No Way 2017-05-02

[Dave]

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/no-way/

Oddly, it makes perfect sense that Digit knew of the roof. The safety fence resembles a web.

[Thor]

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/no-way/

Oddly, it makes perfect sense that Digit knew of the roof. The safety fence resembles a web.

What doesn't make sense is that they will be allowed back onto the roof. There's lots of reasons that no one has been up there before, including reasons of safety, liability, and monitoring. And the mentioned possibility of "This would have been so romantic" manages to straddle all three of these categories.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Heh. Timothy isn't hearing anything right now.

[AnotherFairportfan]

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/no-way/

Oddly, it makes perfect sense that Digit knew of the roof. The safety fence resembles a web.

What doesn't make sense is that they will be allowed back onto the roof. There's lots of reasons that no one has been up there before, including reasons of safety, liability, and monitoring. And the mentioned possibility of "This would have been so romantic" manages to straddle all three of these categories.

The roof is obviously INTENDED to be accessed.

[Dave]

What doesn't make sense is that they will be allowed back onto the roof. There's lots of reasons that no one has been up there before, including reasons of safety, liability, and monitoring.

Maybe so, maybe no. Those look a lot like benches around the edge of the roof, which would suggest that the roof area was deliberately set up as an area for people to use... relax, visit, whatever. The area might not be any more dangerous than a ground-level schoolyard... and we have no idea what sort of electronic or paranormal/magical monitoring might be in place.

[DilyV]

Heh. Timothy isn't hearing anything right now.

Hey Timothy.. Nice earmuffs!!!

[Gyrrakavian]

Looks like Tim is getting used to that position.
I wonder what'll happen once he hits his growth spurt?

[Thor]

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/no-way/

Oddly, it makes perfect sense that Digit knew of the roof. The safety fence resembles a web.

What doesn't make sense is that they will be allowed back onto the roof. There's lots of reasons that no one has been up there before, including reasons of safety, liability, and monitoring. And the mentioned possibility of "This would have been so romantic" manages to straddle all three of these categories.

The roof is obviously INTENDED to be accessed.

...and that's why no one knew the place existed for at least seven years? It was a hidden treasure that only those who had earned the secret knowledge could enjoy?

There's benches, sure, but maybe it was intended as a place where teachers and staff could come and eat. That would make sense, as adults would not require supervision like minor children would.

[jeffepp]

Looks like Tim is getting used to that position.
I wonder what'll happen once he hits his growth spurt?

A painful chin to the back of the head.

[eee]

I'm finding it a little hard to understand the joy with which roof access is being greeted. Don't they have playgrounds, school yards, hidden nooks and crannies in the building they can go for privacy and enjoyment? Not to mention that roof's going to be broiling in the summer and unbearable in winter. Maybe it's just teenage joy at finding someplace new.

Daylla's going to be going to school for seven more years? She's just 11?

[oldmanmickey]

Seems to me Thor is on the right path here. It may have been intended for anyone to use originally but it would seen the teachers may have squashed that knowledge and kept it to themselves.

[Dave]

Hey Timothy.. Nice earmuffs!!!

He's not that short...

Seems to me Thor is on the right path here. It may have been intended for anyone to use originally but it would seen the teachers may have squashed that knowledge and kept it to themselves.

Might this be an example of the "hidden in plain sight" trope? or the related "weirdness censor"? (insert obligatory caution about the time-sucking vacuum that is TvTropes... you have been warned, don't blame me if you go look up those phrases there and the next thing you know it's Friday and you are completely starving and dehydrated 'cause you haven't left your chair and the computer for days).

[Thor]

Daylla's going to be going to school for seven more years? She's just 11?

If you think that's weird...during the time skip Atsali went from being a freshman to being a senior, while Pickle went from Kindergarten to 5th grade.

Destroying the Calendar Machine fucked up everything!!!

[Dave]

Daylla's going to be going to school for seven more years? She's just 11?

If you think that's weird...during the time skip Atsali went from being a freshman to being a senior, while Pickle went from Kindergarten to 5th grade.

Destroying the Calendar Machine fucked up everything!!!

Why is that weird?

Even mortal human kids skip grades all the time, based on their rates of maturation and their actual skill levels. Pickle is a unique hybrid, and her rate of maturation is definitely different than that of a human. We know she's at least nearly the same age Atsali is (Pickle was a potted plant when Atsali was a toddler).

Furthermore, with regards to her peers (Timmy and Scarlet et al)... I don't think we can assume that Gryphon has the same grade schedule as mundane schools do (kindergarten, 6 elementary, 3 and 3 or 2 and 4 for junior high and high school). Para elementary school might have only 4 or 5 grades.

I really don't see a significant discrepancy here.

[Warrl]

Furthermore, with regards to her peers (Timmy and Scarlet et al)... I don't think we can assume that Gryphon has the same grade schedule as mundane schools do (kindergarten, 6 elementary, 3 and 3 or 2 and 4 for junior high and high school). Para elementary school might have only 4 or 5 grades.

Even limiting consideration to mundane public schools in the US, things aren't that consistent...

"Kindergarten" is usually one year, but occasionally it begins a year earlier and lasts two years.
"Elementary school" is usually six years, but sometimes only five.
"Middle school" begins after elementary school - running 3 or 4 years if elementary school is 5 years, 2 or 3 years if elementary school is 6 years.
"Junior high school" begins after a 6-year elementary school, and runs 3 years. So, sometimes, it means the same as "middle school".
"High school" begins after middle school or junior high school and completes the 12-year plan - so it's 3 or 4 years.

And then there are exceptions and special cases. Some of these happen because what goes on in a school has to change in response to changes in the student population, but they don't bother with renaming the school. Some happen for various other reasons.

[Thor]

Daylla's going to be going to school for seven more years? She's just 11?

If you think that's weird...during the time skip Atsali went from being a freshman to being a senior, while Pickle went from Kindergarten to 5th grade.

Destroying the Calendar Machine fucked up everything!!!

Why is that weird?

Even mortal human kids skip grades all the time, based on their rates of maturation and their actual skill levels. Pickle is a unique hybrid, and her rate of maturation is definitely different than that of a human. We know she's at least nearly the same age Atsali is (Pickle was a potted plant when Atsali was a toddler).

Furthermore, with regards to her peers (Timmy and Scarlet et al)... I don't think we can assume that Gryphon has the same grade schedule as mundane schools do (kindergarten, 6 elementary, 3 and 3 or 2 and 4 for junior high and high school). Para elementary school might have only 4 or 5 grades.

I really don't see a significant discrepancy here.

Let me put it another way:

Before the time skip, Atsali was 10 years older than Pickle.
After the time skip, Atsali was 7 years older than Pickle.

I realize that Wapsi Time is a little flexible--for example I believe that the Gilchrist family observed Xmas three times while Atsali remained 15--but unless during the time skip Atsali was travelling at a significant percentage of the speed of light relative to Pickle, they should not have aged at different rates.

(Most likely, Mr. Taylor wanted to write about Calista's awkward tween years and Atsali's awkward first college experiences, and changed them by authorial fiat, which works fine from a day-to-day viewing angle, but when looking at the Wapsi Tapestry as a whole, there's definitely some strange perspective lines in the direction of the 4th dimension.)

[jwhouk]

At least he didn't say anything about "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff."

[Dave]

Before the time skip, Atsali was 10 years older than Pickle.
After the time skip, Atsali was 7 years older than Pickle.

Ummm... how do you know that? I don't think you do. In particular, you don't know Pickle's actual age.

You do know what grades they seem to be in now, and what grades they seemed to have been in some time ago. That's not the same thing as knowing their age.

You say that Atsali was 10 years older than Pickle, before the time skip. That's not consistent with this Library-managed "replay" of the day Atsali's parents were murdered. Pickle "sees" Atsali (appearing to be about 2) holding the young "widdle plant" Castela (still in a pot). Castela was already mature enough to want to protect toddler Atsali and was apparently quite capable of doing so.

We saw much of the same series of events (starting here) as what seems to be a "canon" flashback (that is, not as part of a Library recording), so I can think we accept that this really did happen some years ago. The conversations here confirm that Atsali and Castela were together in the safe-room.

Somewhat later in their lives we see this image of Atsali, Castela, and Thana. Atsali has clearly grown quite a bit, while it looks as if Castela may only recently have learned to take humanoid form. At this point, there appears to be between 6 and 10 years of age difference between them... but we know that's not true, because the earlier images couldn't possibly have existed if it were.

All we can really conclude, I think, is that Castela doesn't appear to be aging and maturing at the same rate, or in the same way as a human being would. That's not really surprising, all things considered. She looked 10 years younger than Atsali when we first met her... but she wasn't. That's why I said that she's at least almost Atsali's age. It's entirely possible that she was cloned/created even before Atsali was born.

[Thor]

Before the time skip, Atsali was 10 years older than Pickle.
After the time skip, Atsali was 7 years older than Pickle.

Ummm... how do you know that? I don't think you do. In particular, you don't know Pickle's actual age.

You do know what grades they seem to be in now, and what grades they seemed to have been in some time ago. That's not the same thing as knowing their age.

You say that Atsali was 10 years older than Pickle, before the time skip. That's not consistent with this Library-managed "replay" of the day Atsali's parents were murdered. Pickle "sees" Atsali (appearing to be about 2) holding the young "widdle plant" Castela (still in a pot). Castela was already mature enough to want to protect toddler Atsali and was apparently quite capable of doing so.

I am basing my 10 years span on Pickle's hybrid form (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/short-notice/), which seems to be progressing--developmental-wise--on a one-to-one rate of growth with actual humans. (We can argue about whether Pickle's pre-humanoid existence "counts" as part of her age separately.)

In this strip (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/the-secret-2/) Pickle is a class as part of a bunch of five-year-olds, or at least that is how Monica understands them to be. Though here (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/what-gives/) she says that she was six at the same time that Atsali was starting her freshman year, so it is hard to say for sure. Especially considering that on this single trip to the island, Pickle says that she is five (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/life-strategies/) and Atsali says she is six (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/just-children/). Confusing!

In this strip (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/free-after-work/) that was published 3 weeks after Monica visiting Pickle's class above , Monica presents Atsali as being fifteen.
Assuming Monica is not grievously misinformed, 15 minus 5 or 6 equals 10 or 9 years.

Pickle was in kindergarten in the strip above, and had Timothy, Scarlet, and Daylla as classmates, then same as now. Unless they all skipped grades at the same rate, it seems reasonable to assume that they all went through grade school one grade level at a time. They are now in 5th Grade (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/eager-study-buddy/) which means that they are all currently (5 or 6) plus 5 equals (10 or 11) years old.

At the time of Pickle being in kindergarden, Atsali was a freshman in high school. Now Pickle is in 5th grade and Atsali's now a graduating senior (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/so-mature/), along with the Ursa sisters, and the whole girl geek gang. Unless all of the high school gang got held back twice, or unless Gryffindor High has a unique 6 year high school system, then all of them should have graduated two years ago, and they should all be around 19 or 20 years old. But it is strongly implied here (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/the-substitute/) that their high school is a four year system like almost everyone else's is. But we also know that Atsali, turned 18 during her senior year (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/let-me-in/) which means that she was 17 when she started as a senior.

So let's sum up:
When Atsali was a started as a freshman (9th grade), she was 15yo. At the same time, Pickle was (5 or 6) and in kindergarten (0th grade).
Then, timeskip.
And now, when Atsali started as a senior (12th grade), she was 17yo. At the same time, Pickle was "a tween" (10-12) and in 5th grade.

If it was 3 years later (with Atsali going from freshman to senior), then Atsali should now be a 19yo senior and Pickle should be a (8 or 9)yo 3rd grader.
If it was 5 years later (with Pickle going from kindergarten to 5th grade), then Atsali should be a 21yo college sophomore and pickle should be a (10 or 11)yo 5th grader.

But as it is, we have 18yo Atsali the high school senior and "tween" (10-12yo) Pickle the 5th grader.
No matter how you do it, the math doesn't work out.

[AnotherFairportfan]

I'm sorry - that kind of attempt to reconcile continuity is almost as futile as trying to figure out the relationships between Harlock, Maetel and Esmerelda.