Story Comic for Tuesday, May 3, 2016

[Maplestrip 20]

Say, I don't know if this has been discussed before and I don't know how much sense this makes, but how big is the chance that Susan's father had a child with a blonde lover, then married Susan's mother, who adopted the father's daughter (Susan). Six years later, when the father still had an affair with the same woman, he got kicked out of the house, but for some reason, Susan stayed with her stepmother.

This sequence of events could have happened as followed: Susan and Diane were split up at birth because the father didn't want both children (and for whatever reason, the biological mother couldn't take care of either of them). Susan may have stayed with her current mother for financial reasons and because she lost respect for her father.

If all of that is the case... Oh boy, that soap opera comment above would be accurate. I'm looking forward to seeing Dan try to explain all that, though XP

This is one theory, I suppose.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

5 hours ago, Scotty said:

but it could be worse if Ellen and Nanase told Susan and then Mrs Pompoms denies it, even if Diane was there, it'd basically be their word against Mrs Pompoms and Susan might be more likely to believe her mother more.

I do not think so. 1) It is Nanase, whom Susan knows personally. 2) Vampires are involved. In this, Susan all too well knows how deadly serious the trouble is -- and knows how unlikely it would be for Nanase of all people to invoke them in some sort of deception or scam.

[Scotty 1,061]

3 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I do not think so. 1) It is Nanase, whom Susan knows personally. 2) Vampires are involved. In this, Susan all too well knows how deadly serious the trouble is -- and knows how unlikely it would be for Nanase of all people to invoke them in some sort of deception or scam.

I might be thinking worst case scenario here, but the dialog I see is "Susan this is Diane, we're pretty sure she's you're sister and that you're adopted because she was not only recently attacked by a vampire because she has the same innate talent as you, but Jerry protected her on new years as a favour to you, also she was born 20 minutes before you." rationally, the Jerry part should be convincing enough on it's own, but if Susan was never told she was adopted, and never ever suspected that her mom wasn't her biological mother. Susan might not want to believe it. When Ellen texted Susan before asking if she had any relatives that looked like her, Susan stated that the only family she cared about was her mother. I understand Susan was stressed at the time so the gravity of the question didn't really have any effect, but if she's as attached to Mrs Pompoms as that statement suggests then she might not want to believe anyone but Mrs Pompoms telling her she's adopted.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

20 minutes ago, Scotty said:

I might be thinking worst case scenario here, but the dialog I see is "Susan this is Diane, we're pretty sure she's you're sister and that you're adopted because she was not only recently attacked by a vampire because she has the same innate talent as you, but Jerry protected her on new years as a favour to you, also she was born 20 minutes before you." rationally, the Jerry part should be convincing enough on it's own, but if Susan was never told she was adopted, and never ever suspected that her mom wasn't her biological mother. Susan might not want to believe it. When Ellen texted Susan before asking if she had any relatives that looked like her, Susan stated that the only family she cared about was her mother. I understand Susan was stressed at the time so the gravity of the question didn't really have any effect, but if she's as attached to Mrs Pompoms as that statement suggests then she might not want to believe anyone but Mrs Pompoms telling her she's adopted.

'Not want to believe' is not the same as 'refusing to believe.' Especially not in Susan's case. If there is any character more painfully honest with herself than Susan is, I have a hard time thinking of one. I do not see denial holding her back for very long.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

19 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Perhaps the next step would be for Nanase and Diane to confront Mrs Pompoms sometime when Susan will be out of the house.

Does Elliot still have Susan's work schedule?

Or, Susan promised Diane that she and Elliot would review any movie of her choice.  Just pick an obscenely long flick and then go to Mrs Pompoms while Susan and Elliot are distracted.

No way!  Elliot is not exactly a good liar, and Susan knows him pretty well.  He'd give away that he was hiding *something* by his guilty behavior, and then Susan would have it out of him before Nanase and Diane got as far as the Pompoms' living room!

[InfiniteRemnant 141]

1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

'Not want to believe' is not the same as 'refusing to believe.' Especially not in Susan's case. If there is any character more painfully honest with herself than Susan is, I have a hard time thinking of one. I do not see denial holding her back for very long.

Yeah, i'm with hack. this is a character who came into the series with a dozen prejudices, and has since worked past them thanks to observation and logical deduction. That doesn't strike me as someone who would be unable to get past their own denial when presented with an uncomfortable truth.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

No way!  Elliot is not exactly a good liar, and Susan knows him pretty well.  He'd give away that he was hiding *something* by his guilty behavior, and then Susan would have it out of him before Nanase and Diane got as far as the Pompoms' living room!

This is why you do not involve Elliot in the plotting.  Just give him the information you want to get to Susan

  If you tell Elliot a story, and he accepts it, he will then repeat it as the truth, to the best of his knowledge

Edited May 4, 2016 by Pharaoh RutinTutin
Spelling

[LivewareProblem 3]

There's pretty good odds that Susan already knows she's adopted and just hasn't told anyone. She isn't exactly keen on volunteering personal details.

[HarJIT 97]

I think Dan reblogged on Tumblr at some point someone juxtaposing http://www.egscomics.com/?id=871 and http://www.egscomics.com/?id=1587 regarding Susan and family, and asking something like "so what is the truth?" ... I might be misremembering, of course.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

Well, one did take place before the other.  Maybe after she cooled down from her annoyance, and thought about it, Susan asked her mother about relatives, and wound up meeting her cousins and spending time with them, especially holidays.  That could be the case whether adoption ever came up or not.

[ijuin 572]

Or, more likely, she was interpreting it more narrowly, as in "no, none of my cousins or other known family look enough like me to vindicate Ellen's assumption that she has just met one of my relatives".

[Vorlonagent 442]

I'm of the opinion that, if you're going to do something, go straight to Susan.  She's 18, she's an adult, she's mature, she deserves to know, if she doesn't know already.

If you aren't going to go to Susan, butt out altogether.  Give Susan the respect of being up-front or respect her privacy by being silent.  Sneaking around, trying to finesse Susan's mother just makes for the sort of confusion that can be more hurtful to Susan than any news about her parentage.

Elliot has the right idea.  Talk to Ed Verres first.  Get the lay of the land before deciding where to travel.

[Vorlonagent 442]

15 hours ago, Scotty said:

Nanase and Ellen had already discussed that if anyone should tell Susan she was adopted, it should be Mrs Pompoms, and they were even going to talk to her about it first to give her that chance, because Susan hearing her mom say she's adopted would be better than hearing it from Ellen and Nanase, yeah it will likely hurt either way, but it could be worse if Ellen and Nanase told Susan and then Mrs Pompoms denies it, even if Diane was there, it'd basically be their word against Mrs Pompoms and Susan might be more likely to believe her mother more.

It's not a matter of who or even what Susan believes.  It's a matter of what the right thing is and doing it. 

It's perfectly OK to introduce Susan to Diane, lay out the case for Susan being Diane's sister and have Susan not believe a word of it.  That's her choice. 

Trying to set up a "perfect situation" that forces Susan to believe is an exercise in egocentrism, demanding Susan come to believe what I want her to believe on my schedule.  I would want to give her the respect of deciding what she believes in her own time.  Which is why I say go directly to her or butt out. Do not bother Ms. Pompoms.

[Scotty 1,061]

5 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

'Not want to believe' is not the same as 'refusing to believe.' Especially not in Susan's case. If there is any character more painfully honest with herself than Susan is, I have a hard time thinking of one. I do not see denial holding her back for very long.

Sorry, I meant it in the way of "refusing to believe" in that Susan would think her mom would have told her long ago that she was adopted or something. The point I was trying to make is if Nanase and Ellen went to Susan first and Susan took it badly, then it would have a negative impact on their friendship, even if temporarily, and even if Mrs Pompoms then came out and said it was true, then there's essentially 3 people that Susan would be like "Just when I thought I finally figured out who I am, you throw this at me?!?". If Mrs Pompoms told Susan first, then even if Susan finds out that Nanase and Ellen suspected it for a while, the initial shock of being told by Mrs Pompoms might have faded enough for Susan to hear Nanase and Ellen's story.

[Vorlonagent 442]

4 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Sorry, I meant it in the way of "refusing to believe" in that Susan would think her mom would have told her long ago that she was adopted or something. The point I was trying to make is if Nanase and Ellen went to Susan first and Susan took it badly, then it would have a negative impact on their friendship, even if temporarily, and even if Mrs Pompoms then came out and said it was true, then there's essentially 3 people that Susan would be like "Just when I thought I finally figured out who I am, you throw this at me?!?". If Mrs Pompoms told Susan first, then even if Susan finds out that Nanase and Ellen suspected it for a while, the initial shock of being told by Mrs Pompoms might have faded enough for Susan to hear Nanase and Ellen's story.

There's relationship risks regardless of what Ellen and Nanase do.  Any choice that doesn't involve talking to Susan risks provoking anger or disappointment via "Why didn't you tell me?"

[Drasvin 123]

36 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

I'm of the opinion that, if you're going to do something, go straight to Susan.  She's 18, she's an adult, she's mature, she deserves to know, if she doesn't know already.

If you aren't going to go to Susan, butt out altogether.  Give Susan the respect of being up-front or respect her privacy by being silent.  Sneaking around, trying to finesse Susan's mother just makes for the sort of confusion that can be more hurtful to Susan than any news about her parentage.

Elliot has the right idea.  Talk to Ed Verres first.  Get the lay of the land before deciding where to travel.

Also, if they talk to Mr Verres first and their suspicions are true, then they will have vetted data proving their point if/when they go to talk to Susan about it, because Mr. Verres is going to have a bunch of exposition and a chart or two.

[Don Edwards 548]

1 hour ago, ijuin said:

Or, more likely, she was interpreting it more narrowly, as in "no, none of my cousins or other known family look enough like me to vindicate Ellen's assumption that she has just met one of my relatives".

Or, she means exactly what she said. She doesn't actually care about her cousins. She goes and visits them on holidays because her mother is going to visit with HER parents/siblings.

[Scotty 1,061]

1 minute ago, Vorlonagent said:

There's relationship risks regardless of what Ellen and Nanase do.  Any choice that doesn't involve talking to Susan risks provoking anger or disappointment via "Why didn't you tell me?"

And that's easily answered with "We weren't 100% sure if you were and felt your mom had the right to tell you first if you were."

Also, how would Mrs Pompoms react if Nanase and Ellen went and told Susan first, and the found herself face to face with an angry Susan asking why she kept something like that from her for so long. Mrs Pompoms would likely be furious that Nanase and Ellen did that. And if it turned out that Susan wasn't adopted, Mrs Pompoms would still likely be angry that Nanase and Ellen made Susan think she was.

Yes this does completely depend on whether Edward confirms that Susan is adopted or not, this would fall under the idea that Edward comes up empty for some strange reason.

[Vorlonagent 442]

Ms. Pompoms is likely to face an angry Susan regardless if she waited this long to tell Susan something big and important.

If Ed Verres comes up empty, the best Ellen and Nanase can say is "we *think*...  "We think Diane is your sister because resemblance, birthday and magic affinity".  "Diane *is* adopted so it's possible you are."  I think we can agree that Ellen and Nanase shouldn't present their suspicions as fact unless they know it is fact.

In some ways, talking to Ed Verres makes things harder because room for doubt lowers the emotional ante.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

2 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:

In some ways, talking to Ed Verres makes things harder because room for doubt lowers the emotional ante.

He's also more likely to fake a seizure.

[Drasvin 123]

14 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Yes this does completely depend on whether Edward confirms that Susan is adopted or not, this would fall under the idea that Edward comes up empty for some strange reason.

Though if Edward comes up empty that means either Elliot and Nanase's logic about him doing background checks is flawed (possible but unlikely with how well they know him) or there is more to the issue than there appears. He's a highly influential person that works for the FBI, the agency that performs most, if not all, of the federal government's background checks. Especially as he would have the clearance to more restricted sections of knowledge in those checks. If the knowledge exists and is available to government systems, Mr. Verres can likely get access to it, provided it's not above his security clearance.

[Scotty 1,061]

2 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

Though if Edward comes up empty that means either Elliot and Nanase's logic about him doing background checks is flawed (possible but unlikely with how well they know him) or there is more to the issue than there appears. He's a highly influential person that works for the FBI, the agency that performs most, if not all, of the federal government's background checks. Especially as he would have the clearance to more restricted sections of knowledge in those checks. If the knowledge exists and is available to government systems, Mr. Verres can likely get access to it, provided it's not above his security clearance.

If Susan is adopted, Edward wouldn't likely have to search for anything, he'd have already known from the first background check, and opted to not say anything likely because he felt the same way Ellen and Nanase did, that it wasn't his business to say anything. Of course he could have assumed Susan knew and let it go, in which case I would imagine when Nanase asks him about it, he'd probably be like "She didn't tell you?"

If however, he didn't find anything during the background check, either she wasn't adopted and Diane is proof that Ellen's backstory is not as terrible as Nanase thought, or she was adopted but someone went through a lot of trouble to keep it a secret....hmmm, you know, I can't actually think of why Susan's adoption would be kept under such secrecy while Diane's wasn't... the fact that they both live in Moperville basically guarantees that they'd meet (or mutual aquaintances take notice) at some point and start digging around for answers.

[Vorlonagent 442]

This being Ed Verres, he may even know if Susan knows she's adopted...

[hkmaly 490]

6 hours ago, HarJIT said:

I think Dan reblogged on Tumblr at some point someone juxtaposing http://www.egscomics.com/?id=871 and http://www.egscomics.com/?id=1587 regarding Susan and family, and asking something like "so what is the truth?" ... I might be misremembering, of course.

... good catch.

3 hours ago, Drasvin said:

If the knowledge exists and is available to government systems, Mr. Verres can likely get access to it, provided it's not above his security clearance.

If there IS a security clearance ABOVE head of paranormal division of FBI, it is accident waiting to happen. People who decide how should Earth deal with representatives from other star systems shouldn't be kept in dark about anything. Remember the deathless army of rage? It would be pity if someone like that destroyed Earth because something was kept hidden from Mr. Verres, wouldn't it?

Remember that even TEDD is already at point where it will be dangerous to feed him misinformation.

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

3 hours ago, Drasvin said:

Though if Edward comes up empty that means either Elliot and Nanase's logic about him doing background checks is flawed (possible but unlikely with how well they know him) or there is more to the issue than there appears. He's a highly influential person that works for the FBI, the agency that performs most, if not all, of the federal government's background checks. Especially as he would have the clearance to more restricted sections of knowledge in those checks. If the knowledge exists and is available to government systems, Mr. Verres can likely get access to it, provided it's not above his security clearance.

If Susan is adopted, Edward wouldn't likely have to search for anything, he'd have already known from the first background check, and opted to not say anything likely because he felt the same way Ellen and Nanase did, that it wasn't his business to say anything. Of course he could have assumed Susan knew and let it go, in which case I would imagine when Nanase asks him about it, he'd probably be like "She didn't tell you?"

Saying anything based on informations he get from FBI would be not only bad manners but also unprofessional.

He might still refuse to say anything ... until the high number of vampires will be brought into his attention. Then it's obvious that keeping Diane and Susan apart just so Susan can enjoy the illusion of not being adopted is dangerous.

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

I can't actually think of why Susan's adoption would be kept under such secrecy while Diane's wasn't... the fact that they both live in Moperville basically guarantees that they'd meet (or mutual aquaintances take notice) at some point and start digging around for answers.

I would ask who and how made sure that Susan and Diane don't go to same school. Because going to same school would make impossible to keep the secret, and the probability of that happening was 50% ... it can happen if noone cared, but it's too big risk to leave it on chance if someone didn't wanted it to happen.

... which brings question: does Diane's mom know about Susan?

 

[Scotty 1,061]

1 minute ago, hkmaly said:

I would ask who and how made sure that Susan and Diane don't go to same school. Because going to same school would make impossible to keep the secret, and the probability of that happening was 50% ... it can happen if noone cared, but it's too big risk to leave it on chance if someone didn't wanted it to happen.

... which brings question: does Diane's mom know about Susan?

If them being sisters was supposed to be a big secret, Diane and Susan should have been sent to families on opposite sides of the US to really minimize the chances of them meeting, even if either family moved around a bit, the chances of them ending up in the same area would still be low.

I would wonder if Diane asked if her adopted parents knew if she had siblings that may have ended up elsewhere. I would imagine if they did know, they probably don't know where. but it's entirely possible they don't know. I think most adoption agencies would try to keep siblings together, I can probably see a case where the Pompoms got first pick and Diane's parents weren't told about a sibling that Diane might want to look for later.