So, bit of a new thing I’m trying with this one. STREAMING!
I set up a Twitch channel here. I think I’d like to try my hand at streaming the comic drawing sessions. Don’t have a defined time set for a schedule yet but evenings for sure, with the next comic (Friday’s) being streamed this Thursday evening.
Here is a link to my test/starter/debugging stream, where I drew today’s comic and chatted with a member of the Discord who happened to catch me active: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1050519665
↓ Transcript
PERTURBED COP: Ma’am, please stop kicking the body.
AMANDA: Detective Granny's mean to dead people.
TODD: She plays by her own rules.
AMANDA: HHNG!
TODD: Amanda?!
AMANDA: Ow, ow! Turn that down!
AMANDA: Why did this show get so LOUD?!
SELKIE: I think it's workings! I can hears it more now.
POHL: Yes, good! I'm starting to get a bounce-back. That's good, by the way.
SELKIE: I love bouncings!
AMANDA: Detective Granny's mean to dead people.
TODD: She plays by her own rules.
AMANDA: HHNG!
TODD: Amanda?!
AMANDA: Ow, ow! Turn that down!
AMANDA: Why did this show get so LOUD?!
SELKIE: I think it's workings! I can hears it more now.
POHL: Yes, good! I'm starting to get a bounce-back. That's good, by the way.
SELKIE: I love bouncings!
And then the body yelled "stop it!" and Detective Granny solved the murder by proving the killer was faking his own death. Either that or necromancy.
So Amanda CAN hear the Echo. 😮
This is going to be a problem if all it does is cause her pain, though. 🙁
It might be an even bigger problem if she can do more than that.
It’s not that it’s caused her pain, though… the pain is because she thinks the TV is too loud, suggesting that the Echo is amplifying her hearing in some way.
Hmm– wonder if any of the other kids at the orphanage can do this. It may be due to exposure to Selkie– or to her hair clip.
Ohh, I didn’t think of it as being orphanage specific. My first thought was an unknown sensitivity of human children to Eco activity, since the interactions between Ecos and human children would have been pretty minimal up until now.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well now I’m wondering if Pohl’s getting “bounce-back” from Selkie or Amanda?
Dun-dun-DUN!!!
Ohhh boy. Amanda may get her wish after all.
Tehk is going to be furious.
What are the chances that Amanda won’t gloat about it to him?
A significant order of magnitude less than zero.
Knew it.
What Todd doesn’t realize is that Amanda’s Real dad… no that doesn’t work.
What Andi doesn’t realize is that her Real dad was someone her Mom met on a camping trip up on Lac Superieur, an Seal-man who was, …mmm, ‘ow do we say,… ‘Très charmant.’
Except that Dave has already confirmed that this strip does not play by fantasy genetics in which humans can breed with anything. Humans and Sarnothi are not genetically compatible.
According to some medical information I googled, kids are more sensitive to sound than adults. Seeing as little to no human children have been exposed to Echo’s actively using their abilities, it is possible that Amanda is hearing the effects. It is definitely going to get interesting!
I don’t know if this is that kind of sound but out of all the possibilities I think I like this one the most.
A side-effect of Long-term exposure to the power suppressor in her bow?
That’s the same reaction I used to have to cheap electronics. Almost nobody else could hear it at all, but to me it was often extremely loud.
I’m hoping that’s all this is. Maybe she has some kind of brain injury, possibly caused by being abused by her foster brothers, which might also be behind her dizziness. I just really don’t want the next page to have her open her eyes and they’re glowing green.
I think I know what you’re talking about, that high tone a lot of old TVs make? I’ve heard cheap/old sockets make a similar sound. It wasn’t SUPER loud for me, but still very much audible.
Yeah, that’s it, I’d feel it in the base of my skull as much as hear it. It depended on the device, most stuff wasn’t too loud, just very noticeable. But I often couldn’t watch TV at motels because they’d have the super cheap TVs and it would be so loud that I reacted like Amanda here.
An old (late sixties) chum has been painfully sensitive to the threnody of a loose flyback transformer on a CRT since he can remember; fortunately for me that’s one bit of the audio band where I have a complete hearing loss (broken cochlear cilia due to too much unprotected exposure to loud sounds all through youth and young adulthood).
If this is going where I think it’s going, Andi’s going to have a real interesting time of it.
It’s fun to speculate if Amanda is a surprise human echo, but it’s probably just that kids are more sensitive to sound than adults, from not having hit their loud music phase of life, and haven’t been in too many honking traffic jams and generally less low key decible exposure.
The possibilities though… I guess we’ll see!
Neat so either human children are capable of being turned into echos.
Or selkie’s suppressor has the side effect of long term exposure turning human children into potential echos.
Can hardly wait till we see her eyes glowing in the next comic.
And for her to realize she got her wish granted.
I’ve been expecting this for so long.
Well now, this seems like an interesting twist.
THE PLOT THICKENS
Y’know, if this means Amanda could be an Echo-by-proxy, suddenly I’m not so worried about SELKIE being the supervillain risk.
Selkie will be so pissed if Amada gets fire-eyes first.
Though it is still possible Amanda is just “sensitive” to Echo activity.
Also am I the only one worried about what will happen if people (of both species) find out humans can get super powers from Sarnothi? Especially if the conditions include keeping a Sarnothi (possibly specifically a child) suppressed for several years?
My theory: several of the folks from the orphanage have developed a sensitivity to the Resonance on account of spending long amounts of time in-range of the suppressor that Selkie was always wearing. It’ll be most obvious is the other girls who shared a dorm with her for a few years, like Amanda did.
Alternatively, humans do have potential to become Echoes, it’s just never been discovered because Echo Sarnothi don’t spend that much time around humans demonstrating their powers.
Alternatively-alternatively, it just causes some kind of high-pitched feedback in electronics and Amanda just has more sensitive hearing than Todd.
I think Dave has said before that humans can have their own special power that is different from Echoes? That’s what I assume has been happening with Amanda.
Dave’s mentioned before that in an abandoned plan, Sarnothi would have been Waterbenders, With two other Secret Races coming to light like the Sarnothi serving as Airbenders and Firebenders, with Earthbending being the lost Birthright of Humanity. Todd would have been the one to rediscover this.
Yep, saw this coming when she was getting a headache back at school. Not sure if there were more hints before, probably. And now, she’s gonna glow brighter than Selkie and it will be HER turn to be jealous of the echo powers…not like she hasn’t been jealous of everyone else already. Here’s hoping for same amount.
Another concern is that Amanda has glowy eyes, will Todd A: freak out and scream, alerting everyone to visit apartment B: freak out in the form of Pohl will suggest help and he kicks him out C: Be calm but refuse to let Pohl tell anyone D: Be calm, rational, and realize Pohl can help, hopefully.
The most important thing is Andi is gonna freak the f* out if she finds out, and it will end poorly, despite Amanda loving her new powers. Andi finding out will depend on Todd…
Oooh! Now this story of mer-wizards undergoing a civil war is getting *INTERESTING*! 😀
Dun dun DUN
bahahah Todd’s face is hilariously horrified. Either he thinks she’s dying, or he’s guessed what’s going on.
Now, I would have been more surprised if someone hadn’t also guessed in the comments last page!
As a side note, I think Detective Granny is the logical conclusion to all the eccentric private detectives meddling around.