The real Nick knows something’s up, though. He knows that when he jacked in, he wasn’t in the drone but his worst nightmare, and he knows that earlier, Sweetheart was talking as though she was jacked out when she wasn’t, and was hearing things he wasn’t saying.
If she’s back in reality, these things would probably come up.
TBH, I’m not sure Nick’s swear filter not functioning in the simulation is a hard and fast rule, rather than a single slip-up. (I can’t even remember what the word was, but I’m pretty sure it was just one word.) I’m pretty sure that when Sweetheart thinks she’s in the Facility, the Nick she’s in contact with isn’t the real one, and he’s been wrongswearing all the time.
Is this the real world,
Or just a mockery?
Brain-bending helmet
Simulating reality?
When has she been
Inside of the In-sti-tute?
Unity, rescue
Drone and Moustachio!
You must prioritize … sexytimes,
Bubbles ranks … A-1 Prime!
Captain Bram and posters
All were planned to make Sweetheart feel
Unreal!
(and the rest of the song would take all day, so fuhgeddaboudit)
Sweetheart… she ate a man…
But they’re screwing with her head, made it seem he wasn’t dead…
Goodbye to her body, she’s got to go…
Gotta find the drone and flee the institute…
Drama, ooooooooo…
Did they mean to make her cry?
A paper whack from he who was her father,
Carrion, carrion…
But nothing really matters…
Too late.. the flame has come…
Send fire all up the seam
(In this disembodied dream)
Come on in here backup, it’s gonna blow
Unless Nick can get us out to face the truth
Drama… ooooooo….
I’m not gonna lie
I sometimes wish I’d never been boss at all…
I hear a little mental echo of a man
“Sweetheart, don’t! Sweetheart, don’t!
Don’t you do their darn tango!”
Puppies tails are burning, all the guilt is churning me
Captain Bram, o! Captain Bram, o! Captain Bram, me gusta no! Moustachio-o-o-o-o!
I’ve been wondering about a tangental angle of this for a few days…since the drone comes up, this is as good a place to bring it up as any.
It occurred to me…since Bubbles took over the drone, we (and the characters) started referring to Bubbles as “she” and “her”…but, honestly, I’m not sure she’s a “she” at all. (Nick wasn’t, and he was in the drone.) A perusal of strips wasn’t revelatory…besides, they could all be wrong about it.
(And seeing “who’s doing it with who” doesn’t help—a lot of these people will have sex with just about anything…)
We haven’t seen Bubbles have any angry or annoyed ‘Service..joy” reactions to being referred to as female, plus that’s how she dresses the drone (yeah, I know – Tip – but I’m thinking he’s a one-off in the strip), so I’m thinking Bubbles self-identifies as female.
It’s a working guess until we’re corrected anyway. Also, Sweetdaddy Jupiter Velvet was male (I assume) and unless he was gay (not impossible but why needlessly assume) then Bubbles is female.
Of course, we’re assuming that robot gender and sex actually matter, which is kindof funny in and of itself, but that’s a whole different can of worms.
My policy is to go with a person’s apparent gender unless they tell me otherwise, after which I will say sorry and do my damndest to use their prefered pronouns. FRom the various clues, such as how Bubbles presents and her lack of negative reaction to being referred to with female pronouns, I assume she either identifies as female or is at least okay with it.
Well, since the authors both refer to her with female pronouns, even when she’s in her water-cooler body, I’ll go with that too. Check the commentary for 2014-10-12 and 2014-12-21.
Why is it I’m getting this vibe that says The Cure is a set of nested alternate realities used the same way one treats OCD by giving the patient too many things to obsess about?
Sweetheart is going Total Recall here. Her fantasy is becoming reality around her. If this isn’t part of the Cure, she may go crazy trying to figure out how one ends and the other begins.
The scary part is she might drag the rest of them down with her.
Wait, they ain’t?
The place Sweetheart was in was real?
No reason she couldn’t be in a real place seeing fake things.
Judging from a few strips ago, Sweetheart hasn’t actually left the simulation. They’re just simulating her in Nick’s cockpit.
But Nick’s swearing filter is operating. Shouldn’t that indicate reality?
So they’re getting better at it.
“Getting better at it” is my guess too. In which case, “Unity”s last line is a deliberate twist of the knife….
Or this is real, but the bit before wasn’t.
I mean really, unless they compare conversations word for word any VR inserted lies won’t actually come to light. Poor Sweetheart…
The real Nick knows something’s up, though. He knows that when he jacked in, he wasn’t in the drone but his worst nightmare, and he knows that earlier, Sweetheart was talking as though she was jacked out when she wasn’t, and was hearing things he wasn’t saying.
If she’s back in reality, these things would probably come up.
well, isn’t that why the sentence starts with “it’s hard to believe?”
TBH, I’m not sure Nick’s swear filter not functioning in the simulation is a hard and fast rule, rather than a single slip-up. (I can’t even remember what the word was, but I’m pretty sure it was just one word.) I’m pretty sure that when Sweetheart thinks she’s in the Facility, the Nick she’s in contact with isn’t the real one, and he’s been wrongswearing all the time.
The word was “coked”. I’m not sure that warranted swear-filtering anyways.
Huh. I meant to write “cocked”.
Just because they’ve set some coal on fire doesn’t necessarily mean that what Sweetheart experienced was real.
“I don’t wanna set the coal on fire…I just wanna burn a flame in your heart…”
Is this real life, or is this just fantasy?
I’m waiting for the landslide, myself.
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?
Now look what you made me do …
(TUNE: “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Queen)
Is this the real world,
Or just a mockery?
Brain-bending helmet
Simulating reality?
When has she been
Inside of the In-sti-tute?
Unity, rescue
Drone and Moustachio!
You must prioritize … sexytimes,
Bubbles ranks … A-1 Prime!
Captain Bram and posters
All were planned to make Sweetheart feel
Unreal!
(and the rest of the song would take all day, so fuhgeddaboudit)
Didn’t have the guts to parody a parody—well, that parody at least. (Or the stamina.)
Sweetheart… she ate a man…
But they’re screwing with her head, made it seem he wasn’t dead…
Goodbye to her body, she’s got to go…
Gotta find the drone and flee the institute…
Drama, ooooooooo…
Did they mean to make her cry?
A paper whack from he who was her father,
Carrion, carrion…
But nothing really matters…
Excellent follow-up!
Too late.. the flame has come…
Send fire all up the seam
(In this disembodied dream)
Come on in here backup, it’s gonna blow
Unless Nick can get us out to face the truth
Drama… ooooooo….
I’m not gonna lie
I sometimes wish I’d never been boss at all…
I hear a little mental echo of a man
“Sweetheart, don’t! Sweetheart, don’t!
Don’t you do their darn tango!”
Puppies tails are burning, all the guilt is churning me
Captain Bram, o! Captain Bram, o! Captain Bram, me gusta no!
Moustachio-o-o-o-o!
How can Sweetie not notice the fact that Nick is suddenly comfortable with the idea of the drone being used like that?
He wasn’t comfortable about using the drone like that himself. I’m not sure he cares much either way about what Unity and Bubbles get up to.
Judging by his past reactions, I think he’d be grossed out by any mention of anything Unity does in her free time.
Huh. I only just realized that that’s Unity talking.
I’ve been wondering about a tangental angle of this for a few days…since the drone comes up, this is as good a place to bring it up as any.
It occurred to me…since Bubbles took over the drone, we (and the characters) started referring to Bubbles as “she” and “her”…but, honestly, I’m not sure she’s a “she” at all. (Nick wasn’t, and he was in the drone.) A perusal of strips wasn’t revelatory…besides, they could all be wrong about it.
(And seeing “who’s doing it with who” doesn’t help—a lot of these people will have sex with just about anything…)
We haven’t seen Bubbles have any angry or annoyed ‘Service..joy” reactions to being referred to as female, plus that’s how she dresses the drone (yeah, I know – Tip – but I’m thinking he’s a one-off in the strip), so I’m thinking Bubbles self-identifies as female.
It’s a working guess until we’re corrected anyway. Also, Sweetdaddy Jupiter Velvet was male (I assume) and unless he was gay (not impossible but why needlessly assume) then Bubbles is female.
Of course, we’re assuming that robot gender and sex actually matter, which is kindof funny in and of itself, but that’s a whole different can of worms.
My policy is to go with a person’s apparent gender unless they tell me otherwise, after which I will say sorry and do my damndest to use their prefered pronouns. FRom the various clues, such as how Bubbles presents and her lack of negative reaction to being referred to with female pronouns, I assume she either identifies as female or is at least okay with it.
Well, since the authors both refer to her with female pronouns, even when she’s in her water-cooler body, I’ll go with that too. Check the commentary for 2014-10-12 and 2014-12-21.
I googled “sexytimes priority grid”. I now know there is an app to turn your iPhone into a vibrator.
Oh, brave new world that has such people in it!
Nick and Sweetheart have been caught. Now, Unity is called in… to be caught? Then Tip? Then…??
Why is it I’m getting this vibe that says The Cure is a set of nested alternate realities used the same way one treats OCD by giving the patient too many things to obsess about?
the cure is chemical if I remember my narbonics right im a gonna go check though.
Her cure was chemical; they may have a different one (or no cure at all, I’m pretty sure that was all bunk to lure Jones out).
Sweetheart is going Total Recall here. Her fantasy is becoming reality around her. If this isn’t part of the Cure, she may go crazy trying to figure out how one ends and the other begins.
The scary part is she might drag the rest of them down with her.
(There’s plenty of tea in the rabbit hole, Alice!
… am I the only one curious about Sweetheart -actually- having a sexytimes priority grid? Seems weird for her, yet in character at the same time XD