Merry Christmas (probably by the time you see this comic). Or your local winter holiday of choice. Or at least hopefully day off work.
So many words this time around. I think as I’ve gotten more used to writing with more space for words, I use more words, and the spiraling loop continues until all the potential space for words is filled. It’d be hard to imagine going back to not breaking out of the boxes with the words again like I used to do.
See you in 2025
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Hey Folks-
No comic this week. There was supposed to be one today, but I lost power while working on it, and still have no power; it’s been out all day. Given that and that I probably lost a good bit of work on the comic from losing power, I don’t know when I’d get around to doing it this week, so will just postpone until next week.
I understand. I went through the same thing back at my old house. no end of aggravation.
Speculation: there was a several-week gap in-story, wasn’t there?
Maybe Peter has been on the station all along, arriving before anyone
started looking for him? His appearance at the costume party may have not been him?
[suspicion] that sounded very… control like [/suspicion]
😀
Thought. Fairway doesn’t like being cooped up on the space station. I could see him deciding to take a trip to Malsa after the “detainment” incident. Perhaps to personally observe some of the relocation.
This would be a massive blow to Biana’s faction. Since trying to discredit the host country a high ranking politician is visiting tends to be bad for one’s career. If the question of the tech came up, and the downed Sky-Carrier were revealed, then he would likely see that as a possible reason for a tech transfer.
After all, it’s much easier to have competent allies than try to deal with them as enemies.
What’s the age gap between the Consul and Peter?
Could the title of “queen’s consort” get someone diplomatic protections that “head of Malsa’s MSB” wouldn’t?
I’m guessing this Peter is some Mium wearing an illusion that would be consumed by Naomi sucking up ambient mana if she were too close.
Best guess, assuming that Centralians and Palindrans both age similarly to earthlings… there’s likely 2 decades between them, minimum. Maybe 3. Peter gives the impression that he’s early 20s. To possess the position that the Consul does, without any demonstrated magic power, I’m guessing at least 40s, maybe 50s.
None of which negates a consort type relationship, particularly in a society where political marriages seem very normal.
However Peter is thumbing his nose at the home team, and I can’t imagine any excuse, reason, explanation of why he should be untouchable is going to hold water. They’re going to grab him and come up with lots of hand waving as to why it’s fine and normal and natural.
Which appears to be part of the plan. So. Yeah. Diplomatic protections are going to be like gift wrap against rifle fire here.
Yup.
I was guessing mid to late 20’s for Peter. Having him working for his uncle around age 20., by the time of these events that would make him 24-25 most likely.
While 20is years difference isn’t unlikely in a political marriage, and technically Peter is the son of a Dynastic family group, and dispite them wearing color complenting outfits, an arrangement like that would probably anger Kally to some degree. She seems possessive when it comes to Peter even if she should probably talk to Query for help with the discussion.
Kally may have thoughts along those lines, Peter may be thinking of the future, however, he is still working on not being constantly exploded, or detained. His avoidance of Kally, and other specific actions lead me to believe that he cares for her quite a bit and would like to avoid her being detained or exploded even if to do that he needs to pretend to others that he doesn’t care particularly.
The odd thing I see about Peter is that he’s explaining stuff.
But then, he always does that with the consul.
Makes me wonder if that’s his own awareness or if Mium is feeding him his lines …
As for Peter’s lines here, specifically his last bubble: Should “barging and grabbing me” be “barging IN and grabbing me”?
The bit where the IDS is on their way to arrest him as they speak? I think that’s probably just confidence in his own recognition of how the IDS operates. If he had input from Mium, he’d probably be saying that they were on their way to “detain” him as they spoke, with the quotes and all.
No, the bit where he explains stuff whenever it’s the consul he’s speaking with.
(He saw the arrest attempt weeks before they even planned it. No surprise, on either count.)
Sometimes the easiest way to get someone to do what you want them to do is to give them the information and let them do it. Especially if it’s mutually beneficial. Even then, he almost certainly does have his own plans in play. Which pretty much everyone except the guy who ordered his “detainment” likely recognizes.
The consul is allowed access to Mium. Putting her in the same category as Naiomi and Kally. She knows that Peter doesn’t really care about her country, but also knows he isn’t as distant as he can appear. That comment about fitted clothing shows quite a bit. Peter has blind spots, blind spots the council is covering.
The barbarian queen’s 1st bubble is causing me trouble. I think “to” has too few letters in it.
Thank you, Past, I always enjoy your comic.
Merry Christmas!
Happy Santa Hat Day
Typo in panel 3: frothing the mouth -> frothing AT the mouth
So apparently there’s *something* odd with Peter that Naomi’s noticed.
He might be an illusion, or carrying a lot of tactical hardware – or maybe it’s actually Mium in a disguise and running a personality emulation.
Either way, I assume his ‘detention’ won’t stick very long at all…
He isn’t an illusion (or a pure illusion), since he shook hands with the Consul. Probably not tactical hardware, since Naomi isn’t the most tech savvy person around and Central’s magitech cannot store magic (normally, at least). Whatever it is is probably magical or magic adacent, as she was able to see through invisibility and other sense others magical output, and Peter knows this and this is why he is specifically avoiding her.
So it could be MIUM dressing up (either acting as a guide or emulation or whatever) or possibly a less advanced robot (either run by magic or lacking Peter’s innate magic)? I don’t know, there doesn’t seem to be enough context clues yet.
Shaking hands doesn’t really mean much. His illusions work by telling people what they should be sensing and letting their minds fill in the blanks. Remember how “Control” decided to blow itself up because it couldn’t tell which Peter was real (presumably neither).
One was real because Mium pushed it into that alternate dimension to save it. I presume Mium can tell them apart by which one has the reset button in their arm.
I think this is a powerplay/show of force on Peter’s part. The last time he got out of jail he used his dad’s access codes to do it. IDS knows this even if its not widely known. So they think if they grab him this time, they wont give him that opportunity. Back then he did not have organized resources to stand up to the problems that he sees within the IDS. As such being seen to use someone else’s codes to escape makes it like that was the reason for the Escape.
My thought is his arrival on the station is through a gate/process which Mium controls. The IDS think that they control/track all the gates including the Smugglers ones. My guess is that Peter plans to show the IDS in a pre-planned encounter, a method he developed with Mium which the IDS cannot detect. Mium used/tested this method back when repairing Query, and then waited to see if the IDS noticed. Peter has now arrived and plans to depart using that method.
The end result is that the Consul gets a bunch of concessions from IDS because they think they have what they want. They are very publicly capturing him, and pissing off some other powerful parties in the process. So when he leaves on his own this time, they’ll have bigger egg on their face.
He’s telling her at the meeting because he wants to be seen talking to her there, as her agent. If he had come with their delegation he would have been nabbed at the gate and he didn’t want that. He wants to be nabbed in this public location that Fairway has openly called truce ground.
Peter’s planning and organization seems to be around goading parties into making the worst possible choice for them at the time. That he became MSB chief was an unexpected low probablilty which has allowed accelerated action.
In some ways this is an advanced game of “Mille Bornes” and Peter holds all the safeties.