It’s kinda on Todd, as a “cleared individual”, to advise his higher-up (which may or may not be Avery) of other individuals that are regularly in his house.
In any case, Amanda had to find out at some point, if they are actually going to be sisters in anything but name– they will be in too close contact to keep THAT BIG of a secret from Amanda.
Oh, I think Amanda is gonna be no problem. Knowing that Selkie is a different species, and part of a different group of people, instead of her being just a “weird kid” will actually help Amanda understand Selkie better.
If Agent Brown knows his job at all, he is only allowing Todd to know things that wont be too harmful if it gets out on a small scale but should not be made for general release. Anything higher then that would be woefully negligent in his duties.
You are actually supposed to go through strict rigorous training for handling confidential material, and the more secret something is, the more hoops to go through.
And they are not really going out of their way to make this totally secret, to me it looks like they are trying to introduce them gradually and not make it seem like a big deal like it would if there was a press release.
In a way, having Amanda know and possibly spread the information is a good thing.
Consider- children are more likely to accept things as they are, instead of ‘as they should be’- add to that the fact that they’re the next generation, and how little most adults pay attention to the ‘ramblings of children’, and you’ve now got a whole bunch of kids who see someone with gills and green/grey skin and think “Oh, Sarnothi,” instead of “Oh, Freak”.
Imagine one of these kids is at a supermarket with their parent, and the two of them see a Sarnothi there, buying some fish. The parent is going to be all “WTF?”, but the kid’s gonna be “Mo-oom, stop staring! It’s rude!” and the parent will notice that the kid isn’t weirded out or anything. That’s integration at work.
And when Kids learn from Parents, it’s along with all sorts of cultural baggage from that parent’s life. However, when parents learn from kids, it tends to be seen as “Oh, one of those newfangled things I didn’t know about yet”.
People will grow up with it as the new normal, and the older generations might well remain as clueless to that as to the mechanics of texting
(…oh, grandma)
While Selkie mentioned the Sarnothi when she wasn’t supposed to–Todd isn’t any better by mentioning Agent Brown in front of someone without security clearance (even if Amanda is Todd’s daughter) This is top-secret classified international business!
Also, isn’t it considered rude to discuss plans in front of a person who is NOT going to be included?
Talking excitedly about plans to go to a party, a concert, a movie, a restaurant, a vacation, or whatever…then telling the person they are NOT invited to come along is very hurtful…
(especially since Amanda has abandonment issues, they’re treading on already thin ice here)
Talking about plans like this can–and SHOULD–wait!
Todd is setting a very BAD example for his kids! (BOTH OF THEM!)
Note he said “Mr. Brown” and made no allusion to his job or any professional connection between him and Selkie or Todd. He did OK. What Mr. Brown does for a living or why his son and wife are green isn’t being volunteered; I would assume that he talks about his wife to other people and just doesn’t mention her heritage.
He also mentioned “the trip”. Like if this is supposed to be kept secret from Amanda don’t hint at it even using code words. If she’s allowed to know then no problen.
Doesn’t Amanda know (having lived with Selkie for at least 3 years) that Selkie is obviously not human? None of those kids in the orphanage are fooled by the “skin condition” crack, she’s friggin’ BLUE and has GILLS and FANGS.
They may not know WHAT she is, but they certainly know what she ISN’T.
No, no retcons as of yet. Amanda knows by experience that the “genetic condition” routine is wrong. The school scene you mentioned also shows her telling Jessie that and Jessie chiding Amanda for calling Selkie non-human when she “just has a medical condition”.
But Amanda also doesn’t have a reason to put together that there is an entire culture of “Selkiepeople”. She knows Selkie and she met the De’Madiea family all of once several months ago in universe-time, but she’s never really been given a reason to think “Hey there’s probably a whole freaking city of these smelly weird fish people.”
I dunno, if Amanda is clever enough to figure out what she has, and she knows there are more than one of whatever Selkie is, doesn’t it stand to reason she would figure there would be even more?
Kids ask a lot of questions but they also are oddly accepting of things sometimes.
I can easily imagine Amanda just deciding in her head that they’re just mutants, or at least that there’s few of them around, since there *are* few of them around.
I expect young kids in europe/america are also quite surprised to realize there are countries where nearly everyone is black.
I think Amanda is definitely clever enough to figure it out. I just think she’s more likely to have concluded that Selkie and her people are either mutants or ship wrecked aliens or something similar that would explain why she’s seen so very few of them. She knows Selkie isn’t unique (after seeing the De Madiea’s and all) but she hasn’t been given reason to think that there is a large population anywhere.
Well, lets face it. Amanda was NEVER going to let that “trip” slide. There really was no way to get around telling her without causing more problems than it was worth. The truth is/was pretty much the only thing that could stop her from making a big fuss about it.
The entitlement with Amanda is absolutely absurd. I suppose no one has sat her down yet and explain that there’s going to be times her or her Mother won’t be involved in their lives.. And that’s perfectly OK.
Amanda has abandonment issues after her previous family favored their natural children and dropped her back at the orphanage. We know it was more complicated than that, but that’s still how Amanda sees it.
Of course she doesn’t want to be excluded! She’s afraid of Selkie becoming the favored child and her being neglected, again. Especially now that she is getting comfortable with having a family again.
I think she’s already getting too much of a pass as is because of her circumstances. I’d like her to actually show some effort of being nice to Selkie for once – like my hope is next strip will be Todd calling her out on this outburst, though I doubt it. At least it looks like Selkie learned to just shrug the nastyness off. 🙁
Well it’s not really making excuses for her behavior. She’s not upset because she’s jealous (bad), but because she’s insecure about being excluded. Which is understandable. That requires reassurement, not punishment.
She can’t go two strips without reminding Selkie how much she despites her, right in front of Todd. She’s not even trying to be nice, so I would sincerely like to see some (appropriate) punishment come her way, but I expect it’s instead going to be all about trying to placate her feeling of being excluded instead…
I think it’s more the “you mean there’s more of you” and “a new personal hell” that would be considered rude and needs correcting. Reacting to them going on a trip without her not as much. (IMHO)
That isn’t Amanda being Amanda, that’s a little girl being a little girl. You ever try going ANYWHERE without a kid also wanting to go? It could be boring, you could have to go to COURT and a kid would want to come along. Never mind this is clearly something special so of COURSE she wants to come. It isn’t entitlements, kids attach themselves to people and wherever that person wants to go, they want to go.
What I find interesting is Amanda’s automatic assumption that her mother should be included in any “family outings”. Christmas has set up some seriously unrealistic expectations.
yep, andi all but crashing the smith´s christmas is going to bite them in the butt for years to come…..and i´m already looking forward to andi trying to pull the same stunt again, say for a family bbq, and todd telling her NO and *not* giving in this time. her face will be *epic*. seriously, both her+amanda have to get it through their thick skulls that andi+todd aren´t together anymore nor will they ever be again.
really, why must a sarnothi refugee village have to be underwater? selkie gets by with a bowl and bottled water to flush her gills. so take a small gated/walled community with a small indoor fresh water pool in each house for a day dip to flush their gills and they should get along just fine. maybe add in a few larger shared pools for exercise and get together type things and while living out of water might annoy the adults (though to be honest, have we seen a sarnothi adult living above water show any signs of discomfort at doing so? aside from some homesickness type things) the kids growing up there would hardly notice anything out of place other than likely very few trips outside of the community.
but I doubt the comic can go that route logically as it opens up a few odd questions. like why has not a sarnothi “lewis and clark” team not explored all of the rivers in the area? they could easily and safely explore the entire length of any fresh water river and a half day walking distance to either side of it. which leads to the question of why is there no sarnothi outposts in any other medium to large size lakes if not above water outposts near solid sources of water.
from the instructions of taking care of selkie, all that seems to be needed for a sarnothi is a stable source of fresh water and the availability of a heavily meat oriented diet. we know they are good hunters and have a moderate level of technology at least so the meat diet should be easy enough to acquire with minimal planning.
the only reason could think of for this not to happen, is if there is something particular about the great lakes area that they need to survive that just has never been mentioned yet. or perhaps told and selkie have been lied to about other sarnothi settlements in other areas?
I have a feeling you’re right – a gated community *could* work, but as Then as acted, the Sarnothi want to be able to be culturally accepted and that means underwater – that’s how their culture and civilization grew. The same reason America is still contested land for the indigenous Native Americans.
An underwater Sarnothi village is not only likely to be easier to conceal but easier on the Sarnothi. Think of all the extra effort and expense that has to be made to keep Selkie healthy and functional in the human world, special hand crafted shoes, flushing the gills, heat packs, etc. The Sarnothi who CHOOSE to live in this difficult realm are more likely to be of an adventurous or driven personality. They either have a cause that is important enough to make them bear the hardships or a strong enough connection to humans to want to be with them in their environment. For those Sarnothi who are ordinary refugees who just want to go home an underwater village, as close to what they left as they can manage, is the natural choice.
I’m confused by what you’re asking. They generally live underwater. Even in a tale that was told a while back proved they did. So. Generally it’s what they’re used to and just how they live.
I think Amanda is showing some progress here. She’s briefly upset they didn’t invite her and Andi, (which is understandable, in that she and Andi are a unit the same way Selkie and Todd are) but settles down once Selkie explains. They’re just kids, and sometimes the medium of comics makes it hard to read tone: Amanda’s response here is totally normal
Ugh, just when you think Amanda might MAYBE be getting even remotely tolerable, nope. Worst. Character. Ever. She’s horrible. I would never say this about a living, breathing actual human child, but man, if she got eaten by a sea monster or something, I would be so much happier.
I’ve been archive bingeing because I realized I never read any of the transcripts. This one is by far my favor it because it references one of my favorite Disney cartoons ever. “Ten thousand years ago, it was a world of Darkness. It was a world of Fear. It was the Age of Gargoyles!”
Well… they are in the house. 😀
I actually wonder what Amanda and Andi’s security clearance status is. Or like, does agent Brown even know Selkie has a sister now?
It’s kinda on Todd, as a “cleared individual”, to advise his higher-up (which may or may not be Avery) of other individuals that are regularly in his house.
In any case, Amanda had to find out at some point, if they are actually going to be sisters in anything but name– they will be in too close contact to keep THAT BIG of a secret from Amanda.
Unlike Selkie, Amanda is far better at keeping secrets.
Oh, I think Amanda is gonna be no problem. Knowing that Selkie is a different species, and part of a different group of people, instead of her being just a “weird kid” will actually help Amanda understand Selkie better.
Hope so.
If Agent Brown knows his job at all, he is only allowing Todd to know things that wont be too harmful if it gets out on a small scale but should not be made for general release. Anything higher then that would be woefully negligent in his duties.
You are actually supposed to go through strict rigorous training for handling confidential material, and the more secret something is, the more hoops to go through.
And they are not really going out of their way to make this totally secret, to me it looks like they are trying to introduce them gradually and not make it seem like a big deal like it would if there was a press release.
In a way, having Amanda know and possibly spread the information is a good thing.
Consider- children are more likely to accept things as they are, instead of ‘as they should be’- add to that the fact that they’re the next generation, and how little most adults pay attention to the ‘ramblings of children’, and you’ve now got a whole bunch of kids who see someone with gills and green/grey skin and think “Oh, Sarnothi,” instead of “Oh, Freak”.
Imagine one of these kids is at a supermarket with their parent, and the two of them see a Sarnothi there, buying some fish. The parent is going to be all “WTF?”, but the kid’s gonna be “Mo-oom, stop staring! It’s rude!” and the parent will notice that the kid isn’t weirded out or anything. That’s integration at work.
And when Kids learn from Parents, it’s along with all sorts of cultural baggage from that parent’s life. However, when parents learn from kids, it tends to be seen as “Oh, one of those newfangled things I didn’t know about yet”.
Basically, it’ll probably go something like this:
Classmate: Selkie is from an underwater city, where they use magic and they had a big war.
Parent: You shouldn’t make fun of her skin condition, dear.
^^^
People will grow up with it as the new normal, and the older generations might well remain as clueless to that as to the mechanics of texting
(…oh, grandma)
Amanda, you remember meeting the doctor and his family at the aquarium don’t you?
Of course there are more of her.
Oh crap, teleAmanda, faster than a telegraph, spreading faster than a television, her memes are the stuff of Legends!!
While Selkie mentioned the Sarnothi when she wasn’t supposed to–Todd isn’t any better by mentioning Agent Brown in front of someone without security clearance (even if Amanda is Todd’s daughter) This is top-secret classified international business!
Also, isn’t it considered rude to discuss plans in front of a person who is NOT going to be included?
Talking excitedly about plans to go to a party, a concert, a movie, a restaurant, a vacation, or whatever…then telling the person they are NOT invited to come along is very hurtful…
(especially since Amanda has abandonment issues, they’re treading on already thin ice here)
Talking about plans like this can–and SHOULD–wait!
Todd is setting a very BAD example for his kids! (BOTH OF THEM!)
Note he said “Mr. Brown” and made no allusion to his job or any professional connection between him and Selkie or Todd. He did OK. What Mr. Brown does for a living or why his son and wife are green isn’t being volunteered; I would assume that he talks about his wife to other people and just doesn’t mention her heritage.
He also mentioned “the trip”. Like if this is supposed to be kept secret from Amanda don’t hint at it even using code words. If she’s allowed to know then no problen.
Doesn’t Amanda know (having lived with Selkie for at least 3 years) that Selkie is obviously not human? None of those kids in the orphanage are fooled by the “skin condition” crack, she’s friggin’ BLUE and has GILLS and FANGS.
They may not know WHAT she is, but they certainly know what she ISN’T.
sorry, hit return too soon.
It seems what is being classified here is the WORD “Sarnothi” rather than the fact that Selkie is non-human.
Don’t forget the existence of the refuge camp altogether.
I thought so, too, as evidenced by her apparent helping when Selkie needed to flush her gills at school.
Dave, did you retcon some stuff?
No, no retcons as of yet. Amanda knows by experience that the “genetic condition” routine is wrong. The school scene you mentioned also shows her telling Jessie that and Jessie chiding Amanda for calling Selkie non-human when she “just has a medical condition”.
But Amanda also doesn’t have a reason to put together that there is an entire culture of “Selkiepeople”. She knows Selkie and she met the De’Madiea family all of once several months ago in universe-time, but she’s never really been given a reason to think “Hey there’s probably a whole freaking city of these smelly weird fish people.”
I dunno, if Amanda is clever enough to figure out what she has, and she knows there are more than one of whatever Selkie is, doesn’t it stand to reason she would figure there would be even more?
Kids ask a lot of questions but they also are oddly accepting of things sometimes.
I can easily imagine Amanda just deciding in her head that they’re just mutants, or at least that there’s few of them around, since there *are* few of them around.
I expect young kids in europe/america are also quite surprised to realize there are countries where nearly everyone is black.
I think Amanda is definitely clever enough to figure it out. I just think she’s more likely to have concluded that Selkie and her people are either mutants or ship wrecked aliens or something similar that would explain why she’s seen so very few of them. She knows Selkie isn’t unique (after seeing the De Madiea’s and all) but she hasn’t been given reason to think that there is a large population anywhere.
Todd. Correct. Your. Daughter. Urgh!
Well, lets face it. Amanda was NEVER going to let that “trip” slide. There really was no way to get around telling her without causing more problems than it was worth. The truth is/was pretty much the only thing that could stop her from making a big fuss about it.
Uh… Sure there was. Don’t start talking about a trip around people not going until AFTER they leave! Duh!
Which is basically exactly what I said. Selkie telling the details wasn’t the blunder here even though Todd is scolding her for it.
The entitlement with Amanda is absolutely absurd. I suppose no one has sat her down yet and explain that there’s going to be times her or her Mother won’t be involved in their lives.. And that’s perfectly OK.
She probably got that from her mom.
Unfortunately I can kind of see her forcing herself onto the dinner.
Amanda has abandonment issues after her previous family favored their natural children and dropped her back at the orphanage. We know it was more complicated than that, but that’s still how Amanda sees it.
Of course she doesn’t want to be excluded! She’s afraid of Selkie becoming the favored child and her being neglected, again. Especially now that she is getting comfortable with having a family again.
This is pretty excusable behavior, honestly.
I think she’s already getting too much of a pass as is because of her circumstances. I’d like her to actually show some effort of being nice to Selkie for once – like my hope is next strip will be Todd calling her out on this outburst, though I doubt it. At least it looks like Selkie learned to just shrug the nastyness off. 🙁
Well it’s not really making excuses for her behavior. She’s not upset because she’s jealous (bad), but because she’s insecure about being excluded. Which is understandable. That requires reassurement, not punishment.
She can’t go two strips without reminding Selkie how much she despites her, right in front of Todd. She’s not even trying to be nice, so I would sincerely like to see some (appropriate) punishment come her way, but I expect it’s instead going to be all about trying to placate her feeling of being excluded instead…
I think it’s more the “you mean there’s more of you” and “a new personal hell” that would be considered rude and needs correcting. Reacting to them going on a trip without her not as much. (IMHO)
That isn’t Amanda being Amanda, that’s a little girl being a little girl. You ever try going ANYWHERE without a kid also wanting to go? It could be boring, you could have to go to COURT and a kid would want to come along. Never mind this is clearly something special so of COURSE she wants to come. It isn’t entitlements, kids attach themselves to people and wherever that person wants to go, they want to go.
What I find interesting is Amanda’s automatic assumption that her mother should be included in any “family outings”. Christmas has set up some seriously unrealistic expectations.
yep, andi all but crashing the smith´s christmas is going to bite them in the butt for years to come…..and i´m already looking forward to andi trying to pull the same stunt again, say for a family bbq, and todd telling her NO and *not* giving in this time. her face will be *epic*. seriously, both her+amanda have to get it through their thick skulls that andi+todd aren´t together anymore nor will they ever be again.
Let’s hope you didn’t jynx it, who knows what the author’s planning for them. 😀
If you tell a 10 year old something, it will never be a secret.
Depends on the 10 year old. I think Amanda would be more trustable than Selkie.
Stow the brattitude you’re not going.
Hmm, how good of a swimmer is Amanda?
“How long can you tread water? Ha ha ha hah ha ha…”
We are in the houses.
If you can’t tell your sister something, in what way is she your sister? Cmon.
really, why must a sarnothi refugee village have to be underwater? selkie gets by with a bowl and bottled water to flush her gills. so take a small gated/walled community with a small indoor fresh water pool in each house for a day dip to flush their gills and they should get along just fine. maybe add in a few larger shared pools for exercise and get together type things and while living out of water might annoy the adults (though to be honest, have we seen a sarnothi adult living above water show any signs of discomfort at doing so? aside from some homesickness type things) the kids growing up there would hardly notice anything out of place other than likely very few trips outside of the community.
but I doubt the comic can go that route logically as it opens up a few odd questions. like why has not a sarnothi “lewis and clark” team not explored all of the rivers in the area? they could easily and safely explore the entire length of any fresh water river and a half day walking distance to either side of it. which leads to the question of why is there no sarnothi outposts in any other medium to large size lakes if not above water outposts near solid sources of water.
from the instructions of taking care of selkie, all that seems to be needed for a sarnothi is a stable source of fresh water and the availability of a heavily meat oriented diet. we know they are good hunters and have a moderate level of technology at least so the meat diet should be easy enough to acquire with minimal planning.
the only reason could think of for this not to happen, is if there is something particular about the great lakes area that they need to survive that just has never been mentioned yet. or perhaps told and selkie have been lied to about other sarnothi settlements in other areas?
I have a feeling you’re right – a gated community *could* work, but as Then as acted, the Sarnothi want to be able to be culturally accepted and that means underwater – that’s how their culture and civilization grew. The same reason America is still contested land for the indigenous Native Americans.
I don’t think it must be underwater, they migh just preffer it?
An underwater Sarnothi village is not only likely to be easier to conceal but easier on the Sarnothi. Think of all the extra effort and expense that has to be made to keep Selkie healthy and functional in the human world, special hand crafted shoes, flushing the gills, heat packs, etc. The Sarnothi who CHOOSE to live in this difficult realm are more likely to be of an adventurous or driven personality. They either have a cause that is important enough to make them bear the hardships or a strong enough connection to humans to want to be with them in their environment. For those Sarnothi who are ordinary refugees who just want to go home an underwater village, as close to what they left as they can manage, is the natural choice.
And their ankles and backs aren’t developed for the kinds of stress being out of water puts on you.
Selfies backpack must be hard on her!
Ough. That must be horrible on her yeah
I’m confused by what you’re asking. They generally live underwater. Even in a tale that was told a while back proved they did. So. Generally it’s what they’re used to and just how they live.
I think Amanda is showing some progress here. She’s briefly upset they didn’t invite her and Andi, (which is understandable, in that she and Andi are a unit the same way Selkie and Todd are) but settles down once Selkie explains. They’re just kids, and sometimes the medium of comics makes it hard to read tone: Amanda’s response here is totally normal
Dave> SQUEEE!!! Thanks for the Gargoyles link in the transcript notes area! Yes *nodnod* very appropriate!
Ugh, just when you think Amanda might MAYBE be getting even remotely tolerable, nope. Worst. Character. Ever. She’s horrible. I would never say this about a living, breathing actual human child, but man, if she got eaten by a sea monster or something, I would be so much happier.
That’s awfull.
What has that poor sea monster ever done to you?
I love the expression in panel 2
…”That word is supposed to remain in the house”? What the fuck happened because Amanda sure didn’t come up with that herself
Oh, never mind, Todd says that. Bubble placement confused me.
I’ve been archive bingeing because I realized I never read any of the transcripts. This one is by far my favor it because it references one of my favorite Disney cartoons ever. “Ten thousand years ago, it was a world of Darkness. It was a world of Fear. It was the Age of Gargoyles!”