Will edit in colors later.
-EDIT- AAAAAAND extra super late with the colors because I stopped to do taxes. Happy April 15.
Who would ever suspect the clown of being evil? (Also because people keep expressing worry about Selkie's 'evil' schtick, yet-another reminder that Selkie has an eight-year-old's perception of it. She's not evil, she just wants big robots and cool-ass lasers.)
Amanda’s no fool… she knows how Selkie thinks… 🙂
Literally EVERYONE knows that clowns are evil. EEEVVVIIIILLLL
It’s the “uncanny valley” at work.
Selkie has found her bunny ears.
Yes! That is it exactly! (Is it a callback if a commenter does it? Whatever I’m going with it: Nice callback, Sam!)
I like the giggle here. Harmlessly mischievous, yet sinister and distinctive.
A lot of Villains ignore the laugh. You’ve /got/ to have a memorable laugh if you want to be something more than a crank in a costume, especially in this economy.
^^^^ plus 50 internet points
Plus 50 internet points from me, too.
That was brilliant, … And true! No distinctive laugh, no street creds.
Think she should get a vocal coach?
http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/comic/2013/07/12
Huh. Makes me wonder if a lot of her “zannyness” isn’t just distraction like here, didn’t consider that before.
Just found out this updated twice. Technically she could still be human, just all of the Sarnothi could be more distantly related from mainstream humans. Notice how I avioded saying human subspecies?
we don’t even know if the Sarnothi evolved on this planet. They might not have *any* common ancestry with us.
Pretty sure being amphibian obligate carnivores with green and black magic puts them more than far enough away from human to be a separate species.
Did they even evolve on Earth? Dave hasn’t explicitly said, but given that there’s apparently only one colony, in Lake Superior, and that there are no obviously related animals anywhere in Earth’s ecosystem, my money is on the ‘crashed spaceship’ theory.
The issue is that our language didn’t really account for another sapient species. The canibalism ref from last page is one example where it technically isn’t but kind of should be. You also see this weirdness in fantasy where elves and dwarves will be called races.
Sarnothi are obviously not homo sapiens, but should probably be considered humans in regards to human rights and such. Their existance would probably necessitate redefining some of these terms – or coming up with new ones.
The terms people and person can be used. Like neanderthals were people but not humans.
speak for yourself Jay, My people (having been tested I’m 17-20 percent Neanderthal dna) are not humans.
:scratching head: If you’ve got 20% Neanderthal DNA, weren’t they by definition human? They were obviously inter-fertile with Cro-Magnons, after all.
Species is a fluid concept. Genetic distance has an impact on sexual compatibility and viable offspring. Viability is frequently determined by chromosome count and transmission of the sex gene. Donkeys and horses can procreate, but the offspring, mule or hinny depending on which species is the mother, is not fertile since it only has 63 chromosomes, which makes it so they can’t pair properly for future offspring.
The lion and tiger, on the other hand, are generically closer than a horse and donkey. Both have 38 chromosome pairs and can produce viable offspring.
The Neanderthal likely had 46 chromosomes and they lined up well enough to allow for cross breeding since near modern h. Sapien and h. Neanderthalis had a close enough common ancestor, similar to how h. Denisova interbred with SE Asian populations like those in New Guinea, who have upwards of 8% common genes with Denisovans.
Joe, 17%!??? Are you serious? You sure you don’t mean 1.7%-2.0%? I’ve never heard of anyone (modern) having more than 5%, and that’s the extreme high end
Except in Fantasy, “Race” is generally appropriate- considering that pretty much everything and anything can crossbreed and produce viable offspring- that means that they’re not different species. And calling sapients ‘breeds’ tends to be frowned upon.
Is that a reference to I-Beam Piper’s book, “Little Scaley”? About a spaceship that crashes, and they build a colony not too far from the spaceship cause the spaceship leaks magnesium into the local water supply?
The chemistry is suggestive. Sarnothi body chemistry must be effectively terrestrial, because they can digest terrestrial proteins (and do so, enthusiastically). There are toxic aspects to it, but this is true of many of our own species. So Sarnothi could have evolved on our Earth, or on some parallel Earth.
Mind you, big universe. They could be space travellers who chose Earth out of myriad other planets, precisely because of a useful coincidence in chemistry.
(Dondonesque is no expert- Dondonesque is a dilettante science fiction enthusiast. Those requiring expert help are directed to genuine authorities such as “that fat bloke at the comic shop” or “nice Mr. Barclay who reads the Times”.)
Times? L.A., N.Y., or London?
…from context: Dondonesque must mean London. (Because “bloke”, plus the entire thoroughly British parenthetical note elicited a big appreciative grin from this Canadian.)
Excellent points about the chemistry. However, SF does have a long history of handwaving its way to a good story past obstacles of that sort.
How wonderful that the fat guy in the comic shop, at least, is universal! Sessine’s right, I had the London Times in mind. I’m frequently humiliated by the crossword.
C’mon, you used Dilettante, correctly, in a sentence in an un ironical manner. You should at least make the 50% mark, if not farther.
The fat guy in the comic shop is a universal truth.
Sometimes, he is me.
Smithville Times, from Bastrop, Texas.
Someone learned from Pohl’s bunny ears…
Love it.
You know, Amanda CAN be pretty horrible, but I am beginning to wonder if she doesn’t have a point about Selkie…
This is school survival 101. You act the clown to lessen the chance of abuse because you are different.
Andi’s got to get to the point that “you know Selkie already, does it really MATTER where she came from? At least it’s not REALLY an AFFLICTION, after all.”
Selkie acting like a dork is a good way to bring Andi back to that point.
She has to get away from the “I’m not a human so I might eat your daughter if she really pisses me off” line of thought and back to the “I’m just a silly 8 year old kid, like you knew before.”
I’ve said it before but I see it as less of an “Selkie is an alien” freakout and more of an “aliens exist” freakout. Even if you are fine with Selkie herself, the later should be a wordview shattering realization – and that’s before the political and they have magic aspects.
As Agent K said to Agent J in MIB 1…
glee hee hee is an adorable thing for a humanoid marine animal to say.
Humanoid marine PERSON.
I wonder how Selkie feels about the movie “Megamind”.
Pretty sure they’ve never let her see it.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure both Megamind and Despicable Me are on the “oh God never let her watch these” list.
I will never display fear, until Selkie has at least one Minion or Igor (eye-gor, not Ee-gor). That’s my €0.02
I’d think the reverse would be true. If Selkies going with the supervillainy theme anyways… I mean, look at how both those two movies ended. Might be beneficial overall.
I love how easy she can defuse the situation. It’s gonna be a valuable skill when she’s older.
Hey, it’ll probably remain applicable until people get more comfortable with the whole fish people thing.
Which, knowing humanity’s track record, will be a while.