[1011] Just part of the message?

Uh oh.

I'm sure Annie feels like throwing a fireball at Donald right now.

So, Donnie knew where Anthony was all these years? Or perhaps there is more to it and Andrew is trying to get a secure connection through?

That last panel is "Donald remembers that Annie has feelings." Still, when all is said and done I rather like this fellow. He seems like the compassionate sort.

Anthony Carver. Still a huge dick.

Or the first word is the name of the key to use. So he first used the wrong key to decipher the message which resulted in something that, while legit English, didn't make sense at all then used the "Antimony"-sheet to decipher the message and got "Microsat 5" out of it. Would explain why he went "Ah!" when he heard that "Antimony" was the first thing Anthony said.

This also explains how Donny could decipher the thing at all this the biggest problem with one-time pads is telling the other party which key to use. If they agreed way back when that the first word is the name of the key...

How horrible... Poor Annie...

FireBALL out, sir!

Oh, well... Thanks, Donny. That was a really smooth distraction! (sigh)
Right now it looks like an attempt to blend the address in. Aaand since Annie didn't dig into the finer implications yet...
Which is far from guaranteed, but definitely possible, considering he suddenly involved her in this.
Yup, suddenly brought back to Earth in the middle of geeking out... it's not even "awkward", it's somewhere around "Awkwaaard" grade.
It's a matter of alphabet and possibly other extra syntax wrappers.

Is not! Antimony is a metalloid!

Keep in mind that if Carver didn't want to use that specific word (Antimony) as the message opener, he simply wouldn't have done so. The rest of the message would have been different, for sure, because of the properties of one-time pads, but it was a choice he made.

He's not _that_ heartless.

Meh, I'm still in the too early to call group.

All we know about him are as follows:

1) Left Annie. Circumstances behind it are hinted at, but no real conclusive information as yet.

2) Negative opinions by Rey and Eglamore, but both were rivals for Surma's love, so there may be a healthy infusion of bias coloring their opinions. They may honestly believe their own opinion to be true, but it may not necessarily be objectively so.

3) Negative opinion by Jones. However, it was deliberately worded to get a bad reaction out of Annie.

4) Flashback to what amounts to a one line, a few seconds of interaction, and a snippy comment by kid Eglamore. Which isn't enough information to judge a person. One of my best friends confided in me that the first time he saw me he thought I was mean and scary because I didn't say much and looked perpetually frowning--but then he later realized that I only really open up when I'm comfortable around people, and that I'm a gregarious chatterbox if I'm in the company of people I feel comfortable around.

5) Annie's flashback dream. A mixed bag. Surma's smile, though sad, seemed genuine when she was trying to comfort him. And he looked genuinely weeping for his dying wife. On the other hand, also a big hint that he may very well be blaming Surma's impending death on his then-very-young daughter.

7) Donny in the flashback and in this chapter currently does not seem quite as hostile to him as Eglamore. There may even be a note of fondness, though how much of that is currently for Annie's benefit we don't yet know.

6) And now this. Information incomplete until the whole chapter plays out. And for all we know, it'll play out raising as much questions as it does answers, if any.


Really, until his whole arc plays out, I just can't get a complete feel for him as a person. For me, his true character can still go either way, and it's too early to say on his reasons for ending up with Surma.

Is there any reason for Annie to believe her father's communication with her is limited for any other reason then his desires? After all he left, as far as we know, by his own free will.

The fact that he is capable of sending this message to her, presumably has left her the impression that he could have contacted her whenever he wanted and just doesn't want to talk to her unless it's to use her to relay messages to people he actually does want to talk to. I can see why that would be a little upsetting.

Which is why I'm in the "we know enough about him to call him rude names" camp.

"Anthony Carver. Still a huge dick."

'Which is why I'm in the "we know enough about him to call him rude names" camp.'

- while his wife was alive he spent all his effort on trying to keep her alive. It is possible that he is now spending all his effort on keeping his daughter alive. Yes it may be oversight to not actually spend time with her. Or it could be he is in dangerous territory and does not want to put daughter into danger.

This actually makes it worse IMO.


Now, my 2 cents regarding Anthony being a dick or not... There is reasoning, and there is justification. And they are totally separate and different things. Let me explain:

Circumstances, emotional difficulties and/or social skills impairment for whatever reason are all valid and realistic cases regarding his attitude towards Antimony. It's human to be hurt in such a way that you simply malfunction emotionally - even to the point of hurting other peoples feelings, and this is what 99,99% of the time happens when someone "is a dick". This is reasoning. And Anthony is de facto a tragic character who carried a huge burden in several ways, and I can understand how he can't let go of a grudge, something which is probably made even worse by his character (of which we don't know much, and even that is not 100% reliable).

On the other hand, this doesn't actually stand as a justification. Being a dick ultimately ends up, well, simply being a dick. Which Anthony demonstrates greatly. No matter how heartbroken he might be, no matter what emotional baggage he carries Antimony is still his daughter, and there is absolutely no excuse for him to treat her like that. He might as well have encoded in the message his regards for her, or an explanation or anything - not only he chose not to but he actually made a gesture which cruelly was simply a pretext for his own means. An unjustifiable, egoistic and fully conscious decision which profoundly would hurt Antimony. So, I would go ahead and say that not only is he a dick, he actually takes the cake for being an as****e who is afraid to do any step in overcoming his own insecurities and complexities.

The only unprobable possibility in which all of this can happen and him still not being that is in a case of a great conspiracy where his each and every movement is framed and communicating with Antimony would put her in grave danger - or his actions actually not being controlled by himself. But it still doesn't explain everything so I'm really not betting on that being true.

I don't think anyone is denying that whatever Anthony did with finding a cure is out of love for Surma.

But... he suddenly left everyone behind after Surma's death and as far as we know did not even say goodbye to Antimony AND the look that he gave her when Surma died was a far from pleasant one. Outside of Surma and now Donald he was never shown to be close to anyone _including_ his own daughter who he, based on the previous mentioned look, seemingly blames for taking Surma's life.

We do not know for certain whether he still is looking for a cure for Antimony. I personally think that he isn't just based on that if your trying to cure something of this magnitude, a very very rare genetic "disease", you should have access to state of the art technology and blood samples. Both conveniently located at the Court. Maybe he is somewhere out there hunting Fire Elementals or scouring old libraries but that should give him plenty of free time to atleast send Annie an email once a week. Would ripping the Fire Elemental out of Annie be seen as objectionable by the Court preventing him from continuing his work there? I doubt it given the Courts stand. You would think that they would LOVE having something like this available to them.

The only thing we DO know about him is that he A) loved Surma, B) that during his years at the Court he was friends with Donald and C) that Jones/Reys/Eglamores opinion about him being emotion-less was at least partially true during those same years.

So given that all the current evidence point to Anthony being at the very least a terrible parent (hooray you cured your daughter but she is an emotional wreck with very understandable abandonment issues) and a huge dick by any measure you might think of. Even if, and that is a huge if, he want to use microsat 5 to directly speak to Antimony over a secure line... what exactly does he wants to say to her? "Sorry for being such a terrible parent but I may have found a cure to rip out the very part that makes you you."? That is going to go over SOOO well.

I like how in this page you can really see that Donny is Kat's father. I'd love to see them working together on something, there'd be so much excitement!