Just an inner ear thing, nothing to worry about. Honest.
Live VOD drawing available on Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1119611831
↓ Transcript
ANDI: Thanks for coming back. What the hell is this about a reaction?!
POHL: Nothing too major.
POHL: Sarnothi have an ability to screech at very high decibel levels. It can cause some problems with the inner ear and the related balance systems in humans.
POHL (VO): Amanda had a bad reaction to some playful screeching between Selkie and I. Hence the discomfort.
POHL (VO): The barrette on her head is a piece of sarnothi tech that helps stabilize such reactions. It's CRITICAL that she keep it on her person until I can confirm a proper recovery.
POHL (VO): This information also needs to stay inside this apartment. It'll look bad if people think sarnothi can inflict destabilizing reactions at-will.
ANDI: So... that's all it was? Some nausea from being screeched at?
TODD, SELKIE, AND AMANDA: YEP!!
POHL: Nothing too major.
POHL: Sarnothi have an ability to screech at very high decibel levels. It can cause some problems with the inner ear and the related balance systems in humans.
POHL (VO): Amanda had a bad reaction to some playful screeching between Selkie and I. Hence the discomfort.
POHL (VO): The barrette on her head is a piece of sarnothi tech that helps stabilize such reactions. It's CRITICAL that she keep it on her person until I can confirm a proper recovery.
POHL (VO): This information also needs to stay inside this apartment. It'll look bad if people think sarnothi can inflict destabilizing reactions at-will.
ANDI: So... that's all it was? Some nausea from being screeched at?
TODD, SELKIE, AND AMANDA: YEP!!
*neuralizer flash intensifies*
Oh, wow, that is a *smooth* lie from Pohl. I didn’t think he had it in him!
I guess he’s been getting lessons.
Ok, I get gotta keep classified info from the civilians.
However, this is going to bite them in the rear end sooner rather than later…
Seriously, I give it two weeks, tops, before this story falls apart.
And I am being very, very generous with that estimate.
Well, she did puke, from screeching of a sort… so it’s not a lie?
Ohh as a mom I am not liking this.
Andi needs to know what’s going on with her kid.
Once Andi finds out what is really going on, she is going to be very justifiably pissed off.
I know I would be.
Hahaha, now they’re lying to her.
I have mixed feelings about this. I know that Andi isn’t read into the secrets, and what happened to Amanda is a pretty big deal. Also, we don’t know for sure how permanent what has happened to Amanda is, so if it is something that does end up going away, it could mean revealing big state secrets partially unnecessarily. At the same point in time, I don’t like telling a full out lie, especially one in so much detail, though I do wonder if echo abilities are sort of like what he described.
If this wasn’t so close to Andi picking Amanda up, I would have preferred Todd asking her if she could stay the night instead (with some excuse like they fell asleep or were having fun together, etc.) and come up with a proper explanation with people with higher authority the next day.
Does Pohl have a degree in proctology? Cuz he is saving everybody’s butts tonight!
Oh yeah, just an inner ear thing. Way inner. Past the inner ear, even.
So THAT’s what happened! I got that completely wrong. I thought Amanda had become an echo. Phew!
(Settles back into happy self-delusion)
Not sure it’s a good idea to lie about this to the kid’s mother…
Im sure its just protocol until theyre all given security clearance.
No it’s a perfect plan that has no possible negative repercussions…
nice
I do have to say that yeah this is pretty bad and it’s definitely going to bite them on the ass, especially Todd who was upset at Andi for keeping Amanda secret from him and lying to him about her being dead.
So him siding with Pohi in lying to her about the truth of Amanda is not only make Todd a hypocrite it’s also extremely dangerous keeping Vital Information from her.
One VERY big difference though: What is happening to Amanda right now is a matter of government level security clearance.
If she was there when it happened, that’s one thing, but for now they need to be given the okay from way higher up in order to make sure it won’t develop in a damn civil war.
Andi: Who are you?
Pohl: I am a figment of your imagination
So Amanda and Selkie are looking up and to the right, body language signifying a lie. The more experienced Todd is looking straight ahead. A flat stare, but still.
“Yeah…let’s go with that.”
That’s some impressive extemporaneous BS you’re spouting there, Pohl. Well done!
Andi’s still gonna have to learn the truth eventually and I’m still expecting one of the Sarnothi kids to take that hair clip away from Amanda.
I get why, but hoooo boy is this gonna make things worse in the long term. 🙁
Nice job, Dave; the story jes’ keeps rollin’ along, and we the audience are roaming all over the place chasing red herrings.
I see everyone getting all up in arms at Pohl and Todd lying to Andi, and ask you all to remember the comic not even a week ago. Todd was given orders by Pohl that he CANNOT tell anyone about the whole “Amanda is an echo” thing until he talks to the government. This has been discussed before that they want to slowly introduce the idea of Echo into society because let’s be fair, Americans are paranoid and freak out about any little change. And Andi has already been established as freaking out at the idea that there’s another race around her, so it stands to reason that of course this would cause concern with Todd.
Pohl basically saved Todd from having to lie to her, because one way or another, he can’t tell Andi what happened. Besides, what he’s telling her is a white lie, Amanda did have a reaction to when Pohl and Selkie were doing something. Just not exactly all the reaction…Cause she certainly did puke a bit.
Ope, I lied, it was a few weeks ago, so I guess I can forgive people for forgetting that Todd was suppose to handle her mom. But I swear I remember there being a conversation that they cannot tell people about the Echo. Maybe it was with Avery…I’ll do further research.
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie1167/
Literally being told by Avery that ALL Echo stuff must be kept under wraps. The next comic explains his reasoning why they must be kept under wraps. Basically, they’re trying not to cause wide spread panic, and while they do plan to tell people, they’re not doing so yet. But with Amanda becoming an Echo, there’s likelihood this will be told to Andi eventually. They just can’t right now.
I call BS on that one because Andi is Amanda’s mom and she does have a right to know what’s going on with her daughter, I think Todd and Pohl could have just told Andi that for right now Amanda was going to be okay, and they will have someone come explain everything but right now it’s late.
Todd or Pohl could then called Agent Brown and have them come by to Andi’s place and talk to her. But by not doing that doesn’t make Todd any better than when Andi lied about Amanda being dead.
Why I would have gone with the half lie of asking if Amanda could stay the night and coming at all of this in the morning with Agent Brown (with at least giving some of the day, maybe most if it is a school day, for Agent Brown to get everything sorted). Could even call Agent Brown tonight and then have both the night and the morning for it.
You’re definitely right about that a half lie would be a lot better than just not telling Andi the truth and it would definitely make Todd look less of an irresponsible jackass.
But it is a half lie…She had a reaction to Selkie and Pohl doing echo stuff that made her throw up. How is this not a half lie?
Just because he’s an Agent doesn’t mean he can’t have a life. It’s late at night, maybe they’re trying to respect his time and let him have his civi life. The only time Todd has been seen calling him is when he was trying to sleep/enjoy time with his wife, and that was under, imo, much more dire circumstances. I know I wouldn’t want to bother him if I can put a bandaid on it until a later time.
Sorry but Amanda having the abilities of an Echo is pretty dire and needs to be brought to his attention so he can inform Amanda’s mom about what’s happening.
Kind of amazed Amanda just went with that…
Also, why keep “Echo” stuff from Andi if they’re fine with doing it around Amanda?
Amanda already knew–she saw Selkie’s eyes glowing.
I don’t know how much of that is BS and how much of it is just the scientific explanation of the whole “echo” thing. I mean, all of the words they use for this ability all have connections to sound.
At the end of the day Magic is just stuff we don’t properly understand.
Secrets and lies, the cornerstones of any healthy family!
It’s funny, they’re dealing with a similar issue over on El Goonish Shive: Magic has… not changed exactly, but shifted… and the main team, all of which are aware of magic and are secret-keepers about it, suspect that several of their friends also have magic. So they’re debating how to confirm this and whether to tell the friends what’s going on.
They’ve been having big debates over whether it’s appropriate to magically spy on a friend without telling them, and whether there’s any way to give the friend a chance to make an informed decision about being told without opening that can of worms to begin with.
Frankly, although I would tend to be against “the ends justify the means,” I think that trying to determine the friend’s power set is non-invasive enough that I’m on the side of “figure things out before letting them know.” Because I’m finding it hard to imagine a way to be asked about that issue without leading to insatiable curiosity that has a fairly high chance of drawing them into a knowledge that could easily impact their life in negative ways. I do sympathize with secret-keepers, when it comes to magic powers or supernatural phenomena that the majority of the populace must not find out about.
But then, maybe that’s just because I’ve read a lot of the SCP Foundation, and am actually writing a fic steeped in that worldview, where knowledge is very seriously dangerous….
Oh it’s a reaction to screaching, alright, just psychic and not -strictly- auditory. And Amanda did “hear” it, just not with her ears.