward scene.

[Keltest]

...so, this lady cop had "robot fights/repair shop" and "getting their face peeled off"...and either came to the conclusion that it was a human face (obviously some kind of crime peeling off a person's face) or came to the conclusion that it was a robot synthetic face (and that's illegal for some reason). The first one seems a weird conclusion to draw, even with the odd way the scene is set up, and the second...why would this be illegal? What does she think is going on here? I hope she has a better explanation for drawing her weapon than she did for threatening to implicate Faye in unspecified illegal activities, or this is going to lead to a very awkward scene.

Well, presumably if you do that without the consent of the soon-to-be-faceless person, its kidnapping and theft, plus whatever you had to do to kidnap them. Sort of like if you kidnapped a person and shaved them bald to make wigs. Even if shaving someone against their will doesn't sound too bad, you still kidnapped them.

[Traab]

Well, presumably if you do that without the consent of the soon-to-be-faceless person, its kidnapping and theft, plus whatever you had to do to kidnap them. Sort of like if you kidnapped a person and shaved them bald to make wigs. Even if shaving someone against their will doesn't sound too bad, you still kidnapped them.

Maybe destruction of private property mixed with assault? But yeah, cop is not having a good time. My outlook is this is being done to make her look all benny hill kooky wrong and sad to us so we all dismiss her and her case, then BAM, we see CW... I dunno, forcing punchbot to pretend to like fighting or else she will feed another dozen kittens into the facemeat grinder.

But yeah to Avatar, this should officially end badly for her in some way, because only a moron would think that AFTER she identified herself as a cop, the evil bad guy would say, "Hey, we are doing facial reconstructive surgery inside, wanna see?" and take that as a "pull your gun and charge in" moment. But im thinking this is just another random make her look like a fool moment before we eventually learn exactly what cw is up to thats truly deeply illegal and evil and wrong.

[rooster707]

I suddenly find myself liking CW a little bit more.

[AvatarVecna]

I guess it just seems to me like the cop is severely overreacting to an obviously provocative comment. Mybe the cops paranoid freakout is justified, and there's some freaky **** happening here that the audience hasn't seen yet...or maybe the cop doesn't exactly have objective judgement in regards to this place.

Charging into a place with your weapon drawn based on the assumption that the criminal mastermind who just walked up to a cop and casually informed of their nefarious plot was telling the truth...doesn't seem like a warranted reaction based on what we've seen so far.

[PhantomFox]

Now I'm wondering if cw's name is about how she makes bodies disappear

[John Campbell]

Bubbles definitely has some, "Oh no. There is an AI pointing a police issue EMP pistol with a tenth the output of the military-grade ones that my circuitry is hardened against at me," going on.

I don't know what Ms. Robocop expects an EMP pistol to do to Faye, either. Set her pants on fire by blowing up her smartphone? In fact, the only one of the people that she's holding at gunpoint that her gun is likely to hurt is the AI she's allegedly trying to rescue.

[AvatarVecna]

Bubbles definitely has some, "Oh no. There is an AI pointing a police issue EMP pistol with a tenth the output of the military-grade ones that my circuitry is hardened against at me," going on.

I don't know what Ms. Robocop expects an EMP pistol to do to Faye, either. Set her pants on fire by blowing up her smartphone? In fact, the only one of the people that she's holding at gunpoint that her gun is likely to hurt is the AI she's allegedly trying to rescue.

Wait, it's an EMP pistol? I thought it was a taser or something. If you're right...now her actions make even less sense.

[John Campbell]

Wait, it's an EMP pistol? I thought it was a taser or something. If you're right...now her actions make even less sense.

Well, according to the footer gag under yesterday's comic. (Does that have a proper name?) I don't know if that's actually canon.

[Kato]

I also think it's an EMP pistol but I don't know where from. But I'm also not sure it's as harmless as people make it out to be. Against Faye, certainly, but CW or Bubbles? IÄm not sure what it could do to them or other robo criminals...

Also: ten bucks say CW is hoinh to Sneak Attack her to get rid of her. Though, fifty bucks say either she's gonna be "see, nothing here" to get rid of her or "it's the humans fault".


sidenote: Obviously I have no idea about QC laws but secret face transplant surgery might be illegal because, you know, people can change their faces. Like, AIs in probation for fraud. Who you might not want to just change faces...

[John Cribati]

: Obviously I have no idea about QC laws but secret face transplant surgery might be illegal because, you know, people can change their faces. Like, AIs in probation for fraud. Who you might not want to just change faces...

Well, she already did have a secret face transplant surgery. It's why her face is white.

[AvatarVecna]

I also think it's an EMP pistol but I don't know where from. But I'm also not sure it's as harmless as people make it out to be. Against Faye, certainly, but CW or Bubbles? IÄm not sure what it could do to them or other robo criminals...

Also: ten bucks say CW is hoinh to Sneak Attack her to get rid of her. Though, fifty bucks say either she's gonna be "see, nothing here" to get rid of her or "it's the humans fault".


sidenote: Obviously I have no idea about QC laws but secret face transplant surgery might be illegal because, you know, people can change their faces. Like, AIs in probation for fraud. Who you might not want to just change faces...

The person who brought up the weapon type (below) pointed out that it could possibly harm the other robots.

Bubbles definitely has some, "Oh no. There is an AI pointing a police issue EMP pistol with a tenth the output of the military-grade ones that my circuitry is hardened against at me," going on.

I don't know what Ms. Robocop expects an EMP pistol to do to Faye, either. Set her pants on fire by blowing up her smartphone? In fact, the only one of the people that she's holding at gunpoint that her gun is likely to hurt is the AI she's allegedly trying to rescue.

And they made a good point about the possibility of Bubbles being hardened against EMP for practical reasons, which leaves "that poor AI" in the room susceptible to Female-Robocop's weapon. Which again, makes it seem really strange that this was the officer's response: she has to know all the people who work here, and yet the weapon she has on her person (or at least the weapon she immediately drew) is a weapon that isn't effective against the people working here...except for Corpse Witch, who she just ran right past? What? My curiosity continues desiring an explanation for lady-cop's train of thought, and unfortunately this comic didn't really give even a bit of that. Here's hoping for tomorrow, I suppose.

At least it was a funny fart joke.

[AvatarVecna]

Also, real people in real life commit fraud too, and yet face transplants/plastic surgery isn't illegal as long as it's done by professionals. Considering the difficulty in becoming skilled at operating on robots is probably lower than that for operating on people, Faye may very well be qualified here. Of course, if that is the issue Lady-Cop has with this situation (that is to say, she heard "we're peeling off faces" and came to the conclusion that Faye was doing the robot equivalent of plastic surgery without a license), her kicking down the door and drawing her weapon is even weirder a reaction.

[eee]

May keeps it classy.

RE Roko's pistol: While it was identified as an EMP weapon, it would have to have offensive capacity against humans as well. Because otherwise the officer would be helpless against armed humans. Maybe it fires bullets as well as energy.

[Ibrinar]

This makes no sense at all.

[AMX]

May keeps it classy.

RE Roko's pistol: While it was identified as an EMP weapon, it would have to have offensive capacity against humans as well. Because otherwise the officer would be helpless against armed humans. Maybe it fires bullets as well as energy.

My guess would be that humans get a nasty taser-like shock from it.

[Flickerdart]

Because otherwise the officer would be helpless against armed humans.

The officer is likely armoured against civilian-grade weaponry. She certainly has nothing to fear from a mook with a bowie knife, and unlike a human police officer can have subdermal kevlar all over her body that will deflect low-caliber bullets. Against AIs, this protection may not be sufficient - they could overpower her with pure strength or exotic weaponry like Pintsize's laser chassis - hence the EMP gum.

[Eldan]

My impression wasn't "Oh no, they are doing illegal surgery". My impression was "Oh no, they are torturing people". Which would make running in with a gun at least make sense.

[AvatarVecna]

My impression wasn't "Oh no, they are doing illegal surgery". My impression was "Oh no, they are torturing people". Which would make running in with a gun at least make sense.

Yes, that's my conclusion as well. The problem with that assumption is the follow-up question "...and the person responsible is telling a cop unprompted, for some reason?" that never even seems to cross her mind. The "illegal surgery" post was in response to other things.

My problem is that I can't figure out what the hell the cop was thinking to come to these conclusions and act the way she's acted. it doesn't make any sense to me to respond to being told by an untrustworthy criminal about their involvement in some kind of face-peeling, assume an AI is being abused somehow, and bust in with a weapon to apprehend the accomplices to...what crime does the cop think was going on here anyway? Face-theft? She clearly didn't think a person with nerve endings and stuff was in danger here, she was worried about the AI, but only crime I can think of is some kind of theft (face-theft is a weird crime I think, but that's irrelevant). The "illegal surgery" post is in response to somebody bringing up a possibility that still doesn't make any freaking sense.

[Cazero]

Ok, time out.
You are a cop. Someone tells you a crime is being commited right there, right now.
Do you :
1) take your time thinking about the exact meaning of the sentence you just heard, wondering why someone obviously complicit in whatever is going on would ever tell that to a cop ?
2) rush in, pulling whatever gun you have on your person out, and shout something like "Police ! Put your hands where I can see them!" ?
She didn't think about it, she reacted in a hurry. That tend to cause mistakes of judgement. It's still better than letting someone dying through inaction.

[AMX]

The "illegal surgery" post is in response to somebody bringing up a possibility that still doesn't make any freaking sense.

Is that aimed at me?
Because that post was made before this scene - doing anything without proper license could be "dirt" she can use to extort "better" info (or just shut the place down immediately, depending on the exact regulations).

Of course, it does not explain "run in with a gun" and CW would probably not have baited her inside if they were currently doing anything illegal, so that theory has been disproven now.

[Traab]

I just think this cop lady is new to the force, over eager, and inexperienced so she is messing up. Like, she tried to go all betty badass on faye, leaning on her for information, then we see her getting easily handled by bubbles in comedic ways when she bumblingly tries to follow them. And now this scene. I get the feeling she really needs an experienced ai cop as a partner to help her avoid this crap.