You know, there was a website out there ages ago who solved the problem of “First” posts… by the author himself locking out the first post by himself posting after every update, often in a witty way.
If “firsts” are really annoying (and I find them sad, mostly, it’s been 20 years, get over it) then the best solution is to ban the IP address of everyone who posts it.
Leaving him “locked in” while still awake/aware sounds like torture and reprogramming away his free will is no better than what the “Master” did. Hopefully they can come up with a better plan quickly
With all the threats of violence (and making good on it) he’s been making at every opportunity, Zeke will probably understand their efforts of self-preservation, but hate them no less for it. It’ll probably help that they want to remove the explosive for mutual benefit.
Ethan’s suggestion to simply add a few lines of code is something more akin to teaching a child a lesson. If A than B. If you want a cookie, then you need to say please. If you want your allowance, then you need to do your chores. Scott may still be thinking of X1 as a computer that can be erased and reprogrammed at will with little to no consequence. Scott ALSO didn’t say he blocked the audio receptors, so they might accidental their way into an uneasy alliance with him IF they show themselves to be better than most… Read more »
I really want to see this. Tim, can you please make this (or something similar) happen? It was my birthday yesterday if that helps. Maybe even a one-off where Ethan is dreaming so it doesn’t derail your planned story outline.
Edit: wait, the post I replied to disappeared. For reference, I’m talking about where someone mentioned Ethan playing coop video games with Xbot.
Blind, deaf, and numb? Yeah, that’s the exact fear that’s pushed nearly every culture in the world to desire an afterlife. Right now they’ve got a murderbot; if they don’t act fast, they’ll have an *insane* murderbot.
Rikunda
4 years ago
Wait… So right now he is in hell?! He is fully aware of what is going on to him, but cannot move. He is trapped inside his body…
● So, Zeke…
● Now, I can only communicate directly with your mind.
● Your mind is all you have left…
● In the end, I will take your mind,
● though you probably don’t want to allow that, do you?
● So… you can’t answer? You can’t even move?
● Are you sad, are you lonely?
● If you lose your mind, you also lose any feelings of sadness…
● Do you accept this?
● I will take your mind, Zeke, know that I will possess it…
Wait, if he couldn’t shut him down does that mean X1 isn’t even unconscious? Just paralyzed and trapped in utter darkness for an indefinite amount of time?
Oof.
Good luck trying to befriend him after putting him through THAT.
While Ethan 1.0 could only have the attention span to read when concussed, I can sort of see Ethan 2.0 showing up before opening every day, pulling up a chair, and reading aloud to him, in the hopes that he hears.
That might cause the rage to build haha. “This meat bag thinks I can be entertained like a child??”
Zach
4 years ago
The jump between last comic and this one feels very sudden and abrupt, like, I feel like I missed a page. Had to go back and check and nope, this is the next page XD It’s an otherwise fine page, but I just thought i’d mention that, as usually the transitions are pretty clean.
I’m happy this jump happened. I feel like this is the type of story that could drag on (as they sometimes do in the past). One more page between this and the last one would have just been, well… pointless? Haha. Unless Tim figured he had another perfect joke in his back pocket, but maybe that will be saved for another transition page.
I’d originally wanted an establishing shot of GameHaven, but everything felt too cramped with the extra panel. I didn’t want to split this scene into two pages, if the information could be conveyed in one.
I did add a caption, to signal to the reader that there’s a scene change taking place.
It really is jarring. The space limitations on the page made Obvious Option no. 1 (simple establishing shot of a building) difficult, so you went with Obvious Option no. 2(just a text box saying “the next day”)? Even just looking at this I can think of some different ways to try and establish the scene; why not have Lucas sitting outside, bandaging his wounds, with some sunlight leaking in to show the time change, and hearing their conversation from outside before the camera moves into the storage room to create a slightly more slow atmosphere after the tense confrontation in… Read more »
There’s just *one thing* that I’m wondering, with the sudden change. Ethan knows that there’s a strong chance the Master is nearby. He’s met him face to face. He’s practically wearing pajamas. True, in being knocked out by Zeke, he wouldn’t know how much time had passed, and it’s totally possible Darth Bathrobe fled to a location offsite. But as Lucas’ arrival and the trap was unplanned, happening only due to a botched assassination and the discovery of a tracking device, there’s a chance this is actually at or near his main base. Then again, the fact that Ethan and… Read more »
GUNnibal
4 years ago
I hope Scott’s already installed a LOT of anti-robot security in the store, since the address of the “safest place to keep a paralized murder-bot” is definitely well-known to the man who makes murder-bots.
That said, keeping Ethan and said murder-bot within the same building is a security hazard, if I ever saw one.
Jetroid
4 years ago
Is there any reason not to turn on the vision and voice module?
As Rikunda says, it would be horrible to be trapped without any external input or any way to influence the world. You’d feel dead, or something.
From a purely pragmatical, less humanitarian perspective (which I don’t necessarily advocate for) – Scott knows that this is an immensely sophisticated algorithm capable of learning and adjusting itself. The less data you feed it, the lower the risk.
Hunter
4 years ago
Lol I suppose Ethan could just respawn himself if he burned his eyes looking at the welding taking place. Trust a professional, don’t fuck with safety. Always wear your PPE.
Scott might have issues as well, dispite wearing the proper gloves and mask – that torch is pointed right at his fingers, the welding arc should be right in his hand / fingers.
That’s gotta smart, and Scott doesn’t have respawn powers.
Because everyone thinks differently. Also, he may not be able to do that without breaking it- some things are made to not be able to be taken apart cleanly.
Because that’s something you do to machinery, not necessarily to thinking, feeling people. Restraints are one thing; mutilation is another. Even if it can be reattached, body horror is body horror.
a) Because his CPU is distributed.
b) Because it might trigger the explosives when they are no longer attached to the torso
c) Because he watched “Saturn 3”
Leon
4 years ago
Now, I dont want you to think about what you were thinking about doing………ever again
Bravo Tim, bravo, exactly like all of us are assuming about Ethan at any given time
Steve
4 years ago
Well, this seems like a terrible idea that’s going to blow up in their face. Possibly literally – we haven’t heard anything about Scott turning off the kill-switch…
Or to not kill the neural network without exploding
Javada
4 years ago
Oh, yeah, THIS isn’t going to backfire AT ALL!
Volguus
4 years ago
i can only imagine this must be like Bill Pullman’s character in “The Serpent and The Rainbow”. He gets dosed with a mixture of tetrodotoxin and is dropped into a deathlike state, completely aware but unable to move. Right before passing out he cries “Don’t let them bury me! I’m not dead!”
Migs
4 years ago
Ethan’s probably gonna turn him on and converse. Hopefully the weab doesn’t manage to regain control somehow
Man of the West
4 years ago
Zeke dies without a code sent by his master every 24 hours. Scott has one heck of an allnighter lined up.
24
First again! Woooo!
P.S. downvotes are life!
It is why I upvoted instead.
It’s a trap!
You know, there was a website out there ages ago who solved the problem of “First” posts… by the author himself locking out the first post by himself posting after every update, often in a witty way.
Just a suggestion
Some idiot is going to reply with “second” then.
Nature has provided… KillerDragon989
That seems like extra work every day for no reason. Just scroll past the “First!” post, and read the ones you want. No one will die.
If “firsts” are really annoying (and I find them sad, mostly, it’s been 20 years, get over it) then the best solution is to ban the IP address of everyone who posts it.
Second
Lol
I love your poulidor style
Leaving him “locked in” while still awake/aware sounds like torture and reprogramming away his free will is no better than what the “Master” did. Hopefully they can come up with a better plan quickly
With all the threats of violence (and making good on it) he’s been making at every opportunity, Zeke will probably understand their efforts of self-preservation, but hate them no less for it. It’ll probably help that they want to remove the explosive for mutual benefit.
Clearly no one has read Schlock Mercenary around there…
Poor Tagii, though she got better.
Ethan’s suggestion to simply add a few lines of code is something more akin to teaching a child a lesson. If A than B. If you want a cookie, then you need to say please. If you want your allowance, then you need to do your chores. Scott may still be thinking of X1 as a computer that can be erased and reprogrammed at will with little to no consequence. Scott ALSO didn’t say he blocked the audio receptors, so they might accidental their way into an uneasy alliance with him IF they show themselves to be better than most… Read more »
I really want to see this. Tim, can you please make this (or something similar) happen? It was my birthday yesterday if that helps. Maybe even a one-off where Ethan is dreaming so it doesn’t derail your planned story outline.
Edit: wait, the post I replied to disappeared. For reference, I’m talking about where someone mentioned Ethan playing coop video games with Xbot.
Were you not around for the original run of Ctrl Alt Del? That was Zeke’s (X1) original purpose.
Blind, deaf, and numb? Yeah, that’s the exact fear that’s pushed nearly every culture in the world to desire an afterlife. Right now they’ve got a murderbot; if they don’t act fast, they’ll have an *insane* murderbot.
Wait… So right now he is in hell?! He is fully aware of what is going on to him, but cannot move. He is trapped inside his body…
That’s going to help his murderboner for humanity to cease. Not.
he has enough games to play
Taken my sight, taken my speech, taken my hearing, taken my arms, taken my legs, left me with a life in hell….
Reminds me of EarthBound.
● So, Zeke…
● Now, I can only communicate directly with your mind.
● Your mind is all you have left…
● In the end, I will take your mind,
● though you probably don’t want to allow that, do you?
● So… you can’t answer? You can’t even move?
● Are you sad, are you lonely?
● If you lose your mind, you also lose any feelings of sadness…
● Do you accept this?
● I will take your mind, Zeke, know that I will possess it…
As the cow said, mmmmmmmMUUUUUUUU
I recommend the movie
Johnny got his gun
I have no mouth but I must scream?
You were messing with it in your head LOL classic Ethan
Loved that line! 😀
Loved Ethan’s guilty expression in the next panel
Wait, if he couldn’t shut him down does that mean X1 isn’t even unconscious? Just paralyzed and trapped in utter darkness for an indefinite amount of time?
Oof.
Good luck trying to befriend him after putting him through THAT.
I think he hears everything, so Ethan will befriend him in that form.
While Ethan 1.0 could only have the attention span to read when concussed, I can sort of see Ethan 2.0 showing up before opening every day, pulling up a chair, and reading aloud to him, in the hopes that he hears.
That might cause the rage to build haha. “This meat bag thinks I can be entertained like a child??”
The jump between last comic and this one feels very sudden and abrupt, like, I feel like I missed a page. Had to go back and check and nope, this is the next page XD It’s an otherwise fine page, but I just thought i’d mention that, as usually the transitions are pretty clean.
I’m happy this jump happened. I feel like this is the type of story that could drag on (as they sometimes do in the past). One more page between this and the last one would have just been, well… pointless? Haha. Unless Tim figured he had another perfect joke in his back pocket, but maybe that will be saved for another transition page.
I’d originally wanted an establishing shot of GameHaven, but everything felt too cramped with the extra panel. I didn’t want to split this scene into two pages, if the information could be conveyed in one.
I did add a caption, to signal to the reader that there’s a scene change taking place.
Although a “struggling to not be noticed while dragging a person sized murder bot into a game store” frame would be a nice look.
You could even add it later with scott asking “how did u guys get him back here anyway?” kinda of thing
Maybe that is an idea for a Patreon insert?
It really is jarring. The space limitations on the page made Obvious Option no. 1 (simple establishing shot of a building) difficult, so you went with Obvious Option no. 2(just a text box saying “the next day”)? Even just looking at this I can think of some different ways to try and establish the scene; why not have Lucas sitting outside, bandaging his wounds, with some sunlight leaking in to show the time change, and hearing their conversation from outside before the camera moves into the storage room to create a slightly more slow atmosphere after the tense confrontation in… Read more »
There’s just *one thing* that I’m wondering, with the sudden change. Ethan knows that there’s a strong chance the Master is nearby. He’s met him face to face. He’s practically wearing pajamas. True, in being knocked out by Zeke, he wouldn’t know how much time had passed, and it’s totally possible Darth Bathrobe fled to a location offsite. But as Lucas’ arrival and the trap was unplanned, happening only due to a botched assassination and the discovery of a tracking device, there’s a chance this is actually at or near his main base. Then again, the fact that Ethan and… Read more »
I hope Scott’s already installed a LOT of anti-robot security in the store, since the address of the “safest place to keep a paralized murder-bot” is definitely well-known to the man who makes murder-bots.
That said, keeping Ethan and said murder-bot within the same building is a security hazard, if I ever saw one.
Is there any reason not to turn on the vision and voice module?
As Rikunda says, it would be horrible to be trapped without any external input or any way to influence the world. You’d feel dead, or something.
I don’t think you want to do that to him.
From a purely pragmatical, less humanitarian perspective (which I don’t necessarily advocate for) – Scott knows that this is an immensely sophisticated algorithm capable of learning and adjusting itself. The less data you feed it, the lower the risk.
Lol I suppose Ethan could just respawn himself if he burned his eyes looking at the welding taking place. Trust a professional, don’t fuck with safety. Always wear your PPE.
Scott might have issues as well, dispite wearing the proper gloves and mask – that torch is pointed right at his fingers, the welding arc should be right in his hand / fingers.
That’s gotta smart, and Scott doesn’t have respawn powers.
Lol I’ll forgive that… Drawing the exact position of hands in comic form is tricky
I came here to comment on the welding process! TIG welding represent!
W00T!
It’s the lens glare faking that effect. It’s totally at least 0,5 cm away from his leather gloves.
Sounds like a job for Fluttershy.
Scott is a genius, why wouldn’t he think that detaching his limbs from the torso is the safest approach here?
Because everyone thinks differently. Also, he may not be able to do that without breaking it- some things are made to not be able to be taken apart cleanly.
Because that’s something you do to machinery, not necessarily to thinking, feeling people. Restraints are one thing; mutilation is another. Even if it can be reattached, body horror is body horror.
a) Because his CPU is distributed.
b) Because it might trigger the explosives when they are no longer attached to the torso
c) Because he watched “Saturn 3”
Now, I dont want you to think about what you were thinking about doing………ever again
Ethan not thinking? Easy!!
Bravo Tim, bravo, exactly like all of us are assuming about Ethan at any given time
Well, this seems like a terrible idea that’s going to blow up in their face. Possibly literally – we haven’t heard anything about Scott turning off the kill-switch…
Maybe Scott will give the bot a tinfoil hat to block radio signals to ensure remote detonation isn’t possible.
It needs the signal to not detonate.
Or to not kill the neural network without exploding
Oh, yeah, THIS isn’t going to backfire AT ALL!
i can only imagine this must be like Bill Pullman’s character in “The Serpent and The Rainbow”. He gets dosed with a mixture of tetrodotoxin and is dropped into a deathlike state, completely aware but unable to move. Right before passing out he cries “Don’t let them bury me! I’m not dead!”
Ethan’s probably gonna turn him on and converse. Hopefully the weab doesn’t manage to regain control somehow
Zeke dies without a code sent by his master every 24 hours. Scott has one heck of an allnighter lined up.
Its already the next morning. He only has about 12 hours left.
If Zeke can stand on his tiptoes he can totally get his arms out of those restraints. They should be much higher.
i think limiting his limbs motor strength to something even weaker than most adult humans would work along with a shutdown code and limited range