Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt

[John Cribati]

There are way older women IRL who are popular online for playing video games. The fact that Aurelia hits some sort of MILF threshold– as noted by her having relations with 20-somethings– she would definitely have an audience. It seems weird out of context, but makes enough sense inside if it.

[SaintRidley]

Also, why would he pass up a chance to play off the Mommy Milkers meme/slang?

[Traab]

I think this is just the next step in clintons mind shattering revelations about his mother. It started with her smoking and sleeping with dudes he tutored back in the day, now its finding out she is an avid game streamer

[Agi Hammerthief]

punishment for not talking to her often enough to find out sooner.

[Rodin]

I read this as Aurelia trying to set a shock threshold for the coming conversation. Her last two strips were realizing Clinton is gay/bi and then calling dibs on his presence for the night. They are going to have a serious talk and this is her way of breaking the ice. She's volunteering her own alternative lifestyle to make a "coming out" conversation seem normal in comparison. Or maybe she just invented it on the spot for the same purpose.

Or, it's Jeph being random again. I doubt it though. Her action on the previous page was too calculated to simply devolve into "I want to get high and play video games".

[RowenMorland]

I read this as Aurelia trying to set a shock threshold for the coming conversation. Her last two strips were realizing Clinton is gay/bi and then calling dibs on his presence for the night. They are going to have a serious talk and this is her way of breaking the ice. She's volunteering her own alternative lifestyle to make a "coming out" conversation seem normal in comparison. Or maybe she just invented it on the spot for the same purpose.

Or, it's Jeph being random again. I doubt it though. Her action on the previous page was too calculated to simply devolve into "I want to get high and play video games".

Getting someone inebriated for the purpose of shaking their secrets out of them doesn't seem very cool or ethical.

[Maryring]

Grabbing ahold of Clinton and keeping him from going to the bar was something I read as just a plain and sensible idea. Going to your beau's work place while they're at work is a terribad idea, so creating an excuse to keep Clinton home strikes me as an attempt to preempt the ship sinking before it even sets sail.

The friday strip though? I don't know. It doesn't seem all that random to me. Adult women are allowed to play games too, and she's already been established as someone playful.

[Traab]

Grabbing ahold of Clinton and keeping him from going to the bar was something I read as just a plain and sensible idea. Going to your beau's work place while they're at work is a terribad idea, so creating an excuse to keep Clinton home strikes me as an attempt to preempt the ship sinking before it even sets sail.

The friday strip though? I don't know. It doesn't seem all that random to me. Adult women are allowed to play games too, and she's already been established as someone playful.

At least its a bad idea when the pairing literally just formed a couple hours ago. Way too much sensitivity to everything because its all raw and new would be distracting as heck. And as I said, i really think this is just ehr character. She has been making a habit of shocking clinton over the fact that as a single woman living on her own she has a life outside of "mom" and in fact does things not "mom-like" all the time.

[John Cribati]

I was expecting a cow, but. Uh...

[Eldan]

So, this would be supremely uncomfortable even if she wasn't his mother. With this being his mother and her kind of pressuring him to participate in her fetish content, this is edging towards sexual harassment to me.

[Mordokai]

So, this would be supremely uncomfortable even if she wasn't his mother. With this being his mother and her kind of pressuring him to participate in her fetish content, this is edging towards sexual harassment to me.

It doesn't happen often, but particular comic squicked me pretty hard, yeah.

[Wraith]

I have many, many questions about what the hell is going on in today's strip, and I don't think I want answers to any of them.

Actually, one exception: Why does Aurelia "just have" a spare vtuber avatar for Clinton? Those things are custom-made by specialist artists and can run into thousands of dollars each - streamer AdmiralBahroo is debuting his own next month, and he reckons that the $5,000 he paid for it was a bargain.

Aurelia having one for herself is a bit of a stretch but okay, whatever; having spares for Clinton and Claire "just in case" is... bwuh?

[Mechalich]

Actually, one exception: Why does Aurelia "just have" a spare vtuber avatar for Clinton? Those things are custom-made by specialist artists and can run into thousands of dollars each - streamer AdmiralBahroo is debuting his own next month, and he reckons that the $5,000 he paid for it was a bargain.

Aurelia having one for herself is a bit of a stretch but okay, whatever; having spares for Clinton and Claire "just in case" is... bwuh?

The QC universe is undergoing a truly spectacular economic realignment about which we, the audience, have essentially no details at all because the comic possesses a combination of truly spectacular blinders regarding downstream consequences and a distinct ham-handedness when attempting to explore non-personal scale issues via analogy. Virtual avatars could simply be one of the many things, like high-powered lasers and space travel, that have dropped in price by orders of magnitude in the QC-verse.

[Wraith]

Fair enough. Professional artist Jeph Jacques invents a universe where freelance professional artists should justifiably be paid less, that's... odd, but alright.

Second question: In a universe where sentient AI's are probably among the top-5 biggest minority groups, could vtubers be considered an equivalent to cultural appropriation and/or blackface?

[John Cribati]

Actually, one exception: Why does Aurelia "just have" a spare vtuber avatar for Clinton? Those things are custom-made by specialist artists and can run into thousands of dollars each - streamer AdmiralBahroo is debuting his own next month, and he reckons that the $5,000 he paid for it was a bargain.

The way she talked in the previous strip implies that even a custom one could have easily been made up on the spot. I’m guessing an AI did it.

[Taevyr]

Well then

Today's content is definitely questionable, at least.

[Willie the Duck]

Second question: In a universe where sentient AI's are probably among the top-5 biggest minority groups, could vtubers be considered an equivalent to cultural appropriation and/or blackface?

Wouldn't seem to follow. In universe, AIs and non-AIs both exist out in the physical world and apparently have since AIs came into being, and AIs and non-AIs would have existed in virtual spaces since AIs came into being.

[Eldan]

This is bad enough for me that on reflection I think I'm done with QC for a while.

[Traab]

Hmmm yesterday seems sort of like they have a program that works like a character creator for skyrim. Lots of options to create your own image, or you can hit randomize and deal with it. I would imagine that in a world with AI tech levels, creating vtube avatars isnt even remotely as big of a deal to do. I mean, we cant make Ai yet and we can do these avatars, imagine what a far more advanced computer tech level could do? As for the actual avatars themselves? Yeah... thats kinda over the top. I was already leery of it before we saw the image because "mommy milkers" is already a creepy screen name. Seeing her avatar just confirmed it was some furry fetish things. It could have just been an oppai monster avatar, you know, one of those *cough* anime *cough* women who inexplicably have a chest larger than their entire torso, but yeah, i was afraid it was going this way. So is momma an actual furry? Does she just enjoy pretending? Is she somehow inexplicably aware of the fact that people wearing musty zebra outfits are taking a deep personal enjoyment of watching her avatar mooove around? (im not sorry) Well, we will probably find out soon. We already know she is a pot smoking cougar, so why not add some role play fetishism to the pile? I think moms enjoying her freedom to the highest.

[Wraith]

Hmmm yesterday seems sort of like they have a program that works like a character creator for skyrim. Lots of options to create your own image, or you can hit randomize and deal with it. I would imagine that in a world with AI tech levels, creating vtube avatars isnt even remotely as big of a deal to do. I mean, we cant make Ai yet and we can do these avatars, imagine what a far more advanced computer tech level could do?

Such a thing 'kind of' exists today - there's a programme called FaceRig that uses augmented reality to overlay a skin on the image picked up by your webcam. It's a bit janky and custom avatars have to be modded in, but it's more-or-less there. It's nowhere near as expressive or reliable as real vtube rigs though, and as far as I know it's content is considerably more family friendly that... this.

It's also been around for a few years, whereas Auralia being a vtuber is still new enough that I can imagine Jeph finding out about it and going "Huh, I want that in my webcomic".

Otherwise? I fully endorse Auralia's Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll awakening, and I hope to be having half as much fun as her when I'm grown up. Her having a good time isn't the least bit of a problem.

Even the video gaming thing is just 'whatever'. I'm old enough that my parents aren't of the 'online' generation, but I know that the generation between them and I quite often is, and it's as good (if not better) a-hobby as anything else that a 40-something year old could be doing with their time.

But the trappings in today's comic are just... weird. Either Jeph is intentionally going for a cringeworthy punchline - either as a practical joke on Clinton or just because Auralia doesn't give a damn about what anyone else thinks - or he's low-key kink-shaming again, which I've pointed out before and is usually just uncomfortable.

[PhantomFox]

My guess is that she knows, but doesn't care. Or maybe she is a furry and is trying to trade secrets, so to speak? Though the multiboob thing is not exactly your average furry's thing, so maybe it was a miscommunication with whoever made it? She mentioned procedural generation for creating a rig, but I don't think she did that method herself ?

[Traab]

Such a thing 'kind of' exists today - there's a programme called FaceRig that uses augmented reality to overlay a skin on the image picked up by your webcam. It's a bit janky and custom avatars have to be modded in, but it's more-or-less there. It's nowhere near as expressive or reliable as real vtube rigs though, and as far as I know it's content is considerably more family friendly that... this.

It's also been around for a few years, whereas Auralia being a vtuber is still new enough that I can imagine Jeph finding out about it and going "Huh, I want that in my webcomic".

Otherwise? I fully endorse Auralia's Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll awakening, and I hope to be having half as much fun as her when I'm grown up. Her having a good time isn't the least bit of a problem.

Even the video gaming thing is just 'whatever'. I'm old enough that my parents aren't of the 'online' generation, but I know that the generation between them and I quite often is, and it's as good (if not better) a-hobby as anything else that a 40-something year old could be doing with their time.

But the trappings in today's comic are just... weird. Either Jeph is intentionally going for a cringeworthy punchline - either as a practical joke on Clinton or just because Auralia doesn't give a damn about what anyone else thinks - or he's low-key kink-shaming again, which I've pointed out before and is usually just uncomfortable.

My mom is 60 and I got her hooked on World of Warcraft in a big way. Gamers come from all age brackets really. She doesnt play many games really, but she does play quite a few. my step dad was big into call of duty and medal of honor type games back in the day. Single player only but still.

[Vinyadan]

I wanted to post some links to El Goonish Shive, because the cow form is a recurrent non-canon, taboo, squicky-for-laughs thing in there, but I was surprised by how heavily sexualised those strips look outside the general, comical, good-natured weirdness of the comic.

[Wraith]

My mom is 60 and I got her hooked on World of Warcraft in a big way. Gamers come from all age brackets really. She doesnt play many games really, but she does play quite a few. my step dad was big into call of duty and medal of honor type games back in the day. Single player only but still.

Hey, don't get me wrong - good for them. The last thing I want to do is come across as gate-keeper-y and I'm hoping it sounds like positive generalisation rather than denouncing who should or could do anything.

Although hopefully, one day your mom will forgive you for starting her World of WarCrack addiction....

[Wildstag]

Yeaaaahhh... The Augustus family seems like it's getting dangerously close to being a "Step-brother, I'm stuck" kinda family. They don't seem to have any notion of boundaries when it comes to sexual shenanigans at home.

It's a hard miss for me, to say the least. Even if she were doing this to open a conversation about her son's life, it's done in the grossest way possible without actually just being incest.

P.S. Why even have an extra pair of breasts if none of the breasts are going to be even close to the standard cow-udder placement? Just seems like a furry scene done in the weirdest possible way.

[Traab]

Yeaaaahhh... The Augustus family seems like it's getting dangerously close to being a "Step-brother, I'm stuck" kinda family. They don't seem to have any notion of boundaries when it comes to sexual shenanigans at home.

It's a hard miss for me, to say the least. Even if she were doing this to open a conversation about her son's life, it's done in the grossest way possible without actually just being incest.

P.S. Why even have an extra pair of breasts if none of the breasts are going to be even close to the standard cow-udder placement? Just seems like a furry scene done in the weirdest possible way.

Because they are furries not beastiality. Its all about anthropomorphizing animals, not having sex with actual cows. And yes, they absolutely do create costumes and such like this. Here, lets see if this works,

Spoiler: its work safe

Show

As you see its basically a human cheetah or whatever. Thats what furries DO. Though its not always sexual.

[Wildstag]

Because they are furries not beastiality. Its all about anthropomorphizing animals, not having sex with actual cows... Thats what furries DO. Though its not always sexual.

I know the difference between furries and beastiality, but I've been to enough cons to have seen more anatomically correct furries (in regards to breasts) than otherwise. And even more to the point, it's not a bodysuit that needs to conform to the human body somewhat (thus limiting placement of body parts), but a CGI-model that doesn't NEED it as much. If you're already going for body-horror/uncanny-valley, going halfway just makes it worse, not better.

Anyway, it just seems a tad much, especially since we only recently went from "Clinton clearly uncomfortable seeing one of his tutored students sleeping with his mom" to this. Woman just seems to have no boundaries with this, nor any recognition of when her son is uncomfortable (or if she recognizes it, she doesn't care, which is even worse for a parent).

P.S. Also, I love that you imply that I thought it was always sexual. Don't put words in my mouth like that, it's a lazy argumentative tool. And it clearly IS sexual to some extent with Aurelia, especially given what she's explained so far.

[John Cribati]

Yeaaaahhh... The Augustus family seems like it's getting dangerously close to being a "Step-brother, I'm stuck" kinda family. They don't seem to have any notion of boundaries when it comes to sexual shenanigans at home.

I feel like the whole ‘weirdly comfortable with each other’ vibe has something to do with Claire transitioning. It’s at least open to interpretation that their father left for transphobia reasons. Assuming that’s the case, I can see Aurelia and Clinton doubling down on being there to support her while she goes through Second Puberty (or Puberty But With Added Weirdness, depending on when she began medically transitioning) resulting in a thinning of some boundaries other families wouldn’t touch.

[Traab]

I know the difference between furries and beastiality, but I've been to enough cons to have seen more anatomically correct furries (in regards to breasts) than otherwise. And even more to the point, it's not a bodysuit that needs to conform to the human body somewhat (thus limiting placement of body parts), but a CGI-model that doesn't NEED it as much. If you're already going for body-horror/uncanny-valley, going halfway just makes it worse, not better.

Anyway, it just seems a tad much, especially since we only recently went from "Clinton clearly uncomfortable seeing one of his tutored students sleeping with his mom" to this. Woman just seems to have no boundaries with this, nor any recognition of when her son is uncomfortable (or if she recognizes it, she doesn't care, which is even worse for a parent).

P.S. Also, I love that you imply that I thought it was always sexual. Don't put words in my mouth like that, it's a lazy argumentative tool. And it clearly IS sexual to some extent with Aurelia, especially given what she's explained so far.

I didnt put words in your mouth, I was merely pointing out that despite the fact we were discussing "udder" placement, its not automatically a sex thing. The basic definition of furry are people who anthropomorphize animals, not people who want to bang humanized animals. There can be and is overlap but its not always the case. So moving parts around to look closer to human is what they do. Thats why her udders are where they would be on a human woman (even if doubled in number) Maybe stop being so defensive and assuming everything is a personal attack. And yes, to her its pretty clearly designed to look "sexy"

[Vinyadan]

I think the multiple breasts might be inspired by College Humor's parody Furry Force.