Cubetown
it's a working title
Comments (117)
I've just come back and discovered the MANNYY hats that our Moray wears. No surprise Claire ends up as she does...!
This isn't a SPAM, then? Because I would have totally deleted it as SPAM.
I am RIDICULOUSLY excited about Cubetown
I have long suspected that QC would move from an alternate Northampton to an alternate Nova Scotia...or maybe an alternate somewhere-off-the-coast-of-NS. (But golly, isn't the North Atlantic a pretty rough neighborhood?)
Oh, by the way, I get a really weird mental picture of Cubetown by, as it were, extrapolating from Spaceball City.
Is anyone else concerned that it's Tuesday and this hasn't been posted yet?
It's because the newest one isn't up on Patreon yet, I think. Master Jacques is loyal to his paying patrons, and makes sure that we always are one strip ahead.
Does anyone else notice that Claire seems a lot more womanly after the timeskip? I think her transition is going amazingly. Suck it, transphobes.
I have a theory that what people consider a "long" drive depends on where they live/grew up. I know people in Minnesota who think nothing of 4-hour drives, while people in Rhode Island think anything over 15 minutes is "long". Seeing so many people here claiming 11 hours is "nothing", I have to ask, where are you all from??
Canada :) Specifically Ottawa, and road trips of 2-3 hours to visit family around Montreal were totes normal growing up.
Can I just say LOL at Claire freaking out about moving to Nova Scotia from Northampton? Halifax is *not* a long trip - heck, even Newfoundland isn't that far, and Nova Scotia way closer. This is only slightly more ridiculous than worrying about a job in Maine!
Or worrying about Dora moving to....whatever that town across the bridge is called.
At this point I don't know whether to be more concerned that Claire, a recent graduate with no post-graduation experience, is being headhunted by the AI Supremacy or whether the time-jump means we might have missed Sam and Elliot's first kiss...
Sam and Emmett, do you mean? (No matter how I spell it it looks wrong, and my phone won't keep context enough for me to look it up...)
Clinton is making me snort my milk out of my nose. Shouldn’t be eating cereal when I read QC.
It’s appropriate for Steve eating cereal comics tho :)
I love, love love the underlaying fundament of vimsical in everything the ais do in this universe
it sounds like a live in position that would be for one person. i worry she would not be allowed to bring a partner.
Yet another step in the inevitable transition from QC to Alice Grove.
I’m happy for Claire, but also hope we don’t see her leave the comic. Oh, and her boyfriend, what’s his name.
Steve, I think? 🤔
So THAT'S what that thing in Bedford Basin is...
edit-nevermind, found it in the comments above. Wow, the art style has _changed_
UH OH
Oh, Nova Scotia? That's practically next door to Northampton! Marten will barely know the difference
Only an 11 hour drive. That's nothing.
Yarr.... that be an interview that you want to take, matey.
Moray 21-X out here asking the important questions!
I'm calling it! Claire interviews, gets an offer, and accepts, but no one has to move because they just cracked teleportation and Station is already arranging a local teleporter hub so Hannelore can visit more often.
I think based on jeph assuring that the comic isnt ending that Marten is def going to be moving.
Already looking forward to Clinton doing the classic evil thing: Petting a lap-sitting Hercules while in a desk chair. It will take some explaining to his boyfriend, though.
Ah, the interview. According to recent information we've received, you are acquainted with an AI referred to as "Pintsize"? Could you please elaborate on that?
"I helped talk him through some personal conflicts, and, since then, he's been a lot less of a danger to society!" (a sudden whirring sound indicative of several AIs having an intense private conversation)
I'VE BEEN LITERALLY WONDERING ABOUT THIS FOR YEARS
I am sure looking forward to the unannounced collab with Fred and the plotline of AI's generating video games, as they secretly love them https://megatokyo.com/strip/125 . Claire is gonna have a *blast*....
Is MT still going? I gave up years ago - is it worth getting back into it?
What font did she use for her application?
Maybe that will be revealed in a bonus post.
"But I digress" :)
He is helping
I came to the comments for a morsel of context for the callback. But I’m gonna cut us some slack since there’s so many details and offhand comments to remember - it’s a vast body of work. (I’ve been reading QC damn near religiously from 2006 when I was introduced to it… and immediately binge-read from the beginning to catch up 😅 would be much more time consuming now but worth it)
Elliot: "Honey... why do you have a hook for a hand?" Augustus: "IT'S A FAMILY THING"
I feel bad I have no idea what the callback is about.
See comic 3055; it's linked elsewhere in the comments. Basically a one-line reference to "that thing the robots are building in Halifax."
I certainly hope you're the one who parked the cubetown.science domain, Jeph!
It’s parked off the coast of Nova Scotia.
What food you need to live and if you have a fear of drowning. Uh-oh. Sentient Research = let's experiment on humans.
Depending on the experiments, it might not be bad. "Let's see what humans do if they don't need to work for a living."
🎶If a Sentient Resource wants verbal intercourse, that's a Moray.🎶
I know there was some movie "The Cube" or something, about a 3D grid of villainous deathtraps or something. Did not actually see it. I have a bad feeling about this...
And Pintsize doesn't have his military chassis to help that way, he might have to actually do the robot thing and calculate primes instead
omg it's 'that thing the robots are building up in Halifax'
MorayAmore? A reference to the famous song parody?
♫ I'll interview with Cubetown Strange as that might be Up by Nova Scotia That's where I would be Amid the waves, the waves And that's where I would be Would Marten want to come along with me? ♫ (adapted from "Cowtown" by TMBG)
The Moray-21 Is Director of Outreach And also of Resources And the Keeper of the Bucket For the Sponge The Sponge The Bucket for the Sponge Keeps the Bucket for the Sponge
Is this where QC splits into multiple alternate universes
You haven't read the version where Marten never meets Faye?
And thus begins the story arc that explains the true origins of The Borg.
You beat me to it! But they seem very polite, so their catchphrase would be more like "resistance is highly inconvenient"
Clinton wants Claire to go after this opportunity, so his nemesis plan would be counterproductive. The hook brings her back, after all.
Hate that I laughed at this
No one ever likes my font choices of Papyrus and Comic Sans randomly mixed together. :(
Only because they spend hours trying to decode the steganographic message before figuring out there isn't one
Uh... hate to be the buzzkill here, but if your director of public outreach is also your receptionist is also a janitor... Well, Claire's trained in Librarianism and Barista, what other duties would she be expected to pick up?
Well, it depends. Maybe the director of public outreach simply likes recepting and janitoring. That said, I could imagine that maybe they're just interested in Claire's barista skills - specifically how good she is at figuring out what tea various AIs might be interested in.
HR and Janitorial staff? That just shows how different the AI's think about things. It looks like they almost treat cleaning the space as a league game. Gamification to the extreme.
CUBETOWN LET'S GOOOOOO
I'd wonder what level of augmentation is needed, and if remote work is OK.
I can't wait to see what cubetown looks like
Big cube
man door hand hook car door
That's my home province. What part of Nova Scotia are they hanging out around?
Halifax, according to the reference in comic 3055 that it's a callback to.
So, what font did she use?
Not comic sans
Why do the drawings look so much better?
That sounds amazing, except I definitely have a fear of drowning!
Hmm, boiling down necessary exposition to a single panel of character driven saucy sibling sarcasm? Well played.
Now, all of a sudden, I want Clinton as my evil nemesis.
Excellent profile pic for this comment
Evil nemesis Is a very serious threat.
Oh shit deep AI lore coming back
No, it's OoooOoo, deep AI lore is coming back!
Really hoping we get a good supportive response out of Martin here.
As do I, but really, that's up to Jeph.
I’m sorry, I have to say it, because it bugs me sooo much: Jeph, if you build a fake email to screenshot and paste into the comic, puh-leeease get rid of the red dotted lines that are a dead giveaway that whoever took the screenshot is the _sender_ of the text and not the recipient 😱 Also, there’s a cursor in it? Okay, maybe Claire is just spellchecking her incoming mail, what do I know ;) Update: Jeph fixed it! Thank you <3
Plot twist: Claire wrote the email and sent it to herself in a twisted attempt to make Clinton jealous
Okay, so the coolest real life library I know & have been in is the Linda Hall Library just off the university of Missouri-Kansas City campus. It’s a 1920’s style library which was originally a mansion. It specializes in science, engineering, & technology information. I can see Cubetown being the futuristic Canadian version of this library, the kind you get a choice to live at on a tiktok stream. The stylist green chairs are very comfy and down the hill is a Chinese restaurant that went upscale after Whole Foods built a store across the street. Very good Chinese restaurant, though I miss when it was just a hole in the wall rice place.
What's the callback?
There was a throwaway line about the offshore project, I think during one of the AI rights stories
This must play merry havoc with the ferries.
Maybe even "ferry havoc?" Ufufu.
"Do you have a fear of drowning?" might be one of the more ominous interview questions I've heard.
I feel like a simple “Yes” or “No” would be a little off. More like “as a respirating being, I’m respectfully aware of the risks drowning presents on a waterborne research complex. But I mitigate my worry by reminding myself that adherence to safety protocols and general diligence can reduce that risk to acceptable levels.”
Clinton has absolute dedication.
I'm with Clinton on this one- Don't fuck this up Claire, or "Captain Clintook" will get you!!!
Have we met a denizen of Cubetown and did it emit a mysterious hum
Hmmmmmmmmmmm...
Cubetown. Birthplace of Yay. Allegedly.
Alleged where?
Watch out for those beings in SR!
Okay, I guess my memory is bad. What’s the callback?
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3055
Wait a minute, wasn't there a reference to "that thing the AIs are building up in Nova Scotia" like a billion episodes ago?
I hope Marten can join them and become Cubetown’s human representative when they stop at Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. (Humans want French food; AIs want to wear berets.)
The queer robot polycule on that island is probably already much to complex to map in two dimensions 😍
Mine already makes tenured topologists cry
"What kind of food you require to live" AIs <3
Is Clinton's hand driven by a nonsentient AI?
It's driven by a sentient non-artificial intelligence
Clinton hook!
Or a hand that can turn into a hand, a hook, and a ginzu knife
What no umbrella and cork screw functions? Can the hand unwrap a baby bell in one continuous motion?
Oh no not an EVIL NEMESIS 😢
Just remove the dermal layer, that evil villain enough man
Evil villain whose hand keeps acting up because crud gets into the joints and DOESN'T have a hook for a hand 😤
EVIL NEMESIS!!