Other than that though, this is the end of the Art Gallery story! Hoe you all enjoyed this important piece of Amanda’s part of the story.
The next story arc begins next week. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to since… well, since November 2013.
There's a part I decided to trim out to move things to the end of the arc a little more neatly: Lillian escorting a hyper-caffienated Tony, along with Keisha and Sandy , out the door and back home. Partly I decided not to shuttle Keisha off the "stage" before the full reconciliation of The Trio could happen, but also partly I just decided it was... well, trimmable.
Can Selkie have ice cream? Milk products generally aren’t digestible by carnivores after infancy, although I suppose cats might still drink milk…
She’s had ice cream before: https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie715/
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie716/
We’ve already seen that Selkie likes unflavoured organic ice cream.
They have ice cream for her at Grandma’s, but I’m guessing it’s homemade. Ice and cream, and maybe fish oil for flavor, but no sugar.
I bet they don’t have that at Baskin Robbins.
Sugar-free ice cream is a thing that exists, and I’m sure there’s an organic variant if you look hard enough.
Gotta get this girl some akutak.
I wonder if Selkie would like that weird Japanese horse flesh ice cream. Yes, this exists.
Most dogs love cheese. My dog snatched a dropped piece of cheese once and aside from an addiction to the stuff he has had no issues with it.
Yeah, but dogs are not obligate carnivores—in the wild meat is their main source of food, but they can and will eat just about anything (easy test: drop a plate of whatever you’re eating around a dog). I had a dog that liked grapes, and a relative has one who loves raw cabbage for some reason.
Selkie, apparently, *is* an obligate carnivore, to the point that non-protien+fat foods actually make her ill. However, it’s also been clearly established that she is okay with milk products, which isn’t particularly unrealistic given that humans, sans-animal-husbandry evolution, can’t digest milk properly either after childhood.
As for cats, I’m not aware of any actual animals that are quite as extreme as Selkie on the obligate carnivore spectrum (she can’t even handle simple sugars), but I’m not biologist so that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I know my cat was quite fond of ice cream in spite of the sugar content (or because of it?), and it didn’t make her ill.
From what I understand, watching a show on how they make pet food, cats don’t have a sweet sensor in their taste buds like we and dogs do. They can’t taste sweet. That’s not to say your cat didn’t find a flavor that pleased her in the sugar. I played a character that was immune to poisons and he cooked with liberal amounts of poison because he just enjoyed the different flavors. I imagine sweet foods have flavors we miss because of the sweet overriding it.
I think she can handle any meat recipes and meat byproducts as long as they don’t have vegetable material. Tallow is all right, but meatballs are out. I would add more examples, but those two are the best examples I can think of.
Just wait until Tod gets her lobster. She’ll have a field day.
While lobster and crab are tasty, they are IMHO too much work and too much money for so little meat.
The vet says the cats can’t taste sweet, but a rough estimate is that ice cream is one third fat down to one tenth, so, …. Go for the fat, Selkie!
DO NOT FEED YOUR DOG GRAPES. Grapes are toxic to dogs and too many can kill them. Go to http://www.canigivemydog.com and see a list of foods that are and are not safe for dogs to consume.
That’s been largely debatable. I had a vet who recommended grapes for dogs if they couldn’t poo right.
Further, my roommate and friend had a lab mix pit that ate any of the grapes that grew in our back yard and lived to be a ripe old age.
The reason you shouldn’t give them grapes is not because of the grapes, it’s because the pesticide used on grapes grown outside the US is a neurotoxin that affects dogs.
Grapes by themselves are fine, as long as you can be sure they don’t have the wrong pesticides on them.
On another thought, Since Todd and Andi seem intent on at least bringing the girls together as a family, it’s going to be really interesting when Amanda starts asking what the deal is with her fangy periwinkle sister with the weird slits in her side that can breathe water.
I’d imagine Agent Brown is going to be less than amused about a second 8-year-old observing in detail how weird her sister is and how there are other weird people in the world like her.
Amanda has known about Selkie needing to do stuff with her gills (and she seems to know they’re gills) for quite a while already, as seen when Selkie was having breathing issues at school that one time (and the “medicine” that was water softener)
Plus, the whole point of Selkie being at the orphanage was to see how well a human couple (or, in this case, Todd solo) could handle having a child of a different species (without them knowing as much, at least at first). I mean, we have them working along the Feds, working as doctors & artists. there are probably others out there, and it’s unlikely that people wouldn’t notice a whole family of differently colored, earless, gilled folks with webbed hands & wicked sharp looking teeth (like at the aquarium a little while ago)
Brown is working on integration, and any acceptance without panic or violence is probably a plus in his book (even if he can’t officially say as much)
Hrm. Eggs and cream are presumably edible for Selkie, but sugar, vanilla, chocolate and other ice cream flavourings really aren’t. Nice one grown ups; no one has noticed you’ve had to bump one kid to the sid e for a little bit and hurt is happening as a result and now you’re going to increase that feeling of exclusion by going for a ‘treat’ she has to sit out of? Way to add fuel to the fire.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Selkie ends up a bit sensitive after this, as not only is Amanda his daughter as well, she’s his daughter who can do normal human stuff like go for ice cream, eat vegetarian cuisine and leave the house on cold days…
She’s had ice cream before. It was an unflavored type, but still ice cream. Depending on where they go it’s fully possible she’ll be able to get ice cream too, allowing her to participate in what’s to be a family activity.
If it’s a different shop that doesn’t have an unflavored base (effectively what she had with the grandparents) then things may be different.
There are places that make ice cream on the fly. I’ve eaten at a few. You pick everything out you want on the ice cream from the base, to the sweetener, to the stuff that goes in like cookie crumbs. It would not be unreasonable, even if a bit pecular to go in and order an ice cream based on just the base.
Ooh, there’s one of those places relatively close to where I live (maybe a 20 minute drive). Design what you want, watch them mix it, then liquid nitrogen & fold that stuff over itself. Sugar free options were numerous there, and as we’ve seen specialty shoe stores along with large department stores in the town/city the story takes place a specialty ice cream parlor is completely feasible (likely, even)
I could see since egg and milk are products of animals and not of a plant it would be alright. But it does bring to question for me, does her species lactate and/ or nurse young? I wonder what young ones eat…..
I believe they eat the egg white, until they hatch. After hatching they just eat fish food. Dave, correct me if I’m wrong, her.
It’s actually the white that turns into the (bird/lizard/sarnothi), and the yolk is the food pack. In some fish such as salmon, the fry will even hatch before the yolk is completely used up, and swim around with a yolk sac attached to their bellies for a while.
I’m thinking that Selkie might start thinking along the lines of what happened to Amanda… judging by what we’ve seen, Amanda was adopted by the Sandersons before they had biological children. The ‘princes’ in Amanda’s story look shorter then the ‘princess’, so they probably adopted her thinking they might not have their own children but when they did… Amanda fell to the wayside, and since Amanda’s situation was pretty darn awful, Selkie might feel inferior to her as a result. Amanda was given back because they had ‘real kids’, but Selkie knows her family well right now, since her father, aunt and uncle were all adopted, so while she might not jump to the same conclusion Heather did when she screwed up and thought her parents would ‘give her back’. Selkie knows better then that, but it won’t keep her from feeling like Amanda is more important at the moment. Understandably so too, since her mother gave her up as well. They were both abandoned by the family they knew for the first five years of their life, and both of them bear different scars from it as a result.
Things will probably be quite messy for a long time, and for all we know Selkie and Amanda might not get along well for several years. They don’t have to love each other right away, but they need to learn to co-exist together because of Todd. Whether they like it or not, they have to share their dad.
They really need to push Amanda to apologize to Selkie too, can’t expect them to play at a happy family until she does.
Yeah, that would be… pretty fucking necessary.
Yeah, that’s going to be pretty important, but I don’t know if Amanda’s quite ready for that yet. What Dave needs to do in the meantime is take time to do special things with just him and Selkie.
Since Selkie is eight and old enough to understand such things, an explanation of “you are still very much my daughter, and I still love you, even though I need to take time to help Amanda right now, because she’s still hurting,” might also be in order.
But yes, the apology is going to have to come sooner or later for the above to be more than a temporary situation.
Pss. I think you mean Todd, Dave is the comics author. :p
Maybe Dave has a daughter that wears periwinkle body paint and speaks in plurals. We don’t know. And we don’t judge. But that would be funny
It’s your frown that makes me happy,
When you lie, you seem most true,
It’s your tears that bring out all my laughter,
It’s your joy that I truly rue.
When you sigh, I really start to giggle,
Your questions? These I just detest.
So please, don’t come around to see me,
It seems my friends don’t like you, too.
I get grumpy whenever you are near me.
I dance, when you need your rest.
When you win, I feel like I am losing,
When you talk, you seem like such a pest.
When you worry, I feel I should be snoozing,
When you’re nice to me I feel like it’s a test,
But when you’re crying,–
That’s when —
I love you
Best.
Poor Selkie, I’m glad for Mandy, but really I hurt for Selkie.
Funny thing is this is typical for kids. When one feels they are losing the attention they had before and deserve there’s some jealousy. When my sister was born for instance, I told my mom to just put her back. (We do laugh about it to this day.) Mind you, my case ended on a smooth heart warming note as I decided she was mine, not my mom’s but mine. The point is that kids feel crowded out sometimes but a healthy relationship most of the time develops as the children adjust to the new dynamic.
My sister had trouble with getting distracted when she was eating, so it took a very long time for her to finish. It was taking large chunks out of the day, and according to my mom, I started asking her not to feed the baby. (In my defense, I was 2.)
The thing here is, in many ways, this isn’t really a typical situation for kids. This has already started as a terribly toxic relationship, and in many ways, they aren’t young anymore. There is a LOT of hurt here, and it’s going to take a long time for it to all get dealt with. Hopefully it WILL get dealt with eventually, but it will take a long time.
Agreed, and no, the situation is not typical. But the behavior within the ever changing situation has not been strange on either child’s part. Selkie and Amanda have both been acting like normal kids to it. Amanda is reasonable to trust slowly and then show relief when she gives herself a moment. Selkie has been surprisingly empathic towards truck and she is just now showing slight jealousy, which again is actually quite normal.
They are reacting reasonably in an unreasonable situation. Time will heal the wounds slowly, but they both have the building blocks needed to heal even if it’s slow. Todd and Andi will have to find a way to build that bridge, which they are starting. Hopefully Andi won’t screw things up since she’s the weak link between the two.
Excuse me sir, but I’m not a hoe u_u
(Check description :P)
Given what Amanda has been in the past, I see horrifying potential for her to try to emotionally abuse Selkie. As people have already pointed out, AMANDA is the one who can do all the regular kid stuff with Tod. Amanda is the one with two “real” parents. Amanda is the “pretty” one. Amanda is the one who doesn’t need expensive shoes or special food. Amanda is the child Tod can hug without getting a rash. She could use so very many subtle twists of the verbal knife.
I feel I should note that it’s Selkie’s KISSES that are ‘irritating’, not her skin on and of itself. Hugs are fine.
Also note Heather – “Dad, can Amanda and Keisha come visit?” Selkie has been completely forgotten.
I think with that, she was not going to be as hurt by. The fight was not between her and Amanda and Heather. The battle between Heather and Amanda was separate from the one between Amanda and Selkie.
Maybe eventually the four will get to the point where they can all play together, but for now I would think Selkie would not fare well in that kind of group, as it is easy to fall back into old habits.
Selkie already can come visit, she already has before.
It’s not that I doubt that Todd is a good father, but I’m really scared that now that his biological daughter is in his life, he might start to care for her more than Selkie.
Remember this is the guy who’s whole family is adopted. Not gonna happen.
I concur with Mikael, Todd is not going to care more about Amanda than he does about Selkie. It’s not going to happen.
However, there is a VERY fine line that he is going to have to walk to make sure that neither of his daughters feels rejected, and I can easily see him making a number of mistakes in that regard while he learns how to walk that tightrope. He will not love one daughter more than the other, but said daughters may at times feel like he does, just because he is still learning.
What’s interesting is that Selkie has been SO good up to this point about her dad’s biological daughter being her worst bully. It’s natural we start to see some hurt and fear. Selkie, like Amanda, was abandoned by a parent while old enough to remember this once before. (Her mom, Amanda’s adoptive parents). Even worse, it’s amanda’s “real mom and dad” making her, selkie, the “outsider”. (Possible child perspective).
Todd isn’t an idiot. He knows very well what Selkie can and cannot eat. Not to mention that Selkie has HAD ice cream before. Right now they need to deal with the fact that AMANDA has a large amount of serious issues that need to be addressed and helped worked through. Selkie’s needs don’t necessarily need to take the back burner by any means, but Amanda needs love too. Selkie has been made comfortable in her new home. She knows she’s loved. She knows she’s not a reject. Now Amanda needs to know SHE’S loved and not a reject.
Also, why the hell would Heather invite Selkie over to play with Amanda and Keisha? She’s not been forgotten about at all. Selkie wouldn’t want to hang out with Amanda and I doubt she feels a whole lot better about Keisha either. Amanda and Heather need to mend THEIR relationship and Keisha is very much the glue that holds them together so of course she’s gonna be invited over. Inviting Selkie isn’t only an insult to Amanda, but to Selkie as well. Eventually they can all hang out, but right now would be terrible timing and just plain inconsiderate.
Amanda massively acted out, has tormented Selkie for ages, and physically assaulted her friends. As a consequence she gets hugs and ice cream. And all the attention. Sounds like Selkie is getting a pretty raw deal to me. Todd’s not winning any awards in my book.
Also, mad props to freaking Todd including Andi in the word family. I’m so proud of him right now.
“Ok kids, what have we learned today?”
“If you act out enough, you get a treat, you don’t have to apologize AND people will let you get away with doing horrible things?”
“Very good!”
Don’t forget Amanda’s still grounded for the rest of the week. I’m pretty sure Andi’s not going to let her off from that.
So what she’s learned is, acting out does have consequences. But — when you have good parents, anyway — the consequences don’t include your parents withdrawing their love.
As for apologies, Heather doesn’t seem to have wanted one. She has what matters more. The friendship has been patched up, and in the first panel all three girls are smiling.
Now, if you’re voicing what you think Selkie might be thinking, you might have a point. If that is what’s going through her mind, though, she’s going to find out she’s wrong.
So after assaulting her friends and then getting drunk in public (an occurance I frankly still find not believable), her punishment is being grounded for a week, BUT she gets ice cream?
I’m not suggesting her parents not love her, nor that they don’t try and help her, but Amanda gets a way with a LOT and Selkie seems to keep getting the short end of the stick. Andi too, keeps somehow not having to really face the consequences of what she did.
It’s Dave’s story and he is the only one who can decide how it goes, but from my perspective as a reader I’m personally getting tired of this being the Amanda and Andi show, where in both people who have done terrible things face little real consequences because of it, and Selkie, the reason I read the comic is the one who has to be mature and bear the brunt of it. Its making it harder and harder for me to keep reading in all honesty.
Dave,
It looks like your security certificate expired yesterday. I had a hard time getting to your website to read the strip from my saved link using the prefix https:// – thought you might want to know in case you don’t see it from your end.