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Currently On Hiatus: Please Enjoy A New Reader Question Every Weekday!

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If it lets in organisms, would the roof let in rain as well?

Maybe. But it makes me wonder what would happen if some skydiver got himself turned around and tried to land on the roof of a certain abandoned warehouse, though…

That seems spectacularly unlikely. For starters, I don’t think Skydivers are even *allowed* to dive anywhere near city limits unless it’s a special event. Even if a skydiver was headed in that direction, there’s zero reason to land on the roof instead of the nice empty lot that’s literally right next door.

I believe the “nice empty lot” you’re looking at is water. Unless they’re prepared for it, that’s not the best landing spot.

the empty lot is above it, near the upper right corner. Though if slowed enough a water landing isn’t half bad, and is less likely to break anything.

The vacant lot on the other side of Great Howard Street from the warehouse.
I looked it up in Google Earth.

Good old Google Eh Jeni.

The warehouse on the otherside of the dock is now called Titanic and is a hotel and resaurant. There seems to be a pallet place accross the street and then the other side of the dock wall is if memory serves a watersports centre now. All this from memoryu as I’ve been there.

What does the illusion roof look like during a rainstorm? I’m noticing some distortion around where the pigeon fell in…

At least there shouldn’t be an issue with unseen runoff. Outsiders will assume it’s directed through downspouts (face-mounted or hidden) and a storm drain system to the bay. They don’t need to know that the rain falls on a hidden village before any of that happens.

If you recall earlier chapters its got an open roof, so if it rains outside its going to rain inside as well; which I suspect is why the inside is built much like a normal(ish) street with gutters and roof tiles upon the buildings. They really only need a wall around the outside to prevent people walking into the area like the pigeon did; whilst the threat from above is much reduced since people don’t fly (though it begs the question if anyone ever scaled the wall and then fell through the top – parkour could prove the undoing if it ever catches on in Liverpool

I’m amused to discover, upon doing a little research, that in present day this warehouse is actually being redeveloped to be an apartment complex that coincidentally mirrors the concept of the avalon to a remarkable degree.

The outer walls will be preserved to appear very much like the original warehouse (Stanley Tobacco Warehouse) in full distressed condition. The inside edge will be lined with apartments and enclosed corridors. The center will be opened up as a huge sunlit courtyard with the outer walls of the old warehouse acting as an enclosure.

No magic roof though.

Wait, I’m confused. I thought they were already IN the Avalon. Do the Finns not live in the Avalon?

No, they don’t. The first page said they were in “Merseyside”. That’s a largish area around the city of Liverpool and the lower Mersey River. Not having researched the regional geology, I’ll guess that the natural caves the Finns began with were found among hills nearby. (Digging too deep near water can lead to water-table problems.)

As I recall, Kory has said that the Finns also have a town-home inside the Avalon; Paulbert has a separate apartment where he resides most of the time.

And as for your comment about dropping hints to the Avalon’s location: I think explicitly telling us the name of its location is a pretty good hint to that location. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xTEZ7Jfbmq4/R0qwYvqrPlI/AAAAAAAAALw/–pB2h769dI/s720/tobacco-m8081.jpg The Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse. It actually doesn’t look that big on the outside. I mean, yeah, it’s long and tall, but it’s not very wide. I’m going to chalk it up to magic, TARDIS technology, and lots of sewn together bags of holding. Also, you know… comic.

There’s not necessarily any actual magic involved in that aspect. If you measure out the dimensions of a house and mark them on open ground, the size can seem utterly inadequate. Build the walls and step inside, and it will seem larger. Add the right amount of furnishings, and it seems larger still.

The Avalon is not a major city. It’s an enclosed village.

I haven’t looked up the actual dimensions of the Stanley Tobacco Warehouse, but I have examined its image here for ballpark measurements. The length is almost five times the height, and the width is about one-third wider than the height. If it’s ten stories, or about a hundred feet, tall, that makes it about 475 x 130. You might be surprised what can fit inside a space that size.

I’ve seen city blocks ranging in size from ten per mile (Fort Collins, CO) to twelve per mile (Seattle, WA) to twenty per mile (Portland, OR). Twenty per mile is 264 feet on a side, minus streets. If my estimate is in the right ballpark, the Avalon encloses the area of about one Portland block, with no need for driveways and parking lots.

That’s the biggest brick building in the world right there, which is odd cos I was literally just doing an architecture project based on the area when I started reading this. And I thought now there would be a good place to hide it. Then I came home and continued reading. Terribly spooky.

And Colin begins to understand how thumbs might not make living as a human better than living in an Avalon.

With great thumbs comes great responsibility.

Now he can enjoy the dubious pleasures of buttons, zippers, shoestrings, and neckties.

Heh. I found the exact photo online that you used for reference for the Stanley Dock Warehouse. That must have taken awhile to render. I also read in my searches that Stanley Dock is getting a big renovation and urban renewal, with luxury hotels and all that crap. Sucks for the Avalon.

Ah well that’s in our universe. In this one… well, I’m sure they’ve got friends or even members of the Avalon in high places to discourage and prevent things like that from happening.

Considering that despite their use of utilities (water, gas, electricity, TV, radio) they have yet to tip off the Authorities, so there has to be someone working behind the scenes to keep them covered. So it seems logical that such a person would also be in a position to prevent the chance for redevelopment of the area.

Also, just how did they cover up their coring out the warehouse for the space to make the Avalon? Anyone whose ever seen an industrial demolition site would have know the quantity of rubble that can be generated. So how was the generation of that much rubble hidden, and then its removal hidden?

For that first paragraph’s question, they probably use generators instead of actually tapping into the city’s power grid.

But wouldn’t people wonder why they can hear generators going in an abandoned warehouse?

you can only soundproof so much before people hear something.
As well, there is the problem of obtaining fuel to run the generators.
And on top of that, there is the issue of venting the generator exhaust.

And electricity was only one of the utilities I mentioned.
There’s 4 others to hide the use of.

That could possibly be… but they still have to get water and other stuff from the city, and if that doesn’t tip anyone off, why not have power too? But seriously, they must have someone high up in some government office or something, probably all over the world, to let the Avalons function smoothly and without human interference.

How many frisbees are in there do you think?

That building is eight or nine stories high. Even if someone’s playing frisbee next to so much water where it’d easily be lost forever, who would be able to get a frisbee that high that accurately?

Am I the only one who’s upset at this being filler comic? I was so looking forward to young Jim…

Not sure what you mean, friend! Illumination is certainly not a filler comic! If anything, a comic about Jim as a kid would be the filler comic, as it doesn’t have much to do with the main plot of the comic!

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