Comic for Thursday, April 18th, 2019
I will note that Peter dropping the <> of the Central is intentionally. He’s talking in Malsan after this first panel, Arron is talking in <Central> the whole time.
The governmental structure of Malsa is just one of those things that I haven’t gotten much chance to dive into, but I expect that most people could guess that who’s in power behind the Consul. The Consul still only really holds power because the majority of the Families support her. The Rogue Families are something we haven’t seen much of, but I doubt we’ve seen the last of them.
Sorry for the delay. Just a bit of unfortunate personal drama where a long time friend of mine who has slowly been in the process of becoming… not a long time friend… sped that process up greatly by managing to be belligerently drunk and violent by noon on Monday and going down hill from there, and the fall out from that will be something that’s going to take some solving for awhile. All around a pretty unpleasant business. Anyway… as they say the show must go on.
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I’ll be honest, I didn’t read the comments thoroughly; so someone could have already mentioned it…
I find it interesting that everyone gets that saying backwards. Of course you can have your cake and eat it. It would be difficult to eat your cake if you didn’t have it.
The hard part, and the way that saying originally went was “eat your cake and have it too”. It’s difficult to have your cake, once you’ve eaten it…
It depends on the size of the cake, and your capacity for cake consumption.
Hey. Still struggling a little with schedule. Update will be tomorrow, but will be tomorrow, not tonight. Sorry ’bout that. Was hoping to get the page up tonight, but need to be realistic at this point.
I’m sure you guys can imagine my excuses as they are same as last weeks excuses, just with an “continued” tag, so I’ll spare you 🙂
I do think we will have both updates this week though, as I don’t want to just run at one update a week and have so far failed to convincingly make a buffer in taking a day off.
One way or another, things will probably be different next month.
We all go through periods that do not run quite the way we want them to.
Thank you for the update and we’ll look forward to the next installment tomorrow!
Yeah, this what buffers exist for, unfortunately the buffer had been run ragged over the months and wasn’t there when it was needed.
I think the time it takes to draw a comic page has also creeped up recently as I just haven’t been drawing a lot outside of comic in the last few months, so trying to change gears into drawing the comic is harder than usual and takes me longer. I don’t know if there is a solution to that right now – you like to think of skills as things that just linearly get better, but to at least an extent they are things that take constant maintenance. Or else that it just takes longer when I don’t have a long block of well focused time to work on things. Probably both, I guess.
I’m picturing an epic showdown between the forces of artistry versus the forces of corporate boredom.
Definitely a blue / orange morality time.
Honestly it’s sometimes a weird split with a foot in both worlds.
When I first started drawing it was to make art for a video game I was working on, so there was much more of a relation between the “pastutopia the programmer” and “pastutopia the artist”, but it’s gotten a little weird as my programmer job has drifted more toward corporate technical project wrangling and my art has become entirely for the sake of the comic, so what started as related skills have pretty much entirely diverged into separate lives now.
A game? Please tell me more! Is it finished and available for purchase?
I understand that if it’s not done now, you definitely aren’t working on it atm. Not with all the other stresses going on.
While many games technically exist with my name in the credits (as I used to work for a major video game publisher) the game I worked on after that on my own never got published, and probably never will be finished.
I made a primitive game engine and about half finished three games, but never quite got something I thought was actually good enough to publish. They were all a hybrid of a tactics game and a visual novel, I guess. You controlled a party, leveled it up, and went through a story making a, b, c choices in a branching narrative.
The main problem was that art was terrible, I never had enough sprites for the actual tactical mode, and they had a ton of bugs because I’d made the engine myself, and they were way too complicated for what one person should try to make. And the music and sound effects were terrible. And frankly probably everything else if I had to be objective.
However, in drawing the characters for those games (as in the story mode they had visual novel-esque character portraits, with a few expressions that would cycle based on their dialogue) I decided to start drawing an older story of mine as just drawing the video game characters over and over wasn’t really a compelling way to practice getting better at them, and that ended up being the comic.
They were always a hassle because I really liked to write them pretty open ended. I think in the end I’ve sort of filled that void with D&D, where I can truly have a game that is plopping my players down in an endless sandbox, something I could never quite nail as the video game for obvious reasons.
The actual characters of the games might at least some of the games might appear in future comics or stories, but no promises. There are going to be a lot of options if I even decide to write/draw another comic or story.
Two skills diverged in a yellow wood…
Life happens.
It’s cool.
Especially since, y’know, you tell us about things not going to plan within a reasonable timeframe.
It’s not like you’re pulling GRRM and are years behind schedule while insisting the next installment will still be out later in the year (five years ago).
I would think that admitting guilt in the kidnapping of a head of state would eventually land you in trouble. Unless you’re Peter, of course. Hmm. But that would mean there’s a decent chance that admitting guilt in the local language is actually part of one of his plots.
But even if it’s not a plot, excellent zinger!
Technically, Peter didn’t confess to having kidnapped President Kokato here. He just admitted to being the sort of person who might be expected to try pulling crap like that.
Also, it’s possible that the audience of this exchange who are aware that President Kokato was, in fact, kidnapped, and were not sufficiently convinced by Peter’s alibi such that they might believe it is a boast that he did just that, are people who are happy that President Kokato had been kidnapped.
If I recall correctly, several people’s reaction to Peter mentioning that Kokato would be indisposed for the meeting were to immedietely assume Peter did it and ask someone who knew him (Kally) if he could do it.
Also she mentioned that he was kinda known for that kind of bullshit at some point IIRC.
My recollection is that she started Aaron used to keep him from pulling that sort of stunt. Implied is the assumption that without his uncle’s influence, kidnapping head of state is likely to be far more common.
Because Naomi’s power involves altering herself, whereas Kally’s involves altering externals, I think Peter might have less concern about Naomi’s durability. However, I do think Miko and Kally are at the top of his very short list of people he wishes to protect. I think Naomi is on the list as well, we just don’t want to see him have to choose because we know who he’ll pick.
Although in the last two panels… “You can’t protect [the Consul]…” “… I plan to have my cake and eat it too.” Did Peter just call the Consul his cake? That sly dog…
(As much as I enjoy seeing the two of them banter, I recognize that is an incorrect interpretation of Peter’s comment.)
Peter’s interest in this just became more confusing. Does he care if one country invades another? Does he care who has power on some non-Central planet? If the IDS was just looking for a place to expand because they were running out of resources, does he care if the relocation happens with PACT, Resh, Orin, or Malsa? Does he care if Biana and Aaron fight? Right now, it looks like he doesn’t care if the IDS gets a black eye, even though it might hamper all relocation efforts politically, present or future, on Palindra. What issue is he tackling that’s bigger than preserving Malsa’s sovereignty, bigger than the IDS’s internal power struggles, and bigger than Central’s relocation efforts?
Maybe it involves Kor’s World (Control sounds like an AI that might have enslaved a population of humans or something.) After all, relocating doesn’t matter if you’re being chased. Sophie and Atter seem to land in the middle of the
Biana’s IDS power conflict
Central’s relocation conflict
Demons vs. Summers conflict
Red constructs vs. Kor’s World conflict
Central becoming Kor’s World 2.0 against Palindra conflict
Biana’s contractors vs. Avon (a.k.a. Peter and Miko’s computer parts closet) conflict
Peter vs. housing conflict
Maybe Peter just really wants his houses to stop blowing up so he’s trying to fix the IDS and Kor’s World problems and he doesn’t really care where he winds up living, so long as it doesn’t blow up.
Panel 4: are *surprisingly* low
Panel 4: to do with *it*… Mium
Sorry to hear about your old friend. I hope (s)he gets the help they need to turn things around. Even if they exit your life, I hope they get theirs together.
Peter believes that Kor’s world is fearful of and / or fleeing something, and Peter is concerned that this ‘something’ will take note of Central.
Peter is also concerned for the well being off his home planet’s inhabitants. He is aware that the living situation there is approaching critical, and that bridgepoint data is missing. The bridgepoint data is necessary to open a semi stable dimensional portal, providing a low cost method of moving large amounts of goods (and people!) over time, as opposed to the short lived gates normally used.
Kor’s World is actively removing this data from some locations, preventing Peter from recovering it. Apparently in at least one instance the family mage capable of teleporting tampered with that data.
Forgot Peter tends to not really dress up. So here he is, dressed up, being somewhat forthcoming with information, and is “a tad annoyed”.
….dis gon be good. =D
Anyone got a nuclear bomb shelter?
You forgot the <> around <nuclear> 😀
Mium can literally turn any substance into powder. I don’t think a nuclear bomb shelter is going to be strong enough. …Maybe Kor’s World is taking refugees?
Considering relations with Kor’s World and anybody else, I doubt they’re inviting, accepting refugees, or even good for a vacation….
Of all the locations I could think of, Kor’s World is the only one that supposedly is currently M.Y.M.-free. Currently. Supposedly. Sure, getting there is probably impossible. And that’s kinda the point.
Can you think of another place where someone could escape Peter?
Well, Mium can’t dust things with an Eidos key directly, right? Forget where I saw that, but think that was the case. So you can’t be instakilled directly from anywhere. And he’s generally not supposed to be killing people anyway.
Which is almost a pity, because if you properly annoy Peter or Mium (or, Sages forbid, Miko), you’ll probably prefer death…
That said, only three worlds we’ve really been told names of are Panlinda (where Malsa is) and Central (where Peter’s from), but there are other worlds we just don’t hear about. So it’s entirely possible you could hide there. (No guarantee you wouldn’t be found, but you could run anyway.)
There’s also Utopia. But apparently there’s something on the far side of it…
Last time we saw a reference to the far side of Utopia was a bit more than a year ago, real world time. I’m not sure how long ago it was comic time, but it was prior to Miko becoming involved in assisting the Ila/Miko interface version of Mium.
I think it is time for us to send a probe there. TGape? You in?
It is always interesting when Peter talks. While he keeps his cards close to his chest as always, this does explain what Biana and Sophie were hoping to accomplish with Atter.
Peter also seems to really dislike Kally and Miko taking risks or being in danger. It contrasts to his seeming ambivalence to Naomi being in danger in particular. Either he does not view Naomi as the same tier of friend/asset or is just more confident nothing can actually hurt her. I suspect the former.
I also notice he did not mention Kor’s World, though he probably knows they are there.
I also wonder where Nathan is now. He has probably had time to make it some ways from the crash site.
Nathan is currently falling from the sky…
in the exact best position for him to get a birds eye view on all that is transpiring against him.
I love cake.
I want some cake too.
Of course Peter hasn’t mentioned Kor’s World. Arron is also a soldier, and he’s with soldiers. Peter’s confident that the resources are in place to deal with Atter and Kor’s World as well as can be managed, but Arron would at least be taking valuable time thinking about priorities if not shifting them if he knew. Peter wants to do something with Arron, wants him near the Consul, not Atter, and he doesn’t want to expound at greater length than necessary to do that.
I think the difference is, he’s friends with Kally first, family with Miko first, and employer with Naomi first. Not that he pays Naomi money; she’s from a sufficiently affluent family she doesn’t need it. She might even be giving *him* money. Noble hirelings tend to do that in certain universes. But he pays her in information about what she can do to save the world. I think she’s also made it pretty clear that she expects that of him. If he tried to keep her safe like he tries to keep Miko safe, she’d walk (well, more likely, run), and she knows he knows it.
I think there’s also a certain amount of not really being certain she has limits, apart from those she’s arbitrarily accepted for herself.
I think with respect to Naomi, it’s that Peter is well aware keeping her out of danger would be a full time job, even for him. So he just doesn’t let it bother him.
Kally is *rarely* in actual danger, since she is so powerful.
And Peter is a tad bit overprotective of Miko… who is the hardest to kill of all of them as long as she has that chip in her head.
To be fair, Naomi did also kick the crap out of Atter’s minion with their own limbs…..and also was just fighting a Kor’s World soldier, completely alone. And towards the end there it almost kinda sounded like he was getting worried.
I think if she were any more capable, she could have a shot at dealing with Atter…
Grammar stuff:
Panel 2: *inherit
Panel 6: “good witness, yes?” [comma] and “I told *you you* couldn’t have” [for once, you want two “you”s!]
Also, the third bubble in Panel 6 seems to be a bit awkwardly phrased. I would think a semicolon or two sentences rather than an “and”, since the two thoughts seem to me to be connected.
Fixed (I think), thanks!
Hmm. I don’t remember being drunk Monday… ^^
I bet I can guess who it was though >.> Sorry to hear let me know if you need to talk!
But yes, the show must go on! We cannot leave off with Ila asleep!!
MayW… now that is a name I have not seen in a long time. Might be weird from a stranger, but I am glad to see you still read the comic. You were one of the earliest commenters I can remember.
Of course I still read the comic. I just got banned from commenting by pastutopia after posting spoilers………. -.-
but this was safe cause it’s not about plots!
…I mean, you can still comment. As long as it’s not spoilers. And pretty much everything about Nathan and Tom is spoilers.
You have spoilers!?!?
OOh! Please send me them to notreally@justkidding.com
i’d say it’s just that pastutopia has a very broad idea of spoilers.
Tom and Nathan were the main characters of a different/earlier story and i really like them so I tend to get too excited when they show up -.-
Not as excited as when Ila shows up though, because Ila is awesome AND cute. ^^
You might even say she is a-cute-ly awesome
justkidding.com was registered in 1997.
… I wonder how much email they’ve received in those years …
At one point MayW was referenced as “also traveling”, and therefore updates would be more or less automated, no human intervention.
While I’m not going to speculate on the relationship between Past and MayW (publicly anyway) it would appear evident that they know each other, and that there is a trust relationship there.
Sorry to hear the issue with the long time friend, and good luck to you in your damage control.