Also, it’s a little hard to make a black censor mark on a black background. I guess he could have made it the neon green of his speech, but that also might look a little odd.
Both very good reasons. I like the idea of the pictures for calmer people aren’t in danger times and the cover-up for the very stressful times. And yes, if someone speaks in black and green, having a different color censor would probably have more people talking/complaining.
can´t blame Todd for loosing it, it was all a bit much, add the *very* near-death experience for him and selkie and its a surprise he didn´t freak out sooner….plus there´s no way he´ll let his daughter anywhere near a war. screw what gien+co want, he´ll keep her safe – which is exactly what plo quar wanted for her as well.
as for brown….yup, you screwed up royally. calming todd down again won´t be easy, especially since he´ll be mad that no one warned him about the possibility.
See, this is why it’s a story about adoption. This is exactly what _always_ happens when you adopt a kid. Okay,there are issues, best will in the world, we will work around these issues, barely get the kid home wtf this kid isn’t even the same species as I am, never mind, work around it, pull together, this is a GOOD kid, damn I love this kid, whoah, parenting is hard once you have to send them to school/daycare, revelations are normal, there’s a work around, I can assert myself and get my kid what my kid needs, huh, never thought I would be learning new skills way out of my professional and comfort zo…. JHC! My kid has/does WHAT?? Gonna be a psychopath or die or both…????
(Of course this is _also_ exactly what happens every time you have a kid without adopting, but it’s hard to get people to understand what a surprise it all is when the DNA is ineluctably your own. You’re not supposed to admit that the you had no idea you were an apple tree until the fruit lands on your roots.)
You could have left the text out of panel three altogether, Dave. The squinchy eyes say it all.
This is possibly the best comment I’ve read on this site (which is setting a very high bar). Yes! This is exactly what actual parenting is: do my best, do my best, okay, think I’m getting the hang of this… SURPRISE!
… The pessimist in me can’t help but think this would be an excellent time for Gien to show back up to say the worst possible thing at the worst possible moment.
Well, Dave, you did it again.
You caused a failure in the o-ring seals for my eyes, — they are leaking Ringer’s solution, … again!
My sadness for Todd, for Selkie, … And for Agent Brown, if he Ever turns his back toward Todd and offers the opportunity. I bedoubt me much, that Todd could resist. I don’t -think- that -I- could.
Mr. Brown seems to have Manners of the Manor, …And Morals of the Barn. Classic inability to accurately foresee, predict, and project the most probable results of his actions.
In fairness to Avery Brown, he’s subject to the bureaucracy of his job. If he goes off and starts telling people who aren’t in the loop things they aren’t authorized to know, (but he believes they should for various reasons, like say the adoptive parent of child who will likely get powers) without vetting and approval by the higher-ups will likely get fired and possibly jailed. Which, in turn, will prevent him from doing what good he can do. And his replacement would probably be a party-liner who would be extremely unhelpful.
But there’s also the fact that they could quite easily make this his fault.
After all.
Their job is to ensure smooth integration.
This is not smotth integration.
If his supervisors are particularly nasty, they could get him in shit on the grounds of ‘You should have used your initiative to prevent this problem, clearly you aren’t as capable as you made us think.’
Remember when Brown’s step-son said how hard he was working to get Todd even the little access he had? I can’t imagine what it would take to get the access to undersea-water-wizard power talks. And if Brown spills it without getting that permission he could be fired, or possibly even tried for treason for giving away national secrets. So, yea I do feel bad for Brown. I think he was really hoping that the Doc would fill in some more than he did, but I imagine even he has his hands tied to some extent
It’s not “inconsistency”, it’s”variety”! :D. Yay, the emoji swears are back!
Man, it’s disturbing to hear Selkie be so gleeful about killing in a war, but then, being a sheltered kid who doesn’t understand death in the same way an adult does, it just makes too much sense that she would feel this way; never even mind the whole “alpha predator” thing. :/
Also, most of what she knows about it is that “I’m like Mom.” For a kid who has little memory of her mother, and even what she had of her (the hair bow) was taken, that’s pretty huge.
Don’t forget she’s a *kid*. Unless she’s been exposed to the right source material, war and death are video game materials for her. She probably doesn’t understand that it’s blood, and pain, and horror. It’s ‘Pop pop, and look at the bad man crumple!’
Oh, yeah, that Trunchbul fellow. Trying to remember the quote- Can’t find that comic! “They are alpha predators, with sentience.Their values and ideas are completely alien to ours.” I still don’t believe it, just because they have a sense of humour (and watch Pinky and the Brain), but the prof’s looking marginally more sympathetic than he did.
This bureaucratic red tape seems to more of a pain than anything else.
It’s just a shame Todd found this out after almost drowning, instead of in a another situation where he would be more calm. A near death experience is not the best time to learn these sorts of things.
Todd’s a pretty solid everyman, in all this. At some point people tend to snap, and while I think it might’ve been a bit ago for most, this is a pretty good point for it to all come apart for him.
I’m throwing in my thank you for awesome writing and making Todd so believable. I like finding another of his breaking points, especially since except for the fact that Selkie doesn’t get to finish her visit, no one really is getting really hurt while he goes home and recollects. (All hurting is presumably already finished from IAmPants after all). Unless Pants managed to break the submarine, then they may be down there for a bit first…
As others have already said, Todd’s reaction is very believable. So much of this situation is beyond his control, so he’s using what power and authority he still has. Quite appropriately, too: getting his child away from potential and actual danger so they can calm down and have a nice, long TALK…
She’s like her mom. Her mom that she barely remembers. That even the thing that she was given (her hair bow) has been taken away. That’s all she had of mom, but now she’s like her mom. For a little kid, that’s pretty huge.
She’s also still under the effects of the headache, and of seeing her dad almost die, and of seeing herself almost die, and seeing Scar spit fire from his eyes, of seeing the colony at all to begin with… She’s not under much less emotional intensity than Todd is at the moment; she’s just showing it a different way.
She’s just heard several people tell how badass and respected her mother was for being a resistance fighter, and now just learned she may be able to follow those footsteps. She’s also eight; she thinks it’s G.I. Joe, not Hurt Locker.
Exactly. Few children have the experience and mental development at that age to grasp the consequences of actually inflicting violence and death. For that matter, most adults without direct experience find such things difficult to understand.
So no, Selkie’s response isn’t an indicator of psychopathy, just unavoidable (and correctable) ignorance.
I thought somewhat like that around that age. War was a thing that happened in very whitewashed story books and movies and I don’t think I’d seen any depiction more realistic than Mulan.
Agent Brown, I think you broke the Todd.
I think that my issues with the “Agent” are that as an Agent of the US GumberMint it is his Job to keep secret information, …secret. BUT he is a father, too, to a Sarnothi child. That means that he has learned first hand what it is to have a special needs child* and Not have the information needed to protect, care for, and prevent harm to, his cherished son. He knows this! Until I see that he didn’t know about the Echo info, I am changing his name to Annie-Thema! … And he is NOT welcome in my house!
* Bottle of water available always, special shoes, especially warm winter clothes, no vegetables, yada-yada-yada.
I got the impression the government didn’t know where Selkie was until a lot of the damage was already done – that her mom dropped her off at the orphanage without telling *anyone* about it, and they made due with what they had until the government found out – and by that point, they had already discovered what was medically needed for Selkie. The orphanage also already told Todd all of that before he took her home.
See, this is the problem with Lawful Good; either Law or Good will be compromised on some point, and most of the time it’s not even the person’s fault. This isn’t the first time Smith had legal reasons not to tell Todd the info he needed to know.
Some people would say that is the FUN of Lawful Good. Also?
“Let’s learn about selkie’s heritage.”
*Discovers it involves mimic eels*
“Could this get any worse?”
“Your daughter has superpowers.”
“…FUCK THIS SHIT I’M OUT!”
*Music Plays*
And here I am, who by Selkie’s age has read little books about the Leningad siege (and life for people in the city during it), the evacuation and what happened to people who weren’t evacuated, all for little children :]
Man, sometimes my upbringing is just, really really REALLY different 0.o
Scar’s swearing falls firmly in the not-life-and-death-realization category, and could easily be considered humorous, so I’d say the icon censor fits…
What she said.
Also, it’s a little hard to make a black censor mark on a black background. I guess he could have made it the neon green of his speech, but that also might look a little odd.
Both very good reasons. I like the idea of the pictures for calmer people aren’t in danger times and the cover-up for the very stressful times. And yes, if someone speaks in black and green, having a different color censor would probably have more people talking/complaining.
Yeah, this fits. I can understand the distinction now, and I think you’re doing fine.
I like the swearing style. And Todd’s reaction was great – reminds me of when he found out what happened to her Clan…fear for his little girl.
Shite of bull, Scar… yes indeed.
I’m gonna use this swearing style from now on. Thank you Mr. Dave.
Me too. “Sh*t of the bull” is just too good NOT to be used.
Selkie’s reaction is kind of scary. 🙁
can´t blame Todd for loosing it, it was all a bit much, add the *very* near-death experience for him and selkie and its a surprise he didn´t freak out sooner….plus there´s no way he´ll let his daughter anywhere near a war. screw what gien+co want, he´ll keep her safe – which is exactly what plo quar wanted for her as well.
as for brown….yup, you screwed up royally. calming todd down again won´t be easy, especially since he´ll be mad that no one warned him about the possibility.
Yeahh, I’d want to nope the eff out of that place too.
See, this is why it’s a story about adoption. This is exactly what _always_ happens when you adopt a kid. Okay,there are issues, best will in the world, we will work around these issues, barely get the kid home wtf this kid isn’t even the same species as I am, never mind, work around it, pull together, this is a GOOD kid, damn I love this kid, whoah, parenting is hard once you have to send them to school/daycare, revelations are normal, there’s a work around, I can assert myself and get my kid what my kid needs, huh, never thought I would be learning new skills way out of my professional and comfort zo…. JHC! My kid has/does WHAT?? Gonna be a psychopath or die or both…????
(Of course this is _also_ exactly what happens every time you have a kid without adopting, but it’s hard to get people to understand what a surprise it all is when the DNA is ineluctably your own. You’re not supposed to admit that the you had no idea you were an apple tree until the fruit lands on your roots.)
You could have left the text out of panel three altogether, Dave. The squinchy eyes say it all.
This is possibly the best comment I’ve read on this site (which is setting a very high bar). Yes! This is exactly what actual parenting is: do my best, do my best, okay, think I’m getting the hang of this… SURPRISE!
… The pessimist in me can’t help but think this would be an excellent time for Gien to show back up to say the worst possible thing at the worst possible moment.
Well, Dave, you did it again.
You caused a failure in the o-ring seals for my eyes, — they are leaking Ringer’s solution, … again!
My sadness for Todd, for Selkie, … And for Agent Brown, if he Ever turns his back toward Todd and offers the opportunity. I bedoubt me much, that Todd could resist. I don’t -think- that -I- could.
Mr. Brown seems to have Manners of the Manor, …And Morals of the Barn. Classic inability to accurately foresee, predict, and project the most probable results of his actions.
In fairness to Avery Brown, he’s subject to the bureaucracy of his job. If he goes off and starts telling people who aren’t in the loop things they aren’t authorized to know, (but he believes they should for various reasons, like say the adoptive parent of child who will likely get powers) without vetting and approval by the higher-ups will likely get fired and possibly jailed. Which, in turn, will prevent him from doing what good he can do. And his replacement would probably be a party-liner who would be extremely unhelpful.
But there’s also the fact that they could quite easily make this his fault.
After all.
Their job is to ensure smooth integration.
This is not smotth integration.
If his supervisors are particularly nasty, they could get him in shit on the grounds of ‘You should have used your initiative to prevent this problem, clearly you aren’t as capable as you made us think.’
So he’s very much rock and a hard place tbh.
He mentioned something of the sort when the Doctor gave the note to Selkie about her being Sarnothi.
Remember when Brown’s step-son said how hard he was working to get Todd even the little access he had? I can’t imagine what it would take to get the access to undersea-water-wizard power talks. And if Brown spills it without getting that permission he could be fired, or possibly even tried for treason for giving away national secrets. So, yea I do feel bad for Brown. I think he was really hoping that the Doc would fill in some more than he did, but I imagine even he has his hands tied to some extent
I think Todd is handling this pretty well.
It’s not “inconsistency”, it’s”variety”! :D. Yay, the emoji swears are back!
Man, it’s disturbing to hear Selkie be so gleeful about killing in a war, but then, being a sheltered kid who doesn’t understand death in the same way an adult does, it just makes too much sense that she would feel this way; never even mind the whole “alpha predator” thing. :/
Also, most of what she knows about it is that “I’m like Mom.” For a kid who has little memory of her mother, and even what she had of her (the hair bow) was taken, that’s pretty huge.
Don’t forget she’s a *kid*. Unless she’s been exposed to the right source material, war and death are video game materials for her. She probably doesn’t understand that it’s blood, and pain, and horror. It’s ‘Pop pop, and look at the bad man crumple!’
Dunno, kid me’s reaction to getting superpowers would be getting excited about flying and such, not murder.
Oh, yeah, that Trunchbul fellow. Trying to remember the quote- Can’t find that comic! “They are alpha predators, with sentience.Their values and ideas are completely alien to ours.” I still don’t believe it, just because they have a sense of humour (and watch Pinky and the Brain), but the prof’s looking marginally more sympathetic than he did.
***** of bull XD
Yes Scar! YES! And, I just may have to steal that “sh!t of bull”. Is GOOD!
Is perhaps ? of horse, instead.
This bureaucratic red tape seems to more of a pain than anything else.
It’s just a shame Todd found this out after almost drowning, instead of in a another situation where he would be more calm. A near death experience is not the best time to learn these sorts of things.
Todd’s a pretty solid everyman, in all this. At some point people tend to snap, and while I think it might’ve been a bit ago for most, this is a pretty good point for it to all come apart for him.
Amazingly good writing, as always.
Scar’s in the right about that. Agent Brown, you’re in it now. DX
I’m throwing in my thank you for awesome writing and making Todd so believable. I like finding another of his breaking points, especially since except for the fact that Selkie doesn’t get to finish her visit, no one really is getting really hurt while he goes home and recollects. (All hurting is presumably already finished from IAmPants after all). Unless Pants managed to break the submarine, then they may be down there for a bit first…
As others have already said, Todd’s reaction is very believable. So much of this situation is beyond his control, so he’s using what power and authority he still has. Quite appropriately, too: getting his child away from potential and actual danger so they can calm down and have a nice, long TALK…
Selkie’s response is a little crazy. She might be young, but she’s old enough to know not to make light of killing a bunch of people. Jesus Christ.
She’s like her mom. Her mom that she barely remembers. That even the thing that she was given (her hair bow) has been taken away. That’s all she had of mom, but now she’s like her mom. For a little kid, that’s pretty huge.
She’s also still under the effects of the headache, and of seeing her dad almost die, and of seeing herself almost die, and seeing Scar spit fire from his eyes, of seeing the colony at all to begin with… She’s not under much less emotional intensity than Todd is at the moment; she’s just showing it a different way.
No, it’s still completely unacceptable. Todd has to have a serious discussion with her about it. So sounds like a fucking psycho.
She’s just heard several people tell how badass and respected her mother was for being a resistance fighter, and now just learned she may be able to follow those footsteps. She’s also eight; she thinks it’s G.I. Joe, not Hurt Locker.
Exactly. Few children have the experience and mental development at that age to grasp the consequences of actually inflicting violence and death. For that matter, most adults without direct experience find such things difficult to understand.
So no, Selkie’s response isn’t an indicator of psychopathy, just unavoidable (and correctable) ignorance.
I thought somewhat like that around that age. War was a thing that happened in very whitewashed story books and movies and I don’t think I’d seen any depiction more realistic than Mulan.
My non-English native speaking friend learned this insult early on. Except he called it,
“Manure of male cow.”
Yay, wallow in the diversity of the cussin’! 😀
Poor Selkie. Your pacifist dad is not reeealllly coping with Warrior Mom stuff.
Yay! I will swing on over to say Hi!
Agent Brown, I think you broke the Todd.
I think that my issues with the “Agent” are that as an Agent of the US GumberMint it is his Job to keep secret information, …secret. BUT he is a father, too, to a Sarnothi child. That means that he has learned first hand what it is to have a special needs child* and Not have the information needed to protect, care for, and prevent harm to, his cherished son. He knows this! Until I see that he didn’t know about the Echo info, I am changing his name to Annie-Thema! … And he is NOT welcome in my house!
* Bottle of water available always, special shoes, especially warm winter clothes, no vegetables, yada-yada-yada.
I got the impression the government didn’t know where Selkie was until a lot of the damage was already done – that her mom dropped her off at the orphanage without telling *anyone* about it, and they made due with what they had until the government found out – and by that point, they had already discovered what was medically needed for Selkie. The orphanage also already told Todd all of that before he took her home.
I’m with Todd on this one.
C’mon, Todd + turn around. As freaky as this is – it’s the best place to find out what is happening with your daughter…
See, this is the problem with Lawful Good; either Law or Good will be compromised on some point, and most of the time it’s not even the person’s fault. This isn’t the first time Smith had legal reasons not to tell Todd the info he needed to know.
Some people would say that is the FUN of Lawful Good. Also?
“Let’s learn about selkie’s heritage.”
*Discovers it involves mimic eels*
“Could this get any worse?”
“Your daughter has superpowers.”
“…FUCK THIS SHIT I’M OUT!”
*Music Plays*
And here I am, who by Selkie’s age has read little books about the Leningad siege (and life for people in the city during it), the evacuation and what happened to people who weren’t evacuated, all for little children :]
Man, sometimes my upbringing is just, really really REALLY different 0.o