Comic for Monday, May 2nd, 2022
We’ll get back to the other folks shortly. Originally I said I’d planned to have every page this chapter having half of it where we follow Peter and Kally, but it didn’t fit that well at all points, so some of them got cut, and some of them got grouped up. We’ll see another bit of Peter and Kally, before we return to Rovak, David, and the folks trying to shop.
I have noted elsewhere the dragon’s name isn’t “Fluffy”. Peter just uses that name to annoy Kally and/or the Dragon.
There have been times when other people can hear the Dragon when it’s more manifested, but it’s fairly mildly real at the moment (all red, only two shades, somewhat transparent), so generally speaking no one can hear it. Generally speaking, people aren’t entirely sure if Kally can hear, but she certainly seems to talk to it as if she can, even when no one else can hear it.
We’ve heard of this form of tech before, from when Ryn was trying to figure out what his made science department actually did (not sure he succeeded on that front).
I do think that I will unfortunately probably miss next week. Not 100%, I may find time to draw it early, or I may get around to the putting that Q&A I’m supposed to put up, but not sure yet, and don’t want to overpromise, so assume that the update will be missed, and if we get something that’ll be a step forward.
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Looks like real life may be interfering with the archivist’s comic posting.
Past: Hope you get things sorted out and are able to post a comic soon. Take your time with real life necessities.
I will help you and process the $0.00 rebates for the unwashed minions who get upset. Any ungrateful miscreants who desire a rebate can call USA phone number 555-555-1212 for the P.O. Box address to send SASE for a rebate.
I declare today to be Tuesday.
I’m down with it being Tuesday. But I ain’t helping nobody wash no minions!
On Midway Island in the Pacific ocean, it is still Tuesday at a few minutes after 10PM. No, I didn’t wake up to check the website. My OMBS (Old Man Bladder Syndrome) wakes me up every few hours. Sigh ….. growing old sucks.
As planned, page should be up tomorrow, probably on the later side as I ended up busy most of the weekend.
Page will be up, but not till tomorrow (Tuesday). Probably in the afternoon. I will update since we missed last week, but was busy this weekend, so running a little behind.
We will be waiting for it, though most of us will probably not hit refresh every 5 minutes.
Probably…
I’m aiming for every 5.5 minutes. I’ve had to replace the F5 key a couple of times recently. Got to slow it down, you know?
You have an F5 key on your phone?
There is no need to stay up late wearing out your refresh key and your fingertip. PHP can let the computer do the work and trigger an alert() when the page changes. That way you will also be able to read comments soon after they are posted. You can even sleep while the computer is checking for updates.
Here’s the bit of code to use for each page you are following…
(you are not following just one comic, are you?)
$utopia_var = file_get_contents(‘http://pastutopia.com’);
Save utopia_var to another variable to compare after loading every 5 seconds.
Maybe you think you’re being funny, but I’ve done exactly this in the past. Well, I wrote it in Perl, but I’m old and curmudgeonly. The LWP module does crazy things.
Then you’ve got to link it into some way to alert, many decent SMS and MMS interfaces exist, including AWS’s SNS. You could get fancier, but sometimes simple is nice.
A quick search for sms api turns up so many. I recall just a few years ago (it was 2012) and being able to send a text programmatically without knowing the recipient’s carrier (so you could send a message through their email interface such as 2021234567@verizon.net)….. but now all of that can be abstracted away, and so cheaply! Which probably explains the massive number of political text messages….
You know it seems that Past should expose some sort of API, seems like much of his audience is fairly technical. Patreon membership at a certain level gets you a key? First call, get the current time in epoch seconds at the Malsan capitol.
Oooohhh. AMA api for Mium? Current (Palindra) GPS coordinates for Fluffy? Returns NaN (E0E?) if his materialization level is too low?
I have a secret to confess. I mostly view this on a phone, there is no F5 key.
You are not the only old and curmudgeonly person here. I’m 68 years old now and can’t find the energy to write PHP for reading the Utopia archives 20-50 pages at a time. The reply was intended as a a bit of humor but I have also done such things in the past. Used the company web server to run the PHP. Mostly scanned my wholesaler websites for product pricing so I could purchase from the lowest price. The code would alert on price changes. Also used PHP to load several pages serially since I hated clicking the links.
Hahaha! Now that there IS funny!
That’s a pretty cool service, and finding the cheapest price like that put you ahead of your time.
The clicker thing makes sense too. Mine was back when many webcomics would only put 7 days or 30 days of content online. I’d get distracted, and miss some.
Crazy thing though, once I was making a private, local cache? I no longer felt any pressure to actually READ them! I think it was “Douglas Adam’s Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul” that best explained that.
it’s been 2 weeks since this page was posted. what’s going on here?
Last week was planned to be missed as I was out of town. This week should be posted. The pages in theory go up Monday, just sometimes earlier or later – this will probably be on the later side of things, but I think it’ll be up tomorrow.
$5 says Dr Martin will be showing up shortly, possibly by phone because dragons are bad for your health.
Additional $5 says Peter did this deliberately to contact Dr Martin but I expect I would lose that bet.
Dr Martin showing up when Peter violently investigates Ark Technology *will* be one of Peter’s optional contingencies. That nobody sane would bet against.
@Past
4th paragraph of the commentary Ryn was trying to find out what his MAD science department was for, not his made science department. I would not expect brain surgeons to be making science without being called MAD.
Oh come now, people who are privileged enough to be able to make the science they want are generally among the most cheerful people around. I mean, when you can simply *change* the laws of physics that most irk you, how can you possibly maintain ire?
Well, at least until someone calls them on it. Then they tend to get as pissy as a two year old when someone tries to take their toys away.
So I’ve been taking this time to go back into the archives. Thanks, Sidhekin.
I’ve determined a few things.
The art gets much better over time, though the updates slow.
The Malsan Gates closed well before Covid-19, so it seems unlikely that was a motivator behind locking the gates.
It is possible to read ONLY the author’s commentary, no comic, no other comments, and be absolutely FASCINATED! You also learn a lot. The times Past was sick? Very interesting.
I also Discovered Past’s _real_ name via piecing together enough comments (it is Kevin Milheim). I’ve also discovered his original day job (mowing grass, he started in 1983, and mowed grass 4 summer running).
TGape has been teaching me to build spreadsheets, and it is starting to pay off.
Who wants to do a Q&A?
let me guess: next page is taking the week off?
That is what the author comments suggested would happen.
It doesn’t stop _me_ from checking. Maybe someone will post something interesting.
Yup, unfortunately was not able to make the comic last weekend as I was out of town. I was hoping to get the Q&A up instead, but doesn’t look like that’ll happen.
We’ll be back to the regular schedule next week I’m pretty sure.
Yay for regular schedule resuming next week!
That means one next week and maybe one the week after?! Cool.
Just because Past said so in the comments though, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t break out the torches and pitchforks.
I mean, its TRADITION now, and some of us have repeat orders on Amazon….
That’s fair. Burn em if you got em!
I’ll bring the marshmallows this time.
One of the things that defines a community is shared traditions.
So we’re a community. Small, perhaps, but this is the only webcomic that I check frequently for new comments! At the pace of webcomics—and with the complexity of this story—I’d be lost without it.
Oh, wow. Thank you. Lol. I usually almost always read the author’s comments, but sometimes I get overwhelmed by it when he is trying to explain the story so I will then take brief breaks from it. It happened to land right on this time. My bad. ^^ No offense meant.
Hello. I almost never comment on the actual comments, but I will be posting a question this time around. Um, I hate to poke, but I am curious if the question and answers page will be uploaded sometimes? It has been a while… No worries, I know you are busy, I was just hoping for an update on how it is coming along?
Please see the last paragraph of the author’s comments above.
I just noticed Peter’s line of “rampaging monsters and the occasional oversized lizard”. Not only is he calling Fluffy an “oversized lizard”… but the implication there is that the “rampaging monster” is… Kally.
Question for the young man in the last panel: “Who are you and what have you done with Peter?” LOL
For once, Peter is not obfuscating when answering Kally. It looks like Pallindra has had a Kor’s world incursion before people from Central arrived.
Peter gave Kally one question he’d actually answer for free a few pages ago. She redeeming it here.
AND! It appears it is the question he hoped she would ask.
It’s pretty clear to me that Peter and Kally have an elaborate song and dance of cooperating pretty efficiently while acting like they are cooperating as little as possible.
Peter probably knew he’d end up telling her what they were doing. Kally probably knew he’d end up telling her what they were doing. Peter didn’t want to appear overly helpful. Kally didn’t want to appear overly curious.
Their relationship is somewhere between dysfunctional and wholesome, and somehow maybe both.
Aahh yes. The “romantic” scene when Kally discovers that Peter has been continually stocking her favorite cereal even when he doesn’t eat it. I remember ILA commenting on the cereal but don’t remember if she thought it was “tasty food.”
If memory serves, I didn’t seek out that page to verify, I think several people in the household had begun consuming the cereal. Ila is one of them.
That begs a question though. I understood that Peter had disappeared from Central, and popped up on Palindra. I may be mistaken in that regard? I was less certain of the timing of Kally to Palindra. Did Peter follow her to Palindra?
But maybe I’m mistaken and they had been together on Palindra? I had the impression that they had spent their time together on Central.
If I’m right, are packaged goods (cereal) being imported from Central? How much commerce is flowing between them? Are we talking about “ahh, that hospital has the latest gadget from Central! ” or is it closer to going to the department store and looking for a “made in Central” stamp? Do they have “Buy Palindra Made” campaigns?
Did Madam Consul run on a “Malsa First” platform?
Alright, I believe I was wrong.
This page (Minus Years) suggests they are operating somewhere other than Central. Palindra seems a reasonable guess.
https://pastutopia.com/comic/intermission-3-minus-years-2-page-5/
And two pages later they reference nav-trans, which is a thing in Malsa, possibly elsewhere on Palindra. Maybe it is inherited from Central, but I’m now leaning towards their entire relationship happening on Palindra.
https://pastutopia.com/comic/intermission-3-minus-years-2-page-3/
Nav Trans is, if I remember an author comment correctly, one of Malsa’s national advantages over other countries. It’s pretty new to them as well, but not so new that they haven’t adjusted to having it. That said, it’s still new enough that pretty much all of the adults remember not having it.
It’s unclear if Nav Trans was something that came about due to the Consul or not.
I could easily imagine that if a country had no mass transit, and someone came along and gave them something as sophisticated as Nav Trans is described as being, it could conceivably enarmor someone powerful and filled with patriotic zeal sufficient to motivate them to make them their country leader.
Alternatively, I could also see someone who was made the country leader of some place like Malsa with its frequent mage fighting which has supposedly now suddenly been dealt with saying, “Now that we have that behind us, let’s finally see about getting some decent public transportation.”
Either of those scenarios would probably make the Consul be very popular with most of her people, but very unpopular with those who were really fond of keeping the underclass in their place. Because now, not only do the underclass have the ability to move about, they can move about more freely and easily than even the Family mages who can’t fly or teleport could before.
Cereal scene!
https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-september-21st-2020/
They mutually tsundere at each other, it’s great!
I knew that but didn’t expect Peter to provide such an in depth analysis.
Peter keeps his actual promises. A part of the wager, he said he would answer a real question. Of course Peter rarely elaborates once he answers any question. You are left with a vague feeling that you should have asked something else. It is vexing.
It’s my guess that Palindra’s people weren’t invaded by Kor’s World. They *fled* from Kor’s World. They were members of the unenlightened who bought a ship and ran away. Thus, it’s Ark technology, rather than military debris from the remains of an attack.
This gives them a very different starting point, even apart from the bit where they’re distinctly different people.
I’m saying they bought the ship rather than stole it because Kor’s World appears to know they’re here and appears to not be opposed to them being here… just doesn’t want them to have particular aspects of their current technology. That said, it’s also conceivable that it’s a penal colony or a reserve population that’s kept distinct from the rest of their society so that in the event the more aggressive side of things bites off more than it can chew, it doesn’t cause an end to all of their people. There’s probably dozens of other possible scenarios for this that elude me at the moment.
Though, there are a few that I feel comfortable in ruling out:
– It’s not a Kor’s World vacation planet, because they’d be much more versed in dimensional travel if they were.
– It’s not the Kor’s World homeworld, because they’d be much more versed in dimensional travel if they were. It’s also unlikely that they’d call their tech Ark technology.
– It’s not actually the Far Side of Utopia, because that’s where Past lives and I’m pretty sure they’d have shown up in the comic if the comic were all depicting their back yard.
I like that take on the “Ark” technology.
I’ll note though that the Kor’s World soldier referred to Naomi as “native wildlife”, “local wild life specimen”, and even “native lifeform”. I think I could buy them thinking of people (refugees? migrants?) going “native”, but lifeforms? That’s stretching it, no?
… but to have the “Ark” carry refugees of Kor’s World, ending up in Palindra, possibly even settling among the “natives”, maybe even putting themselves up as aristocracy … that’s a tempting thought.
What kind of refugees would be ignored by Kor’s World though? Huddled masses yearning to breathe free? Or dangerous people, fleeing after having lost a great war? Either might set a poor precedent from the point of view of the ones they fled. But maybe they weren’t ignored. Maybe Kor’s World took them out, and are still looking to find and recover all remnants of the Ark …
Depressing possibility: refugees that were white enough. This is how the soldier was able to identify Naomi as a native at a glance.
Or maybe it’s more exact than that, even. Maybe Orish Warmages are the descendants of Kor’s World, and that’s what gives them their edge over many of the other locals.
I feel like AVon would probably have been hit much harder if the Kor’s World refugees or emigrants had been eliminated and Kor’s World was looking for all of the remains, since they apparently have some of them.
Or, as you said, it could be that’s where the Malsan Families came from, and Kor’s World could tell Naomi at a glance was “native wildlife” because her hair was dyed so she doesn’t match the designer children color schemes. Maybe the reason Kor’s World was fine with them leaving was they were so troublesome, they were problematic wherever they went, and Kor’s World was more simply happy to not have to deal with them anymore.
… and Egenus is less about illegal research and more about slowly releasing Kor’s World tech to Palindra, looking to convert the citizenry to Kor’s World natives rather than Palindran natives, but not so fast anybody would notice. Since they’re wanting to go as fast as they can without notice, they really wanted to leverage Peter as an alternate source for their technology. No wonder they can’t afford Peter.
I went looking for the Ark ref, where IIRC this other researcher was telling Ryk he suspected IDS technology was derivative of “Ark” tech in the first place. Edit: Found it! http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-april-3rd-2/
While looking I also found another nugget I had forgotten until now: Even Arron suspected Avon had something from Kor’s world. “The missing skycarrier”, whatever that is …
http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-october-23rd/
For a few laughs, back up a few comics from the October 23rd link. That is the comic where Aaron discovers that Peter is the interim MSB chief. Hi there Uncle Aaron! Surprise!!! LOL
Well, now that we’re all plumbing the depths of the archives….
https://www.patreon.com/posts/digital-sketch-15099993
Panel 2, “aw, that’s to bad” should be “aw, that’s too bad”.
I thought it was well established that Peter could hear Fluffy … http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-october-27th-2019/
… but perhaps she’s talking about hearing Fluffy’s “telepathy” or something?
That page shows what she’s talking about. In panel 1 where the dragon is fully colored, it’s speech is actually shown, and anyone can hear it (though not everyone could speak the language its speaking). As it starts to fade, it no longer has shown speech, but Kally still seems to be able to talk to it (there’s still pauses where it might be talking, but no longer text).
The dragon is only very rarely fully manifested to the point other people could hear it talk, so most people just assume Kally is somewhat insane when she talks to it.
Hmmmm. That suggests that the gates have been closed since before this pandemic started. One more bit of evidence proving that this story is not fiction!
Is anyone else amused by the fact that Fluffy is insufficiently materialized to be heard speaking…. but plenty materialized enough to be destroying things left and right?
It feels relatable to me. I frequently feel like I’m insufficiently materialized to be heard speaking, yet easily materialized enough to build or destroy. Or, for that matter, type.
7th pannel. I believe it is “report to whom?”
Technically you’re correct as far as English grammar goes, but people actually talk like this more often than not, so it feels like it’s probably correct as drawn.
Much love, thank you.
Peter calls Fluffy by name, and to his face. And apparently can’t actually hear him.
Last panel, bubble #3. ‘But some “of it” cannot be.’
Fixed, I think (this and the other things folks have pointed out so far).