The cold thing is mostly centered around keeping above the line of hibernation, so they don’t sleep the season away. As Then says above, Selkie’s situation was from her core body temperature crashing suddenly more than the cold itself. In Sarnoth proper, the use of heating elements to stave off hibernation came about because in earlier days unscrupulous types who could stay up and about a bit longer than others would take advantage and break into homes or otherwise steal things. So they began looking into ways to prevent annual hibernation phases.
This is me trying to answer the "why is cold 'bad' when they live in freaking Lake Superior?" question.
Sorry, professor, but “Gigantic thug” is not, in fact, an inaccurate description of how your son behaved at the time of the incident.
And you know it.
Hopefully, “was” is the better word in this case. The kid is going through therapy, and at least from the last strip we saw him in, he’s making steady progress.
Gotta be honest, I’m still worried that his “therapy” involves one of the professor’s friends, rather than an actual therapist being paid to help the kid.
The Professor is most likely well connected enough to at least one therapist in his circle.
Hence “at the time of the incident”.
Maybe – hopefully – he’s managed to get through to him and explain the difference between how he /thought/ his father wanted him to behave and what his father actually /meant/. But that doesn’t change what he was like at the time.
I love that he’s making it clear he knows exactly what she’s talking about.
She’s not wrong overall though.
FISH can handle pretty wide temp ranges.
My 3 year old Corydoras is in a Room temp tank and survived the house going to 52 degrees over the course of 24 hours they prefer 74 ish . My Stiphodon goby (a very expensive fish) that prefers 80+ degree water from Suluwasi Malaysia survived the same experience.
as long as the drop is gradual and doesn’t last TOO long they are just fine with temp drops.
i like how she´s just worried FOR the kids and not about them like that ‘concerned’ father…..and i strongly doubt overhearing that last (truthful!) statement will endear sarnothis to truchie-poo. remember folks, he knew about them for quite some time, and is totally against integration….the next parent-teacher conference will be a nightmare!
Just explain it however you want Dave, it’s your universe.
The description was accurate at the time. Hopefully he’s improved since. But when he was hurting Selkie, a giant thug was absolutely the right term. Deal with it, professor.
Honestly you deserve it mister Trunchbull.
Ooh, ooh, I love the idea that they overcame an inherent liability because some who had slightly less liability were using it to do self-serving things that hurt the community.
That’s practically like some positive side of The Tragedy of the Commons! “Some jerks took our nice things, so now we have fixed that and have MORE nice things!”
P.S. Tiny Box Tim Day is coming up! June 28th as usual ^_^
That was the least of the karmic backlash you deserve you haughty enabler..
Come on Then, make that snark useful and say something to Mr Trunchbull.
Then annoys me here. Jessie wants to do right by the kids that HE’S partly responsible for, and he seems dismissive of her concerns.
WHY oh WHY did they use a Sarnothi with such shitty people skills to do this?
Then is a self-proclaimed JERK and he does NOT know how to handle this kind of thing.
Jessie is legitimately concerned, not just about the situation with Selkie, but having Sarnothi students with different needs IN GENERAL and Then is using it as an opportunity to explain a SPECIFIC thing.
Sarnothi *DO* have special needs, such as gill-flushing, that is probably something that needs to be gone over. Then is being totally unhelpful in that aspect.
Pohl should have done the presentation, not Then.
Guru. that’s Not what was asked It was asked in such a way as to refer to a VERY specific incident. To which Mr. Then responded specifically.
Her specific question was “we need to know things like cold being bad.”
Then went off on her misconception about “cold being bad” and didn’t even answer the ACTUAL question, which is “we need to know things, how do we address that?”
Jessie is trying to be responsible for the Sarnothi kids, and Then is stomping her, telling her she is wrong, and NOT answering her question. Not helpful.
A more responsible person would have said “hey, cold is not that big of an issue. I’ll get the school some specific info for you guys so the kids will be ok.” Note that this is something that specifically WASN’T done for Selkie, so I was hoping someone would learn from that mistake.
Or, you know, the whole Obligate Carnivore thing. Selkie learned by trial and error, but it’d probably be a good thing if the other students didn’t start hurling in the cafeteria because they ate the tomato sauce on the chicken parmesan.
But Pohl works for a hospital, while Then is employed by the agency overseeing their integration?
I’m not talking about being the liason, that’s obviously Then’s JOB. Having Pohl around on “coming out day” would probably be a good idea.
Hell, AVERY could do a better job than this but he’s a human.
Don’t get me wrong. Then is a good guy. The problem is he doesn’t know how to dial it back. We saw this in Havei Jin’Sur when Todd and Then were going around about Selkie’s leathers.
Oh I agree, but if there’s still some information that is supposed to stay non-public (like possibly acid spit) having the agent representative front and center might mean the kids being integrated might remember those types of rules more than Dr. Bunny-ears.
Ah, Mr. Unethical Professor Gendo Trunchbull MoFo. How were you NOT missed! Back at the corner with you for all eternity for just simply existing!
(no, don’t take this too seriously. While I hate the character and its based model, it doesn’t mean Dave shouldn’t write about him anymore)
There’s honestly lot they need to know, gill flushing, food intolerance, toxic spit… Also let’s hope none of these kids turn out to be echoes too. 😀
That’s exactly why I was faulting Then. There are procedural changes that have to happen at the school.
Can’t be having ALL the Sarnothi kids swapping for hamburger patties, a “carnivore’s lunch” will have to be added to the mix. Having ONE kid is much different than having a bunch of them.
Although apparently the new principal is one that knows all this as well – she did say she was with the agency before.
A bit of both!
Then: “Trunchbull. Most of your son’s classmates only come up to his shoulder. he is built along the lines of a gladiator, and straight-arm lifted a classmate with little apparent effort. Giant thug isn’t an unfair descriptor. “
Things such as “their spit is poisonous to humans”, “they need special gill-flushing breaks”, and “they puke when eating anything plant-based” would be REALLY useful things for the teachers to know beforehand.
Jessie’s concerned, Then. So maybe dial back on the rudeness with her. Cuz seriously. -___-
Well Trunchbull, your son has gotten physical with lots of kids. And even threatened a teacher. ‘Thug’ isn’t really a stretch.
Hopefully there being a whole bunch of Sarnothi students now means that Selkie and they will have more appropriate lunch options, she won’t have to do lunch trades to get enough to eat every day. As well as designated gill-flushing times (possibly with a buddy to prevent further clothing-stealing incidents).
Speaking of the time Selkie had to go to the hospital- Dave did you know that Ick is actually a the name of a real fish disease? Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, known as ich or Ick or White Spot Disease. It’s a parasite of freshwater fish and can even kill them (I lost one of my goldfish to Ick recently).
I’m pretty sure the point of using that as a code phrase was that it could be applied to something within the experience of those who didn’t know the secret, so I think Dave knows.
I hope it’s a good sign that Prof. Trunchbull isn’t ranting about the overheard comment. The Prof. we’ve seen before comes across as one who’d enter the conversation with a “WHAT did you call my son?!” rather than a comment about Then’s phrasing. I fall in the middle of how to describe Truck back during the incident in question – he was NOT being a good person, but “thug” seems a bit strong.
Also: it looks like Trunchbull knows Then from way back. Perhaps they worked together. We know Trunchbull had strong opinions about how he thought the Sarnothi encounter should have been handled, and wasn’t.
Neither one is much given to tact, but neither one seems to care all that much about being treated tactfully, either. They might even grudgingly respect each other. However much one may dislike his professional ego, Trunchbull is not a stupid man. Nor is he without ethics.
In this radically changed situation, he may actually have some useful ideas to offer.
Also if his impression of sarnothi is primarily based on Then – it might explain (though not excuse) his attitude towards them somewhat. 😀
Hes being really aggressive about a question from a teacher