Editing 2498: Forest Walk

{{comic
| number    = 2498
| date      = August 4, 2021
| title     = Forest Walk
| image     = forest_walk.png
| titletext = The only other person to walk by was a linguist back in the 80s, but she just spent a while dissecting the phrase 'help me down' before getting distracted by a squirrel and wandering off.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] is walking through a wide landscape with [[Beret Guy]] who owns a big part of it. Megan is surprised that he owns such a big property, however, Beret Guy is known for his inexplicable businesses such as in [[1493: Meeting]] and from [[1032: Networking]]; we know he probably has enough resources to be able to buy it. Alternatively, he might have simply inherited it from his mom (see [[502: Dark Flow]]), or may not understand the concept of owning it. Nevertheless, he walks here every day, and from the context of the comic, it seems pretty much no one else comes here.

They meet a rather disheveled-looking bearded man hanging from a parachute caught in a tree. The man shakes a stick at them and demands to be helped down to the ground. Beret Guy simply addresses him as "Mister Cooper" and asks if he promises to return the money he took. The man angrily refuses, and Beret Guy casually says he'll see him again tomorrow, suggesting that this conversation has become a daily routine. Megan asks if the man was [[D. B. Cooper]], which Beret Guy immediately confirms. He then comments on an owl nest as another bit of "neat stuff" found on his land, suggesting that he finds Cooper's presence to be just another mildly interesting part of this land.

D. B. Cooper is the identity given to a man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in 1971. He collected a $200,000 ransom (equivalent to $1,250,000 in 2020) and famously donned a parachute and jumped from the plane over the state of Washington. He was never seen or heard from again. Despite lengthy FBI investigations and nationwide publicity, the hijacker was never identified. A few thousand dollars of the ransom money was found in a river, nearly 10 years after the hijacking, but the remainder has never been recovered. The only things known about him are a police composite drawing and the name "Dan Cooper", under which he had purchased his airline ticket (he was called "D.B." as a result of a miscommunication with the media, and the name stuck).

The high-profile case followed by the never-solved mystery has led to a massive amount of speculation as to his identity, background, and what became of him. Many consider the most likely scenario to be that he didn't survive the parachute jump, and simply crashed somewhere that his body was never found. Others imagine that he escaped with the money and simply managed to evade capture. The comic is insinuating that, after leaping from the plane, he got entangled in a tree in Beret Guy's land and has been there ever since. 

Uncanny situations are nothing new to Beret Guy since he possesses [[:Category:Strange_powers_of_Beret_Guy|many strange powers]]. Hence, the concept of a famous criminal hanging from a tree for nearly 50 years doesn't seem any more interesting to him than an owl's nest. In keeping with the typical bizarre-ness of Beret Guy's life, it isn't explained how a man could survive for half a century hanging from a tree, why he'd choose to remain trapped there for his entire life rather than return money that he's in no position to spend, or why Beret Guy wouldn't simply report his whereabouts to the police.  All of these are simply accepted as unremarkable realities of life, for him. Randall already referenced D. B. Cooper [[:Category:Comics featuring D. B. Cooper|a few times]] before this comic.

The title text may refer to the linguist from [[2390: Linguists]] who is more interested in the linguistic nuances that people use than in actually responding to their call for assistance. It is not known how many others have walked through Beret Guy's land, in the interim, or whether it is their nature or the general aura from Beret Guy, but the linguist did not much more than ponder the phrase "help me down". Megan also seems in no particular hurry to intervene.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Beret Guy are walking through a landscape with spread-out trees and grass and puddles on the ground.]
:Megan: Wow, this is all yours?
:Beret Guy: Yeah! All the way back to the river!
:Beret Guy: I walk here every day.

:[Megan still walks towards Beret Guy who has now stopped and is looking up while speaking to a man hanging in a tree in front of them. The man has long wild hair and a large beard. He hangs from his parachute which has been folded around a large branch sticking out from beneath the top of the tree. He is holding a long stick of some sort, seemingly attempting to threaten Beret Guy, as the stick and his legs are vibrating as indicated with small lines.]
:Beret Guy: Morning, Mister Cooper!
:Cooper: You help me down '''''this instant!'''''

:[Pan down to show only Beret Buy and nothing else. Cooper replies from off-panel from the top corner.]
:Beret Guy: Do you promise to give back all the money you took?
:Cooper [off-panel]: '''''Never!'''''
:Beret Guy: Okay! See you tomorrow!

:[Megan and Beret Guy continue walking through the landscape with three small trees behind them, as well as grass, rocks, and a small puddle. Megan looks back over her shoulder towards where Cooper is hanging.]
:Megan: Was that D.B. Cooper?
:Beret Guy: Yeah, and up ahead there's an owl nest!
:Beret Guy: There's so much neat stuff here.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring D. B. Cooper]]
[[Category:Animals]] <!-- Owls nest -->
[[Category:Squirrels]] <!-- Title text -->
[[Category:Language]] <!-- Title text -->
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]] <!-- Arguable. But indefinitely sustaining the life of a suspended and exposed fugitive from justice could be one. Persuading at least one (or now two) other visitors to be unconcerned, to the extent of probably never speaking of it to anyone else, might be another. -->