jephjacques / Gottem

As a former gifted student, this cuts deep

Livy N

2024-07-11 14:56:19 +0000 UTC

That's one heck of an isekai origin story... D:

Leak

2024-06-24 17:12:28 +0000 UTC

"Just nuts" means there haven't been enough people like you to give your condition a name.

Opus the Poet

2024-05-27 07:21:07 +0000 UTC

Many horny Roman soldiers also had a hand in the mix.

Opus the Poet

2024-05-27 07:03:54 +0000 UTC

Almost everyone I know who is happy with their life now has had a major reset at some time in the past (the earlier, the better). Mine was 60-odd years ago.

Charles Hirst

2024-05-26 13:05:13 +0000 UTC

Another brain-damaged Patron! We should make a club.

Opus the Poet

2024-05-26 09:20:44 +0000 UTC

Isn't that what academia is? xD

enchantedsleeper

2024-05-25 07:35:16 +0000 UTC

Willow pillow.

Sean Kinlin

2024-05-24 22:29:27 +0000 UTC

It took me until my 50s to realize that I was dealing with ADHD, and I wasn't just nuts.

Clifton Royston

2024-05-24 09:44:25 +0000 UTC

Nope, I changed schools 16 time by 9th grade. I didn't get to stay in the good schools, but on the plus side I didn't have to stay in the really bad schools. About the truck, that was the third one to hit me and the first time I got hurt enough to transport. Long story short a DUI took umbrage at my bike existing on the same street he was driving on and when I didn't bunnyhop over the curb onto the sidewalk that wouldn't exist for another decade he pulled a U-turn to get on my side of the median and hit me at an estimated 60 MPH (about 100 KPH) destroying the truck and temporarily killing me. As the EMTs were getting me ready for the body bag, because they could see how far away the initial impact was and I had no detectable pulse or respiration, so the first thing they did was get a bag for my remains. It wasn't until I complained about the fact I had broken the upper part of my femur (the only thing I could feel, I missed the other 3 broken bones and the gigantic hole opposite where the truck hit me splattering chunks out, and also all the missing skin on other parts of my body) that they knew I wasn't dead yet. By that point the swelling around my optic nerves had made me temporarily blind so when I regained consciousness in the ambulance it didn't occur to me that they didn't have the lights off. Also I can actually talk and make sense even when I'm unconscious. I gave the wrong answers to every question police asked me about where I lived, what my phone number was, if I was married... I told them the address I was living at when I was in HS 25 years prior, my parent's phone number from a different state than either the HS address or where I was living then (and now) and the second time I regained consciousness I was in the middle of making a joke about getting the number of the truck because it was too late in the evening to be a bus that hit me. I spent 2 weeks in hospital, many months in and out of rehab, had to learn how to ride a bike again, and was riding metric centuries (100 km, about 65 miles) 11 months after the wreck.

Opus the Poet

2024-05-24 08:46:01 +0000 UTC

I'm from a family of child prodigue. Its kinda scarry how it's true. Growing up I was the black sheep and cautionary tale: if all of us are genius why only she had average grade? We are all rised the same, Something must being wrong with her . Well, anyway they all end up either choose prestigious but poor choice college study, or burn out, or discover they couldn't function outside of school , like, at all. All of they struggle, like, a LOT Meanwhile I end up getting a good diploma, a good career. I have a life a little better than average , aka I could go to vacation and have a beautiful condo... Which make them feel even badder about the few think they got. And now the comparaison inverse, which make everything zvenmore shitter: even with average grade xxxx end up with a good paying job and you could even find a living wage with your prestigious literacy degree? What is wrong with you?

Sarah Buisson

2024-05-24 08:12:56 +0000 UTC

It almost worries me how easily Jeph can make me fall in love with a character over the course just a few pages. For a while, Iris seemed like background comic relief — the fundamentally unflappable cynic. Now she's very much something else.

Dan Martinez

2024-05-24 06:40:35 +0000 UTC

Wow.

Victor Stevko

2024-05-24 04:03:25 +0000 UTC

Meh, see how the night goes 😉

David Paul

2024-05-24 03:56:00 +0000 UTC

There are definitely people who identify as ace because they don't particularly want to _have sex with a partner_, but they still do feel some kind of arousal or find stuff hot, and may enjoy masturbation. Brun's descriptions of finding male bodies arousing, but being pretty indifferent to the partnered sex she's tried at least _could_ match up with something like that.

Auros Harman

2024-05-24 01:04:55 +0000 UTC

first time I ever felt the "I feel seen" thing. I was dead last in my class junior year. I graduated. doesn't matter where in the class. I. got. a. degree. & then slightly less than ten years later got a couple masters. I found a way. I met one of my classmates years later. he hadn't found a way.

Joe

2024-05-24 01:01:19 +0000 UTC

in which Liz submits to the mortifying ordeal of being known

Lucas Werkmeister

2024-05-24 00:10:02 +0000 UTC

Iris is into all kinds of knife fights, physical and metaphorical.

Lucas Werkmeister

2024-05-24 00:08:22 +0000 UTC

Is a "field of mutual understanding" a conservative force field? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_force

Captain Button

2024-05-23 22:49:21 +0000 UTC

Not sure about 'turning her on again'...

Captain Button

2024-05-23 22:48:03 +0000 UTC

English: the language developed by drunk vikings, french, and even a loopy Latin guy who is also drunk.

Miyaa

2024-05-23 21:53:42 +0000 UTC

yeah, I think a Willow nap would help her. ~<3

Mitsuki Ayane

2024-05-23 21:32:06 +0000 UTC

Aw Liz💙

RadiusUlna

2024-05-23 21:11:09 +0000 UTC

Yes, although I only saw the movie (but Cronenberg, so).

Halloween Jack

2024-05-23 20:41:49 +0000 UTC

A well matched pair. And a not unbelievable situation. That genius becomes your identity.

Dan Weiss

2024-05-23 19:54:12 +0000 UTC

Or you do really well in school, graduate, and realize the only skills you have are doing schoolwork, and no one will pay you to do that.

Riin Gill

2024-05-23 19:01:53 +0000 UTC

True!

allanfranta

2024-05-23 18:54:00 +0000 UTC

When is Trashfire Lesbians next album coming out?

Captain Button

2024-05-23 17:47:29 +0000 UTC

🫂 I can relate and have acquired various types of brain damage so if you want to talk let me know.

Carrie

2024-05-23 16:40:02 +0000 UTC

If it is we'll find out later.

alphanor

2024-05-23 16:20:42 +0000 UTC

insert Meet The Grahams reference here

Matt Wolber

2024-05-23 15:41:17 +0000 UTC

Is that Chekhov's grill behind them?

allanfranta

2024-05-23 15:20:33 +0000 UTC

Did they slam on the brakes when you were on the hood? That's what happened both times to me.

allanfranta

2024-05-23 15:13:35 +0000 UTC

Iris always smells slightly of burning insulation due to her constant fuming and smouldering :)

Stephen Wells

2024-05-23 15:09:20 +0000 UTC

She merely showed how she could destroy her.

legobil

2024-05-23 14:14:26 +0000 UTC

Liz panel 6: 3|

legobil

2024-05-23 14:12:27 +0000 UTC

Ouch. Liz got hit right in them feeeeelz.

legobil

2024-05-23 14:00:37 +0000 UTC

Oooh yeah, nothing like undiagnosed ADHD to set you up for a succession of inexplicable failures. Done there, been that.

Holly Nelson

2024-05-23 11:45:01 +0000 UTC

Liz may not continue on the same course as she expected, but in time she will find herself, what she wants and where she needs to be. Especially with Marten and Claire supporting her.

David Paul

2024-05-23 11:27:01 +0000 UTC

Made me laugh

Duncan

2024-05-23 11:04:30 +0000 UTC

Nah, Iris was just going through some common troubleshooting steps to help identify and attempt to resolve the error code in the gremlin.

David Paul

2024-05-23 10:50:19 +0000 UTC

How often have you orked a cow? (Beware the shifting hyphen - those of us with large fingers or small keyboards suffer from them. )

Charles Hirst

2024-05-23 10:35:12 +0000 UTC

Also headpats from Liz :)

Stephen Wells

2024-05-23 10:35:08 +0000 UTC

Well, we've seen that Iris knows two ways she could destroy Liz, and chose not to. Maybe this is at least a detente. They should sleep with Willow about it.

Stephen Wells

2024-05-23 10:32:43 +0000 UTC

This week of strips has been the conversational equivalent of one of the knife fights from Dune. Incredible work from Jeph.

Stephen Wells

2024-05-23 10:29:56 +0000 UTC

Wow, so similar - I just got my MSIS a year later.

Lucy Glorius

2024-05-23 10:29:31 +0000 UTC

Nature is healing 😌 (Trashfire lesbians ftw!)

Tabby

2024-05-23 10:28:34 +0000 UTC

I've gotten stuff wrong about this before, but if Brun was ace, would she have thought the idea of Elliot being with Clinton was hot? She's definitely looking to be on the spectrum, and sexuality is (I have been told) complicated for people with autism.

Carl Fink

2024-05-23 10:13:40 +0000 UTC

I am not sure whether Iris is trying to help Liz, or trying to destroy her, or merely passing on her observations, or just making conversation. But damn, I've been there too, as apparently a lot of your readers have. So thanks.

Clifton Royston

2024-05-23 08:59:42 +0000 UTC

Isn’t Gottem the place where Buttman lives?

Rob Scott

2024-05-23 07:59:57 +0000 UTC

I believe you mean Brunhilde, not Bronwyn? https://questionablecontent.fandom.com/wiki/Brun_Khoury I don't think the comic has made Brun and Mille's relationship "official", and it's possible Brun is ace anyhow, but they clearly have established a very close friendship. The Brun "I AM VERY GOOD AT MY JOB" comic may be my favorite QC ever. Brun is my spirit animal. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3215

Auros Harman

2024-05-23 07:03:23 +0000 UTC

This comic strip here means a lot to me. The feeling of "why can't I just get back on track" is so familiar to me, and it was awful and isolating to have people around me give advice that wouldn't work, or be confused that someone so smart would be struggling so much. I feel less alone now, thanks to Iris. To Jeph: you go above and beyond with inclusivity, and I thank you so much for that.

Snippytorque

2024-05-23 06:13:03 +0000 UTC

I assure you, I am not Jeph.

Yelling Bird

2024-05-23 05:56:34 +0000 UTC

To syphon off that alarming amount of mood here, let me note that you can fix that crack-spreading just with better fitting pants. Especially on construction sites, fellow cow-orkers and passersby will quite appreciate it. . . . . . . . . . In other notes: Damn Iris, what a well-phrased on-the-point battery of ICBMs to launch on unsuspecting targets. Not bad for a grumpy AI.

Ye Olde Phart

2024-05-23 05:43:45 +0000 UTC

It's empathy with an afterburn xD

enchantedsleeper

2024-05-23 05:35:17 +0000 UTC

@SilverbackRon Yeah, on a recent re-read I really felt like Jeph had been building to something specific with that story arc, and then I think it just got lost in the shuffle? I'm not going to make any assumptions about where Millefeuille and Brun might be at, but I hope we get to see them pick up where they left off. (It's only been a couple of months, anyway x3)

enchantedsleeper

2024-05-23 05:34:24 +0000 UTC

"And none of them got themselves back together and turned things around?" "No." (Implication = no, they did not) "And none of them got themselves back together and turned things around?" "Yes." - Technically this would be Iris confirming what Liz has feared, but it also comes off like a contradiction. Yes they did or no they didn't? xD It's one of those occasions where both "yes" and "no" could be used to mean the same thing. Ah, English.

enchantedsleeper

2024-05-23 05:31:31 +0000 UTC

I like to call that being droned because I clearly have no pilot when I get there. XD

Munchkin Threats

2024-05-23 05:29:23 +0000 UTC

Congrats on being so close to that milestone! Getting to where you are now is a helluva achievement already, best of luck to ya the rest of the way!

Logan Nix

2024-05-23 05:28:44 +0000 UTC

This conversation never happened, and she'll flat out deny it if anyone asks x3 Liz is probably too drunkstoned to remember, anyway.

enchantedsleeper

2024-05-23 05:28:21 +0000 UTC

Iris Gets You. And apparently me too.

SilverbackRon

2024-05-23 05:24:54 +0000 UTC

I love BOTH of those pages/scenes so much. (Also, I wanna teach my kids the same comeback just in case xD)

enchantedsleeper

2024-05-23 05:24:33 +0000 UTC

Social link level up?

enchantedsleeper

2024-05-23 05:23:24 +0000 UTC

Congrats on your upcoming graduation 💜💜💜💜

enchantedsleeper

2024-05-23 05:22:43 +0000 UTC

I LOVE THIS So not what I was expecting from this party but I'm SO here for it

enchantedsleeper

2024-05-23 05:22:09 +0000 UTC

Sorry for the shitty things you have had to go through, I am glad you are persevering. MLIS? Wow did you find the right place here. 👍

SilverbackRon

2024-05-23 05:21:51 +0000 UTC

I stared at this comment in shock for longer than I'd like to admit before realizing the "Yelling Bird" patreon user might be an actual person doing a bit (until you're Not doing the bit) rather than a joke account set up by Jeph like I'd always assumed. Anyway, offering hugs now 🫂

Logan Nix

2024-05-23 05:19:18 +0000 UTC

I think it reads well enough at a glance to not be confusing, but YMMV with double negatives

Logan Nix

2024-05-23 05:16:20 +0000 UTC

@SilverbackRon, GOD SAME. Every time the POV switches I pray that we get a glimpse of Millefeuille and Bronwyn, they were some of my favorites </3

Logan Nix

2024-05-23 05:13:49 +0000 UTC

He goes celibate shortly thereafter 😝

Logan Nix

2024-05-23 05:12:39 +0000 UTC

@Ursus Ridens, It's certainly empathy, just of the cognitive ("i understand what you're feeling") kind rather than the affective ("I feel what you're feeling") kind. Compassion ("I care about what you're feeling") is another beast entirely, and I have no idea if Iris is on that or not 😛

Logan Nix

2024-05-23 05:11:33 +0000 UTC

No, I think AI/Human compatibility is kind of the cornerstone of QC.

SilverbackRon

2024-05-23 05:10:13 +0000 UTC

I miss Millefeuille. One of the dangers of having such a large cast, there is always someone we haven't seen in a year or more.

SilverbackRon

2024-05-23 05:09:05 +0000 UTC

I was exactly like Liz at 19. Not a super genius, but a smart person who breezed through high school and freshman year only to hit a brick wall sophomore year due to a combo of depression, undiagnosed ADHD, and sexual assault. I almost flunked out and eventually took a year off before finally graduating, and scrapped plans to go to grad school. Did I eventually get myself back together and turn things around? Well, I'm 34 now, and I would still describe myself as a "work in progress." You never really get the shiny optimism and potential of youth back. You do get hard-earned wisdom and learn to persevere. And hey, I'm one semester away from graduating with my MLIS.

Charlotte Grubbs

2024-05-23 04:31:05 +0000 UTC

The trashfire lesbians are bonding… 🥹

Fart Captor

2024-05-23 04:23:43 +0000 UTC

Jeph I did not come here to get roasted.

Daniel S

2024-05-23 04:21:34 +0000 UTC

I'm not sure how fast AI would evolve. Neither would evolution necessarily eliminate empathy.

Markus Schaber

2024-05-23 04:17:56 +0000 UTC

Hedpats for Liz

Bagge

2024-05-23 04:08:46 +0000 UTC

Didn't JG Ballard write a book about that?

Captain Button

2024-05-23 03:50:21 +0000 UTC

Also, I felt seen as well. "Spreading crack in the foundation" covers so much.

Halloween Jack

2024-05-23 03:45:22 +0000 UTC

This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Or a beautiful car crash. Or both.

Halloween Jack

2024-05-23 03:44:28 +0000 UTC

I'm afraid to find out.

Yelling Bird

2024-05-23 03:38:16 +0000 UTC

Jesus, Iris, I feel so called out now it hurts.

Elf Sternberg

2024-05-23 03:28:09 +0000 UTC

We are all both of them...and many, many others.

Ben R

2024-05-23 03:22:52 +0000 UTC

Shorter, but no less brutal. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3951

BookBeard

2024-05-23 03:22:36 +0000 UTC

Ironically, terrible.

Miyaa

2024-05-23 03:22:33 +0000 UTC

Come to think of it, Pintsize hasn’t been the same since.

Miyaa

2024-05-23 03:21:31 +0000 UTC

What a wild ride. Did the brain damage get you average?

nullpotato

2024-05-23 03:20:11 +0000 UTC

Oh wow. Achievement unlocked. By whom, I can't say.

Uniquitous

2024-05-23 03:18:24 +0000 UTC

Lots of Iris development in this latest series. She is truly lovely under that shell.

Brad

2024-05-23 03:14:18 +0000 UTC

Like an iris, of course!

William Cole

2024-05-23 03:13:41 +0000 UTC

Can't find the number, but there was the time when Brun completely pwned her tormentors in high school.

Ursus Ridens

2024-05-23 03:10:12 +0000 UTC

I didn't read that as empathy, but as a monster burn.

Ursus Ridens

2024-05-23 03:05:56 +0000 UTC

Higher-capacity coolant pump.

Ursus Ridens

2024-05-23 03:04:41 +0000 UTC

Ah, Iris. A good person who has seen so many people immersed in failures and disappointment that’s she’s permanently wary of optimism. -pat pat pat- (She probably reads history too. That wouldn’t help at all, at all.)

Holly Nelson

2024-05-23 02:58:04 +0000 UTC

How does she smell?

BookBeard

2024-05-23 02:53:53 +0000 UTC

Millefeuille has thus far not been shown in any verified romantic relationship, despite the popular headcanon.

BookBeard

2024-05-23 02:52:03 +0000 UTC

Took a long time to come back from this. Accepting myself as just a person, and becoming comfortable with merely "OK" work helped a lot.

Jathby Dredas

2024-05-23 02:49:10 +0000 UTC

Will that void the warranty?

Captain Button

2024-05-23 02:47:51 +0000 UTC

I don't see Yay there, but they are pretty stealthy. Are they hiding behind the grill?

BookBeard

2024-05-23 02:45:28 +0000 UTC

Wow, that was unexpectedly insightful. Anyone else getting flashbacks to this one? I mean in terms of the impromptu psychoanalysis, albeit with very different intent. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3763

BookBeard

2024-05-23 02:43:06 +0000 UTC

Well, ouch. Why must you call out us damaged smart people like this?

Drazi

2024-05-23 02:40:51 +0000 UTC

Awww to both of them

Onyx

2024-05-23 02:31:31 +0000 UTC

Iris is listening like a linguist and not like a mathematician.

Bill Silvia

2024-05-23 02:30:39 +0000 UTC

It is best to plan for a full moon for this stage.

Bill Silvia

2024-05-23 02:29:46 +0000 UTC

I grew up feeling stupid because everyone around me (teachers included) pounded it into my head all through grade school and high school. Then I went to college and I was an asshole because I reflexively came at people the way people back home had always come at me. I had taken them back home to be normal because the way they had treated me was all I'd ever known. Then after some testing it turned out I was a genius (like documented) and it was everyone back home that were stupid. So then I was an insufferable prick for a while because I felt superior, and I AM superior to those that caused all this bullshit, but I've come to find out that I'm much closer to normal than I had ever dreamed. Of course, this was before I flatlined that time and got some minor brain damage, but hey...

Yelling Bird

2024-05-23 02:24:00 +0000 UTC

You mean aside from Millefeuille, right?

Carl Fink

2024-05-23 02:21:40 +0000 UTC

I love all the new characters, I love this storyline

PsychOut

2024-05-23 02:08:30 +0000 UTC

I can almost see "no, none of them did" and "yes, some of them did" as conversational replies.

Constantine Hannaher

2024-05-23 02:06:58 +0000 UTC

Maxim 70: Failure isn't an option, it's a requirement. The option is whether or not failure is the last thing you do.

Thunder

2024-05-23 02:06:15 +0000 UTC

I feel this one in my soul, literally. I was like Liz before the depression set in and I had to drop out. It took me years to re-aim myself. And then I got hit with a truck...

Opus the Poet

2024-05-23 02:04:37 +0000 UTC

Oh heck! Iris is pretty great when she stops trying not to be.

Thomas Halpin

2024-05-23 02:00:44 +0000 UTC

I know that "there's no answer I can give that you won't spin to call yourself a failure" moment all too well. It's tricky to explain. People in that frame of mind usually aren't ready to hear it.

Nathan Kinsey

2024-05-23 02:00:23 +0000 UTC

It's a good place for both of them to start healing. Iris is trying to help Liz to get out of the deep well of depression she has ensconced herself in, and Liz is starting to help Iris break down the massive wall she has erected around herself for protection. Progress on both tasks is occurring, albeit slowly and gradually.

alphanor

2024-05-23 01:57:07 +0000 UTC

ouch

lilibat

2024-05-23 01:54:02 +0000 UTC

Right now we only have one canonical girl/gynoroid relationship, there is lots of room for others. And Winslow is not in a romantic relationship with anyone, just the platonic relationship with Hannelore. We really don't have any human/android relationships in-comic other than that. I don't see Pintsize in any kind of relationship other than wacky.

Opus the Poet

2024-05-23 01:53:07 +0000 UTC

Which ironically is something best done when drunk or high.

Steve McSheffrey

2024-05-23 01:40:15 +0000 UTC

Truly.

FreeReedz

2024-05-23 01:39:21 +0000 UTC

Awww, it is like seeing Kahneman and Tversky meeting for the first time, setting the foundation to rattle stolid branches of psychology.

Jeremy

2024-05-23 01:35:58 +0000 UTC

Not Man-Bat...

Opus the Poet

2024-05-23 01:35:39 +0000 UTC

The saddest gotcha ever

Matt Donaldson

2024-05-23 01:33:12 +0000 UTC

Iris is a good person. She just doesn't want to admit it

Munchkin Threats

2024-05-23 01:31:03 +0000 UTC

Wow. Did NOT see that coming. Well played Iris

That Blair Guy

2024-05-23 01:29:26 +0000 UTC

Name's "Iris" not "Nostril"

Lightsabr2

2024-05-23 01:29:23 +0000 UTC

No no, she started the process of putting the gremlin back together. Or naming the flaw and letting the gremlin do it herself. Or something.

Nicolas Demers

2024-05-23 01:29:09 +0000 UTC

This is why you shouldn't use negatives like Liz did.

Michael Chui

2024-05-23 01:28:22 +0000 UTC

Iris: gremlin therapist

Andrew

2024-05-23 01:27:52 +0000 UTC

Just realized Iris doesn't have a nose

djellafine

2024-05-23 01:26:27 +0000 UTC

Shouldn't the outcomes for Iris answering Liz in Panel 4 be reversed? An answer in the affirmative would be the "terminal diagnosis". That being said, mood.

Brent Ward

2024-05-23 01:23:47 +0000 UTC

So naturally, if Charisma is Iris's dump stat, she has pretty wicked Insight to compensate. Liz got READ

Rhyon Ingalls

2024-05-23 01:23:15 +0000 UTC

Bat-Like Man

Rich Holmes

2024-05-23 01:22:53 +0000 UTC

The gremlin broke her.

Rich Holmes

2024-05-23 01:22:05 +0000 UTC

Speaking as someone who works with grad students, this is an exceptionally well observed strip.

Leaflemming

2024-05-23 01:21:48 +0000 UTC

“That guy?” “No Batguy!”

Miyaa

2024-05-23 01:21:42 +0000 UTC

💕💜

Carrie

2024-05-23 01:19:48 +0000 UTC

Liz just hit that point where she thinks "I don't want to be drunk and/or high anymore" and goes and stares at the city lights or stars or something similar.

PostRetroism

2024-05-23 01:19:32 +0000 UTC

🤣😂🤣😂

Carrie

2024-05-23 01:18:50 +0000 UTC

Oof, this one hit a little too close to home...

Elf0004

2024-05-23 01:18:30 +0000 UTC

Home of Batguy.

Dean Reilly

2024-05-23 01:17:52 +0000 UTC

How to handle failure is a lesson everyone has to learn if they want to be successful, I got a lot of hate for saying this when I was a teacher for a short while.

Michael

2024-05-23 01:17:37 +0000 UTC

I yield the floor. That's really more of a Fart Captor or Yelling Bird question.

ValdVin

2024-05-23 01:17:16 +0000 UTC

This is very well-written

Derek Benson

2024-05-23 01:16:30 +0000 UTC

I-Ris-Boom! I-Ris-Boom!

ValdVin

2024-05-23 01:16:24 +0000 UTC

When two gremlins meet in a field of mutual understanding. It's a beautiful(and sappy) thing.

Anthony Gaglianese

2024-05-23 01:16:11 +0000 UTC

I mean, an AI may start with a humanoid baseline, but would evolve past those limitations very fast, quickly becoming unrecognizable.

Alacrity Fitzhugh

2024-05-23 01:14:56 +0000 UTC

Aww, I think Iris cares!

Graydon Armstrong

2024-05-23 01:14:18 +0000 UTC

With only one witness! And she'll probably deny everything.

Maria E.

2024-05-23 01:13:25 +0000 UTC

AI/Human empathy. An amazing (if almost unbelievable) thing.

Alacrity Fitzhugh

2024-05-23 01:13:08 +0000 UTC

She broke the gremlin!

Jenea Ylinen Fredrickson

2024-05-23 01:12:22 +0000 UTC

I am so here for the Irisboom friendship. (Or more if Jeph wants to take it that way, though I don't get that vibe off the comics so far.)

Auros Harman

2024-05-23 01:12:19 +0000 UTC

haha woo

Tamara Macadam

2024-05-23 01:12:19 +0000 UTC

Next week: Steve goes clandestinely to the Snack Convention in Indianapolis to find out the secrets of Kellogg’s Special K.

Miyaa

2024-05-23 01:12:01 +0000 UTC

Are you sure it was her virtual heart and not her actual butt?

Miyaa

2024-05-23 01:10:23 +0000 UTC

A trip to Gottem City.

Sean Kinlin

2024-05-23 01:09:40 +0000 UTC

Iris uses "Genius Crackup Syndrome"! It's supereffective!

Captain Button

2024-05-23 01:08:59 +0000 UTC

Yay head pats for Liz (she needed them)

Tabby

2024-05-23 01:08:30 +0000 UTC

Oh iris, you big softy you.

Tannerbot

2024-05-23 01:08:26 +0000 UTC

Iris has a nose for people like Liz. So to speak.

Sean Kinlin

2024-05-23 01:08:06 +0000 UTC

Poke 'em in the third eye!

Captain Button

2024-05-23 01:07:23 +0000 UTC

My mind, it it blown. An empathetic Iris?!?

Doc Gumby

2024-05-23 01:07:19 +0000 UTC

Her AI heart grew three sizes that day. (Well, the next day, after a trip to the fine technicians at Union Robotics.)

ValdVin

2024-05-23 01:04:50 +0000 UTC

Gottem

Comments

As a former gifted student, this cuts deep

That's one heck of an isekai origin story... D:

"Just nuts" means there haven't been enough people like you to give your condition a name.

Many horny Roman soldiers also had a hand in the mix.

Almost everyone I know who is happy with their life now has had a major reset at some time in the past (the earlier, the better). Mine was 60-odd years ago.

Another brain-damaged Patron! We should make a club.

Isn't that what academia is? xD

Willow pillow.

It took me until my 50s to realize that I was dealing with ADHD, and I wasn't just nuts.

It almost worries me how easily Jeph can make me fall in love with a character over the course just a few pages. For a while, Iris seemed like background comic relief — the fundamentally unflappable cynic. Now she's very much something else.

Wow.

Meh, see how the night goes 😉

first time I ever felt the "I feel seen" thing. I was dead last in my class junior year. I graduated. doesn't matter where in the class. I. got. a. degree. & then slightly less than ten years later got a couple masters. I found a way. I met one of my classmates years later. he hadn't found a way.

in which Liz submits to the mortifying ordeal of being known

Iris is into all kinds of knife fights, physical and metaphorical.

Is a "field of mutual understanding" a conservative force field? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_force

Not sure about 'turning her on again'...

English: the language developed by drunk vikings, french, and even a loopy Latin guy who is also drunk.

yeah, I think a Willow nap would help her. ~<3

Aw Liz💙

Yes, although I only saw the movie (but Cronenberg, so).

A well matched pair. And a not unbelievable situation. That genius becomes your identity.

Or you do really well in school, graduate, and realize the only skills you have are doing schoolwork, and no one will pay you to do that.

True!

When is Trashfire Lesbians next album coming out?

🫂 I can relate and have acquired various types of brain damage so if you want to talk let me know.

If it is we'll find out later.

insert Meet The Grahams reference here

Is that Chekhov's grill behind them?

Did they slam on the brakes when you were on the hood? That's what happened both times to me.

Iris always smells slightly of burning insulation due to her constant fuming and smouldering :)

She merely showed how she could destroy her.

Liz panel 6: 3|

Ouch. Liz got hit right in them feeeeelz.

Oooh yeah, nothing like undiagnosed ADHD to set you up for a succession of inexplicable failures. Done there, been that.

Liz may not continue on the same course as she expected, but in time she will find herself, what she wants and where she needs to be. Especially with Marten and Claire supporting her.

Made me laugh

Nah, Iris was just going through some common troubleshooting steps to help identify and attempt to resolve the error code in the gremlin.

How often have you orked a cow? (Beware the shifting hyphen - those of us with large fingers or small keyboards suffer from them. )

Also headpats from Liz :)

Well, we've seen that Iris knows two ways she could destroy Liz, and chose not to. Maybe this is at least a detente. They should sleep with Willow about it.

This week of strips has been the conversational equivalent of one of the knife fights from Dune. Incredible work from Jeph.

Wow, so similar - I just got my MSIS a year later.

Nature is healing 😌 (Trashfire lesbians ftw!)

I've gotten stuff wrong about this before, but if Brun was ace, would she have thought the idea of Elliot being with Clinton was hot? She's definitely looking to be on the spectrum, and sexuality is (I have been told) complicated for people with autism.

I am not sure whether Iris is trying to help Liz, or trying to destroy her, or merely passing on her observations, or just making conversation. But damn, I've been there too, as apparently a lot of your readers have. So thanks.

Isn’t Gottem the place where Buttman lives?

I assure you, I am not Jeph.

It's empathy with an afterburn xD

I like to call that being droned because I clearly have no pilot when I get there. XD

Congrats on being so close to that milestone! Getting to where you are now is a helluva achievement already, best of luck to ya the rest of the way!

This conversation never happened, and she'll flat out deny it if anyone asks x3 Liz is probably too drunkstoned to remember, anyway.

Iris Gets You. And apparently me too.

I love BOTH of those pages/scenes so much. (Also, I wanna teach my kids the same comeback just in case xD)

Social link level up?

Congrats on your upcoming graduation 💜💜💜💜

I LOVE THIS So not what I was expecting from this party but I'm SO here for it

Sorry for the shitty things you have had to go through, I am glad you are persevering. MLIS? Wow did you find the right place here. 👍

I stared at this comment in shock for longer than I'd like to admit before realizing the "Yelling Bird" patreon user might be an actual person doing a bit (until you're Not doing the bit) rather than a joke account set up by Jeph like I'd always assumed. Anyway, offering hugs now 🫂

I think it reads well enough at a glance to not be confusing, but YMMV with double negatives

@SilverbackRon, GOD SAME. Every time the POV switches I pray that we get a glimpse of Millefeuille and Bronwyn, they were some of my favorites </3

He goes celibate shortly thereafter 😝

@Ursus Ridens, It's certainly empathy, just of the cognitive ("i understand what you're feeling") kind rather than the affective ("I feel what you're feeling") kind. Compassion ("I care about what you're feeling") is another beast entirely, and I have no idea if Iris is on that or not 😛

No, I think AI/Human compatibility is kind of the cornerstone of QC.

I miss Millefeuille. One of the dangers of having such a large cast, there is always someone we haven't seen in a year or more.

The trashfire lesbians are bonding… 🥹

Jeph I did not come here to get roasted.

I'm not sure how fast AI would evolve. Neither would evolution necessarily eliminate empathy.

Hedpats for Liz

Didn't JG Ballard write a book about that?

Also, I felt seen as well. "Spreading crack in the foundation" covers so much.

This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Or a beautiful car crash. Or both.

I'm afraid to find out.

Jesus, Iris, I feel so called out now it hurts.

We are all both of them...and many, many others.

Shorter, but no less brutal. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3951

Ironically, terrible.

Come to think of it, Pintsize hasn’t been the same since.