A discourse on krakens and prezzies.
Also, checkout today’s Leftover Soup for a cameo of Todd at the Filthy Hippie.
This would be a great time for a six month hiatus. ... If I wanted to get lynched.
A discourse on krakens and prezzies.
Also, checkout today’s Leftover Soup for a cameo of Todd at the Filthy Hippie.
My first instinct upon viewing the last panel was that Selkie had a bomb strapped to her and this comic was about to take a dramatic term.
I’ve been really sleep deprived this week.
lol, yeah I was like “Holy sh*t, she’s going jihad!!” but it’s just her little orange heating packs.
As much as I enjoy this comic, the comments from Yumi and LeDayz are what left me laughing the hardest.
Actually guys, she has a recorder that was hidden under her clothes.
Looks like a recorder of some sort, but wasn’t the thing Selkie had on the bookshelf in the library pink? And before that, didn’t she reach for something in the top of her sweeter like it was in a pocket, not pull up it’s bottom edge like she’s doing now?
She has two items, looks like: one in her hand (which is pink around the edges) that looks like a smartphone, and that’s either a holster for it or *another* recorder, to make sure that if the first one were spotted and messed with, she had a backup. (Or maybe the phone was syncing with the thing under her sweater?)
The orange things are her heat pads. It’s still cold weather here. Todd has added a phone pouch to her belly-band.
Oh trust me… it’s a bomb all right. Tommy’s gonna get hit by it. Hard.
I would be very unhappy about the large hiatus at this point yes, but oh my gosh you made me laugh. Well done.
Er, yes. Dave WOULD find himself in rather a lot of trouble if he took a hiatus, especially since we can google his name and find out where he lives. š
Uh…what is Todd doing in panel 7?
Gesturing to Selkie and granting her permission to play her trump card in a strong German accent. Looks like he’s getting ready to cross his arms once he’s done with the grand gesture at his daughter.
I love that he used her “evil” name. That makes the accent so much better.
A strong FAKE German accent… I should know, I speak with the real thing.
I think it’s a fake Russian accent, actually. A German accent would be ‘hunleash der Kracken’ – the ‘ze’ is more Scandanavian. Fake Russian accents are the semi-default Generic Villain Accent in North America, primarily due to the number of spy movies written or set during the Cold War.
Now I recognize it… itĀ“s the JƤgermonster accent from Girl Genius!
Yay for JƤgermonsters!! <3
That’s what I was thinking too!
“ze” is often used to indicate a German accent – which is funny because I come from Germany and never met a countryman who’d sound like that in English.
I talk in a way that causes a lot of people to ask me if I am from America due to having an accent. Something about how I talk hits people’s ears as an English accent. Been that way for my whole life.
In college, though, a friend who had actually traveled to England told me once that I don’t have an English accent; her claim was that I talk in a way that sounds like what American’s THINK an Englishman sounds like.
That’s what I figured Todd would do; the American idea of what a German accent sounds like.
Or “cartoony mad scientist” accent. Either way. ;D
You should have said itĀ“s JƤgermonster accent. JƤgermonsters are cool – and I imagine Selkie is going to like Girl Genius when she gets old enough to read it, because
1) Girl Genius
2) Mad Science
3) people with fangs and unusual skin color portrayed in a reasonably positive light
I wish the ‘thumbs up’ feature hadn’t been causing problems with the site, because I would ‘thumbs up’ that post so very much.
I imagine SelkieĀ“s reaction upon being told about Girl Genius to be something like: “What? They mades a webcomics abouts mes?”
So. Much. Yes.
Gotta say, I really like Trunchypoo in this one. I can almost hear him thinking “She’s a child, she’s a child…calm down…” and going into “Adult Father” mode when talking to her. He may not like Selkie much and has just heard how she seems to have it in for his son, but Mr. Trunchbull’s being rather nice. And I LOVE his interaction with the principal – “…Do you make a habit of insulting children in front of them? And before you cram your foot in your mouth any further, her father’s behind you.”
Nice job of showing even the antagonistic adults as still human with more dimensions than “bad guy for this storyline.”
In the Principal’s defense, she is indeed openly defying him, which is pretty much the definition of “incorrigible brat”. But she would not be openly defying him in the first place if he hadn’t been a coward, so while she is indeed acting bratty, he deserves to be called much worse.
That said, I do hope they are able to patch things up AFTER ZE KRAKEN IZ UNLEASHED! ALL HAIL HYDRA!!! ZE AVENGERS VIL PAY FOR RUINING OUR PLANS!!!!!
Ahem. Sorry, sorry. I meant [close hug and gentle whisper] hail hydra.
Aside from the fact that she was sort of openly defying him, she is indeed justified to be present at this point as not only a witness but an intended victim of Truck’s latest act of aggression. We ALSO know that her waiting in the office for her parent IS the standard procedure (whether for defiance or for the library incident), not being sent back to class. Now even ignoring both those points, being an administrator AND an adult requires a certain maturity in behavior, and name-calling has never been professional or proper. Even in cases where it’s deserved, calling small children names to their faces would be grounds to call the suitability of a person’s position into question.
“name-calling has never been professional or proper”
Oh, I know. And I’m sure Ashton Hobbit has to be panicking pretty hard to resort to such measures. I was just saying that she was technically “acting out” against a legitimate authority and good for her. Maybe I should have made clearer that “In the Principalās defense” was meant ironically. š
Nah. The authority in this case has surrendered his legitimacy already.
Panic, yes! See how high his eyebrows hiked when he heard Todd behind him? Priceless!
But they didn’t call for her parent so to the principal she’s just squatting in his office causing a ruckus after being told to leave.
Quite so, Big Daddy T has developed significantly from his first appearance, and it’s a good thing. I think part of it is the lack of Big Mommy T in these past pages. With how collected and thoughtful Big T has been, I strongly suspect that Mommy T is the real stirrer of all things unpleasant, while Daddy is just a real firm supporter of his family (to a fault!)
They’ve always emphasized that Professor Dad Trunchbull has been at the head of the lawsuit and whatnot over the “persecution” of his son. They’re both probably reasonable people and since he believes the school administration is a big part of this “conspiracy” against his son, of course he’s going to notice their unprofessional conduct.
Good old “wearing a wire”
Seriously, she’d better have sent a copy via email so they have a backup. (And I love that innocent look on Truck’s face in the first panel. He really has it down!)
Since Selkie was able to contact Todd and tell him it was happening, I would assume that Todd has a copy of it as well.
My sister thinks that Todd is probably recording THIS meeting, too.
I really hope your sister is right.
I’m sorry Dave, but I can’t let you do that.
Todd, you deserve a Best Dad of the Year award, just for that line.
Dave, you deserve an award for writing it.
Dave’s going on hiatus… for 6 months?
“I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going.”
LOL, I know the quote;) And, Gryph, I agree. Dad of the Year.
Oooh it’s about to get goood.
1. Glad trunch did call the principal out on his insult, no matter how a kid is acting a teacher should not insult a student, just not right.
2. called it… todd was in on the whole thing š that is why he was there and that dr terror hammer thing was great
I read someone saying before that selkie had a recorder, I thought selkie was just going to tattle, Todd wouldn’t believe her and it would just turn into a huge disappointment. Besides that defending your son is one thing bit this is nothing short of monstrous: firing an entire school for defending kids against your son? Even if you don’t want to believe it and even if truck doesn’t think he’s a bully you and your family clearly deserve to be A. Ejected from all school districts in the country or B. Sent to prison for illegaly assuming control of schools and enforcing control, and your son sent to juvie. Other parents can recognize lies in their kids but the trunchbull’s don’t have to because they have money and lawyers. (I know this is just a webcomic but this is just my opinion. ) the principal BETTER take that recording to court and gather up every enemy trunchbull’s ever made, obliviousness in the father and mother or ignorance in the son is no excuse. Also those other kid bullies are just looking for someone to pin blame on for “getting us in trouble” so yeah I hope they get their comeuppance as well. There’s a lot more I wanna say but I better wrap this up. I’m glad I finally got this rant off my chest. Anyway here’s to hoping Selkie remembered to press “record” *thumbs up* (oh that would be such a mean terrible twist. )
I realize that you’re ranting, and I do respect that. I know I need to rant sometimes too. What a lovely feeling, letting out a nice long rant that rings out harsh and fierce and strong.
That having been said, let me explain a thing.
Granted that a school is not used to gathering evidence against it’s “suspects”, the phrase DOES go “Innocent until proven guilty.” And they TEACH it in school so they DO KNOW IT. From a point of complete fairness, it is very, very important to prove your accusations. The law is what binds a society together, from meanest Trunchbull (TrunchTROLL) to nicest little girl Sophie (Selkie). The law is, every now and then, simply the only common ground, as sometimes you do come across people like the Trunchbulls who are so fed up with the people around them’s ways of thinking (because they are people who have to have things BEAT into their heads to bow said heads even an inch) the law can really be the only ONE common ground. That people like the Trunchbulls seem to have to resort to the law much more than other people is definitely a sign of their CHARACTER, their NICENESS levels and SOCIAL PROWESS, but not of their guilt in the only common language you and they have.
All told, it really isn’t too much to ask that you get evidence when you accuse somebody of a crime, be it specific bullying or general assault. After all, if this limitation was not in the way, THEY would not be NEARLY so kind. Just thank your gods that you haven’t met a hillbilly with this kind of sociopathic code of ethics. That is when you get hunted like an animal.
Trunchbull believes he lives in a world of many sheep and a few sharks and then him and his family, aka in his own words (probably), “good honest folk,” and if you don’t have the mental flexibility to deal with him in his terms to gain any ground well then you must deal on some sort of terms that you both agree on, or are subject to. It’s the rule of law (innocent or guilty) or the rule of physics (physical strength and weakness).
Tommy knows of this. There is no flaw in Professor’s Trunchbull’s thinking, because he lives in a world of extremes. He is utterly secure in his position, he knows who he is, he is himself, Professor Trunchbull, with a PhD, and you have? From an objective viewpoint, nothing much.
Sociopathic? Maybe. But he’s ALLOWED to think that way. He’s ALLOWED to try as hard as he can (within the LAW) to try and hold the world up to a better standard. The basis of sociopathy is, on the basic level, a dissention of the way things work in a society. Many great and critical leaders in the development of civilizations have been sociopaths to some degree or another.
He is allowed to TRY.
In this case, he will FAIL because he has failed to CHECK HIS FOOTING.
Somehow, despite his VERY IMPORTANT ATTEMPT TO BETTER THE WORLD THROUGH MAKING IT FACE ITS FAILINGS, this pleases a great many of us.
Because many of us think that we like it just the way this is, thank you very much, and by the way we have names for people like you.
Look, I get that he’s antagonizing people. I get that he’s not nice. I get that from a karmatic point of view SELKIE SO NEEDS AN UPDRAFT AND TRUNCHBULL IS REALLY NOT HELPING AT ALL.
These things are seperate. Keep them that way. What one deserves is never bad. Nobody deserves evil. Evil just happens, and is highly subjective. Please don’t do the modern equivelent of the lynch mob and say that he needs to be put in prison. He may deserve comeuppance. He does not deserve evil beset upon all that he loves. Curses and other wishes of evil are very ugly things, and you should try to the best of your abilities to let your heart know peace in the face of wrongdoings. It is not that feeling angry is bad, but that it is bad for you (in the medical/psychological sense). It’s best to avoid it whenever possible. Take it in moderation. Anger is taking upon yourself, personally and with great passion, the ugliness of others.
Save your anger for monsters.
What.
None of us are wishing for evil. Some of us are pointing out the dangers of the path he has taken. (His son ending up in jail or dead.) None of us have wished for him to get dragged out into the street and shot in front of his family, so none of us want evil to befall him.
We want him to receive a dash of humility and reality. We want his eyes opened to the fact that he may think he’s bringing the world up, but only from his own skewed stance which would make the world a worse place. Willfully blinding yourself to the faults around you is no way to live your life. Let the light shine.
… I totally just ranted on a much larger scope than I had intended to to begin with.
Sorry for hurting your brains.
But don’t take things for granted. So. Yeah.
Nobody wants to think of themseves as evil.
Frankly I’m a little disappoited in myself for using the E word there. “There is only one good, knowledge, and only one evil, ignorance.”
HOW HAS NO ONE MENTIONED THOSE EYEBROWS LEAPING OFF PRINCIPAL ASHTON’S FACE YET
I… Honestly didn’t notice! <_<
I feel shame.
We have failed as an audience…
He wasn’t wearing a monocle at the time, so something had to pop off in a comical fashion.
Haha:) I just did in a previous comment. Priceless!
First of all, Dave, marvelous comic.
Second, when i saw Selkie with the wire tap on her, or what i assume it to be, i could only think, “Oh my Gosh”.
Those are two evil geniuses.
You know, if Trunchypoo Sr wasn’t so obtuse and obstinate over his son, he would be a rather reasonable person. Take his son out of the equation and he’s pretty respectful. I give him that much, but with his son involved in that recording we’ll see that reason give way to madness. It takes its toll you know.
At the same time however, he DID have some very not-nice things to say about the Sarnothi and their culture…
I was gonna say his opinion on non human sapients is pretty poopy.
Well yeah. And if Darth Vader hadn’t blown up Alderaan and gone around choking subordinates he’d be considered a swell guy too.
I think Darth Vader was a wonderful guy. He made the best cupcakes and actually made all black look good. š
Seems in this day and age, everybody’s wired for sound and picture. Seems a shame, somehow. Not here, though.
does this make her a tele-selkie(tubby)?
YES! She was wearing a wire!
Ok , I have been reading for a while, I’m not very vocal online but I had to say something. Bravo sir on this story line its like the school version of the shield hehe. Keep it up. * applauds*
This … I don’t even know where to begin.
I’ll just sit back and watch the Kraken’s tentacles unfurl.
I swear if she forgot to record I will rage quit this comic. Not really. But damn I wanna see the bully be caught.
Please don’t let the recorder be empty because she forgot to press record.
Even if it is, the teachers witnessed most of the important parts, and the rest of the kids don’t like Truck anymore. Even if RELEASING ZE KRAKEN fails, there are other ways and means.
I don’t think Trunchypoo would listen to that.
Evidence is not present, so it’s still he said, she said for Trunchypoo.
Glad to see that Trunchypoo doesn’t think it’s OK to insult the students. This arc has definitely shown us a more sympathetic side to him. . . too bad he’s about to be crushed by revelations about his son.
One time, my brother and I were walking along the sidwalk when we came to a house that was having major yard-work done. The son was working in the yard, and the mother was in a car which was pulled out in such a way that she was blocking the sidewalk. My brother and I tried to walk around, but there was traffic so we didn’t want to step into the road, and the only way to get around the car was to step on one spot in the yard. So we carefully stepped on one spot of grass as we made our way around.
The son spoke up and said something like “please don’t step on the grass” and we turned around, the sun in our eyes, hands trying to block the sun, and said we were sorry and continued on. THIS WAS UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!
There was a break in traffic, so the mother pulled out into the road, coincidentally in front of a police car, rolled down her window and started to tell one of us off for giving her son “a dirty look”. We were perplexed by this and explained that the sun was in our eyes, to this day not even understanding which of us she thought was guilty. “Oh no, I saw you give him a dirty look”. I look at the traffic she’s blocking, including the police officer, and decided that my civic duty compelled me to apologize to this poor madwoman lest she further impede official police business.
A couple weeks later the entire yard was torn up and the turf replaced. A couple months later they did it again for whatever reason. The grass to replace the grass that we stepped on was also going to be replaced, and they knew it. In retrospect I realized that the son wasn’t annoyed at us stepping on the grass, he was trying to warn us against provoking his mother.
There seem to be a lot of people who are perfectly rational about matters where they are not involved but who become temporarily insane when it is their offspring and/or property.
I have a heart condition, thus I have a handicapped placard since it’s that bad a heart condition. Typically I don’t park in the handicapped stall because there’s people that can’t walk easily. It’s nice that they recognize my disability but there’s people that need it worse than me. I typically park one or two stalls over if given the chance.
My ex went through surgery but needed to go to the store so I go ahead and park in the handicap stall for her. We come out and I help her get in the car, I go to the driver’s side and all of a sudden I have this old lady screaming at me from behind. The sudden shock has my chest aching and causing acute pain and my ex is asking if I’m all right as I’m holding my chest. The old biddy starts accusing me of faking a heart attack.
I start trying to explain to her that I have this heart condition and she tells me that no I don’t because I look healthy. Finally, the pain and frustration causes me to start shouting back at her until the cops arrive to break up the fight. Meanwhile I’ve gone white as a ghost and I’ve sunk into the driver’s seat. Paramedics later and the old lady finally gets it through her skull that I wasn’t faking. But she’s still angry I took the handicapped stall from her.
There is no apologies for crazy stupid people. They’ll always be crazy and stupid.
… Wow.
That puts the “what” in “what the hell”.
You have a condition. Your doctor saw fit to give you a placard. Use it, it is NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to have to explain your injury/issues to ANYBODY. Even the COPS will not ask what your disability is (unless they think you are in danger from it) just that you have a legally issued placard.
It is NONE OF THAT OLD LADY’S BUSINESS what your disability is.
I have a placard for a screwed up leg. If it’s a good day I will park further away and walk in, but there are times I use it– one day I was asked rather rudely by someone why I had a placard.
I told them “ADHD”.
Hey, it’s a disability.
I don’t feel all that bad for the professor. In my line of work at the customer service desk in retail, I’ve seen many people who will flip on the crazy switch so fast when they feel they or their family has been attacked in any form. It doesn’t have to be a reason that makes sense and it’s often over a situation where no one meant to cause harm.
There are also always those people who just want to take their anger out somewhere because they feel there is nowhere else to unleash their anger. At my old job, there was a lady who came in once a month just to blame the store for all her life problems. She’d always come in five minutes before close and start a rant over wanting to find an item she assumed we didn’t sell. Even when we put the items at the front of the store in plain view she would still start these rants about how we messed up her life because she couldn’t get a whatever she needed that minute in less than 30 seconds. She always refused to leave until about an hour after the store was supposed to close. The lady even told me flat out during one of these rants that she only yells at us because she enjoys taking her anger out on people who can’t retaliate.
Some people get a rush out of being angry and taking it out on others. I think it’s good that the Professor is about to be crushed. It means there’s hope that his son will get the eye opening help he needs instead of the protective father ‘help’ that will ultimately harm him.
I think someone said the school wouldn’t allow recordings to be used in decisions because the student didn’t get permission to film. However, that doesn’t mean she can’t show it to Mr. Trunchbull and expose his son’s behavior…
That is not canon so until we see it on the comic it is still an option to happen. And where they’re at is not a two party state so legally the recording would be valid outside the school.
YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!
Oh, Selkie, I am so glad that you re3membered cell phones have cameras.
Oh, and microphones. That’s the more important one.
Can I say that I’m a touch disturbed at how easily he can just come into the school building and wonder around?
At all of the schools that I’ve been to the main office is in a position that anyone entering can be seen or someone has a clear view of an entrance or had to pass security. No one was allowed to just walk around and look into the classes unless called in or they asked permission.
Yes, although Todd has been in several times before, so it’s not like they don’t know him. Also, I would guess that Todd hasn’t been wandering around, he almost certainly went straight to the principal’s office.
Iām from Australia so maybe things are a little different here but you can walk right into the main building of most schools without an issue. The front doors are not locked and the halls are not patrolled. I went to pick up a friends kid from her school once and ended up arriving about half an hour early (was paranoid about being late.) Spent the time looking at all kinds of art pieces in the main office hall. Then again, Iām a woman so maybe that doesn’t invoke the same knee jerk reaction as a guy.
That’s how it used to be in America. I’m old enough to remember it. Those were the days before Columbine, and long before school shootings became a weekly occurrence. š I don’t want to start THAT rant, but I’m glad that your schools don’t need that level of security.
It does depend on how well they know you, and the “checking in” part may’ve been glossed over, since that would’ve been at the front. I got well-known at the kid’s middle-school pretty quickly (volunteering for school store’ll do that!), and between that and having a memorable kid… Well, I could have signed in and gotten no question, if I’d said, “My kid called me and needs to be picked up at the principal’s office.”
I’m betting that Todd did the “I need to pick up my kid at the principal’s” line, and hey, it was true! And he went straight there!
OH GOD.
SUICIDE BOMBING VEST D:
Selkie is either going to make a great private investigator, or an undercover FBI agent.
Underwater FBI Agent;)
Only if she can learn to control the gloating. š
Whoa, I just realized that recording device is the gift Todd gave Selkie at the end of the previous arc. All this time, I’ve been assuming it was some Sarnothi artifact. Nice foreshadowing!
I am pleased that Prof. Trunchbull is offended by the principal insulting *any* child. He may be blinded to his son’s faults, but he has standards and he sticks to them whosoever is at fault or is being victimised. It makes him much more sympathetic – we may not agree with his limitations, but we can understand them – and him.
This shows well-rounded, proportional writing. Congrats!
You know, some phones have a “save video to youtube” option now… >:]
Congrats Dave, I have to be up for work in six hours but keep hitting refresh to see what happens next!
OMG, Dave, did you really draw one of Selkie’s gills here? Selkie and some of the readers of this comic are underage!
IT’S A BOMB!
Ka- BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO