Someone is gonna HAVE to come clean about this stupid bow or Todd is gonna hit the overhead. He was told it was there to PROTECT his DAUGHTER and he’s not gonna let it out of his sight.
And, Agent Brown is tone-deaf as usual. We know he has a kid. Does he even know his own kid’s name?
C’mon, Selkie, temper, temper, do not go postal on him. He thinks he Is the government, he’s forgotten he works For the government; which is the people.
Todd doesn’t care about “the people”. He cares about HIS DAUGHTER. He is not going to take kindly to THE GUMMIT taking away what is ostensibly a protection device given to his daughter by her biological mother.
The obvious thing here is that Plo Quar would have had Selkie’s best interests at heart– and the government has no business taking that away.
To be fair, that thing has triggered false alarms twice so far. I’m not saying there isn’t an ulterior motive to this, but they do have ground to stand on.
No matter what happens though, Todd has to get more info from Pohl ASAP, because I’m pretty sure Agent Brown is gonna try to stop all possible leaks.
Certain legal rights get ignored or overridden when you’re dealing with secrecy issues such as “this girl is an alien.” I mean, how would you even assert these rights in court?
Nowhere in the US constitution does it specify ‘human’, or ‘alien’. It instead uses ‘the people’. And I believe it’s been established that Selkie is indeed a US citizen, thus she is one of ‘the people’. Taking the bow against her wishes is a straight up violation of the fourth amendment.
yeah, right… go ahead and believe what you want…. if the Government (or officials of various Alphabet Agencies) deem it necessary, whatever they think is a problem, and could be solved by making said problem just… go away… and who’s to say anything different…? for a real life example, does the name Guantanamo Bay mean anything to you? while yes, it is a “white” project, that the public knows about. i’m convinced there are various similar “black” projects that we, the general public, know NOTHING about… so i’m quite positive that Agent Brown could get Todd taken away for violating some obscure clause in the NDA he signed when he received those classified documents way back when… and if they were feeling really vindictive, they could kill him, or if they thought he could still be “useful” they could fake his death, and his parents wouldn’t even know… as for Selkie… nope sorry, she was born in the City-State of Sarnoth… therefore NOT a U.S. Citizen, those laws you were talking about, nope: they don’t apply…
Due to a change in immigration laws about 15 years ago, A child of foreign birth automatically becomes a US citizen when adopted into an American family. My daughter (born in China) has a US Passport, but she can never become president because her birth certificate is a Certificate of Foreign Birth.
again, a piece of paper… if the Gov. want’s something to happen/NOT happen… it makes it so. all you have is a piece of paper that they themselves issued, and can just as easily UN-issue (or call yours a forgery, etc.) and is therefore irrelevant to that end.
ps. if you can’t tell, i’m a pessimist, and i usually take quite a bit of convincing for me to change that attitude, sorry. don’t get me wrong, but i AM quite open to, and enjoy wrangling with the attempts at doing so though. 😀
you know, Soviet Union actually did function like that, and there were still human rights activists pushing back against it and achieving results. USA is NOT like the Soviet Union in that regard, and if this comes to light, there WILL be protection avaliable for Selkie.
The problem here, of course, is the volatility of the sarnothi issue, and the fact that the cure may be worse than the malady here. Right now, Todd has all the incentive to cooperate with the government. Of course, this only lasts as long as the government DOESN’T invoke the kind of threat you are talking about here. If that happens, Todd just might prefer his chances with the press and the activist movements.
plot wise you wouldn’t have introduced such technology
nor had it as an heirloom gifted to her from her mother
just to take it away from Selkie.
Especially as the Ribbon is designed to be a distress Beacon
in case anything were to happen to selkie.
evidenced as the Agents showed up uninvited
it’s obviously transmitting a signal as a beacon
with the ribbon currently turned off incorrectly
I would guess Selkie’s Mother might send a scout
to find out what has happened to Selkie. or to find the ribbon
going to guess that if the Ribbon isn’t returned to Selkie
that a Small Army may find the Agents instead.
In fact, it would be safe to assume that someone has been watching selkie from afar whenever she has left the house.
and another scout has always been sent in case of back-up
whenever the Ribbon has been activated.
an important skill set of any resistance cell is the ability to move, infiltrate, and gather intelligence without being seen.
with the Ribbon having been transmitting since the morning,
I’m Going to guess the Apartment and Block are currently surrounded by Sarnoth soldiers. If Agent Brown tries to take it
there will be Drama.
You do have a point. Selkie’s mom or someone must have been watching her, To keep her save. I mean why leave her in that orphanage and not tell the government about her.
Spys I can accept, but soldiers? No. Not unless Selkie’s moms wants a conflict with the US military. You forget the entire reason behind Agent Brown and Then is protect and integrate Sarnothi refugees. A small army showing up would expose them prematurely and possibly cause a war.
up until panel 2 and 3 i would have agreed with you, but with Then’s abrupt attitude shift, in those panels, I’ll bet my Moxana Points on the fact that he’s JUST realized that the “Full Emitter” that he was so blithely gushing on and on about IS, indeed, a WEAPON! and it’s one that is quite miniaturized from what he’s normally used to having seen (similar to the “Noisy Cricket” gun from MIB 1…) and the reason that he’s going to “my boys in lab coats” is probably both to render it inert, AND probably to reverse engineer it for ‘his side’ to deploy in the future (whatever side that might end up being, that is).
I dunno…call me cynical, but if government agents enter your home and declare they’re taking something – or someone – and you cry out that it’s unconstitutional, they’re still going to do what they were sent to do. And IF you can afford a good lawyer, IF you can find a lawyer to take your case, IF you have any proof other than your word agains theirs, IF you have the time and money to run your case up through the justice system, then…maybe their search and seizure might be declared unconstitutional and you might get some kind of recompense? If not, probably they’re gonna get away with it anyway.
Also, the 4th amendment protects against *unreasonable* search and seizure; if taking the bow is deemed reasonable, I don’t think the Constitution is going to be much help. Or can the “unreasonable” be eliminated with probable cause and a warrant? I’m never 100% sure what the wording of these things means.
(Is anyone here particularly well-read on the Patriot Act? Would that be a thing in this situation?)
“Your honor, we took the bow because it’s a magical recording device that projects a fully 3d hologram into any environment without any preparation of the civilian’s mother telling her daughter that she loves her and deemed that it was vital to homeland security that we take it away.”
yep, very much like how the ?Treadstone? Project got smoothed over in the Congressional Hearings at the end of one of the Jason Bourne movies… it was just swept under the rug and disappeared… and that’s only IF it becomes necessary to reveal it in the first place…
We still don’t know how/from what – if at all – its protecting her. I don’t think it does or that she needs it, though i do wish someone just finally said what it really does, i do think Todd and Selkie deserve an explanation. I asume the agents have a reason for wanting it, and wouldn’t take it if doing so was harmfull to Selkie.
Maybe if both agents listen to the message, Maybe they can see if its a red flag or not. If not then someone my need to stay with Selkie and her dad Todd to make sure there are going to be ok.
The sad part is that The Agent is kinda right …
okay SO say that this device goes active in the street.
What will really happen?
A REALLY Advanced hologram goes active spouting nonsense
People would be scared, but then realize that it is not doing anything and record it
someone would eventually get this information who would recognize the language AND the person who is talking.
Yeah it is BS that this is happening, BUT it IS for Selkies protection
…hehSelkie the selkath
and that is the SAME logic that will have you arrested and thrown in prison because you MIGHT get drunk, MIGHT drive your car while drunk and MIGHT kill somebody while drunk driving… even though you’ve NEVER TOUCHED Alcohol in your LIFE and don’t intend to EVER drink the stuff!!… it COULD happen so the cops gotta prevent that from happening, right?…
nope: that is a totally BS logic path (watch the movie Minority Report for where this could go).
UNTIL that hologram gets activated, in PUBLIC, where somebody COULD get a recording, AND be AWARE of the entire COVERT Sarnoth cover-up, AND is working for “the Other Side” (for whatever that means in this context) AND gets the recording TO them… up until THAT EXACT MOMENT there should be VERY few reasons to take the bow away from her in the first place… now, i WILL grant you that “IF” Agent Then JUST figured out that the thing inside the bow IS a weapon, which happens to be the equivalent of a laser pistol hidden inside an old-style tape recorder which is now in the hands of an EIGHT-Year-Old!! who has ALSO has JUST been informed that the “Bow” was just a disguise for the REAL thing, also taking into account that the bow is something that she herself had ADMITTED TO experimenting with!… yeah, while i HOPE that they are compassionate enough that they record her mom’s message and get a copy of the recording back to Selkie, but as for the (POSSIBLE, mind you) WEAPON.. Sure, confiscate it and keep it under wraps, no problem!! and if that’s the TRUTH, AND also what Agent Then tells them, and Agent Brown relaxes his ATTITUDE a bit, then I’m pretty sure that both Todd and Selkie would be “OK” with that decision. BUT, and here’s the kicker, if Brown just goes all “I’m The Government And I Can Do What I Want, And You’ll Have To Live With It, etc, etc…” yeah, i don’t see that going over so well…
The only problem with your arguments are that they are based on fictional movies and books. Could 1984 happen? Yes (we’ve already seen “alternative facts” try to gaslight us from the white house. But to blanketly say they would throw out the constitution is something else altogether. Now, this is a fictional universe that we are talking about, and Dave may very well make it that way. But to say that Brave World or Minority report are happening (remember, both of them required the entire populus to be on drugs), and no Floride in the water doesn’t count) would take a lot more actual proof. Guatanamo Bay – there aren’t enough words to say how strongly that is wrong. Unfortunate doesn’t even begin to cover it. And the idea that our country is holding people without allowing them representation is reprehensible. BUT there are people that are shouting that at the top of their lungs and not letting it be forgotten. Before we say all government agents (especially one who truly has been as open and honest with Todd as possible) are the devils – err – agents of the bringers of light – I’d want to see more proof of what Dave has in store. This could lead to Todd and Selkie being able to see some of how they are going to test it, and if it is protecting Selkie, I doubt that Agent Todd, and from his actions Then, are going to really keep it from her at that point. Both have done everything so far to protect Selkie, not harm her. (Including bending their own rules)
A weapon can go off by accident
Guaranteed it’s not a weapon
It is a hologram projector
Perhaps a holographic recorder
At most it might be a holographic video confrencing device
Either way it’s not grounds for confiscation.
Especially not without a warrant
And as selkie hasn’t done anything wrong
They have no legal right to confiscate it.
Otherwise they would have to raid every sarnoth immigrant
To confiscate all sarnoth technology.
Oh, that sucks! That’s the only thing she has left from her mom.
Someone is gonna HAVE to come clean about this stupid bow or Todd is gonna hit the overhead. He was told it was there to PROTECT his DAUGHTER and he’s not gonna let it out of his sight.
And, Agent Brown is tone-deaf as usual. We know he has a kid. Does he even know his own kid’s name?
Yeah, don’t mix work with family. First rule of everything.
C’mon, Selkie, temper, temper, do not go postal on him. He thinks he Is the government, he’s forgotten he works For the government; which is the people.
Todd doesn’t care about “the people”. He cares about HIS DAUGHTER. He is not going to take kindly to THE GUMMIT taking away what is ostensibly a protection device given to his daughter by her biological mother.
The obvious thing here is that Plo Quar would have had Selkie’s best interests at heart– and the government has no business taking that away.
Not questioning her intentions but we know nothing about her judgement.
My pet theory for now is still that the thing is supressing Selkie’s development of resonance powers.
The fact is, the device contains messages from Plo Quar who is currently a wanted fugitive.
“I’m taking it back to my workshop my dear. I’ll fix it up there, then I’ll bring it back here,” Said another green guy to a little girl. For shame!
Makes ya wanna whack him with a thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole, doesn’t it?
To be fair, that thing has triggered false alarms twice so far. I’m not saying there isn’t an ulterior motive to this, but they do have ground to stand on.
No matter what happens though, Todd has to get more info from Pohl ASAP, because I’m pretty sure Agent Brown is gonna try to stop all possible leaks.
Well to be fair too, The first false alarm was because she was away from it for the first time, And the second one was because she was biting it.
Agent Brown. You do realize that this won’t fly with a protective father like Todd,right?
Also what if Selkie’s vulnerable now? DX Even with Todd there,she might not be as protected from anything after her Mother.
I don’t see this going over well.
Without a warrant, and with it not being a weapon
They have no legal grounds to confiscate it.
Certain legal rights get ignored or overridden when you’re dealing with secrecy issues such as “this girl is an alien.” I mean, how would you even assert these rights in court?
Nowhere in the US constitution does it specify ‘human’, or ‘alien’. It instead uses ‘the people’. And I believe it’s been established that Selkie is indeed a US citizen, thus she is one of ‘the people’. Taking the bow against her wishes is a straight up violation of the fourth amendment.
yeah, right… go ahead and believe what you want…. if the Government (or officials of various Alphabet Agencies) deem it necessary, whatever they think is a problem, and could be solved by making said problem just… go away… and who’s to say anything different…? for a real life example, does the name Guantanamo Bay mean anything to you? while yes, it is a “white” project, that the public knows about. i’m convinced there are various similar “black” projects that we, the general public, know NOTHING about… so i’m quite positive that Agent Brown could get Todd taken away for violating some obscure clause in the NDA he signed when he received those classified documents way back when… and if they were feeling really vindictive, they could kill him, or if they thought he could still be “useful” they could fake his death, and his parents wouldn’t even know… as for Selkie… nope sorry, she was born in the City-State of Sarnoth… therefore NOT a U.S. Citizen, those laws you were talking about, nope: they don’t apply…
We don’t really know if selkie was born in Sarnoth or the USA.
ok, i’ll give you that point, but i’m still betting Sarnoth.
Due to a change in immigration laws about 15 years ago, A child of foreign birth automatically becomes a US citizen when adopted into an American family. My daughter (born in China) has a US Passport, but she can never become president because her birth certificate is a Certificate of Foreign Birth.
again, a piece of paper… if the Gov. want’s something to happen/NOT happen… it makes it so. all you have is a piece of paper that they themselves issued, and can just as easily UN-issue (or call yours a forgery, etc.) and is therefore irrelevant to that end.
ps. if you can’t tell, i’m a pessimist, and i usually take quite a bit of convincing for me to change that attitude, sorry. don’t get me wrong, but i AM quite open to, and enjoy wrangling with the attempts at doing so though. 😀
you know, Soviet Union actually did function like that, and there were still human rights activists pushing back against it and achieving results. USA is NOT like the Soviet Union in that regard, and if this comes to light, there WILL be protection avaliable for Selkie.
The problem here, of course, is the volatility of the sarnothi issue, and the fact that the cure may be worse than the malady here. Right now, Todd has all the incentive to cooperate with the government. Of course, this only lasts as long as the government DOESN’T invoke the kind of threat you are talking about here. If that happens, Todd just might prefer his chances with the press and the activist movements.
plot wise you wouldn’t have introduced such technology
nor had it as an heirloom gifted to her from her mother
just to take it away from Selkie.
Especially as the Ribbon is designed to be a distress Beacon
in case anything were to happen to selkie.
evidenced as the Agents showed up uninvited
it’s obviously transmitting a signal as a beacon
with the ribbon currently turned off incorrectly
I would guess Selkie’s Mother might send a scout
to find out what has happened to Selkie. or to find the ribbon
going to guess that if the Ribbon isn’t returned to Selkie
that a Small Army may find the Agents instead.
In fact, it would be safe to assume that someone has been watching selkie from afar whenever she has left the house.
and another scout has always been sent in case of back-up
whenever the Ribbon has been activated.
an important skill set of any resistance cell is the ability to move, infiltrate, and gather intelligence without being seen.
with the Ribbon having been transmitting since the morning,
I’m Going to guess the Apartment and Block are currently surrounded by Sarnoth soldiers. If Agent Brown tries to take it
there will be Drama.
You do have a point. Selkie’s mom or someone must have been watching her, To keep her save. I mean why leave her in that orphanage and not tell the government about her.
Spys I can accept, but soldiers? No. Not unless Selkie’s moms wants a conflict with the US military. You forget the entire reason behind Agent Brown and Then is protect and integrate Sarnothi refugees. A small army showing up would expose them prematurely and possibly cause a war.
up until panel 2 and 3 i would have agreed with you, but with Then’s abrupt attitude shift, in those panels, I’ll bet my Moxana Points on the fact that he’s JUST realized that the “Full Emitter” that he was so blithely gushing on and on about IS, indeed, a WEAPON! and it’s one that is quite miniaturized from what he’s normally used to having seen (similar to the “Noisy Cricket” gun from MIB 1…) and the reason that he’s going to “my boys in lab coats” is probably both to render it inert, AND probably to reverse engineer it for ‘his side’ to deploy in the future (whatever side that might end up being, that is).
I’m not happy about his decision, but I like that he’s being honest with Todd.
And what will be left to protect Selkie, agent Brown? The fabric that covered the bow?
I dunno…call me cynical, but if government agents enter your home and declare they’re taking something – or someone – and you cry out that it’s unconstitutional, they’re still going to do what they were sent to do. And IF you can afford a good lawyer, IF you can find a lawyer to take your case, IF you have any proof other than your word agains theirs, IF you have the time and money to run your case up through the justice system, then…maybe their search and seizure might be declared unconstitutional and you might get some kind of recompense? If not, probably they’re gonna get away with it anyway.
Also, the 4th amendment protects against *unreasonable* search and seizure; if taking the bow is deemed reasonable, I don’t think the Constitution is going to be much help. Or can the “unreasonable” be eliminated with probable cause and a warrant? I’m never 100% sure what the wording of these things means.
(Is anyone here particularly well-read on the Patriot Act? Would that be a thing in this situation?)
“Your honor, we took the bow because it’s a magical recording device that projects a fully 3d hologram into any environment without any preparation of the civilian’s mother telling her daughter that she loves her and deemed that it was vital to homeland security that we take it away.”
Yeah, I don’t see that flying.
How about “We took the bow because it contains dangerous and classified technology.”
yep, very much like how the ?Treadstone? Project got smoothed over in the Congressional Hearings at the end of one of the Jason Bourne movies… it was just swept under the rug and disappeared… and that’s only IF it becomes necessary to reveal it in the first place…
you know I really don’t think movies are a good reference point here
Sorry, that reply was meant for someone else! I’m going to blame it on my phone.
Solid point, though. If Selkie’s ever attacked by another Sarnothi, then what?
We still don’t know how/from what – if at all – its protecting her. I don’t think it does or that she needs it, though i do wish someone just finally said what it really does, i do think Todd and Selkie deserve an explanation. I asume the agents have a reason for wanting it, and wouldn’t take it if doing so was harmfull to Selkie.
Maybe if both agents listen to the message, Maybe they can see if its a red flag or not. If not then someone my need to stay with Selkie and her dad Todd to make sure there are going to be ok.
i´m joining the chorus saying UH-OH….and somehow i´m hearing the theme from jaws in my mind. du-dumm, du-dummm, duh!!
The sad part is that The Agent is kinda right …
okay SO say that this device goes active in the street.
What will really happen?
A REALLY Advanced hologram goes active spouting nonsense
People would be scared, but then realize that it is not doing anything and record it
someone would eventually get this information who would recognize the language AND the person who is talking.
Yeah it is BS that this is happening, BUT it IS for Selkies protection
…hehSelkie the selkath
and that is the SAME logic that will have you arrested and thrown in prison because you MIGHT get drunk, MIGHT drive your car while drunk and MIGHT kill somebody while drunk driving… even though you’ve NEVER TOUCHED Alcohol in your LIFE and don’t intend to EVER drink the stuff!!… it COULD happen so the cops gotta prevent that from happening, right?…
nope: that is a totally BS logic path (watch the movie Minority Report for where this could go).
UNTIL that hologram gets activated, in PUBLIC, where somebody COULD get a recording, AND be AWARE of the entire COVERT Sarnoth cover-up, AND is working for “the Other Side” (for whatever that means in this context) AND gets the recording TO them… up until THAT EXACT MOMENT there should be VERY few reasons to take the bow away from her in the first place… now, i WILL grant you that “IF” Agent Then JUST figured out that the thing inside the bow IS a weapon, which happens to be the equivalent of a laser pistol hidden inside an old-style tape recorder which is now in the hands of an EIGHT-Year-Old!! who has ALSO has JUST been informed that the “Bow” was just a disguise for the REAL thing, also taking into account that the bow is something that she herself had ADMITTED TO experimenting with!… yeah, while i HOPE that they are compassionate enough that they record her mom’s message and get a copy of the recording back to Selkie, but as for the (POSSIBLE, mind you) WEAPON.. Sure, confiscate it and keep it under wraps, no problem!! and if that’s the TRUTH, AND also what Agent Then tells them, and Agent Brown relaxes his ATTITUDE a bit, then I’m pretty sure that both Todd and Selkie would be “OK” with that decision. BUT, and here’s the kicker, if Brown just goes all “I’m The Government And I Can Do What I Want, And You’ll Have To Live With It, etc, etc…” yeah, i don’t see that going over so well…
The only problem with your arguments are that they are based on fictional movies and books. Could 1984 happen? Yes (we’ve already seen “alternative facts” try to gaslight us from the white house. But to blanketly say they would throw out the constitution is something else altogether. Now, this is a fictional universe that we are talking about, and Dave may very well make it that way. But to say that Brave World or Minority report are happening (remember, both of them required the entire populus to be on drugs), and no Floride in the water doesn’t count) would take a lot more actual proof. Guatanamo Bay – there aren’t enough words to say how strongly that is wrong. Unfortunate doesn’t even begin to cover it. And the idea that our country is holding people without allowing them representation is reprehensible. BUT there are people that are shouting that at the top of their lungs and not letting it be forgotten. Before we say all government agents (especially one who truly has been as open and honest with Todd as possible) are the devils – err – agents of the bringers of light – I’d want to see more proof of what Dave has in store. This could lead to Todd and Selkie being able to see some of how they are going to test it, and if it is protecting Selkie, I doubt that Agent Todd, and from his actions Then, are going to really keep it from her at that point. Both have done everything so far to protect Selkie, not harm her. (Including bending their own rules)
err Agent Brown not Agent Todd. Sorry!
A weapon can go off by accident
Guaranteed it’s not a weapon
It is a hologram projector
Perhaps a holographic recorder
At most it might be a holographic video confrencing device
Either way it’s not grounds for confiscation.
Especially not without a warrant
And as selkie hasn’t done anything wrong
They have no legal right to confiscate it.
Otherwise they would have to raid every sarnoth immigrant
To confiscate all sarnoth technology.