Comic for Monday, Dec 19, 2022

[mlooney 3,417]

Here is
I'm upping my percent chance of the helper being the refreshed Pandora to 70%.  Of course there is the fact that who ever it is has to use doors.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Are those doors operated by pressure mats?  

Was this school formerly a supermarket?

[Darth Fluffy 302]

3 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Are those doors operated by pressure mats?  

Was this school formerly a supermarket?

I am dumbfounded. I did not notice the pressure mats until I read your post and looked at the comic again. I had a bias, 'schools do not have automatic doors', based on my experience with school doors more than half a century ago (and a very few visits to my kids' schools). Pressure mats, and needing to materialize to activate one, argues for Pandora.

 

6 hours ago, mlooney said:

Here is
I'm upping my percent chance of the helper being the refreshed Pandora to 70%.  Of course there is the fact that who ever it is has to use doors.

I would have thought that Pandora could slip in and out of our reality and wouldn't need to use a door, too.

 

We have a hazy silhouette in one panel. The hair style does not seem to match anyone we know in the school, but could be Pandora from her last youthful appearance. The figure appears to be wearing a pants suit, which is less significant; Pandora has worn pants and has worn skirts,  so have the human cast (to individual tastes).

I'm fairly convinced, it's Pandora. If it is not, it is someone with a power we have not seen used before. But if it was another student, why would they be in a hurry to leave? (Also, why is Pandora in a hurry to leave? Feels Diane, who barely knows her, might be stressed?)

The mistiness of the art from panel 2 onward might be an indication that it is no a human character.

Diane seems to have calmed the #$%* down since whatever happened to her happened. She's back in Diane-style thinking about things mode.

 

[mlooney 3,417]

3 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Are those doors operated by pressure mats?  

Was this school formerly a supermarket?

Most automatic doors, not all, open side to side, not front to back. Plus I can't see a school shelling out the money to install automatic doors.

[mlooney 3,417]

2 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I did not notice the pressure mats until I read your post and looked at the comic again.

Those could be regular door mats, or just differently colored floor sections.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Just now, mlooney said:

Those could be regular door mats, or just differently colored floor sections.

Yes, they could, which is what I thought they were. But the silhouette figure materialized, either to push the door open (which we do not see), or to set off a sensor. It is not conclusive, but I can believe that a large school in an urban setting has automatic doors, and it is possible that it is a repurposed former retail store. We have a Wally World that moved one exit down for more floor space, and the old store has been several public facilities since.

Arguing that it is not an automatic door, it does not appear to be an exit - the last panel, where the door is open, we see something like a poster on a wall beyond it. Also, the bar across each door appears to be a press release for the latch. It seems slightly odd that she had to materialize to open the door, but is apparently invisible passing through the opening, not needing to stay materialized to hold it open (or she's already passed through).

[ijuin 572]

28 minutes ago, mlooney said:

Most automatic doors, not all, open side to side, not front to back. Plus I can't see a school shelling out the money to install automatic doors.

Americans With Disabilities Act—if Moperville South had a number of students who would be unable to manually operate a door, and a number of parents who were loud and influential, then such doors would get installed, budget be damned.

Secondly, after the Abraham incident last year, the school administration has a motive to have doors that can be remotely and automatically closed and locked.

[mlooney 3,417]

Yeah, with the ADA they might install automatic doors, or more accurately a door, the minimum required by law, however I suspect they would be "push this button to open door" type of automatic doors I see at some commercial places (banks mainly), not one that opens when you hit a pressure plate or via an infrared device like most modern automatic door use.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

46 minutes ago, ijuin said:

Americans With Disabilities Act—if Moperville South had a number of students who would be unable to manually operate a door, and a number of parents who were loud and influential, then such doors would get installed, budget be damned.

Secondly, after the Abraham incident last year, the school administration has a motive to have doors that can be remotely and automatically closed and locked.

My high school had stupider stuff, high tech for the day that was rarely used. They spent a fortune on it.

[mlooney 3,417]

Some times it's easier to get funding for capital improvement rather than things that the school actually needs.

[Don Edwards 548]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

Some times it's easier to get funding for capital improvement rather than things that the school actually needs.

The elementary school our kids went to, had three buildings with leaky roofs - so they got funding to put a roof over a few parking spaces and make them a covered playground. Right next to the gym.

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

The elementary school our kids went to, had three buildings with leaky roofs - so they got funding to put a roof over a few parking spaces and make them a covered playground. Right next to the gym.

Of course they made a playground.  That's for young athletes.   And everybody knows that school athletics is the most important thing in the school.  I'm not bitter or any thing.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Further thoughts - Diane apparently heard a voice, she said "I don't know where she went." She recognized the timbre of a female voice. But she did not recognize the person. That should eliminate the cast of people that were at the party (Nanase, Grace, Justine), and Noah, Lucy, and Rhoda. And, of course, anyone that goes to the other school (Elliot, Tedd, Ashley, Catalina). (She may or may not have met Catalina. I'm not tracking if the double date with Rhoda has happened, but different school, so it doesn't matter.) She would likely know Adrian Raven's voice, and he's male, and he's supposed to be away. Odds are looking much better that this is Pandora. Diane has met Pandora, very briefly, before Pandora's rebirth, and was overwhelmed with revelations about her own background. This Pandora, if it is Pandora, might well have a different voice, just based on her age.

Not strong evidence, because it is indistinct; the faint silhouette appears to have female hair, body shape, and clothes, but small breasts. That also seems like evidence that it is reborn Pandora. Her one brief appearance since her rebirth seemed youthful.

I think we're into "I'd lay money on 'This is Pandora'" territory at this point. I wouldn't bet that with Dan, though, because he could easily change the reveal to win the bet. 

Crazier theory - It was Dan's avatar. They saved Diane because they knew they would need her later in the story.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Darth Fluffy
Seemed to need an emoji to clarify intent.

[ChronosCat 155]

6 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I think we're into "I'd lay money on 'This is Pandora'" territory at this point. I wouldn't bet that with Dan, though, because he could easily change the reveal to win the bet.

Well, only if it was enough money to make redoing his plans worth it. Dan is a perfectionist who likes to plan ahead; changing major story details is no trivial thing for a writer like that.

Also (dropping the question of money), Dan likes to lay out enough clues in advance of story revelations so that people can correctly guess the "twist", and has stated before he wouldn't change the story direction because someone guessed it correctly.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

2 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

Well, only if it was enough money to make redoing his plans worth it. Dan is a perfectionist who likes to plan ahead; changing major story details is no trivial thing for a writer like that.

Also (dropping the question of money), Dan likes to lay out enough clues in advance of story revelations so that people can correctly guess the "twist", and has stated before he wouldn't change the story direction because someone guessed it correctly.

I added a to clarify my statement.