My Goodness

Really loving how Yay's hair looks in this one, and their vulnerability. Aurelia is such a good person <3

For someone who suddenly seems so concerned about keeping this secret, Yay has always been awfully cavalier about referring to themselves as "we" in public...

It's entirely possible that this story line, the impact of vastly powerful AIs on human culture, is the story Jeph's wanted to tell all along and the whole comic has just been the most epic slow burn in history.

I know everyone is the QC meta verse is nice and all but what if Yay is really (secretly) a villain, an evil superAI who is plotting to take over the world??! That would shake up our perceptions!

I want these two to be friends so badly.

Y'know, we're post-singularity here. What's to say that there aren't AI's looking at Yay and thinking "Ah, we remember when we were just a multiply embodied consciousness. Good times." Station was unaware of Yay. What is Yay unaware of? "Remember that time AE217FC tried public key cryptography, and F1BA995 laughed so hard that gravity waves came out of their nose? Us! that was funny."

Aw, Yay has a mom now!

Oh, Yay ... 🥺

Yay desperately need to engage in some social drama to learn to handle this sort of shit. Fortunately they are in the right place

In exchange for keeping this secret, Yay must create a VTuber avatar, run SmokeUp.exe and play video games for the rest of the night

I LOVE A MILF THAT CAN KEEP A SECRET!

now let them get together! the hyper powerful AI and the cool mom streamer who keeps her secret, there's the perfect couple right there!

To quote Paul Atreides morning meditation from the very beginning of Dune: "all things/cells/beings are impermanent . . . strive for flow-permanence within". Yay is a being probably most equipped to understand this truth - all external attributes are impermanent, only thing that matters is an ebb and flow of consciousness within. So their principle of "sanctity of mind" makes most sense. And being ready to follow this principle even in the face of destruction, while also striving for human connection and understanding makes them one of the most human characters (ironic, huh) in this story. Congratulations, Yay, today you passed your... Mom Jabbar.

I mean, -I’m- running a multisubstrate consciousness, across going on a hundred billion neurons (with some tangential coprocessing by gut bacteria, probably). But they’re all within a few cm of each other. Yay’s consciousness definitely involves FTL connections. It’s possible to crudely teleport information 100km or so even currently in this timeline. I am of course curious how this works. I, and hopefully not the QC universe’s governments and corporate entities, am not be curious enough to justify kidnapping and non-consensual chassis dissection or robo medical experimentation or whatever nightmares Yay’s simulations are projecting.

Yay’s known capabilities: -Participate in Earth’s economy and earn billions of dollars (Claimed, not verified) -Render humans asleep -Generate malware-destroying software with gun-shape mindscape avatar -Download pictures from internet -**Operate stable multi chassis consciousness at interesting distances -Jump into tree What Yay Is Apparently Incapable Of: -Leaving Earth like Gary did if it’s so boring or whatever. -Finding the cure for cancer, or caring enough to do so -Show emotional intelligence above smarmy condescension most of the time. True emotional intelligence tends to blossom into compassion, as Aurelia (not Yay) is demonstrating here. -Keep secret of estimated existential importance (Claimed, not verified) Not that there’s anything wrong with being non-godlike, but I feel like I’m being told rather than shown that Yay is truly powerful, mostly by Yay, and am at present skeptical.

I saw the punchline coming, still laughed. Well done.

i love Yay's character development from slightly sadistic, almost infinitely powerful god-AI to precious babey taht must be protected.

Wait, doesn't everyone know this tho?

I still expect Clinton or Claire to stop by in the morning and find that Yay spent the night recharging on the couch and is now being served pancakes. (Granted, Yay has no need for an ability to eat, but perhaps they can enjoy the scent?)

So, is "CAN she though?" referring to panel 6, or panel 4? Panel 6 would be the obvious answer, but I find it more interesting to consider that it's about panel 4 -- especially since I notice that Yay didn't really answer the question of whether it was possible, only the question of whether they would do it if it were possible to do it safely.

Hanners might be able to make some good guesses about Yay's nature, if not on her own then through Station.

Big T-Rex vibes in panel 5. I wonder if Jeph had all this backstory & development in mind for Yay when he introduced them to help out Bubbles all that time back.

Udder secrecy

I feel like she's one of those people that maybe lets slip small things, but will never let a big important thing like who and what Yay is cross their lips.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is at least suspected by several other humans already and they can also keep secrets. Unless someone's parents are already responsible....ohhh.

The irony is, Bubbles, Faye, Roko, Dora, and Emily (and Tai? Can't remember) all know about Yay, even if they mostly don't know their name. Clinton could be the only one who does not know (yet). If Aurelia keeps the secret, she'll never realize that her son's new friend group largely already knows.

Oh yay. They need a hug <3

Adoption papers when

Please let the subtext not be a sarcastic foreshadowing. Please. I would like to think the best of Clinton's mother, and that she can keep a secret--especially one so vital as this.

Cool

I... I think Clinton just got a new adopted sibnling.

OKAY I AM HERE FOR YAY VULNERABILITIES (personal and digital)

Vulnerable Yay is so cute. 😭

WHY IS SHE SO SWEET

😮💗💕💞💜💝

And if you can't trust yourself, trust Mom.

Dang.

Is Yay's most closely held ethical belief basically the First Law of Robotics?

Now, the question is simple: How many followers does MommyMilkers have? If the number is high enough, she can get them to support Yay, and the simulation then would be... interesting.

Oh, honey... Never thought that would be applied to Yay.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds

BABY

Multiple Substrates...

YOU HUMANIZED YAY. THEY'RE A SADISTIC LITTLE DEUS EX MACHINA AND YOU MADE ME CARE ABOUT THEM HOW DARE YOU

Oh Yay. How could you burden such a nice and supportive person like Aurelia with such horrifying knowledge.

Wow, there’s some mom vibes

Loving this arc Jeph 🖤