Annotated 12-18
I gotta admit, I wish I’d had this kind of professor-pupil relationship with any of my bosses. They mostly just wanted me to do the work, make the reports, and go away. That’s not the only reason Carol’s so loyal, but it’s a factor.
At any rate, the way HR is testing her here at least gives this scene a bit of conflict to spice the exposition.
At this point, Phil and I were arguing about increasing the chapter-count from 24 to 30. “We haven’t mined the full potential,” he kept saying. The idea that we were “discovering” the story’s true shape was a reassuring one, but to a large degree, we related to HR, watching this thing spin more and more out of our control.
I wouldn’t mind a spin-off comic with HR and Carol just chilling in their dungeon talking shit about life, universe and everything. Late Night Existential Commentary type of thing.
Sign me up.
And this is why I never believed Penk – or anyone else in Arkerra, for that matter – would turn out to be a reincarnation of Best. It’s also why I believed that some kind of reincarnation of him would turn up sooner or later, because why mention different universes if they would never have any relevance to the story?
Finally, it’s what cemented my decision to stick with the comic, because if Arkerra could be as real as “our world”, the story most likely wouldn’t go down the “It Was All a Dream” route. Not that I don’t like such stories, but it didn’t feel appropriate for this story. I didn’t want these main characters to have to cope with their entire existence and all their memories turning out to be lies.
So important, this page.
At this point in the story, did you guys know that Best was in Cyberia?
We were pretty sure, by which I mean Phil was pretty sure and I was coming around to the idea.
I admit, I also clean my glasses with my shirt from time to time, but usually with the hem, not the front. It’s one of HR’s more human touches. Too bad they were going away soon…