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Flashback Time (Patreon)

Published:
2023-02-12 02:19:09
Imported:
2026-06

Content

TWO YEARS AGO...

Files

Comments

Joel Bateman

Jeph. I think I speak for a lot of us, when I say we love this little hobgoblin.

Chloë Salzenberg

I used to think Moray would be fun to work with. Now I would immediately run away from any job with her.

Michael Boettger

And that night, Cubetown brought an implacable enemy into their world. And I too love Elizabeth.

Thisguy

Goblin eyes!

BobC

How does Moray hug without ingesting people?

Double

Holy shit, a full comic that's a flashback. I honestly can't remember if we've ever seen that

Tannerbot

So, Elizabeth needs to meet Sam. Yesterday.

Thisguy

Yeah, as an introvert, those "we're going to be great friends" type people who have no respect or recognition of boundaries are terrifying.

Duncan

Butts disease is infecting even the non-Butts comics (first panel...)

Mad Marie

A note: this is the first instance of a pronoun used to describe them—but importantly it is from an unreliable source who got their preferred name incorrect and completely ignored their assertion that they disliked being infantilized.

Joshua Brumley

That's certainly a way to make friends and influence people; antagonize your new peers out of sheer nervousness.

Rob McBobson

Who would hug a non-child making her feel damn riled? That's-a Moray!

Photon

And Emmett - just think of the shenanigans!

Chloë Salzenberg

I suppose a lack of respect for boundaries -- and, might I add, for a person's chosen name -- might be expected from an extruded purpose-built submind. Which doesn't make it less terrifying.

Rick

I feel like a Wayne's World reference is needed here for the appropriate flashback effect.

Orion Rhine

Elizabeth, Sam, Emmet, and Pintsize. The four horsemen of the QCpocalypse.

Chloë Salzenberg

That's not antagonism, that's suffering and emotional self-defense.

Rob McBobson

Appleboom. Interesting name. The "apple" part makes me think of English names, but I think the ending "boom" is Dutch. Literally interpreted, it makes me think of the Great Depression, when lots of people tried selling apples as a last-ditch attempt not to die from poverty.

Tannerbot

Emmet lived in cubetown! Their stories are so far fetched because Cubetown is so nutty that people can't accept it. Is a theory.

Rob McBobson

To be fair, Moray's not showing any real disrespect for Elizabeth's chosen name. Once Elizabeth said she hates being called "Lizzie", Moray stopped calling her that, at least in this strip.

Chloë Salzenberg

You don't think that Elizabeth would have mentioned it before an all-hands introduction meeting? Dollars to donuts Moray has heard and ignored this already, probably more than once.

Almost_EVL

non-newtonian material as previously stated in another comic page, control over their own viscosity. So solid when they want, less so when they don't etc.

Rob McBobson

Fair point, but on the other hand Elizabeth didn't object to the pronoun "she" even though she's clearly very eager to correct what needs correcting, which at least hints that she's fine with "she". Or to put it differently, I'm gonna do like I always do with fictional characters and go by the pronoun used in the comic unless/until I see some in-universe indication that it's wrong. EDIT: Rereading this post, I realize that my use of "she" all the time seems passive-aggressive. Unintentional, I promise you.

Miyaa

Golf clap

Miyaa

So this is how Appleboom’s start of darkness began.

sjlxndr

Makes me think apfelbaum, apple tree in German

Shawn Spencer

Well she's just a nasty piece of work isn't she..... "I'm smarter than all of you". Even though she's addressing a room full of scientists....

Slashplane

So, was she the last librarian? Or like the first victim of the lack of a librarian? This page is just reminding me of a character in a fiction book I read about how this spaceship had one of the crew disappear to secretly live in the cargo ducts gathering information on how bad script writers from a parallel universe is the reason his wife died.

Rob McBobson

I get what you mean, but I judge fictional characters differently from real people. I guess the fact that I always liked Pintsize is the best example of what I mean.

sjlxndr

I guess it's the same in dutch tho 🤷🏻‍♂️

fluffy

Also in strip 4978 the footnote uses "her" to refer to her, and in the past Jeph has often used the footnote to introduce a character's pronouns when they've been otherwise unspecified.

fluffy

Well now I have to know how old she is, and what constitutes "adult" in her mind.

Rob McBobson

You've GOT to tell me the name of that book.

BobC

Yes, but wouldn't she WANT to give a fully-enveloping SUPER HUG?

Mad Marie

4978’s footnote was about the horseshoe crab they encountered, not the scientist.

Laurie

Yes, in Dutch it’s Appelboom.

L

Dysfunctional Homunculus is the name of your industrial thrash metal band

enchantedsleeper

A bit strong. She's obviously not very mature

Peter Jensen

Oooh, if it's under conscious control, that might explain why she can spring a leak when excited.

Mad Marie

@RobMcB: i could easily understand that one in a situation such as this might not correct every single point of disagreement in one go. Also, pronouns can shift a bit—especially in terms of what one is comfortable correcting or letting slide for the time being. In any event, I see the probabilities sliding slightly towards “she”, but still not but so much, given the unreliable source. I will personally maintain “they” for now, but that’s just my own judgment on the information available.

Mad Marie

My unsolicited advice to Marten: before anything else, ask “What do you prefer to be called, and what are your pronouns?”

Orion Rhine

She's also under extreme stress being singled out in front of a room full of people and has someone so far into her personal space that they're touching her. If I were in her shoes I don't think I would perform much better. Depending on previous encounters and warnings I could be at either the polite shoving or less polite hitting stage.

Sean Kinlin

I think of this as in the same league as "Those fools laughed at me, but I'll show them all!"

enchantedsleeper

It might be the first time that Moray has used a shortened version of her name. I don't think we've seen anything from Moray before now that indicates she would disregard a person's wishes in that way.

Sean Kinlin

<i>Redshirts</i>, by John Scalzi.

Joseph Bonnar

Carl Fink asked a few days ago if our goblin had snake eyes. My response was (and this is a cut and paste): At the moment, no. At the moment... Well, those are snake eyes in the last panel, so Carl, you were PRESCIENT!

Sean Kinlin

Nobody calls Dr. Appleboom "Lizzie," except maybe her father, and her sisters... and maybe someday Mr. Darcy.

Slashplane

The book is "Redshirt" by John Scalzi though the character I talked about is just a side character. Pateron app comment reply system is super wonky apparently, each time I look at it it's showing me something different.

Rob McBobson

I guess the best way to explain how I see it is this: Is it at all possible that Elizabeth is being mis-pronouned right now? Sure, it absolutely is, in theory. But I don't see Moray as such an unreliable source, though. That she's tactless at times and used a nickname Elizabeth dislikes doesn't mean she'd intentionally misgender somebody. Also, we don't know if Elizabeth mentioned her aversion to her nickname to Moray, or anybody else, before this. Maybe Moray didn't know.

Bill Silvia

So, her thesis is that Cubetown turns people into goblins?

Bill Marcum

Practice. Another comic might flash back to a time when Moray wasn't so good at remaining solid while hugging.

BLS

My guess is she's at most twelve in this flashback, and if she's this accelerated, she's probably never socialized with age-level peers. Or at least not well. That'll make you a little rough around the edges.

Carl Fink

Elizabeth is a young Raven, in my head. Raven was last seen pursuing a physics Ph. D.

Shawn Spencer

She said she's an adult so I am assuming she is not 12....

Shawn Spencer

Also - she said that BEFORE Moray touched her. And I can understand stage right....but she came off as downright condescending and rude. Stage fright doesn't cause that.

Carl Fink

No, she's asserting that she's so smart she should be treated as an adult *even though* her age wouldn't normally merit that. It's not automatically a bad argument, but she hasn't demonstrated much maturity.

Shawn Spencer

Lol, Red Shirts, like Star Trek?

Carl Fink

Exactly. Not an accident, a very deliberate reference by Scalzi.

ljdbjlasfbjk

84. She just looks really young.

Todd Ellner

Sam is too extroverted for Elizabeth. Emmett may be too sensitive and could well turtle up inside their clothes

Todd Ellner

Yep. Not everyone in the world is lovable by everyone else. And not everyone wants to be loved by everyone else.

fluffy

I understood that reference

Ph

As someone who looked like a kid well into adulthood and hated not being treated as an adult, I'll be disappointed if it turns out to be a gimmick where she's just pretending. I'd like to think Jeph's above that. People do come in a variety of sizes and appearances.

Michael Boettger

Now, admittedly, this looks like Moray, but would she exist away from the administrator this long? Or would she be reabsorbed and extruded in an identical format? And would her personality and memories continue through each iteration?

Ashley Thomas

that last pannel...my kid makes that face.

Shawn Spencer

I don't think she would literally say "I am an adult" unless she literally was an adult. Also, she graduated from 2 colleges with 4-6 year degrees at least. I seriously doubt she's under 18.

Joseph Bonnar

I can see two ways this will go. I will either totally love Elizabeth Applebloom. And that is very possible. OR! I will start saying: "We got us another Corpse Witch here!" And THAT is very possible.

Clifton Royston

For all the people who are going "well why doesn't she have better social skills", I can speak as someone who experienced a less extreme version of the same thing - I entered a prestige college at 15, started working in computers at 16, graduated at 20 after a year off for a nervous breakdown. When a kid or teen is set up as a child prodigy, child genius, whatever, remember: 1) they're still a kid, and it wasn't actually the kid's choice even if they thought it was; 2) they're a kid and aren't going to be remotely near having the social skills to navigate a situation like this; 3) they're a kid, and their brain, let alone their understanding, isn't yet developed enough to make complex decisions understanding the ramifications of their choices; and 4) once they're no longer a kid, as an adult they're going to be *years* coming to terms with the fact that they're not a child prodigy any more. (Because when you're in that position, it gets forced on you as your primary identity and your value to others.) I was fortunate enough to work through that part pretty fast, by my mid-20s, but I've met people who apparently never do and it crushes them. So she's young, even if she's now an adult, she's been badly traumatized, and given no time to develop social skills or boundaries. It's no wonder she's awkward and pushy and difficult.

Todd Ellner

A cartoonist I know had a button she wore to events where there were fans. "Hug me and die."

Sleepy John

I bet she’s not on Patreon.

awgiedawgie

I'm banking on number 1.

ellafine

That seems a little harsh Shawn. She hasn't had any chance to develop social skills, and could be on the autism spectrum (I say that based on her behavior and also it would fit with someone who hyperfocused on getting two degrees completed as soon as possible while eschewing social activity and such.) And see the comment somewhere below that gives a detailed look into what it's like to be a "child prodigy." Stages of development get missed if you're on the accelerated path

awgiedawgie

And if they aren't allowed to progress normally from "kid" to "adult", various parts of their mind will be stuck at "kid" for years - even decades. I've met several people who still can't relate to people as an adult because they were rushed past that stage of their development, and no one ever considered that it might have been important.

Joseph Bonnar

I'd ask her where -I- could buy that button. Or (and this is brilliant), a large and comfortable t-shirt with that message on it. One WITHOUT a cactus, thank you. (I AM the plant murderer.)

Joseph Bonnar

You know me too well, awgiedawgie.

Nash Wolfe

I don't entirely agree. I have a long list of qualified responses for how to address people ("OK, I have Ms Smith, may I call you Enid?", but I cannot ask every single person their pronouns - not least because that (for some horrendous reason) alienates people. When it it relevant, I use gender neutral pronouns unless a Client specifically requests otherwise. In a social setting I'll do the same, but it is on the person to tell me if they prefer other pronouns.

Clifton Royston

That actually fits with the postscript I was wondering whether to add, so I'll throw it in - A grateful shout-out to the people who actually looked out for me and took care of me (not my parents, however well they meant.) Namely 1. the group of smart potheads and druggies I fell in with my first year in the dorms, who immediately accepted me without question, and 2. all the gay and lesbian folks running the Student Coop bookstore, who also took me under their wing immediately and treated me like an actual person. If not for all of them I would certainly have been a poorer excuse for a person for a long time, and if not for some of these people I likely would have ended up on the streets or dead at some point. (At 16 or 17 I didn't know how to plan my entire living arrangements, my parents were disengaged, and the university sure wasn't looking out for me.)

Pejo

I thought you were referring to a typo, then I saw it 😂

Pejo

Mall cop? 🤔

Minzoku Bokumetsu

OH SHIT That was in our LFL and is in my stack to read, I'mma putting it at the TOP of the stack now!

Jay

Why do I get the feeling she had a secret lab in her childhood home and an idiot older brother who wouldn't keep out?

Finvaara

Being a child prodigy is ass. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Orion Rhine

I'll settle for one that says "Hug = Pain" and let them guess which of us gets the pain. The nice ones will think hugs hurt me and avoid them. The smart ones will know that hugs hurt them and avoid as well.

James D

I think Harvard and MIT do have joint PhD programs in medicine. Maybe she's like Frankenstein (though she actually graduated). Then again, in a world where people can create sentient AIs, Frankenstein isn't super impressive.

Dan Curtis

She has Yay eyes and a Yay complex!

Sleepy John

And that thunderous welcome from the crowd just did wonders for her, I'm sure.

Grace Serenity

But without the omniscience and power of Yay!

Bagge

Goblin mode activated and motivated

OldGoat

Ah! There're the goblin eyes!

Ben French

That last panel, those are the eyes of someone tapping into full goblin mode. That or she's gonna burn Cubetown to the ground.

Sammitch

Dual PhDs in Goblin Science and Quantum Mischief.

DragonSkin12

Is there a HR because I feel if there is Moray has a decent file, mainly because of Elizabeth

Leak

Well, there kind of was Hanner's "flashforward"...

Alex Rahr

If there ever was an HR person they're probably still getting free drinks based on their stories of Cubetown, but I suspect there isn't and never was.

Stephen Wells

Claire's hiring process indicates that Moray IS the HR person.

Sehrys

i find a good way to do this is to lead by example ("Hi, I'm X and I use Y/Z pronouns.") it often prompts people to do the same, if they're comfortable with it, and opens up the conversation to the topic without coming off as demanding or alienating. obviously no approach will work for and on everyone, but this is how i usually do

Sehrys

4848 tells us that Moray is the "Director of Sentient Resources" and from what we've seen i'm assuming she is the entire department as well

Mad Marie

If one gets simultaneous PhDs from two separate institutions, does that mean two entirely different dissertations, or perhaps the same project, looked at from two different angles?

Krestus

Villain Origin Story

SpookyPenguin

How it started...how it's going...

SpookyPenguin

Or as Robert Fripp put it "I may not have had enough of me but I've had enough of you"

Panic Blitz

I love her Bill Cipher eyes.

Bagge

Messy supervisor divorse

ValdVin

Moray really knows how to rev up a cro- (checks panel two). Moray tries her best.

ValdVin

So, someone way back in her family tree was conceived under an apple tree? Because that's what I'm hearing.

ValdVin

Next comic: Elizabeth gets a rotating desk chair and a long-haired white cat.

ValdVin

HR file cabinet: Top drawer, A-Moran 2nd drawer, Moray Last drawer, Morbius-Z

YsabetJustYsabet

If there was EVER a supervillain in the making, whoah. I mean, no evident parents, access to massive amounts of resources, alienated from peers (such as they are), unusual surroundings in dire need of order... All she needs is a title like Doctor Hubris and a secret lab and we're set.

ValdVin

I'm gonna cut Moray some slack and figure Elizabeth really was a child prodigy, years ago, right? But the way Moray presents this info to the assembled Cubetown is really confusing. It could only be less pleasant if Moray said: Hey, she looks like a thirteen-year-old but...

MisterVimes

Almost certainly the former, or two angles on the same general topic. I know scholars who bridge fields, with graduate publication records that *could* make that work - if the universities themselves wouldn't prevent getting the doctorate regardless (many restrict having jobs, other schooling, etc. while matriculated because PhDs are hard enough on people's sanity).

Daniel Drazen

Cubetown: We're Book Smart and People Skills Deficient. I know I'd feel right at home.

MisterVimes

1000% this. I have the "twice gifted" curse myself - complete with the summer camps (e.g. CTY), starting school early, gifted & talented programs, pressure on national intellectual competitions, and similar... though not as pushed by parents as yours was, apparently, though they certainly considered it a couple times. It sucks. You wind up doing emotional labor for your parents as a pre-teen/teenager and being used as a surrogate for things they wanted but didn't achieve, their childhood fuckups, etc. On top of that, you're never really allowed to learn how to *fail* at anything, or to do things that are interesting-but-hard and might lead to failure. You have to rediscover all of that as an adult, and it leads to a lot of either (a) college washouts/rough couple years of undergrad or (b) buckling down on a higher education pathway but being a nervous wreck the whole time or (c) burning out at some later career stage due to boredom, never thinking you can get anything wrong because you have to carry everyone, etc. Or some combination of the above. It's legitimately it's own form of complex PTSD.

Fart Captor

Very rude of Moray to steal one of my three brain cells in panel four 😤

Stephen Wells

I think there are quite a lot of us who would up getting stellar grades and advanced degrees but NOT getting therapy when what we actually needed was quite a lot of therapy.

Finvaara

I'm STILL trying to make up for that therapy Deficit, and so is every other person I've known who was "gifted" or "a prodigy."

Mod Zero

Ooof, that introduction, and the way Moray acts, it's some serious "yes we're a capitalist corporation but we're _good_ and _family_" cursed vibes.

Mad Marie

Lucas: that is very useful information. I hadn’t been aware that there were comments on the qc main site that were independent of the Patreon posts!

Captain Button

She's a Highlander immortal who got killed at a young age. (Highlander immortals can be killed, it is just that they get better if their head is still attached. Death by violence activates it and freezes physical age.)

Captain Button

So I made the right decision not to skip senior year and go to college at 16, sounds like.

Captain Button

She will become a supervillain whose main weapon is exploding apples.

legobil

I am 110% sure Elizabeth will get along great with Claire. I’m all here for it and I’m really looking forward to seeing her grow.

Marc Ducharme

Am, am I seeing representation for short people?!

Clifton Royston

@Captain Button - Over the years I've become friends with some other people around my age who went through essentially the same experience. (I have one clearly in mind, and I think there's a couple others I'm forgetting.) Anyway, none of us sent any of our kids to college early no matter how brilliant they were. Yes, you made the right decision.

Clifton Royston

@Sean René Brooks, a black woman with ADHD, has written really well about ADHD, being labeled "gifted" while black, and the way the "gifted" label and ADHD intersect particularly badly and can contribute to the PTSD experience. I was following her on Twitter for a long time pre-Elon, when she bailed out. You might be interested in her writing; her blog is https://blackgirllostkeys.com/

Clifton Royston

Rereading, panel 5: The choice was that, or start crying uncontrollably.

Clifton Royston

Final (?) comment: Also I can't even imagine how much worse the whole thing would have sucked if I were short or had a child-like face, NOT TO MENTION how much women get patronized in any case. At least I could pass for older than I was.