Her first baby steps toward actual super-villainy. I’m so proud.
Writing problem: How to insert a reminder about Todd's security clearance into the narrative while avoiding the "characters telling each other what they already know" trope. Solution: Have Selkie violate federal law. Good job crew, drinks are on me.
The little lady has a point, Todd. 🙂
And c’mon… what eight year old ISN’T going to read something marked “Top Secret” if it gets left out where they can see it?
Yeah!
Or what 52-year-old, actually…
Or ANYONE!
Not to poo in the pool, but the fact that you have a clearance is a matter of public record. It wouldn’t be marked “secret.” (at least mine wasn’t.)
But then again, I don’t want to poo in the pool and it’s a lot funner this way so what the hell, shut up, Guru.
(I had a Q clearance when I worked on a project for the DoD. I’m old, I’ve done a LOT of random crap in my life.)
And with that clearance, there was mandatory training where you learned to _never_ leave the documents out, among other things.
I can see that someone having a clearance would be secret when the fact that this person is associated with the program is secret.
Good point. Anything associated with Sarnoth would have been classified, so it’s not unreasonable that the existence of his actual clearance would be classified.
ooh, Todd is gonna have to buy a safe. And all kinds of other goofy requirements. I forgot about that 🙂 😀 :-p
isn’t that how snowden got his wings?
so true! if he hadn´t wanted her to take a look he should´ve hidden it better – like in an old math book. she´d NEVER touched that thing with a pitch fork 😉
She loves science. Hiding it in a math book would have been an invitation.
Well. Now I know how I’m going to get my kid to read certain works of literature when he’s old enough.
“What IS it with you and my Forbidden Closet of Mystery?”
Selkie has the makings of a future secret agent (good or evil is up in the air at this point, could be a bit of both ^_^; (chaotic neutral, perhaps?))
Agents need to be able to read top secret items–and not get caught–and they don’t reveal their knowledge unless they later share their findings to [ally that needs the info] themselves
They have a natural curiosity, and a certain disregard for the rules (if it says DO NOT READ/TOUCH/ENTER–you bet they’re gonna do it anyway!)
Someday, maybe she can find employment with the same agency as Agent Brown and Agent Then?
(secret agencies always have scientists on the team working on projects, so it would fit in with Selkie’s dreams of science)
That way Selkie could help the Sarnothi people even more
Honestly I think at this point its more like a kid wanting to be an astronaut or fireman. She might not even want it once she learns what real scientists do vs what she imagines being a (mad) scientist means.
Hell I still want to be a mad scientist even though I know what it entails. Wringing your hands gleefully and cackling that they couldn’t begin to fathom your plans. Then do something really weird, probably like teaching a cuisinart how to love.
Dude, mad science rocks.
Like my dream job as a kid was to be a garbage man – cause i figured they only work a hour/two top in the morning then have the rest of the day free, plus they get to drive a cool car. ?
CIA recruits software engineers at the college I graduated from. It’s a pretty good job, actually.
This page makes me so happy. :’)
Ah, those long gone days of 2010 when clearance stuff happened in a timely manner.
um. When my wife got her clearance many years ago it was ON PAPER. 74 frickin’ pages of application. It all had to be TYPED. Took over a year to get approved.
Things are a bit speedier now.
Yeah, I’m old. Thanks a lot.
Lol. I’ve actually had to deal with a few issues that took nearly a year to resolve because the records were pre-digital and had to be dug out of the paper only archives, hand scanned and all that fun stuff. It was an interesting and fascinating learning experience and maybe as close as I will get to the hand typed/hand mailed process. So don’t feel too old, those hand typed clearance, pre-digital packets still pop up if only to humble the cocky young people. 😉 While things have improved and become speeder thanks to digital, I was more lamenting about the bottle-neck clog that has accumulated to where a digital file can be waiting for more than a year just to be reviewed- never mind actually processed. Yeah, it still takes near a year to a bit over a year to go through the whole clearance process even with things all digital and running smooth and the process has been stream lined and made speeder over all but then 2013, government shut down and other bullsh*t ground everything to a halt and it’s been a cluster f*ck ever since.
Thankfully all that’s been fixed now.
(starts coughing uncontrollably)
Selkie needs to brush up on the house rules; http://www2.fiu.edu/~roleplay/download/files/152Rules.htm
I’ve had a clearance before. Secret-and-higher material is always kept in some kind of vault with things like a sign-in sheet for people who “check it out” a la library books, then put it back. Todd just leaving Top Secret material lying around is all kinds of violations.
I don’t think he got any material, just papers saying ge eventually could.
Yeah, generally the fact that you HAVE a clearance isn’t a big deal– but it COULD be classified itself in this case (as @markm pointed out).
One of the goofier requirements if you HAVE a clearance is you have to purchase a “secure storage facility” (i.e. a safe) to store documents in– and you have to submit to it being inspected if the government chooses.
(this was a while ago, not sure if this is still a requirement.)
Movies: genius hacker uses billion dollar decryption system to access secret data.
Reality: someone finds secret data accidentally lying around where somebody forgot it.
A lot of truth to that. Most breaches of security are people leaving laptops unattended or intentional leaks.
Movies: Genius hacker uses a million dollar computer and clever algorithms to break into your computer.
Reality: “Hi, I’m from your ISP. We’re getting network activity that looks like you have a virus. Can I remote in to help clean it?”
Probably buried in the DoD budget. They have a hard time keeping track of hundreds of billions.
XD Well if you didn’t want her to know you needed to hide them better,goober. Though this feels a little trap-like…then again I’m generally paranoid so that might be why.
“A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money.” — misattributed to Everett Dirksen (R-IL)
Don’t think Todd has a lot of room to talk on reading papers either, I really doubt he was supposed to read the check sheet for her adoption, marked secret or not doubt that was meant to be for his eyes.
All this take about clearance, but no one has asked the more important question: Where is the colony. We know the Sarnothi homeland is located in the Great Lakes, do they inhabit ALL of them, or just some of them? Is the colony located in a seperate Great Lake? The next largest freshwater lake in the US (partially) is Lake of the Woods and itis significantly smaller than even the smallest of the Great Lakes. There’s some large lakes in Canada that could work out too possibly.
I believe it was assumed early on to be Lake Superior for their homeland. That’s why the Protect the Trout (wording check?) act was started, the same one that stopped Mari’s family fishing trip.
Selkie’s last statement is golden. I can easily see an 8 year-old (or lots of those older, even adults) saying: “You left(s) them(s) out(s). It’s your fault.” But Selkie is secure enough and mature enough to admit and accept part of the blame: “No one’s innocents heres.”
“They had Top Secret all over it, so i read it!”
The most common behavior around any kid, below 10 years… Its technically IS Todds fault left them out a place, where she can saw it!
Kind of an odd comment, but I like how you drew Selkie’s mouth in panel 5