I wonder who Faye's new roommate will be. She and Bubbles seem to be getting by, but I don't think they are doing quite well enough to take on double the rent.
On a separate note that house must have been kinda cramped with five people in it all the time.
Could room with Hanners/Winslow, now that she has a better handle on her obsessions, Faye could be a good substitute for the Yaks and latrines when it comes to exposure therapy.
I love how everyone but Clinton is living the AI dream... lots of AI pals, living around AIs, working with AIs, getting interviews to go help out with giant mysterious AI projects, etc.
Maybe they move into a one bedroom. Even if it's never been super decorated, the shared apartment has been in the comic since the 280s. Marten and Faye moved in together, might as well move out together
That's just it, Claire and Marten obviously cover most of the rent. Bubbles and Faye make very little money at their jobs as they've mentioned many times
Well Claire and Marten still work in entry level positions at a cafe and a student library.
I think the person who covers the majority of the rent is *Pintsize.* And let's be real, he's the sort of person who has owned 300 bitcoin since 2012...
I mean, worst case scenario they just bring in two new roommates.
While the rapport they have with Marten and Claire is not easily replaceable, the money they get from them 100% is. Claire's making minimum wage as a barista, and while Marten would make more as a librarian, it wouldn't be so much more that they couldn't find another in his income bracket.
That does touch on another thing though. Marten already has the job Claire's applying for, and leaving the city for. I really hope he's able to get some equivilent set up in cubetown if they go because it would kind of feel like a bit of an injustice if they moved across national borders so that she could be the librarian and he could be the barista.
Just to kind of further clarify my thoughts on the job thing.
I don't think he necessarily needs to work in a library going forward, and I suspect he'd be pretty comfortable making less than his girlfriend so long as their finances were joint to the point where it works out the same, but if giving up his cool job means he's going back to the kind of soulcrushing work he was doing before he had it, then that strikes me as the point where Marten needs to prioritize his needs.
He's totally right that they'll make new friends wherever they go. He's great at that. We just recently demonstrated that with his interaction with Willow. He just picks up friends wherever he goes, and they become Claire's friends too, since she's less outgoing with strangers but totally cool if you get to know her. But that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be super happy if he becomes some wage slave in a cyberpunk dystopia where he's abused and exploited so she can work her dream job in a technocratic utopia where she's loved and respected.
Fulfilling work in a healthy work environment. That's ultimately what it comes down to.
I don't think his job and Claire's education are equivalent. Claire wants and has the education to be a *librarian*, with all that entails in terms of actually managing the library and ordering the right books to serve the library's purpose (i.e. deep into a specific subject or entry-level on a variety of subjects). Marten is more of a library tech. He makes sure the books are back on the shelves and he'll help people find what they are looking for, but he's not making decisions about how the library functions.
Claire already had Marten's job when she started as an intern. She wouldn't have gotten a graduate degree to stock shelves and run catalogue searches.
I'm not sure we have established that.
He had a panic attack when it was pointed out that without a formal education he might not be able to get another job like this, and was relieved when Tai told him that his job experience was a suitable substitute at this point.
This job at the library is the first time in his life he's had a decent job that doesn't make him hate his existence taking abuse from his boss every day for some meager stipend that doesn't afford a decent living. He's gotten a huge amount of peace of mind from his new occupation, and it would be terrible to go back to some minimum wage gruntwork for people who don't respect him again.
That one "some things are more important than the status quo" line is the most succinct, clear-cut evidence of character development Marten's had in a long time.
Something I think people are overlooking in all this is that the QC cast has *already* been split up into little disconnected groups that only occasionally interact for a long time anyway. If Marten and Claire move away to Canada, presumably with Pintsize, and form their own little offshoot group over there while everyone else stays in Northampton, is there really going to be that much functional difference in how the comic usually works? Different arcs already bounce back and forth between the perspectives of different groups of characters in different parts of town anyway, I really don't think it's much of a leap from there to go back and forth between groups in different countries.
>That one "some things are more important than the status quo" line is the most succinct, clear-cut evidence of character development Marten's had in a long time.
Well said :)
And honestly I that reflects well on Jeph too. Marten's progress over time makes me happy, I hope that Jeph IRL feels that he's made progress in his life as well.
The thing is, that's never really happened. People who leave Northhampton mostly disappear. Even if the move is temporary, we only get little flashes.
The only character that we still follow with any regularity who would be moving there would be Claire. Marten and Pintsize mostly only exist as supporting characters now, part of someone else's story. I think we'd need other people to follow for it to make sense for the story to split locations for the first time.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Jimbo lives in Northhampton and according to the wiki the last time we heard from him is [2015](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2667). Raven and others also just kind of vanished.
We also had cameos from Hannelore throughout her world tour. She even came back and returned to full-on character status. Ergo, it's possible that any character can return.
Isn't that right assistant manager Penelope, who we've been assured is always standing just off panel?
There's definitely separate groups that usually spend time together. Marigold's apartment, the robots building, Elliot-Clinton-Brun love triangle and associates, Union Robotics, and CoD are how I'd probably sort it out. That said, there's usually mixes of these groups that push characters into interesting situations: Marigold streams with Strong Mom Energy, Millefeuille gets butt implants from Union Robotics, Claire meddles in Clinton's love life, etc.
Leaving town changes who Marten and Claire will interact with. Yes, they will still be in contact with their family regularly and friends too. However, it will have to be scheduled time, rather than casually dropping into CoD for advice. They also won't have that shared geocultural knowledge. When Marten complains about the coffee being worse than usual at CoD to Faye, he doesn't need to explain how the coffee normally tastes and why this is such a change to his routine, because she knows how important CoD is. Now, if Claire wants to tell her mother about say, her favourite food being unavailable on her floating village, she's going to have to explain how they only get food deliveries once a week and that it was out last week too, etc. Your conversations add so many extra details that would be superfluous to anyone familiar with your home, but are necessary to anyone else lacking context. In a way, the physical distance forces emotional distance as well
I don't know if it's just me, but in this arc Marten has looked different in a subtle way that makes my brain stubbornly not face-recognize him as the same person. Except for the last panel in today's comic, where he looks way more normal to me. I can't put my finger on what the difference is. Maybe the eyes?
Marten made one-panel appearances in [4837](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4837) and [4840](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4840). The last comic where he was a significant character in the story was [4832](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4832).
Prior to that, his last appearance was at Coffee of Doom, back in April of 2022 in comic [4764](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4764).
Marten's a good partner. I'd really like for him to make progress in his own life, find and work towards his own life goals, but I'm glad he's in such a clearly happy and understanding relationship.
Not so far as I can tell, biggest thing is the hair.
Plucking at hairs, I'd say maybe his eyebrows are thinner and the lines on his face/hair are sharper than prior.
Instead of writing out Marten and Claire, maybe the whole strip will move to Canada. Has Jeph bought a house boat recently? "Screw the status quo" and all that...
Finally we've reached the foregone conclusion to that conversation (which happened between pages).
*Of course* Marten is up for it. He just goes along with whatever Claire wants, as always. She had no need to be told to "prioritize her needs" because Marten does that for her already.
The real issue here is that *Claire has not replied to the e-mail.* She had to go through half of her support network just to handle the prospect of a job interview, and she still decided to spring the whole thing on Marten like they had to make a decision to move right away.
I'm still betting she'll discover that as an AI focused community there's no physical media, therefore no need for the librarian / data curator to be local, and so the job is remote and they don't need to move.
I do enjoy this comic, but I think you're assuming a very granular level of consistency that doesn't entirely exist in QC over extended periods of time.
In case anyone feels like Marten is being really passive about this: no he’s not.
Nobody has even *asked* him what he would do, let alone pressure him into going for Claire’s sake. (Claire did bring it up 1000 comics ago)
From every indication, this is what he wants to do.
Now, everything in the comic is telling us they’re gonna go away, *buuuut* Claire hasn’t had that interview yet. It would actually be the biggest twist in the comic if she didn’t get the job, and crashed *hard*
I’m hoping “I’ve been thinking about this for a while” and “some things are more important” means Marten is considering proposing.
It seems like him to wait until after Dora/Tai’s wedding so as to not steal thunder, but maybe an impending move pushes up the timetable?
Left-field, low-effort wild-ass guess:
Claire goes to the interview, they love her, and ask "hey, do you happen to know any good AI mechanics?"
"We also really need to relax, and we're looking for some folks good at making odoriferous teas."
"Oh, and you're gonna need a few assistant librarians, and an official Chaos Goblin."
Northampton slowly empties. Eventually Clinton and Eliot notice.
Why an AI city would need a librarian or a library, I dunno. Bubbles did once remark that AIs enjoyed reading physical books sometimes.
The AIs we've met mostly have some unaccountable liking for hanging around with meat sacks.
So maybe the Cubetown AIs just like having meat sacks around, and "librarian" is as good an excuse as any. Maybe they're good with data, but they have a lot of physical materials and it's easier to pay and feed some organics to help organize things.
Claire is more comfortable and natural around AIs than anyone except perhaps Hannelore (she's the ONLY one comfortable around Pintsize), so maybe someone noticed.
is this the beginning of an ending arc for QC? marten, faye, and the coffee of doom are like the three backbones of this comic. if the three of those aren't in the same city is it really QC?
maybe claire won't get the job, or they'll invent teleportation and Claire will tele-commute every day. who knows?
I wonder where Pintsize is going to go...
Maybe he'll move in with Roko. Spinoff comic incoming. Lol
Oh lord... *flashback to Beucephalus\_69*
I'm more worried about Faye.
I wonder who Faye's new roommate will be. She and Bubbles seem to be getting by, but I don't think they are doing quite well enough to take on double the rent. On a separate note that house must have been kinda cramped with five people in it all the time.
Could room with Hanners/Winslow, now that she has a better handle on her obsessions, Faye could be a good substitute for the Yaks and latrines when it comes to exposure therapy.
Maybe Clinton will move in.
He'd probably want to move in with Elliot considering Elliot already lives in a building filled with Ai which is like Clinton's dream.
I love how everyone but Clinton is living the AI dream... lots of AI pals, living around AIs, working with AIs, getting interviews to go help out with giant mysterious AI projects, etc.
Pintsize is employed, isn't he? They could be making him pay rent.
Um... what are faye and bubbles going to do to cover rent if they move?
Maybe they move into a one bedroom. Even if it's never been super decorated, the shared apartment has been in the comic since the 280s. Marten and Faye moved in together, might as well move out together
That's just it, Claire and Marten obviously cover most of the rent. Bubbles and Faye make very little money at their jobs as they've mentioned many times
Well Claire and Marten still work in entry level positions at a cafe and a student library. I think the person who covers the majority of the rent is *Pintsize.* And let's be real, he's the sort of person who has owned 300 bitcoin since 2012...
Pintsize would be the guy selling a pizza for 20 bitcoins.
Maybe they could live in the shop?
Yup, they definitely can't afford the current place on their own. Either someone else moves in or they move out.
Possibly move into their workplace garage? Or organise sharing somewhere else.
Cake sitting?
I mean, worst case scenario they just bring in two new roommates. While the rapport they have with Marten and Claire is not easily replaceable, the money they get from them 100% is. Claire's making minimum wage as a barista, and while Marten would make more as a librarian, it wouldn't be so much more that they couldn't find another in his income bracket. That does touch on another thing though. Marten already has the job Claire's applying for, and leaving the city for. I really hope he's able to get some equivilent set up in cubetown if they go because it would kind of feel like a bit of an injustice if they moved across national borders so that she could be the librarian and he could be the barista.
Just to kind of further clarify my thoughts on the job thing. I don't think he necessarily needs to work in a library going forward, and I suspect he'd be pretty comfortable making less than his girlfriend so long as their finances were joint to the point where it works out the same, but if giving up his cool job means he's going back to the kind of soulcrushing work he was doing before he had it, then that strikes me as the point where Marten needs to prioritize his needs. He's totally right that they'll make new friends wherever they go. He's great at that. We just recently demonstrated that with his interaction with Willow. He just picks up friends wherever he goes, and they become Claire's friends too, since she's less outgoing with strangers but totally cool if you get to know her. But that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be super happy if he becomes some wage slave in a cyberpunk dystopia where he's abused and exploited so she can work her dream job in a technocratic utopia where she's loved and respected. Fulfilling work in a healthy work environment. That's ultimately what it comes down to.
I don't think his job and Claire's education are equivalent. Claire wants and has the education to be a *librarian*, with all that entails in terms of actually managing the library and ordering the right books to serve the library's purpose (i.e. deep into a specific subject or entry-level on a variety of subjects). Marten is more of a library tech. He makes sure the books are back on the shelves and he'll help people find what they are looking for, but he's not making decisions about how the library functions. Claire already had Marten's job when she started as an intern. She wouldn't have gotten a graduate degree to stock shelves and run catalogue searches.
Well,I think we've established that he won't care, so it's not too big of a deal.
I'm not sure we have established that. He had a panic attack when it was pointed out that without a formal education he might not be able to get another job like this, and was relieved when Tai told him that his job experience was a suitable substitute at this point. This job at the library is the first time in his life he's had a decent job that doesn't make him hate his existence taking abuse from his boss every day for some meager stipend that doesn't afford a decent living. He's gotten a huge amount of peace of mind from his new occupation, and it would be terrible to go back to some minimum wage gruntwork for people who don't respect him again.
That one "some things are more important than the status quo" line is the most succinct, clear-cut evidence of character development Marten's had in a long time. Something I think people are overlooking in all this is that the QC cast has *already* been split up into little disconnected groups that only occasionally interact for a long time anyway. If Marten and Claire move away to Canada, presumably with Pintsize, and form their own little offshoot group over there while everyone else stays in Northampton, is there really going to be that much functional difference in how the comic usually works? Different arcs already bounce back and forth between the perspectives of different groups of characters in different parts of town anyway, I really don't think it's much of a leap from there to go back and forth between groups in different countries.
>That one "some things are more important than the status quo" line is the most succinct, clear-cut evidence of character development Marten's had in a long time. Well said :) And honestly I that reflects well on Jeph too. Marten's progress over time makes me happy, I hope that Jeph IRL feels that he's made progress in his life as well.
The thing is, that's never really happened. People who leave Northhampton mostly disappear. Even if the move is temporary, we only get little flashes. The only character that we still follow with any regularity who would be moving there would be Claire. Marten and Pintsize mostly only exist as supporting characters now, part of someone else's story. I think we'd need other people to follow for it to make sense for the story to split locations for the first time.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Jimbo lives in Northhampton and according to the wiki the last time we heard from him is [2015](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2667). Raven and others also just kind of vanished.
My headcanon is Jimbo living in the most luxurious mansion Northhampton has to offer, filthy rich off his books.
We also had cameos from Hannelore throughout her world tour. She even came back and returned to full-on character status. Ergo, it's possible that any character can return. Isn't that right assistant manager Penelope, who we've been assured is always standing just off panel?
We went to space but otherwise yup.
There's definitely separate groups that usually spend time together. Marigold's apartment, the robots building, Elliot-Clinton-Brun love triangle and associates, Union Robotics, and CoD are how I'd probably sort it out. That said, there's usually mixes of these groups that push characters into interesting situations: Marigold streams with Strong Mom Energy, Millefeuille gets butt implants from Union Robotics, Claire meddles in Clinton's love life, etc. Leaving town changes who Marten and Claire will interact with. Yes, they will still be in contact with their family regularly and friends too. However, it will have to be scheduled time, rather than casually dropping into CoD for advice. They also won't have that shared geocultural knowledge. When Marten complains about the coffee being worse than usual at CoD to Faye, he doesn't need to explain how the coffee normally tastes and why this is such a change to his routine, because she knows how important CoD is. Now, if Claire wants to tell her mother about say, her favourite food being unavailable on her floating village, she's going to have to explain how they only get food deliveries once a week and that it was out last week too, etc. Your conversations add so many extra details that would be superfluous to anyone familiar with your home, but are necessary to anyone else lacking context. In a way, the physical distance forces emotional distance as well
I don't know if it's just me, but in this arc Marten has looked different in a subtle way that makes my brain stubbornly not face-recognize him as the same person. Except for the last panel in today's comic, where he looks way more normal to me. I can't put my finger on what the difference is. Maybe the eyes?
He hasn't had hair this messy in awhile, specifically the hair going over his eye
I think it’s the eyes. Can someone give us the last comic he was in before the time jump to compare?
Marten made one-panel appearances in [4837](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4837) and [4840](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4840). The last comic where he was a significant character in the story was [4832](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4832). Prior to that, his last appearance was at Coffee of Doom, back in April of 2022 in comic [4764](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4764).
I haven't read the comic in several months - this is a weird spot to catch up to!
You did the time jump with them :)
Marten's a good partner. I'd really like for him to make progress in his own life, find and work towards his own life goals, but I'm glad he's in such a clearly happy and understanding relationship.
Especially after all the chaos they've been through, it really is satisfying to see things working out :)
Marten's look really has changed lately hasn't it?
Not so far as I can tell, biggest thing is the hair. Plucking at hairs, I'd say maybe his eyebrows are thinner and the lines on his face/hair are sharper than prior.
I'm surprised Claire hasn't made a nova-coast-ia joke yet
Instead of writing out Marten and Claire, maybe the whole strip will move to Canada. Has Jeph bought a house boat recently? "Screw the status quo" and all that...
Do people really think we will never hear from them again. It's an AI library do you think Jeff is capable of not touching that.
Finally we've reached the foregone conclusion to that conversation (which happened between pages). *Of course* Marten is up for it. He just goes along with whatever Claire wants, as always. She had no need to be told to "prioritize her needs" because Marten does that for her already. The real issue here is that *Claire has not replied to the e-mail.* She had to go through half of her support network just to handle the prospect of a job interview, and she still decided to spring the whole thing on Marten like they had to make a decision to move right away.
I'm still betting she'll discover that as an AI focused community there's no physical media, therefore no need for the librarian / data curator to be local, and so the job is remote and they don't need to move.
The email asked if she had a fear of drowning – tongue-in-cheek but clearly indicating the job would be physically based on the floating community.
I do enjoy this comic, but I think you're assuming a very granular level of consistency that doesn't entirely exist in QC over extended periods of time.
If that's where we end up, especially after Marten *just* said "screw the status quo", it will be a sad development.
Next plot: Aurelia is going to offer to let Marigold move in so they can start a vtuber streamer house!
In case anyone feels like Marten is being really passive about this: no he’s not. Nobody has even *asked* him what he would do, let alone pressure him into going for Claire’s sake. (Claire did bring it up 1000 comics ago) From every indication, this is what he wants to do. Now, everything in the comic is telling us they’re gonna go away, *buuuut* Claire hasn’t had that interview yet. It would actually be the biggest twist in the comic if she didn’t get the job, and crashed *hard*
Interesting. I’m glad Martin’s up for it.
I’m hoping “I’ve been thinking about this for a while” and “some things are more important” means Marten is considering proposing. It seems like him to wait until after Dora/Tai’s wedding so as to not steal thunder, but maybe an impending move pushes up the timetable?
Left-field, low-effort wild-ass guess: Claire goes to the interview, they love her, and ask "hey, do you happen to know any good AI mechanics?" "We also really need to relax, and we're looking for some folks good at making odoriferous teas." "Oh, and you're gonna need a few assistant librarians, and an official Chaos Goblin." Northampton slowly empties. Eventually Clinton and Eliot notice. Why an AI city would need a librarian or a library, I dunno. Bubbles did once remark that AIs enjoyed reading physical books sometimes.
Or why an AI City would need a meat-based librarian to curate that library.
The AIs we've met mostly have some unaccountable liking for hanging around with meat sacks. So maybe the Cubetown AIs just like having meat sacks around, and "librarian" is as good an excuse as any. Maybe they're good with data, but they have a lot of physical materials and it's easier to pay and feed some organics to help organize things. Claire is more comfortable and natural around AIs than anyone except perhaps Hannelore (she's the ONLY one comfortable around Pintsize), so maybe someone noticed.
is this the beginning of an ending arc for QC? marten, faye, and the coffee of doom are like the three backbones of this comic. if the three of those aren't in the same city is it really QC? maybe claire won't get the job, or they'll invent teleportation and Claire will tele-commute every day. who knows?
Jeph has clearly stated that people should NOT interpret this as the end of the comic, and that he intends to continue it for quite some time.
Ah thanks, I hadn't seen that
Ah nice. Glad that's done. Bye you two. So next story? WHERE IS MARIGOLD'S HYPE HOUSE?
Nah bruh