Marigold Farmer

Marigold Farmer
Marigold in Number 2647: Friendly Dishonesty.
Info
First appearance	Number 1413: YAOI ZONE
Latest appearance	5072: Like Mother, Like Daughter
Nicknames	Mar-Bear, Mar-Mar
Gender	Female
Twitter	@marigoldfarmer

Marigold Louise Farmer is the human companion and best friend of Momo, and Angus' former roommate. Before she met Marten, Dora and Hannelore she was a recluse with bad hygiene who only played MMOs, read manga and watched anime. However, her social life and personal hygiene have improved since her introduction, evident by her more frequent appearance outside of her apartment and her clearer complexion.

Marigold is now Jeph Jacques' favorite character to write for and favorite character overall.

Biography

Marigold meets Marten and Dora when they bring Pintsize to Marigold in the hopes that she can fix a rewiring job that Pintsize did to himself at the suggestion of PT410X. She initially protests, before Momo convinces her to fix Pintsize. As payment for her services, Dora calls Hannelore and convinces her to clean Marigold's very messy room.

Background

Marigold lives at 14 Elm Grove Lane, Apartment 8 in Northampton. The apartment number may also be something beginning with "22".

Marigold earns money maintaining her high-strung father's shoe sales web site. It is unclear whether she has other income. Jeph Jacques said on Formspring that her living is "server maintenance". It would be possible for her to earn income doing AnthroPC repair, a field in which she has expertise.

Marigold attended college with Angus, but her major is unknown. When he moves into Northampton, they rent an apartment together. In her earlier schooling she was verbally and physically abused.

1000s

With the help of Momo, Marigold initiates her friendship with Hanners and Marten.

After becoming friends with Marten and Co. Marigold develops a crush on Angus, her roommate. When she tries to kiss Angus, he stops her, stating that he only likes her as a friend, which causes her to run off crying and spiral into a deep depression. After long periods of refusing to eat or leave her room, she eventually got back to normal. Later, Angus and Marigold reconcile and talk about her crush. Although Marigold has been very distraught after learning about Angus and Faye, Dora calms her down.

Dale and Marigold meet when she orders a pizza in between World of Warcraft raids. Their World of Warcraft feud has continued until Dale comes to her apartment with a peace offering.

2000s

While visiting Hannelore's Space Station, Marigold has an amusing set of romantic encounters with a handsome yet awkward young scientist named Francis York, who is undeniably attracted to her. Space Station and Hannelore give Marigold some advice. She nearly ruines her chances with him by almost vomiting on him due to zero-g sickness. The next morning, the two still show intense interest in each other and share a passionate embrace and kiss before being unintentionally interrupted by Hannelore and Marten.

Although Marigold initially denies interest in Dale, other characters note that their long-standing antagonistic encounters seem to hold flirtatious undertones. Momo in particular is adamant about having the two become friends. She invites Dale and Marigold out to share a meal together in a diner, but the two had a misunderstanding when, upon returning from the restroom with Momo, they found their table empty. Marigold assumes that Dale had rudely abandoned them. They later clear up this misunderstanding when Momo once again attempts to have them patch things up. This time with colorful assistance from Dale's temporary and crass virtual AI companion, May.

After Dale apologizes for his behavior concerning World of Warcraft and explains that he has a hard time talking to girls, he and Marigold settle their differences and agree to hang out and watch anime together. During an awkward evening watching anime, Marigold and Dale each admit that they found the other attractive, though Dale has to leave before anything further happens.

With assistance from Hannelore, Dale and Marigold meet again, and kiss each other. The kiss freaks Marigold out, and when Momo tries to reassure her, Marigold inadvertently reproaches Momo with the debt for her new body. They reconcile the following day.

Momo's nudges lead Marigold to ask Dale out. But once Dale arrives, he is informed by Momo that Marigold has accidentally over-medicated to combat nervousness, leading her to sleep through the night. Dale and Momo watch movies, and Dale makes pancakes in the morning. Seeing how understanding Dale had been about her antihistamine screw-up, Marigold drags Dale to her bedroom. Afterward, Marigold questions her self-control and decency to Momo.

3000s

Marigold is jealous when she finds out that Dale and Emily have sometimes been working on the same shift in Coffee of Doom. May and Momo again helps Marigold make up with Dale.

When Emily created a sexy Coffee of Doom uniform and has Dale model it, Marigold becomes possessive of Dale, wanting him to change out of the uniform lest some random woman try and steal him away. She then talks herself down, explaining that she'd been reading wiki articles to learn how to be a better grownup.

4000s

May had trouble with her leg falling off, and Dale and Marigold help pop it back into place. They offer to assist May in financing a replacement body, which she declined, saying that the AI rights nonprofit had been trying to assist her, but she was pessimistic about it. Marigold offers to hug May, and May accepts. May admits that Marigold's boobs are incredibly soothing. Marigold gets into streaming under the name "Burger Oni."

Relationships

Before the events of Questionable Content, Marigold was very unlucky in the art of love, stating that she had never even had a date, let alone had a boyfriend.

Momo used to be small enough to be carried by Marigold.

She had been cultivating a friendship with Hannelore, who may be her best human friend. Her best friend overall, however, is Momo, her companion robot.

When Momo has genuinely expressed interest in getting a new chassis, Marigold put her concerns about the cost aside and surprises her with a trip to Idoru to purchase one. She wanted to make sure that Momo is comfortable and freely offers her an additional room if she wants it.

Marigold has a lot in common with Dale, but she has "philosophical differences" with him about video games.

Personality

Marigold has some confidence and self esteem issues, most of stemming from her physical appearance and lifestyle. She wishes that boys would find her attractive and pay attention to her. Despite this, she seems rather reluctant to put effort into improving herself and vehemently defends her habits. She often needs a little push in the right direction from her friends; both Hannelore and Momo are concerned about her eating and sleeping, and try to keep her from playing video games for too long.

She tends to assume the worst about how other people see her, frequently assuming that they're patronizing or making fun of her if they offer her compliments or genuine concern. She has trouble acknowledging that other people might find her attractive, and is unaware that they do.

She is very socially awkward, largely owing to bullying and a lack of social interaction in her younger years. Marigold has a very low level of self-awareness and has a propensity to blurt out things that may unintentionally come across as insensitive or insulting. She sometimes catches herself, however, and will make a dramatic fuss over her own faux pas. In general, she seems to be very hard on herself.

Much like with her appearance, Marigold seems less than content with her paucity of a social life outside WoW, and while she enjoys socializing, she is frequently reluctant to abandon her more introverted hobbies and often has to be pushed into social situations.

Her personal hang-ups aside, Marigold tries her best to be a good friend. She is appreciative of people who try to help her and wants her friends to be happy, even if it means putting her own needs and feelings aside. For example, even though she had a crush on Angus and was hurt to find out that he was interested in Faye, she went out of her way to have the two of them patch things up after a silly argument. and showed her support of their relationship and personal happiness.

She often seems rather easily amused and excited about little things, although she can take her hobbies quite seriously. This was particularly true about WoW and her rivalry with Dale. Recently, she has been getting better at voicing her thoughts and playfully teasing her friends, though they're not always appropriate.

Marigold likes to dance when she is happy, and will join in with others' happy dances.

Hobbies

Marigold is a Japanophile. She is very into anime, manga, and yaoi. Among Western cartoons, she likes xkcd.

She is a World of Warcraft player on the Warsong server,, where her main character ("MariGoldFarm") is a Tauren.

Her hobbies caused her to seclude herself in her room for long periods of time, and she developed a disregard for personal hygiene.

Medical issues

Despite an unhealthy diet Marigold has no major current health problems. Her medical history includes a broken coccyx.

Sex and drugs and Rock & Roll

Sexuality

Marigold is exclusively heterosexual. She is inexperienced and in some respects naive, but has an extensive porn collection, particularly including yaoi and hentai. As of her date with Dale in Number 2639: Doin' It Canadian Style, she is clearly no longer a virgin.

Drugs

Marigold has begun drinking alcohol since joining the QC social circle, and was quite unfamiliar with it prior to that.

Music preferences

Marigold has not shown an interest in music and has been known to leave the room when others started discussing a band. She does not like MC Hammer, though she doesn't quite recognize his musical style.

However, she has listened to Daft Punk's latest album.

Trivia

• It is interesting to note that when Hannelore picked her closest friends to join her on her trip to the space station, she chose Marten and Marigold.
• Her interactions with Dale are consistent with a "boy meets girl" plot.
• User Binary from the forum noticed that Marigold's name is an anagram "Firm armored gal", which could refer to her completing her armor set. Her full name, points out forum user bogusman82, rearranges to "I am lord of gamers, I rule!".
• Marigold is a fan of Tai's Harry Potter fan-fiction, and she wrote HERMIONE AND GINNY VERSUS THE SPACE WIZARDS. Forum member mactoplac has recorded a reading of it.
• There is an animation of Marigold dancing: random/maripopipo.gif. Originally published on Tumblr (archived).
• Jeph Jacques drew Marigold with a cake (archived) for his AMA on Reddit (archived).
• Jeph Jacques also drew a naked pin-up of Marigold, but it is only available on his patreon.

Memorable quotes

• "NO TIPS FOR ALLIANCE SCUM"
• "... it's not like she put a dissected frog down my shirt or anything"
• "May the opossums grow fat on your flesh"
• "WILL YOU SIGN MY NETBOOK"
• "Great, my self-loathing is the square root of two"
• "I...I am okay!"
• "I like beer!
• "Beep boop"

Gallery

Marigold freaks out in Number 1417: Secret Weapons as Hannelore cleans her room.

Marigold, dressed up for a party in Number 1685: Fifteen Minutes.

From Jeph Jacques's Tumblr

From Jeph Jacques's Tumblr, from the lakeside party

A Tumblr sketch from about 2011

From Jeph Jacques's Livejournal

From Jeph Jacques's Tumblr, August 2013. He says it's the cutest Marigold ever.

Fanart from Jeph Jacque's Tumblr, of Marigold at a desktop

Speculation

There has been considerable debate on the Questionable Content forum about whether Marigold is genuinely indifferent to others, or just inexperienced and clueless. Her detractors point to a paucity of cases of Marigold being generous, compared to Marten or even Pintsize. Supporters adduce her sharing experiences and items from her collection with Hannelore. The option with the most votes in a poll about her character was "Trying to be good but not sure how".