I'm in a better mood than one might conclude from looking at this comic, but the second panel is very much based in fact. I found myself with several ideas intended to move away from the "arguments on the internet" theme that inevitably reminded me of related arguments I had seen on the internet.

As for the "Goth lab tech", a conversation on Twitter about how I would volunteer to Gibbs-slap people if I thought it would actually help things resulted in someone comparing me to McGee and my declaration that I would rather be  Abby (NCIS TV show characters). I subsequently vowed to draw my avatar as Abby in her next appearance and provide absolutely no explanation. This being the appearance after that appearance, however, I feel comfortable explaining it.

As for the pronouns in the strip, I prefer to use pronouns for my avatar based on my avatars currenly form. I haven't done this previously, and this comic nearly went up with "they / them" pronouns, but then I realized I was only doing that due to the expectation that some people would find it odd for me to use "she / her". I decided I shouldn't let that expectation stop me from writing it how I actually wanted to write it.