In this episode of the Far From Home Sci-Fi Webcomic: Jake’s Dad asks a few unsettling questions.
This is one of the pages I was a little worried about. Not so much for the art (I always worry about that.)
I was more worried about the scene in general. In the last version of this webcomic, a similar thing happens in the storyline. Later, someone who is a pretty fair writer in his own right mentioned to me that the scene just didn’t seem realistic and showed me why.
I don’t claim to be anything more than a hack writer at best. (Just take a look at my twitter profile . . . heh.) However, I do hope that this time around things are a little more believable.
Anyway, enough whining.
On a lighter note: I’m sure you’ve noticed that I was able to get this one done in color. I’ve been trying to schedule the time I use to work on the comic a little better than I have previously. It went pretty well this week. Can’t promise that this will become a trend, but I’m hoping it will.
Catch you all next time!
Mike
Man, talk about a long walk to the room. Those are those moments where you feel like your feet are in cement and the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Dad was definitely justified in being upset. Jake’s cleverness I feel will come in handy for him one day though, and he’ll more than make up for this mistake.
Maybe he can break out of his room . . . heh.
Poor Jake. Poor Jake’s dad.
And I’m sorry, but their clothes still make me think of the old tron (not that that’s bad, of course).
Yeah, I guess they do a bit. We’ll be seeing why they’re wearing what they’re wearing in a little while.
They haven’t backed up their collected data in the last six months? Who are these people? Do tell me that you back up your vital art files much more often than that! (I don’t back up my stuff very often, but I don’t really create things of lasting value.)
But this certainly explains all the promises of being in trouble and toothbrushing floors. Apparently no one told the kid what the mapping array is really for, and how it continuously sends data to be stored? Even just using it for watching a show seems like it would likely interrupt the mapping process, so I could understand that his dad is upset even if only the last half hour of mapping is ruined. (Hopefully he was just exaggerating about the six months.)
I’m also thinking that if I was a kid who thought that we could use the mapping array to get broadcast signals, I would’ve asked my dad why we weren’t doing that, and he would surely have told me. Well, unless I already knew that my dad was a stick in the mud who took great joy in depriving me of entertainment. Then I probably wouldn’t have bothered asking. Or maybe I would’ve had a dad who liked to exaggerate? Then I might not have believed him!
Wow. Great, well thought out comment. Love it. (Now let’s see if I can fast-talk my way out of some apparent plot holes. Heh . . .)
First of all, you’re right. Important data should be backed up. There’s no exception to that on the Ariel. Jake’s Dad sort of alludes to that by saying that the data can be recovered. But what’s the interval between back ups? Once a day? Every three days? Each week? In any of these cases, if Jake has destroyed any data, they’ve lost at least that much time in having to backtrack and collect the data again.
As far as why he did what he did, well, sometimes a young person’s priorities are a little different than what an adult’s might be. Jake wanted to find out what happened at the end of that show. It was high on his list of priorities. A lot of kids would probably have gone about things in the way you mentioned in your comment. I probably would have when I was young. Other kids would set out to accomplish that goal with out any real thought as to the possible consequences. Like the classic “Stay out of the Cookie Jar” scenario. A lot of kids would think about getting that cookie first, and then suddenly realize, “Oh, yeah. I’m probably going to get into trouble for this.” I think this is what happened in Jake’s case. Brilliant kid but lacking in wisdom. Doesn’t really know how to apply that to the things he does yet.
As far as his father, sure, he’s upset at whatever delay Jake’s monkeying around might have caused them. I’m sure he’s just as upset, or even more so, at what might have happened. What if he’d inadvertently gotten into some other system that could have damaged something like life support or worse, even destroyed the Ariel?
Anyway, Gillsing,
Thanks a lot for the comment. I like to know that folks are actually thinking about what’s going on in this comic and commenting on it. Keeps me on my toes and helps me to take a second and even a third look at scripts before I commit them to a post.
Thanks again!