I’ll admit I guessed wrong on this strip. It seemed strange Corpse Witch invited Roko inside so readily. But I figured her ploy was that she was planning on using Faye, Bubbles, and May as a diversion while she escaped. She told Roko they were peeling off somebody’s face in the next room and Roko ran in to “save” the victim. Meanwhile CW was halfway out the door. So I was surprised when she re-appeared two strips later.
Well, Marigold’s systems have a limited self-repair capability. 
Well, Faye did indeed get fired, but now Bubbles is hesitating on whether to follow Faye out the door.
Loses her last job for drinking at work, punches her boss at this one, Faye is pretty much just an violent asshole, and Bubbles knows it.
Faye punched her boss for threatening to “rub out” her friend. And still people try to blame it all on her. She punches a fucking Mafia boss, but she’s the bad guy.
Faye has never been portrayed as a violent asshole. She’s been portrayed as a victim of her father’s suicide, who then got close someone, and then became an alcoholic when she lost them.
She’s literally never been portrayed as a bad person. If that eludes you, then this comic is not for you.
I don’t think that was hesitation. That was her not making eye contact because she definitely wasn’t following her out the door.
I think we’re finally in the story line where we find out what Corpse Witch has over Bubbles’ head.
It might be as simple as Bubbles being in a military chassis that shouldn’t be out in the world, like how Pintsize had to give up his weaponry back a long time ago, only bigger. In every sense of the word.
If Bubbles were attached enough to her chassis, or if she didn’t think she had a new one to jump to (Corpse Witch has access to a lot of old fighting robot chassis, probably, but she wouldn’t give up her hold on an employee/slave by letting them have one they’re legally allowed to use.) that could be a pretty good blackmail technique. Plus, it seems to be up Jeph’s alley to give a character a problem they solve by realizing their friends can help them solve it.
So punching someone who verbally threatens a friend is OK with you? You’re good with initiating violence? She could have yelled at her boss, pointed out to her boss that she has plenty of info on her, so threatening May was out of line, but she went straight to punching. So yes, she’s a violent alcoholic asshole.
I’m not saying she revels in being evil or anything like that. But she’s screwed up. I understand, she’s got plenty of reason to be. Watching your dad blow his brains out in front of you will fuck anyone up. But the fact that you’ve got a past that explains why you act badly doesn’t mean everyone has to put up with you either.
And thinking back - Faye is completely in the wrong here. She’s willingly working at what she knows to be a criminal enterprise, even if she’s let Bubbles & her boss convince her no one is really being hurt (and which the strip seems to bear out - certainly Punchbot loves his role). The first time she repaired May, her boss told her in no uncertain terms that it’s not a charity, and she shouldn’t do it again. But Faye decided to anyway, which led to the police having probable cause to search the illegal fighting club that she willingly works at. Faye was absolutely in the wrong, the boss had every right to fire her even before the punch, and the threat to May to keep her damn mouth shut was simply being put in a fashion most understandable by a convicted felon.
Faye wasn’t in the wrong for repairing May this time. CW complained that Faye used her materials and would be taking it out of Faye’s check. “Don’t be charitable” meant don’t use CW’s stuff without getting paid, not don’t ever do any work. This time, May brought cash to pay for the repairs (and her own dermal). CW groused that it “barely covered” it, but didn’t object to Faye doing the work. She takes the cash, wanders off and then returns to watch Faye do the work.
Her boss clearly wasn’t happy about it though. If she wanted to open an underground robot repair shop, that’s what she’d have.
I’m not trying to claim her boss is a great robotitarian or anything like that - she’s clearly being written as having a shadier past and outfit than just the fight club. But Faye is absolutely the “bad guy” for punching her.
If she wanted May to not be there, she would have said that as well. She wasn’t happy because she thought May was coming by to mooch a second time. Once she got paid, she had no obvious objections.
I wonder if being fired will make Faye any more likely to cooperate with Roko.
My guess is no, because Bubbles is still working there. And CW still has that threat hanging over May’s head.
Unless it’s to help Bubbles.
Is punching a robot the same, legally or morally, as punching a human in the QC universe? It seems like Martin is frequently having to repair Pintsize when people beat up on him for being overly obnoxious, but I haven’t heard much outcry about those assaults?
It would make sense for the sense of moral outrage, at least, be scaled to the amount of serious damage done to the person being damaged. Since robots are pretty blasé about changing their chassis beyond simple concerns about how much it costs, and can undergo what would be major reconstructive surgery in a human without so much as a get well card, you can conclude that the majority of their physical form isn’t that important, and the only really vital bits are inside their brain case which, as has been established, can’t be damaged by very much short of an armored division.
In short, damaging a robot’s chassis is more akin to denting someone’s car, and can be made good with monetary compensation or in-kind labor. Which means Corpse Witch is running something more akin to an underground demolition derby than an underground boxing ring.
The laws are less clear, except that what Corpse Witch is doing is definitely illegal. Smoking weed on a bus with grandma illegal.
They sort of take pains to show that the fighting bots don’t mind what they’re doing or feel any discomfort (mainly through Punchbot who is the one we see the most). Which I assume is so we don’t think poorly of Faye for working there. But CW herself is apparently engaged in bribery, extortion and likely worse things which Faye has been blissfully ignorant of until now.
Agreed though that the bots don’t seem to experience much discomfort from physical distress. Hell, May lost her arm and tore her face off with a sword and pretty much just bitched about how it looked. Punching a bot seems pretty tame by comparison and Faye caused CW far more insult than it did injury.
It was years ago, but after one incident where Pintsize got dented by Faye, someone, maybe Hanners, brought Pintsize to Marigold to get him repaired. Marigold asked everyone to leave the room so she could ask Pintsize if he was being abused. Of course the punchline was that he said something offensive Marigold and she punched him, so it seems like there’s some guidelines that some AIs are OK with being targets of violence - Pintsize keeps saying offensive things, knowing he’s going to get dented/put in the freezer/taped to a wall, and he’s OK with that - it’s all part of his game.
Even if the damage to CW is easily repairable, I can see that violence against a robot can be taken as a form of disrespect above and beyond verbal abuse. Since punching a human without their permission would be unacceptable, AIs treat it the same way, even if the damage isn’t the same.
And today’s strip makes Faye look even worse, IMHO. I’ve got friends at work too, but if one them punched our boss (who isn’t a jerk, but I’ve had jerk bosses like all of us), I wouldn’t walk out with them. I’ve got bills to pay. Faye seems to think she gets to make life-changing decisions for her friends without even consulting them ahead of time.
Setting aside that it was a set-up to a punchline, Marigold could have also just been overly anthromorphizing Pintsize and assuming that he feels/reacts as a human would.
Hey, Marigold wasn’t sorry for significantly denting Pintsize’s head for grabbing her boobs. Wouldn’t you suggest that caving in someone’s skull because they groped you is a bit disproportionate? AI’s just ain’t people.
Except that just a few strips ago Officer Basilisk was ready to arrest everyone because of what they were doing to May, and when Faye was first hired, CW carefully explained that the AI cores aren’t being damaged, and no one is being coerced into fighting. Why would it be necessary to coerce anyone into it if damage is immediately repairable? So it seems that AIs own their own bodies, and damaging them is also considered an immoral or illegal act. Since damage is easily repairable though, they can (and often do) provide the type of consent that humans are not legally permitted to provide.