But she’s reciting something she’s heard possibly dozens of times. Remembering lyrics is completely different from knowing the ins and outs of the language it is being sung in; I could sing a couple lines of 99 Luftballons, and I know absolutely zilch when it comes to German. Doctor Pohl said that Selkie has her ‘pluralses’ because in Tenei, plurals are a lot more complicated, and with her rough start to English it’s no wonder that she still has trouble with the English variants.
That’s also because different parts of the brain register music or rhythmic language vs. normal speaking language. That’s why some people with pronounced stutters can sing without stuttering — or so I understand it.
She catches herself almost-saying “eels”, but works in “livestock” at the last minute. Raising eels must not be socially-acceptable to human society, even though we DO use eel as a food-animal (though usually limited to Japanese cuisine)
And… I can’t believe I live in a world, where someone doesn’t get the reference to Belle’s opening song from Beauty and the Beast, especially with the new movie 😛
Quick check says 10 years old minimum, and on a Junior certification until at least 15. I’m gonna hope the government can smooth over some bumps there, for the sake of the family.
She’s too young for PADI/NAUI, but remember that those are for unassisted, self-driven SCUBA where you learn to do everything yourself and are expected to be self-sufficient.
PADI and NAUI are also basically how they keep untrained divers/morons out of the water, because the main keylock is that without a PADI/NAUI card you can’t buy air.
I know that SNUBA requires no licensing and people on cruise ships go do it all over the Caribbean with nothing more than a 15 minute safety briefing. That wouldn’t be doable in an underwater city, though.
I would assume that with somewhat less training an assisted dive would be doable. I think that’s how the aforementioned 6 year old I heard about in Maui was doing it.
It also depends on emergency facilities and contingency plans as well. Todd isn’t gonna be willing to let Amanda go unless there is a full-featured, well-thought out, tested plan to handle it.
Feel free to delete since there is some language in this. While Beauty and the Beast is my all time favorite, I can’t hear that quote anymore without thinking of this:
That conversation kind of got derailed by Benny, and then Selkie got excited again. When there’s another lull in the conversation, or when chance arises, she’ll ask again and probably get her answer.
well don’t see a whole lot of reason to not let her go. it not like she can’t be putting 2 and 2 together between seeing more sarnothi and the bits of conversation to realize there is more to selkie than a skin condition.
really if the plan is to have Amanda function as selkie’s sister, at some point she would have to be read into what the deal is. the very fact that she has been allowed to this dinner seems like it could well be agent brown testing to see just how much she can be told.
There are two rather significant reasons Amanda can’t go, at least not yet.
First: the whole deep diving required aspect of it. Scuba is serious and requires a not-insignificant amount of time and training. As others have pointed out she doesn’t even meet the age requirement for scuba certification (assuming its the same in their world as ours). Nor would she likely be able to prepare in time even if she could train for their currently scheduled visit.
Second, the security requirements. Obviously Amanda is in on the secret far more than the average populace, but that doesn’t means shes allowed to know everything, like where this place is located. She’s a security risk as is, likely as not to blurt out something inadvertently (or in anger) that others probably shouldn’t hear. I’m not saying she will but so far she doesn’t NEED to know this information the way Todd and Selkie do, so its a bit different.
I’m sure Todd will try his best to include her when he can and its appropriate to do so, but even if it might potentially help her acceptance of Selkie, its also not necessarilly the best choice to include Amanda on this visit even if she COULD get past the scuba requirement part.
i feel your pain….that awkward moment when you want to ship someone who´s happily married with kids in canon and giving in to your mental fantasy would mean crashing that perfection…..then again, they´re a whole different culture, who knows whats ok for sarnothi? heck, as a matter of fact, if they ever want more kids, they´ll need the help of a male of her species 😉
i wasn´t truly serious, just remembering an episode of ‘alien nation’ where a good percentage of the alien males is born infertile and they´ve found their own unique solution to have kids anyway – needless to say the human co-worker freaks out quite a bit overhearing his alien buddy getting asked to impregnate someone´s wife – and everybody is acting as if its the greatest honor ever, including the wife of said buddy 😉
As I recall, it wasn’t that the rest of the males were infertile, it was that they had evolved with a sort of ‘third sex’ with slightly different parts, and conception required that one of them had to be present in addition to a male.
Heck, non-monogamy is becoming more widely accepted even among humans, ranging from “monogamish” (“monogamy with some squish around the edges”) to swinging to open relationships to full fledged polyamory.
You know, I have to give you credit for something in this one. Quite often, singing actually helps break speech impediments and accents. Look at Ozzy Osbourne, who is utterly unintelligible when speaking, but still sings as well as ever. Having Selkie get the lyrics right without her traditional extra S’s is a nice nod to that.
Colour me dense, but this is the first time I realised that Carrie’s speech pattern is probably another idiosyncrasy in addition to the extra s’s. Up to this point, I’d been reading it as her being extremely diffident, which was making me uncomfortable because I was seeing her as really nervous even in her home with Avery and Benny. Seeing her waxing lyrical now, I see it in a completely different light.
With that in mind, I should go back and re-read the last few strips!
It seems to be a stress/nervous habit… finding some common ground in something they both enjoy, with another Sarnothi, and especially one of Selkie’s clan probably eased her mind quite a bit.
Much of her nervousness may have been attributed to the fact that Selkie is one of the main opposing factions to Carrie’s clan… but while we know Selkie was completely unaware of what went down in her homeland, Carrie may not have known that Plo Quar boogied outta there before Selkie was even born… because her own son remembers home so vividly and has a lot of angst about it.
Those of us on the Autism spectrum often have weird habits that we use to deal with stress and nervousness… usually manifests as picking, fidgeting, tapping, wringing hands or clothes, shaking a knee or arm, gritting or clicking teeth, speech patterns… but when we find something in common with people we’re around, those behaviours suddenly cease and we’re able to “act normal”
Hell, even those of us not on the spectrum have peculiar ways to deal with the stress. I stutter when nervous, the more nervous the more stutter. My leg also shakes when emotions or energy levels spike due to an incident with a lightning bolt. People just tend to act slightly different as emotions change.
That fan art is great, and reminded me that I’ve got this mental image of an Ianto Jones type human office worker or scientist who bickers with Agent Then constantly and the two of them just ooze UST.
I love how relaxed Carrie is when talking about the camp. That makes me think it really is a better place than I expected at first, and that she sincerely likes it, not just ‘making do’ even with the problems. It’s the first time we’ve seen her have any real confidence.
I have to say Dave, I really like Ellie’s art style there. It’s probably a bit too detailed to keep up with your regular update schedule for every single page, but what about cover art for your physical books? I mean, if the big comic book studios can get away with using a different artist for the cover art and the interior art, why not you?
awwwww, bonding moment between carrie and selkie <3
Selkie said that line with no misplaced s’s. Seems she can manage it pretty well with the right motivation.
But she’s reciting something she’s heard possibly dozens of times. Remembering lyrics is completely different from knowing the ins and outs of the language it is being sung in; I could sing a couple lines of 99 Luftballons, and I know absolutely zilch when it comes to German. Doctor Pohl said that Selkie has her ‘pluralses’ because in Tenei, plurals are a lot more complicated, and with her rough start to English it’s no wonder that she still has trouble with the English variants.
Yes. This. I can sing a couple songs in Spanish, but ask me to speak it, and you have a broken mess that sounds like a truck ran over its grammar.
That’s also because different parts of the brain register music or rhythmic language vs. normal speaking language. That’s why some people with pronounced stutters can sing without stuttering — or so I understand it.
Fun fact when your singing things like lisps tend to dispear
I wanna know what kind of livestock they keep. 😀
What movie are they referencing?
Eels. Probably fish of all kinds, really it would be like our cattle.
And they are referencing Belle’s Small Provincial Life song from Beauty and the Beast. Which makes sense because the animated movie is awesome.*
*I have not seen the new live action movie so I will not comment on it.
Quick google check for the phrase suggests it’s Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovhdfa1sUoM
She catches herself almost-saying “eels”, but works in “livestock” at the last minute. Raising eels must not be socially-acceptable to human society, even though we DO use eel as a food-animal (though usually limited to Japanese cuisine)
And… I can’t believe I live in a world, where someone doesn’t get the reference to Belle’s opening song from Beauty and the Beast, especially with the new movie 😛
I’ve only seen the original ages ago, and it’s not like I memorize movie scripts anyways. 😀
Nicecatch about the eels.
Eels are also found in British cuisine- eel pie, anyone?
Note that Amanda is as enthralled as the others. She possibly is truly motivated to 1) not be afraid of Sarnothi and 2) try to be able to go.
Hmm… I wonder how long it’d take an 8-year-old to get her SCUBA Cert…
Quick check says 10 years old minimum, and on a Junior certification until at least 15. I’m gonna hope the government can smooth over some bumps there, for the sake of the family.
She’s too young for PADI/NAUI, but remember that those are for unassisted, self-driven SCUBA where you learn to do everything yourself and are expected to be self-sufficient.
PADI and NAUI are also basically how they keep untrained divers/morons out of the water, because the main keylock is that without a PADI/NAUI card you can’t buy air.
I know that SNUBA requires no licensing and people on cruise ships go do it all over the Caribbean with nothing more than a 15 minute safety briefing. That wouldn’t be doable in an underwater city, though.
I would assume that with somewhat less training an assisted dive would be doable. I think that’s how the aforementioned 6 year old I heard about in Maui was doing it.
It also depends on emergency facilities and contingency plans as well. Todd isn’t gonna be willing to let Amanda go unless there is a full-featured, well-thought out, tested plan to handle it.
Feel free to delete since there is some language in this. While Beauty and the Beast is my all time favorite, I can’t hear that quote anymore without thinking of this:
https://pics.me.me/there-goes-the-baker-with-his-tray-like-always-there-17225235.png
So no-one’s going to answer Amanda’s question then?
That conversation kind of got derailed by Benny, and then Selkie got excited again. When there’s another lull in the conversation, or when chance arises, she’ll ask again and probably get her answer.
well don’t see a whole lot of reason to not let her go. it not like she can’t be putting 2 and 2 together between seeing more sarnothi and the bits of conversation to realize there is more to selkie than a skin condition.
really if the plan is to have Amanda function as selkie’s sister, at some point she would have to be read into what the deal is. the very fact that she has been allowed to this dinner seems like it could well be agent brown testing to see just how much she can be told.
There are two rather significant reasons Amanda can’t go, at least not yet.
First: the whole deep diving required aspect of it. Scuba is serious and requires a not-insignificant amount of time and training. As others have pointed out she doesn’t even meet the age requirement for scuba certification (assuming its the same in their world as ours). Nor would she likely be able to prepare in time even if she could train for their currently scheduled visit.
Second, the security requirements. Obviously Amanda is in on the secret far more than the average populace, but that doesn’t means shes allowed to know everything, like where this place is located. She’s a security risk as is, likely as not to blurt out something inadvertently (or in anger) that others probably shouldn’t hear. I’m not saying she will but so far she doesn’t NEED to know this information the way Todd and Selkie do, so its a bit different.
I’m sure Todd will try his best to include her when he can and its appropriate to do so, but even if it might potentially help her acceptance of Selkie, its also not necessarilly the best choice to include Amanda on this visit even if she COULD get past the scuba requirement part.
Welp, that fan art makes me realize that shipping is possible between Avery and Then……*retreats into a corner*
i feel your pain….that awkward moment when you want to ship someone who´s happily married with kids in canon and giving in to your mental fantasy would mean crashing that perfection…..then again, they´re a whole different culture, who knows whats ok for sarnothi? heck, as a matter of fact, if they ever want more kids, they´ll need the help of a male of her species 😉
Given that Benny’s sibling appears to be missing, I would be wondering if Carrie would be interested in having more children…
i wasn´t truly serious, just remembering an episode of ‘alien nation’ where a good percentage of the alien males is born infertile and they´ve found their own unique solution to have kids anyway – needless to say the human co-worker freaks out quite a bit overhearing his alien buddy getting asked to impregnate someone´s wife – and everybody is acting as if its the greatest honor ever, including the wife of said buddy 😉
I loved that series – more than the movie to be honest.
As I recall, it wasn’t that the rest of the males were infertile, it was that they had evolved with a sort of ‘third sex’ with slightly different parts, and conception required that one of them had to be present in addition to a male.
Heck, non-monogamy is becoming more widely accepted even among humans, ranging from “monogamish” (“monogamy with some squish around the edges”) to swinging to open relationships to full fledged polyamory.
Well, luckily for us, shipping defies all morals, logic (or heck, even physical laws I imagine :p)
You know, I have to give you credit for something in this one. Quite often, singing actually helps break speech impediments and accents. Look at Ozzy Osbourne, who is utterly unintelligible when speaking, but still sings as well as ever. Having Selkie get the lyrics right without her traditional extra S’s is a nice nod to that.
Colour me dense, but this is the first time I realised that Carrie’s speech pattern is probably another idiosyncrasy in addition to the extra s’s. Up to this point, I’d been reading it as her being extremely diffident, which was making me uncomfortable because I was seeing her as really nervous even in her home with Avery and Benny. Seeing her waxing lyrical now, I see it in a completely different light.
With that in mind, I should go back and re-read the last few strips!
Ey, she didn’t stutter!
It seems to be a stress/nervous habit… finding some common ground in something they both enjoy, with another Sarnothi, and especially one of Selkie’s clan probably eased her mind quite a bit.
Much of her nervousness may have been attributed to the fact that Selkie is one of the main opposing factions to Carrie’s clan… but while we know Selkie was completely unaware of what went down in her homeland, Carrie may not have known that Plo Quar boogied outta there before Selkie was even born… because her own son remembers home so vividly and has a lot of angst about it.
Those of us on the Autism spectrum often have weird habits that we use to deal with stress and nervousness… usually manifests as picking, fidgeting, tapping, wringing hands or clothes, shaking a knee or arm, gritting or clicking teeth, speech patterns… but when we find something in common with people we’re around, those behaviours suddenly cease and we’re able to “act normal”
Hell, even those of us not on the spectrum have peculiar ways to deal with the stress. I stutter when nervous, the more nervous the more stutter. My leg also shakes when emotions or energy levels spike due to an incident with a lightning bolt. People just tend to act slightly different as emotions change.
I haven’t seen Beauty & the Beast in probably 10 years minimum, and I tuned that line in an instant. I was so sure I was just tricking myself, too!
I wonder what else the town uses for cattle besides eels. Can we go to the fishy village now, Dave?! The children are all excited!
Beauty and the Beast. Natch I spotted it. Someone please draw Carrie in a Belle costume so I can die of Squee. She’d be adorable.
That fan art is great, and reminded me that I’ve got this mental image of an Ianto Jones type human office worker or scientist who bickers with Agent Then constantly and the two of them just ooze UST.
1: that fan art is awesome, Ellie!
2: Sorry, Carrie, but I don’t think your second husband is going to turn into a handsome Sarnothi prince. (Alas!) 😉
I love that she says “Repairs” clothes. that’s an adorable and believable little quirk. I think she might be my new favorite character.
I love how relaxed Carrie is when talking about the camp. That makes me think it really is a better place than I expected at first, and that she sincerely likes it, not just ‘making do’ even with the problems. It’s the first time we’ve seen her have any real confidence.
Heh… “Scheming Selking is scheming.”
I have to say Dave, I really like Ellie’s art style there. It’s probably a bit too detailed to keep up with your regular update schedule for every single page, but what about cover art for your physical books? I mean, if the big comic book studios can get away with using a different artist for the cover art and the interior art, why not you?