jephjacques
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A Trick Of The Light
🕑 Added 2024-09-05 01:09:45 +0000 UTChi cosmo
Comments
Stephen Wells
Apparently Patreon messed up. None of us got notified.
Comics Ladybird
Shoot, sorry guys, I thought I’d remembered this from my viewing of “The Gods Must Be Lazy”, but now I’m not so sure.
Clifton Royston
Speaking of foreshadowing, right after Marten first met Claire, Emily, and the other intern Gabby: https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2217
Maurice Kessler
HELPING
BobC
I somehow missed this comic. HOW DID I MISS THIS COMIC! Did Windows update or something?
Marin Page
...Aurelia's hair is making me want bacon.
Graydon Armstrong
Messing with the town's power would be very much anathema to their aim of staying off the radar. That's not to say they wouldn't normally have the hubris to do it anyway, but the past hour(?) has changed that.
Graydon Armstrong
So it wasn't just me! I wondered how I'd missed this one!
Graydon Armstrong
They are not necessarily immune to Yay. Yay is capable of manipulating EM fields to the extent that they can put even humans in stasis with just a thought.
Graydon Armstrong
Maybe not always, but at least last time we saw her, yes. Jeph may have ham-ped up the porcinity since then, though.
Cozy
love this, its getting tense and kind of scary and pulling me in
Zygo
Strip 3407 suggests that Yay might be a metaphorical giant squid lurking in deep waters. By strip 4943, the Director appears--as a literal giant squid lurking in deep waters.
BookBeard
There's also Sven's cat, Princess. She hasn't shown up in quite a while though. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=877
Benjamin
Also side note... went down a rabbit hole of old strips starting with furst time claire appeared and the amount of foreshadowing is astounding. Strip 2262 especially 🤣
Benjamin
Has her hair always looked like bacon?
Pejo
*slaps table* THANK you push button, receive bacon
legobil
Hercules and Mieville (I think) are the QC cats I can think of.
Darren Franzen
Sitting here at 830 on Friday wishing it was Saturday…
awgiedawgie
I doubt even her new and improved body could survive that flight. Well, the flight wouldn't be so bad, but the landing would be an issue.
skinnybdink
i just realized there is a significant absence of cat in QC might need to pull a Yay to process this
Cole Blackblood
Poor Yay :(
BookBeard
The sentient smartbulbs online book club calls themselves "the illuminati".
OldGoat
Agreed. I had to go to Subway and order a BMT with bacon after reading this.
legobil
The big question remain! Did Crushbot *catapult* Roko, or not! That was Rapid Transit, after all!
Marc Tabor
Weekend cliffhanger...
legobil
Or, is it just….. A Trick Of The Light.
legobil
It feels to me like it is Monty Pythonesque…? But I could be wrong.
David Paul
Yeah, nah. Under normal circumstances, Yay totally would (albeit unintentionally) cause an awful lot of food to go bad as some kind of trick. And then have Roko yell at them about it. And then have Melon try to "fix" it somehow. And then have Roko yell at them both.
David Paul
I feel like Comics Ladybird is quoting something, but damned if I know what...
Bill Marcum
Well that's all right by me...
Ursus Ridens
Robobulbs. Very bored. Or maybe just spending a lot of time reading (online copies of) _Les Miserables_ and such, and hanging with their online book club.
Ursus Ridens
Poltergeistery. At last, someone actually wants some.
Ursus Ridens
Not to worry. They're just having an extended, calming interaction with Azathoth and Mr. Smooches. I think.
awgiedawgie
*Decided* she's awesome? You make it sound like someone could decide that she's *not*. It's not a decision waiting to be made. It's a simple fact waiting to be noticed. And it doesn't take long to notice it.
Melissa Wilson
Thank goodness I’m not the only one who saw it that way… I thought maybe I’d been vegan too long. 😂
Shaodyn
Cosmo has literally just met Roko for the first time, and has already decided she's awesome.
Opus the Poet
That's not an anteater, that's a borzoi hound. Anteaters are even pointier than Cosmo.
Opus the Poet
She's upset with us, or they're upset with us.
Gamera
It's definitely because the front is brighter than the rest of the hair, which doesn't have gray streaks.
Gamera
Maybe she did install smartbulbs with her milf money.
Lucas Werkmeister
"snoof"
Not that Patrick Foltz
'swhat you get for waiting on a notification and not obsessively refreshing the app 😉
Andrea Andrew
I can’t deny Aurelia is hot, and her chemistry with Yay is weirdly amazing.
Opus the Poet
Who is the other girl friend? There's Roko, Aurelia is more of a mom than a girlfriend, and? Melon?
Andrew Mitchell
COSMO!!! ♥️♥️♥️
Clifton Royston
She’s always had the gray streaks but I think she’s also highlighting it now -they’re a different shade of red.
William Stark
“Blep”
Seth Swanson
Aurelia has Cosmo. No way Yay didn't bring Roku over for that.
Comics Ladybird
“God did not send us a sign! That must mean He’s upset with us!”
Stephen Wells
Ran very very fast.
Tim
Your lights aren't smartlights, Aurelia. Plain old lightbulbs are immune to cybershenanigans. or at least thats what I'm telling myself, because the alternative is so much more ominous.
Jennifer Pylko
mmmm bacon hair
Amelia Lewis
Same. Desktop/website, not app, flipped order (with load more at the top instead of the bottom, too), comments reversed, and also the threaded replies are no longer partially expanded (showing first two) as they were yesterday. Here's betting that they didn't plan all of these changes, and in the scramble to handle unexpected changes in behavior, the missing notifications (which would be the absolute hardest thing to test outside production) were overlooked. All that said, I mostly like this state better (not the missing notifies, but everything else :thumbsup:).
BookBeard
I'm pretty sure Jeph started adding those because she looked too much like Claire and people kept getting confused.
David Durant
Meh, there doesn't need to be anything like smart lighting. Yay could just vary the power going to the whole block (or the whole town).
Miyaa
But dogs don’t know it’s bacon!
Clifton Royston
It just flipped order for me too, Minzoku.
Clifton Royston
Good head-canon.
David Paul
Same as well. No notification, and reverse order on comments.
djellafine
Same here
djellafine
Yeah, smart lighting is what I was thinking, I mean this is a universe with pretty advanced tech
djellafine
I also thought of bacon
enchantedsleeper
I've just realised that this is the first time that Roko and Aurelia have interacted (right?). Or maybe it's just the first time we've seen. Because Aurelia doesn't seem surprised to see Roko, and it's almost like they're picking up where they left off previously. I bet they have a group chat or have exchanged messages, if not met up for drinks and Yay-gossip :D
enchantedsleeper
I find it hard to imagine Yay thinking: "I could show them that I'm here. But the refrigerators..." It just doesn't feel in-character as a train of logic 😅
enchantedsleeper
💯💯💯
PostRetroism
My money's on Yay being at home, watching Real Genius again for the 396th time.
enchantedsleeper
It does look like bacon xD
Stephen Wells
Aurelia is more sensible than many of the cast. But her hair is rasher.
Stephen Wells
Disconnected Yay-we-know comes sheepishly home to Roko and they can get married at last :)
Stephen Wells
The point of the exercise (from Cosmo's point of view) is that Roko smells like Cosmo now :)
Constanze Carstanjen
Oh, is it supposed to be grey? It looked like bacon to me, which I appreciate wouldn't make any sense at all.
Chris Vermeers
Also no notifications from Patreon, either here on the website or in my email.
PostRetroism
Next we go to Hanners, for her reaction on Yay being missing.
BaronHaynes
Right, and I don't know if an independent Yay node could rejoin the collective, whether they'd want to, or if disconnecting is even possible. Even if they end up in a similar situation, the details and their feelings about it are likely to be different.
enchantedsleeper
I buy it :D
enchantedsleeper
But I think that Moray *could* be reabsorbed into the Director if she chose. She hasn't been cut off. She's just choosing to remain external.
enchantedsleeper
Nah, they're streaks of grey. I think Jeph has started emphasising them more since Aurelia was first introduced. (Maybe some Milkmaids drama caused it xD)
Joseph Bonnar
It didn't show up in mine, either. No Cosmo kisses for Patreon
Thisguy
Has Aurelia had highlights done to her hair? Is that the word?
Thisguy
I’ve been waiting for this for hours! Why didn’t it come up in my notifications?
Stephen Wells
Yes, this week is ending very differently from what I expected :(
Ste Saunders
Same
Ste Saunders
She could have smart lighting installed, my lights are all connected to my network in my home.
JourneymanWizard
BACON HAIR
BaronHaynes
A possibility I thought of when Yay and Roko had that conversation about what they'd do if they were discovered: The shared consciousness scrubs all identifying features, goes dark, and the node that's been interacting with the cast separates from the whole. Like an octopus severing a tentacle to escape, but in this case the tentacle operates independently forever. It'd be wild if coming into contact with Moray led to them becoming a mirror image of her.
R L
@Todd Like this would surprise you.
Kara
I’m very upset!
Kara
Yay doesn’t need to cut the power to the house, they could just target the energy flow to specific bulbs to message!
Kara
Jeph this is really stressing me out can you please give us a ‘proof of life’ for Yay soon??
Todd Ellner
Ceiling Yay is watching you masturbate?
Jared Kolbly
I certainly agree, if it was just the lights. There is still a fair number of things that do poorly with sudden power loss, especially when the power quickly returns. Refrigerators are particularly bad with flickering power.
BookBeard
I'm thinking she called in a favor from Officer O'Malley and got a high-speed ride across town, complete with sirens.
Uniquitous
My guess is that Yay had a predefined protocol for an "oh shit we've been detected" event. And like most protocols it hasn't been updated since it was written & approved
BookBeard
The fifth panel pans up slightly and Yay is just clinging to the light fixture. "Well... this is embarrassing..."
Uniquitous
I'm beginning to realize the gravity of the situation. Which means it must be very grave indeed.
enchantedsleeper
We need to know how Roko got to Aurelia's! Did she take an Uber (/QC in-universe equivalent), or did she take the Crushbot/Bubbles express?
enchantedsleeper
Yeah, pretty much all of us had our money on Aurelia's... And if they aren't even eavesdropping, that suggests they're not just at another familiar location like Elliot's. Is Yay sulking/hiding, or are they somewhere very distant?
enchantedsleeper
The (Android) app has been notifying me fine all week, except for today
Green
Goddamn it I knew it wasn't gonna be that easy
enchantedsleeper
Damn. Forgot it was Thursday and thus Cliffhanger Day 🙈
Blake Manor
because there's no way Yay could literally cut the power to her home just to prove a point
Nicolas Demers
Oh as if that would stop Yay...
Onyx
OH NO
Aeryn Monet
Your lights aren't connected to any network, Aurelia, that is a closed mechanical system that they cannot affect wirelessly.
Matthew Van Gangelen
And is also entirely fictional.
Minzoku Bokumetsu
weren't literally just yesterday granted, I ONLY use the desktop site, idk about apps
Matthew Van Gangelen
Same
Miyaa
This damn walkable town.
Hawkeye
Well now I’m a little concerned for Yay if Mom Vibes isn’t what they went for immediately.
Sleepy John
they've got a quicker licker.
BookBeard
You remember correctly, that was a few comics earlier before she found out Cosmo was female. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3878
Miyaa
Or Roko smells like bread now.
R L
...I thought Yay was literally being the ceiling. Is that bad?
BookBeard
It's probably the lingering smell of fresh bread.
BookBeard
No doubt in my mind, Yay would absolutely flicker the lights of an entire neighborhood just to show that they could.
Sleepy John
Cosmo likes the smell of facial myomers.
Shawn K. Younkin
That's what I get for relying on my obvious faulty memory. I could have sworn she said at one point "The universe has blessed me with a good boy!"
Shawn K. Younkin
They have been like that for a while now, a couple of weeks I want to say.
BookBeard
Or it's the Elliot-Cosmo hybrid that lives in Clinton's brain. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4543
Minzoku Bokumetsu
Patreon fucking everything up AGAIN look at these comments, they're REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL
Timothy Roller
That anteater must have found some tasty ants on her face.
Joseph Bonnar
An aside: Patreon didn't notify me of this comic. No email, nothing in my notifications. (I've learned to look in from time to time,which is how I found it.) BAD PATREON! No Cosmo kisses for YOU!
BookBeard
I truly believe that Yay would not want their personal crisis to get in the way of Cosmo getting pets and snuggles.
BookBeard
I mean... probably yes, once Marten tells her about it.
BookBeard
She, actually. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3881
BookBeard
"Did you forget your keys?" It's fine, she doesn't really need them anyway. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4673
William Cole
I mean, that sounds like *exactly* the kind of "cute poltergeisty shit" they would do under normal circumstances, so I agree with Roko that this is a bad sign.
William Cole
Same.
Jared Kolbly
I can imagine Aurelia not having smart lights, and Yay not wanting to (but able to) cause consequent black outs to convey a relatively low importance message.
Yelling Bird
When I first looked at this strip I thought "Is this giving Claire gray hair?"
Fart Captor
It doesn't matter what else is going on you greet the dog properly when you come in the house 😤
Not that Patrick Foltz
Totally rooting for a Joyce Dorothy ANYTHING!
Not that Patrick Foltz
Did you forget your keys?
Eric Sieck
Cosmo just can't hold their licker
Shawn K. Younkin
Damn right Cosmo is helping! He is doing was dogs do best, providing comfort and kisses!
Todd Ellner
Yay will hunker in the bunker
KiTA
>"cute" poltergeisty stuff Oh, Roko...
Darren Franzen
Now I’ll be spending two days worried about Yay, an AI that can apparently do all of the things and truly doesn’t need me to worry about them…
ValdVin
SLRRRRP. Wait, that's Faye attitudinally drinking her latte. https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5178
Andrea Andrew
Where did Yay go? Will their two girlfriends find them and fall in love in the process thus creating a polycule Joyce is looking for (besides her own with Joe and Dorothy)?
Doc Gumby
Now I want Cosmo kisses!
