  The FSRQ CTA 102 (z=1.032) has been tremendously active over the last few
years. During its peak activity lasting several months in late 2016 and early
2017, the gamma-ray and optical fluxes rose by up to a factor 100 above the
quiescence level. We have interpreted the peak activity as the ablation of a
gas cloud by the relativistic jet, which can nicely account for the months-long
lightcurve in 2016 and 2017. The peak activity was in the middle of a
2-year-long high-state, which was characterized by increased fluxes and
increased rms variability compared to the previous low-states, and which was
flanked by two bright flares. In this presentation, we put the cloud-ablation
scenario into the broader context of the 2-year-long high-state.
