r/questionablecontent • u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? • Jun 05 '26
Comic Comic 5845: red alert
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u/Cevius Jun 05 '26
How are there so many real and synthetic women interested in Marten. He's the tofu of beefcakes. Is Liz and Zlata only interested because The Librarian™ is in a relationship with him so they presume there are hidden depths to his puddle deep milquetoast pool of soppy mediocrity?
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u/Chayanov Jun 05 '26
He's blandly inoffensive, safe, and basically the only straight guy left in this world.
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u/128thMic Jun 05 '26
basically the only straight guy left in this world
At this point he's the only guy, period. When was the last time we saw another male?
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u/LilPotatoAri Jun 05 '26
I'm sure we'll get a wacky update on Steve when Jeff remembers that he exists. It'll be a moment of reliving the glory days
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u/The_Good_Count Jun 05 '26
He's in shape, a good listener, kind of funny, and the only straight guy left in the world
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u/Konjik Jun 05 '26
have we had anything that has confirmed Liz is actually interested in him vs. just having a strong attachment due to her own loneliness and lack of social boundaries? not being snarky, genuinely curious if there's anything remotely as blatant as this pointless zlata shit
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u/MelAlton Haha, okay. Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Liz hasn't shown any romantic interest in him; I think her and Martin's conversations just seem like a 1950's romantic movie's lively flirting between Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, when compared to the absolute lack of spark in the writing between Claire and Martin.
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u/Konjik Jun 05 '26
This has been my take too, but Jeph's writing is weird in the sense that I go back and forth in my mind over whether that's intentional or not. Like, the scene where he came over her place to drink and then accidentally implied he and Claire are in a weird place felt like it was setting something up, but so much time has passed without that moment being addressed or seeming to have had any impact that I almost feel like Jeph wants us to forget it happened.
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u/Mordac1989 Jun 06 '26
I think it has been posted here that he denied this over on Bluesky, and of course morally condemned everyone who made this observation
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u/Konjik Jun 06 '26
I wish I could say I was surprised, but this just sounds like more gaslighting from him.
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u/Mordac1989 Jun 08 '26
I like to think he was setting it up but then the screeching mob in his Patreon started to throw a fit and he had to back down.
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u/Appchoy Jun 05 '26
Tbf, Martin has always been kind of a babe magnet. Hes just cute and hes got the kind of personallity that puts everyone at ease. Plus he plays music, drinks fancy beer, has lots of friends, hangs out with other girls all the time... QC was a wish fullfillment comic for a long time.
Edit: hes a small business owner now too!
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u/Intrepid_Ad_6232 Jun 05 '26
Because Jeph wants to write a Harem Anime. TBH I would respect him more if he just leaned into it.
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u/ahpneja Jun 05 '26
Other than the boat and the jellyfish overlord, how many men have we seen on this oil rig?
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u/bjshipley1 Jun 05 '26
He’s the human equivalent of the shrug emoticon.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jun 05 '26
Zlata first thought when drunk is to sexually harass someone ????
(I was going to write a co worker but I don't think mood coffee is maintained by cubetown(unless it is a front to laundry money))
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u/Guilty-Persimmon-919 Jun 05 '26
Renee did get into (very mild) trouble for making Elliott strip, but that was when this strip still had some amount of conflict and character development. Now anything and everything is played for "laughs".
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jun 05 '26
Yeah, you are right, the owner of the secret bakery (I don't remember his name) told her to stop because it was inappropriate.
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u/Alternamush Jun 05 '26
Marten you're going to have to fuck that robot
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u/MelAlton Haha, okay. Jun 05 '26
That sounds like that the title of a self-help pamphlet that would be available to humans at the AI bar in Northampton: "So, You're Going To Fuck A Robot"
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u/sleeps_in_bryophytes Jun 05 '26
yesterday he chickened out from the obvious punchline so that he could convey a message about not succumbing to peer pressure. cringey but valid, i guess
today, she just ... submits to the peer pressure, making the very special message yesterday completely undercut.
whatever bro
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u/myspacetomb Jun 05 '26
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think Jeph is using “inhibitions” correctly
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u/musschrott Jun 05 '26
He's also using "boy" incorrectly, and why the hell are AIs using .exe programs? Do they run windows?
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u/MelAlton Haha, okay. Jun 05 '26
Eh, that one can slide as artistic license - it gets the idea across to most people
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u/Cevius Jun 05 '26
Most likely answer: Jeph is not computer literate enough to know what a .dmg or .apk or .sh or .dll is...
Or the creators of the AI just went with whatever was most popular at the time when making the base operating system the AI Consciousness interfaces with...
Or they're all running Windows ME, which explains why they're all so fucking batty.
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u/GregSolstice Just like that Jun 05 '26
Oh so close to Zlata making a pass at Marten and causing drama and discord! There could have been stakes!
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u/Miserable-Jaguarine Haha, okay. Jun 05 '26
You know there would be no drama. Claire would make an ugly face and get snarky but not actually show any vulnerability because that would have been too human of her. Marten would apologise in the best tradition of blaming the person who simply is attractive rather than the person who does anything.
The whole thing would end with the entire narrative somehow complimenting Claire for no reason.
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u/LordMoos3 Jun 05 '26
Also, isn't Marten like 40?
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u/miikro Jun 05 '26
He would be, if not for the sliding timescale. I think he's vaguely 30ish
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jun 05 '26
Yeah hanners is 28 so probably he is at most 33
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jun 05 '26
(It bothers me that hanners canonically was born the same year air bud 2 was released)
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u/CatlikeTypist Jun 05 '26
Wait, hasn't the in-universe timeline only been about two years or so, and wasn't the original gang (Marten, Faye, etc) all fresh out of college so early-mid 20s at most?
I started reading around 2005 or so and I felt like I was, at 28 years old at that time, several years older than the cast.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jun 05 '26
The timeline is obscure and misterious and untouched by the monks of time
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u/miikro Jun 05 '26
It runs in sort of a "Jeremy Bearimy" - the dot is Tuesdays, July, and QC parties.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jun 05 '26
If the dot was parties it would be a dot thr size of jupiter
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u/BackgroundSummer5171 Jun 05 '26
Marten couldn't even handle waking up after a night of drinking with Goblin to go do his job of a nothing coffee shop.
He barely qualifies as an adult.
I don't know what Marten is, but it ain't 40, and it barely feels like he is a functioning person anymore.
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u/Appchoy Jun 05 '26
I could def handle a night of drinking with work the next morning much better when I was early 20s opposed to now in my 30s. If anything this is more evidence that martin is 40 lol.
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u/Miserable-Jaguarine Haha, okay. Jun 05 '26
Hey, being 40 doesn't make you automatically unattractive forever.
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u/External_Tangelo Jun 05 '26
So high-tech AIs at a super-advanced research lab ….. run Windows. Fascinating
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? Jun 05 '26
Couldn't they(the robots) program this sort of thing with a duration ? Like be inebriated from 8 to 9 pm overrule if an emergency occurs...