Comic for Thursday, January 18th, 2018

Jan19

by PastUtopia on January 19, 2018 at 6:57 am

Chapter: Chapter 12

Location: Far Side of Utopia

Okay, that was a bit later than I expected, but hey, it’s up 😉

Will try to get things closer to schedule, but been busy.

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Discussion (18) ¬

Delta-v

January 20, 2018, 2:48 am | # | Reply

There is nothing more suspicious than Peter seeming to not be doing anything suspicious. 🙂
- Magnema
  
  January 20, 2018, 5:32 am | # | Reply
  
  On the other hand, if you DO see something he’s doing that’s suspicious, that’s probably even worse, because it’s almost certainly to hide something else…
  - Delta-v
    
    January 20, 2018, 2:37 pm | # | Reply
    
    Ooooh! Good point. 🙂
    - Formedras
      
      January 24, 2018, 3:22 am | # | Reply
      
      In short, it’s best to just assume that he’s working on something you don’t know about. (Even if you find it, assume he’s working on something else you don’t know about.)
Amaranth

January 19, 2018, 11:52 pm | # | Reply

The list of things that have happened in the week have missed that we can infer from the last two pages:
-Atter and Sophie have gone missing.
-Kally has met Ryn and decided he is an idiot.
-Ryn has worked with Varkim in some sort or arrangement where Avon agrees to work with Malsa against the IDS and PACT.
-Peter is still interim head of the MSB and has managed to convince Amy he is working diligently.
-Malsa “knows” the IDS was trying to kill Peter with the HVW strike.
-Kally has repeatedly broken into Peter’s office to search it. Possibly for her birthday present.
-Presumably Kally’s birthday is soon.

Things we have learned about the past from this page:
-Peter once set up a Councilor named Raymond for being caught owning part of something called Biforn, but the guy was actually guilty of it (according to Peter).
-Peter has always been a too clever by half bastard.
-Peter is still a too clever by half bastard.
-Peter is also a bastard, but a clever and amusing one.
EmperorArthur

January 19, 2018, 3:55 pm | # | Reply

That’s beautiful. We get a nice bit of background on what those two have done together. The last panel tells us she finds it scary, but Peters earlier comment of working for the councilor puts it in context.

Peter worked for and was trusted enough by a political figure to be the one to dispose of illegal documents. Presumably, just like he was a valuable Avon employee before deciding to do his own thing. Plus, he was a valuable member of CI before he went rouge. Peter is the best employee a company could have, until he decides not to be.
- Just_IDD
  
  January 20, 2018, 4:21 pm | # | Reply
  
  If you think about it, this describes every Insider Trader, or trust violator ever. Raymond was an idiot though, destruction of documents is best done by firms specifically created with that goal in mind. If you can’t be bothered to put the documents in the proper container yourself, you deserve the full result of whatever stupidity results.
Anphinomenum

January 19, 2018, 3:49 pm | # | Reply

That final panel had me laughing so hard.
Ferrus

January 19, 2018, 8:37 am | # | Reply

I think that panel 6 is actually pretty illuminating to Peter’s view of the world. It is not quite an “ends justify the means” argument, more that the means aren’t what you actually did, they are what the world thinks you did.

Also, spelling and grammar aside, this page has some great writing. Not just Peter’s monologue in panel 6 (which is well written) but how much information it includes without being an information dump. We get background, current events, character development, all in well written dialogue. You say you’re not a writer, but the evidence points to the contrary. I’ve read a lot of books with writing a lot worse.
- Gurst
  
  January 19, 2018, 8:07 pm | # | Reply
  
  One of the big problems with the “ends justify the means” argument has always been that the ends remember the means. Panel 6 is Peter’s loophole for that.
Magnema

January 19, 2018, 7:37 am | # | Reply

Heh. Love the subtext in Peter’s last bubble in panel 6. “Yes, it was me. Obviously. Stop asking.”
- Ferrus
  
  January 19, 2018, 8:28 am | # | Reply
  
  Yeah, Kally really sucks at the “If it’s a secret, try not talking about it” rule. Of course, we already knew that Kally is not subtle. You can see why Peter feels the need to write it on a whiteboard right over his desk.
  
  I get the feeling that Peter is actually a rogue agent (at least as far as the IDS is concerned, he might be working for Kyle), but plans on at some point forcing the IDS to claim that everything he did was part of a secret mission, retroactively giving him permission for the whole thing.
  
  This would wrap it up cleanly and provide him an exit strategy, and explain why he is keeping Kally in the dark. If he can put off giving her any details until it actually is an undercover mission, he can explain that keeping her in the dark was part of his cover. She will probably still be furious, but can’t really be more furious than she is already and seems to want him to have an excuse.
  - Magnema
    
    January 19, 2018, 8:51 am | # | Reply
    
    I also bet on him being genuinely rogue, with perhaps 75% confidence.
    
    I dunno about forcing IDS to claim it, but that would make sense as well. I suspect that, since that’s a ways into the future, he has multiple plans in place depending on other contingencies, but it would make sense if that were one of them. It’s a reasonable way for the story to turn out, at least.
    
    My suspicion w.r.t. Kyle is that Kyle just trusts Peter, and, while he doesn’t know exactly what is going on, accepts that if Peter judges it to be the right thing to do, then it’s probably the right thing to do. Then again, he may just be good at hiding things – I’m not confident in that suspicion. (Probability assessment: something like 40% that, 25% he knows some, 15% he knows all, 20% something else or more complicated.)
decker389

January 19, 2018, 7:27 am | # | Reply

lolololol, I so like this page
Gurst

January 19, 2018, 7:17 am | # | Reply

Lotsa pronoun disagreements here.

“the contract documents… were in his desk because I put *them* there”?

“bends reality to *her* whim”?

“Perception*s* and conclusions that people draw from them” or “Perception and conclusions that people draw from *it*”?

Not a pronoun, but “If you *knew* him better you would understand”?
- PastUtopia
  
  January 19, 2018, 7:36 am | # | Reply
  
  Fixed, thanks 🙂
Gaijin

January 19, 2018, 7:15 am | # | Reply

“…because I put THEM there.”

“He paid me to get rid OF them…”

“If you KNEW him better…”
- PastUtopia
  
  January 19, 2018, 7:36 am | # | Reply
  
  Fixed, thanks 🙂