#oh yeah also wanted to mention: i took inspiration from Space Boy the webcomic. so. read that if u vibe with this kind of storytelling | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

amazildoessomethingstupid · 5 years

Text

Chapter 95: Love Again Part 2

Well boys we back on it again! I hope you’re ready cause I’ve been spending most of this week after the response pumping out response images for this next part! So let’s waste no more time and jump right into it!

…

Oh shut up, you know you laughed at it.

So we start off with one of mah boi Bee’s favorite pages! Just look at this great update of a page! Just jam packed with so much stuff to sink your teeth into, and digest. It’s a magnificent piece that is not only worth waiting 2 full days to see, but waiting 2 to 3 more days to see what’s next! And while I was not a dedicated reader, waiting hours on end for when this page update I can only imagine how elated those readers who did wait, must’ve been to see this page!

No wonder this chapter’s 50 pages long… AND IT CONTINUES!

Okay, okay, no I’m not really going to bitch about these splash pages and how fucking tedious and restless it would’ve made me as a serial reader to go into this. Partly, because the way I’m reading these now and with the rant series of going chapter by chapter was all inspired by the great advice by Bear Kidney that he gave me years ago on the forum. That the “proper” way to read BCB is as full chapters, and to just wait for them to be finished…

Which meant in order for an average person to read this “properly” they’d have to wait…

Five full months…

Sure! But since we are reading this “properly” I will say that these splash pages do help to set the pace. It sets the tone for this scene pretty well and makes us slow down and appreciate what’s happening, and immerse ourselves into the past.

But enough praise! You know what’s coming, I know what’s coming! Let’s get to it! I’m ready! I’m hungry for some strawberry pancakes! Let’s tear int-

Wait what?

Right when I have to transfer? Wait, this is a flashback right? Is she talking about the private school? I thought we only learned about this private school thing this chapter. What is she-

THEM? Do what? Uhhhhh What?! A-am I missing something here? This is a flashback to when Lucy attempts suicide, right? This is after December, I thought that’s why she did that. Is that not it? Am I missing something?! I THOUGHT I WAS ALL PREPARED WHAT THE HELL?

Okay so this IS about the new school? Okay. Why? I thought what happened in December was enough! Was it not enough? Did that just push her further into this point? Wait, no. This had to be after December. So the move was done because of December? So the first course of action upon realizing Lucy had been acting depressed was to immediately move her to a new place? No like therapy or anything? No counseling? What the…

Okay, hold that thought one second here, I need to resort to a third-party source on this shit.

Hello? Yes, I’m doing the rant and I am now not only angry but very confused! You’ve read further into the comic than me, what the fuck is Lucy talking about here?!

….

WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WAS A SCENE WHERE THEY MENTIONED LUCY MOVING AWAY?! I DON’T REMEMBER ANY SCENE LIKE…wait a second…

ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TALKING ABOUT THIS SCENE?! HOLY CRAP, EVEN I FORGOT ABOUT THIS SCENE! What the fuck?! You mean this one little scene. This little one-page moment shuffled in early, in a chapter that had its own memorable bits of drama and character moments that easily overshadow it; was not only meant to be a very important scene that hints at one of the main reasons Lucy is trying to kill herself…BUT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO- NO WE WERE *EXPECTED* TO HOLD ONTO THIS ONE LITTLE BIT OF DIALOGUE FOR ALMOST FIVE FUCKING YEARS IF WE WANTED TO FULLY UNDERSTAND WHY LUCY’S ATTEMPTING TO KILL HERSELF?!

Yeah, thinking about it I’m not that surprised, honestly. And people think I’m crazy for looking this deeply into the comic and characters and motivations. Apparently, I wasn’t looking hard enough! Jesus, good thing I missed that. If I knew that Sam was so on board with not letting Lucy have say on her treatment, or what happens to her, January would’ve crumbled apart! Not to mention, according to this False Idol shouldn’t have happened since Lucy would’ve been moved away before the summer…

Hey by the way, do we get any follow up on what exactly Lucy did while she was in that private school? Like how was her treatment, care, and stuff? How she was doing?

Why are you laughing?

Alright, I’m not gonna lie. I felt something there. You got me, Taeshi. This bit of paneling. The build up, the expressions, it works here. But sadly I’d be remised if I didn’t make this joke.

You know I had to do it to em’.

But instead she goes for the cannonball! Bold move there, Cotton! Let’s see if it pays off!

Oof! She’s gonna lose a lot of points for not sticking the landing. But I still give it a 5/10 for style points. Okay, okay, I joke but I gotta give props to this scene for well execution (…no pun intended)

The structure of this page is very well done, and reminds me of Korean style of web paneling which uses a lot of negative space and vertical structure to build tension, and slow down the reader’s pace by forcing them to scroll down in order to read forward. If you’ve seen any of those Korean horror webcomics you’ll know what I mean. It’s very effective, and it works to build this tension and intrigue into what happened. It’s a very good trick, and Taeshi’s use of it here is very nice. It’s just…

What….

What the fuck?

WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU BUILT THIS SCENE UP FOR YEARS AND THIS IS WHAT WE GET?! YOU FUCKING HACK! YOU WERE DOING SO WELL! IF YOU JUST TOOK IT SLOW FOR ONE SECOND, AND NOT FUCKING GO OVER THE TOP WITH YOUR EXECUTION OF SCENES! THE ONE TIME! THE ONE SCENE THAT DESERVED TO STAND ON ITS OWN AND HAVE A FUCKING OUNCE OF SUBTLETY AND REALISM, AND YOU COULDN’T FUCKEJWOIGHSLKDA;J

HGNGKJFJLGKFHBN LFKGJHLLJDFGKLJ;LHKGFLKJIUCUCBITCHLKJBVKJLHKJXHCVH

*WHUMP*

Uhhh…

WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED RANT TO BRING YOU BIOLOGY CLASS WITH DR. CAS MARIE!

Hello, kids! Did you know, that hidden inside every animal including you, me, and sharks. Is this thing we call a skeleman! And he brings with him these things called “bones” which are integral for not only fast movement, and articulation in our moving parts, but also they help keep our vital organs safe by surrounding our heart, lungs, and livers. We’ll get more into him in a second, but just know he lives inside almost every living creature!

Well except for invertebrates….

Fuck invertebrates! Think you’re so bad, just cause you ain’t got no bones!

But anyway, beyond that skeleman has with him his best friend. MUSCLE MAN! Who is sort of like a squishy version of the skeleman. He is the one who keeps the skeleman safe. For you see kids, the skeleman’s bones are very hard, pretty dense too if you drink your bone juice! But that hardness makes him very brittle. That’s why muscle man is here to add a tough layer on top of the skeleman. But that’s not all he does! He sort of acts like a bunch of rubber bands that tighten up in order to perform actions and move those lazy bones! Cause bones can’t move themselves. Now these muscles are controlled subconsciously through the central nervous system. That might sound like some big words, but the central nervous system when talking about the skeleman refers to the skull as well as the central part of the skeleman. And what’s in the center of the skeleman?

WHY IT’S THE SPINE OF COURSE! And directly attached to that, is the brain! The spine serves as the main messenger for the body to tell everything else what to do! Limbs, organs, and all that good stuff. It’s why the spine is the most important bone of them all! Without a spine, you would literally not function, and die. Now I know you’re all very intrigued, but before we go any further there’s a little experiment I’d like you folks at home to try real quick!

Take your hand, and place it on top of your belly. Now give it a nice squish, just a little jiggle. Now lift up your arm, and squish your hey babies with the other arm. You feel that? Feel that squish? Feel that jiggle?

That’s what’s known as “fat” like when I say “You fat fucking slob.” It makes our bodies more buoyant, as well as protect our nice tight muscle man, with a pliable squishy layer right under the skin! Now of course, some parts of the body have more fat than others, as the fat is meant to protect vital parts of the body and its functions such as the breasts, the thighs, and of course the abdomen! While we’re talking about skin, there’s an interesting fact about skin. You see, skin is meant to withstand blunt force very well. Often times, you’ll notice that skin will scrape, bruise, bend, and squish, but hardly break except for certain circumstances like if you used a sharp object on it. This is because the skin is meant to absorb and be pliable enough that it’s a bit hard to tear with blunt force. Usually whenever it does, it’s due to the skeleman’s bones breaking and causing a tear from under the skin for the blood to come out or when it is pinched between the hard bone and a hard surface such as asphalt. This is why you’ll often hear the term “internal bleeding” thrown around during certain traumatic injuries. Because while the skin layer hasn’t broken, there is still something inside the body that is bleeding, but it’s not coming out of the body because of the skin layer! Not to say of course, that you can’t of course break skin through sheer blunt force trauma. But it would take a lot of force that would most definitely cause you more problems than just breaking the skin. Now I hope you were taking lessons back there, because POP QUIZ HOTSHOT! I got a surprise question for you~ With everything I’ve said about the human body and how it is able to take blunt force trauma, please tell me.

HOW THE FUCK DOES THIS HAPPEN? HOW THE FUCK DO YOU SURVIVE THAT?! AND HOW DO YOU SURVIVE THAT WITHOUT ANY LOSS OF LIMB, SCARRING, OR LASTING EFFECT?!

I’m sorry, but you can not achieve that sort of blood splatter by sheer force of gravity alone. Or if you did, then this scene should’ve been more like this!

youtube

The only explanation I’ve heard that makes any sense is that there was just some random ass rock that was there that Lucy landed on that. Which. Okay, then. Okay, sure. Yeah, okay. Then how the fuck do you survive that? That is no small wound based on the amount of blood that was expelled on impact. And if this rock is big and sharp enough to cause that amount of blood loss on impact, it would be big and sharp enough to do immense damage to the abdomen. But oh that’s alright! It’s just the abdomen, there’s nothing going on in there! It’s just your stomach, your liver, your kidneys, your colon, your womb (if you have one) your pancreas, your bladder, y’know stuff you don’t really need. But of course if that gets compromised, and based on the force and damage you could easily break a rib, puncture a lung, and really fuck up your life. That’s not even counting what sort of damage the fall did on her arm! That shoulder must be fucked! Look at how its bent even! You’re not moving that thing any time soon! Your pelvic bone must be shattered if this is the kind of force you took. You are now a vegetable. But that’s not even the biggest point! That’s not the worst part, those things? I know some of you are gonna say, “Oh Amazil, you’re not a doctor! She could survive that! People survive insane things like that all the time!”

Well okay, but riddle me this. Let’s say the rock doesn’t kill her, and by some miracle none of her internals are FUBAR right now. She didn’t cause a bone break, and destroy her limbs. Remember what we said about the central nervous system. The most important bone of the body is the spine and skull. And one of the most vulnerable parts for the spine is the neck. If you fall to the ground with enough velocity, the whiplash you should have from your body going from 60 to 0 in an instant should cause your neck to snap or leave you paralyzed for a good second if not immediately kill you because the force of momentum would carry all that velocity to make your head connect with the ground at its resting speed. And while I know I said that skin is very hard to tear, y’know what makes it tear or break? When the hard contact with the ground, meets hard contact with your hard skull! If she landed so hard on a rock that blood spew out a good foot or two in front of her, how the hell does she not crack her head on the pavement?! And don’t you give me no bullshit about the snow either! I’m sorry Lucy, but by all accounts.

If this scene wasn’t a flashback and we knew Lucy wasn’t dead, there would be no doubt that she was fucking dead if we saw this.

But it seems we aren’t alone in judging this scene. Augustus is here too! (which we kinda already know because of how this scene was set up but nonetheless). And he’s here to say

Wait, let me take a selfie an-

No…

Oh my fucking god…

OH MY GOD! NO!

DO I EVEN NEED TO SAY WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS RIGHT HERE?!

NO LUCY THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD BE SAYING! WHAT YOU SHOULD BE SAYING IS

Sgdslkhg;sldlkdshgknxcv;jhdf;kldgsasdn

Translation: OH GOD, PLEASE HELP THERE IS BLOOD CLEARLY POOLING IN MY MOUTH! MY MOUTH IS FILLING WITH BLOOD! THERE IS BLOOD IN MY LUNGS AND I CAN’T BREATHE!

Your body should be in shock right now! You just suffered traumatic physical injury! Your brain and body is still trying to comprehend what the fuck just happened. You shouldn’t be this lucid, let alone this active and coordinated! Not to mention, the first rule of dealing with someone who has suffered traumatic injury and is on the ground, is NEVER. EVER. MOVE THE PERSON UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO, AND IF YOU DO, YOU DO IT VERY SLOWLY AND AS CAREFULLY AS POSSIBLE. This is because like I mentioned, Lucy’s body has suffered a lot of damage. Her spine could and should be fucked up after that fall. And the reason every EMT or anyone who has the basic knowledge of first aid will tell you not to fucking move if you’ve suffered a traumatic fall, is because if you move and your spine WASN’T fucked up by that fall, it very easily WILL get fucked up if you try to move the body while it’s still injured! They are very careful about that shit, because if you slip up you turn a situation from salvageable, to fucking vegetable in one solid motion! All it takes is just curving your spine a bit immediately after it’s suffered from the shock an-

Oh yeah kinda like that. That might do it or-

Oof, yeah arching your back like that and trying to crawl after a fall. Yeah that ought to do it. Add on top of this, the aforementioned likelihood she broke a rib, and is probably suffering from a pierced lung and oh yeah

And if you’re not double-dead, you are at the very least fucking paralyzed, or require some serious physical therapy. You are not walking away from this.

What was that?

“UP here”?

I-is this not the ground floor? Is there a lower part to this? DID LUCY FALL ONTO ANOTHER LEDGE? QUICK LUCY! YOU CAN JUST ROLL OVER; YOU DIDN’T HIT THE ACTUAL GROUND APPARENTLY! THERE’S MORE FALLING YOU CAN DO TO FINISH THE JOB!

Wh-what? I-it’s a cut? It’s just a cut? What the…How…What is this scene?! You mean to tell me the only injury she got was some abdominal cut?! From falling off a building? What? Did she just see the first 2-story building she came across and say “oh that looks good enough, yeah that should do it!” I swear to god. It’s almost like…

It’s almost like…

She didn’t want to die. Maybe she was just doing it for att-

NO! NO! DON’T YOU DARE! THAT’S NOT TRUE! YOU TAKE THAT SHIT BACK! THAT’S NOT A POSSIBILITY! LUCY DID NOT DO THAT! SHE IS BETTER THAN THAT! SHE DOES NOT DESERVE THAT! AND I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT’S THE CASE!

So a girl jumps off a building to try and kill herself. But the height she falls from is so low that the only damage she got was from some random ass cut that she no doubt wasn’t expecting. Despite the assumed physical trauma that would’ve come if she jumped from a height any person would assume to be lethal enough; she doesn’t have any physical impairments, no lasting damage that we can see 9 months after the fact, no scar, no limp, she doesn’t even seem to be taking it very seriously in the current time. How else would you explain that, except that she didn’t put much thought into it. The kind of thought people who attempt suicide would, in planning out their attempt, climbing those stairs, knowing the area, and finally committing to it. Despite all that contemplating, she didn’t go high enough to do anything more than get a freak accidental injury. How is that not a sign that maybe she wasn’t really trying to die.

But hey, I don’t read this junk. I’m just going off what I see here. I don’t know this character. Do you think that would be out of character for her at this point? What other reason would you have for someone surviving this, but not dying?

….

Maybe they have a lower force of gravity in this world?

Hmm…

Or maybe Taeshi’s just a fucking hack who decided to go over the top and add a stupid gore effect that was far too much; instead of keeping the scene simple, subtle, and letting the action speak for itself, with a realistic tone and visual to keep things grounded (no pun intended).

Atta’ girl! I knew you had it in you!

But it’s such a shame. Looking at this script, I’m already close to eclipsing the rant I made for the first part of this chapter and it was all for this one fucking moment. And you can call me harsh all you want, but this seriously pissed me off. I remember when this page came out, I was fuming. I broke my vow of illiteracy to check the previous pages just because I had to know what the fuck lead to this, and what the fuck was happening. This one panel haunts me and is one of the few moments in BCB that legitimately triggers me, because of how poorly handled it was.

This should’ve been a fucking bombshell moment. This should’ve been the moment that shut my cynical, hardass mouth up or glue my jaw straight to the floor. It should’ve been an awe inspiring moment where Taeshi really showed us and reminded us just how fucking great she can be. This was a moment that everyone was waiting for with bated breath. I remember, I created January years ago specifically because we didn’t get this sort of scene. We didn’t get to see Lucy’s last struggle, or giving in. We were just told that she was gone and faded away, leaving us hollow and wanting for more. Yearning for years and years for resolution to come.

And this is what we got.

FUCKING YAMCHA’D!

But y’know what’s the best part? And if you know me, and are familiar with my stuff you know damn well what I’m talking about. The absolute best part about this whole fucking thing?

I beat Taeshi to the punch by miles. And not only that, but (and this is what really pisses me off) reading this page showed me that I gave more fucking respect and thought into this character and this moment than Taeshi did. Because, y’know why? Because of this.

That’s right. Lucy was supposed to cry out and deny and fight Sue in January to let her die. Kind of like…

HRMMMMMMMMMM Now don’t get it twisted. I’m not trying to make a comparison in saying that my idea of having Lucy fight with Susan to let her die is the same thing happening here. What I’m talking about here, is this wonderful thing in storytelling called TONE. And this scene, starting with that panel and Lucy’s reaction to Augustus kills what should’ve been a serious, and somber tone by adding in this layer of mystery, and doubt, and mistrust, and fear. Which COULD’VE been interesting and done well to make us invested.

Like oh no, what’s he doing? Who is he calling?

Oh my god, is he calling Alejandro? Is this how Lucy dies? (although, I doubt there would be much he could do since she’s already dying. Putting Alejandro in that mix would’ve just been weird, what’s he gonna do? Beat up her corpse or something?)

Oh what a relief! He’s calling an ambulance how nice, this is so relieving except wait-

WE ALREADY KNOW THAT AUGUSTUS IS GOING TO SAVE HER! SO ALL THAT BULLSHIT TENSION IS POINTLESS! So what did we learn or get from this scene?

We see how Lucy tried to kill herself. Which was poorly done.

We see how she was conflicted after Curtain Call with Mike talking to her about stuff.

We see that her moving to some other place and getting transferred to a new school wasn’t just something that happened in response to her suicide attempt but was pre-planned.

Okay.

Let me go make a call and see if any of this gets brought up or used later on.

Dude I’m being serious here. Why do you keep laughing? I just want to know if anything comes from the information from this scene. Otherwise, what’s the fucking point of dropping this bomb here other than because Lucy’s here now so we must have this scene now.

STOP LAUGHING!

But what am I saying? We haven’t even talked about January yet! So let’s do that shall we? Cause I know you think I’m just tooting my own horn by saying I put more thought into January’s suicide attempt scene but allow me to indulge myself. As I dive into one of the best scenes I’ve ever written. A scene that I put all my heart and mind into, to make it the best it could be. Because this character deserves it.

Right off the bat it is meant to make the reader perk up and raise a red flag to note that something is going on and you need to take notice. If you’ve read January, you’ll know that it is a very wordy comic. It’s jampacked with panels, words, jokes, dramatic moments, and it is meant to be a very fast paced comic that rarely slows down or shuts up. So when greeted by six panel pages that are wordless, and seemingly benign it is meant to illicit intrigue into the reader, to make them wonder why has the train slowed down.

It doesn’t waste your time either, as only two pages later do we get words again but it only adds more mystery into what’s going on. The paneling is still broken up, and scarce. And as the reader follows along, the tension and mystery builds. The lack of panels, the more prevalent backgrounds, it is visually demanding the reader slow down and immerse themselves into this scene and what is going on. Sue acting as the surrogate for the reader, as she gains the information and is left questioning in tandem with the reader.

And just as it dawns on the reader what’s going on, it dawns on Susan. The tension builds, and the question shifts. No longer asking what’s going on with this scene, but rather: How can Sue stop this? Or Can she stop this?

And at the same time, we are being drip fed Lucy’s words and perspective. We know what’s about to happen, it’s no longer a mystery. And the tension mounts until the final moment…

This is why I give props to the canon for its portrayal of Lucy’s jump. It was well done, well paced. It had this nice tension, and for that I appreciate it. But where it differs is what happens after Lucy commits to killing herself.

You see, there was a lot of thought I had put into how exactly Lucy was going to kill herself. If you’ll allow me to be cold and dark for a moment; I went over a few different modes of suicide for Lucy. And really thinking about which one would be the best one, not just for dramatic effect, not just for realism, but also which would be the best one for this scene. It came down to what would be a method that Lucy could survive from if she attempted it (so no toaster bath); what would be a method that Susan could dramatically save Lucy from, while still being able to talk to Lucy and understand her (so no over the counter cocktail); and how can I make it absolutely 100% sure to the audience that both of these characters are committed to what they’re doing? And to me…

Nothing shows that more, than Lucy fully committed to kicking the chair out from under her; and Sue clinging to Lucy for dear life, physically and emotionally trying to prop her up even as Lucy has fully committed to giving up. (if you’ve ever wondered how this overthinking, overanalyzing, cynical mind of mine works towards building my own stories. This should give you a good idea of what I go over with these scenes when I take them seriously)

If you remember the comment I mentioned earlier about changing Lucy’s reaction to Sue’s rescue, this is what I changed, and how it elevates this scene. Narratively, this should’ve been the moment where the reader catches a breath and relaxes knowing that Lucy’s safe now. But instead the reader remains in Sue’s shoes, clinging to Lucy and wanting to tell her everything’s okay, but Lucy explains that it’s not. We see into Lucy’s mentality. And it heartbreaking, because it’s not yelled at, it’s not cried out, it’s spoken somberly, with expressions and responses that fully capture how hopeless Lucy feels, and how true she feels it is.

And when Lucy finally does yell, and shows emotion it isn’t done to add some extra tension or drama in actuality, this is a moment where Sue breaks through Lucy’s armor and she shows her vulnerability. And even still the tone does not change. The tension is still tight, and it refuses to let up. But not only that.

This scene comes with a flashback, but instead of leaving us with more questions, or scratching our heads as to what it had to do with anything or what it means. It adds context to the situation, and its message is meant to be absolutely clear to you why it’s happening and what it means for the story and for these characters. This is Lucy’s moment. This is where we see her at her lowest point. Broken. Defeated. Unable to cope or push on.

But we’re reminded that there are two characters in this scene. We see both sides of the coin fully understand what Sue is feeling right now. Guilty. Ashamed. Stupid. Naïve. This scene builds, exposes, and fleshes out its two main characters. Showing each of their struggles.

It’s this scene that sets the stage for these characters, and it’s a jumping off point (again, no pun intended) for them to grow from. This entire scene sets its serious tone from the start, and holds the reader hostage, keeping the tension up and forcing them to take this seriously because it has something to say.

(god damn it, I really should’ve rephrased that to “cause I am not letting you go” that would’ve been so much better) But that’s its final message, and final note. A promise that carries on, that is reflected in the characters every action from this point on. Lucy’s suicide attempt is what kicks off(…no pun intended?) the rest of the story. It lingers over everything and is a main point that is brought back constantly, time and time again. It is an integral part of not only Lucy’s character development, but Sue’s character development.

And even when she does come down, and the reader is given a moment to take a breath and crack a joke. It’s clear that this is just the beginning, and there is a lot of work left to be done. And things for the reader to look forward to. Lucy’s suicide attempt was something that I knew I had to treat with the utmost respect, and love. In the end, we don’t know what’s going to happen now, but we do know Lucy’s problem. We completely understand and can empathize with her character, for what she’s feeling, what she’s going through right now.

Nothing is left unclear.

You’re never asking what’s going on.

You’re not meant to search and assume the answers on your own.

It’s clear cut.

It’s gutwrenching.

It’s brutal.

But most importantly.

It’s fucking real.

You don’t doubt that Susan, with adrenaline pumping through her veins could force herself to hold Lucy up. You don’t wonder how Lucy could survive her attempt. You don’t wonder what is going through her mind. Or why she’s being saved. The scene is meant to be impactful (Jesus I just keep walking right into it. God damn! I’m sorry, no pun intended) It deserves so much better than what it got. After everything that this comic did…This.

This just kills it for me. You had the opportunity to make this amazing, something more than just its premise. But instead it just falls flat on its fa-OH GOD DAMN IT WHY CAN’T I STOP DOING THAT?! I JUST CAN’T AVOID ACCIDENTALLY MAKING THESE DAMN PUNS!

A friend of mine made a good point on how this chapter could’ve been salvaged. First off fuck that blood splatter it’s gratuitous, it’s excessive, and it’s distracting. Just imagine for a second that it wasn’t there.

(look I tried to clean it up, it’s getting really late and this is getting absurdly long) But imagine instead Lucy fell and we just see her lying on the ground. Her mind is in shock. She is struggling to move. Her body feels almost numb. She doesn’t know what’s going on, her mind hasn’t fully comprehended what has just happened. We start to see blood slowly pool beneath her and blend into the snow. Growing as she starts to feel the pain set in. The chilly breeze cooling her wound and making her feel unbearably cold. Her vision fades, the scene zooms out as she starts to accept her fate, maybe thinking of final apologies, lamenting on the things she’s done, the words she’s never said, the life she never lead. And just as she’s about to pass out.

She sees a silhouette of Augustus. It’s unclear what he does, why he’s there, or what happens to Lucy as she passes out unsure if it was even real, what will happen to her.

And THEN the chapter starts! And we see her, and the suicide attempt can stand on its own! (maybe you can insert Augustus’ point of view of the scene in the place of this scene when Lucy says “this is the boy who saved my life” and we can maybe see Augustus care a bit about Lucy, or how he really feels. It also would’ve been better if this scene came out earlier in the comic when this was more fresh in our minds. But let’s wrap it up shall we?

We get a nice few bits of Augustus interacting with Lucy’s family and it’s really heartwarming. It’s so cute, and it is a wonderful reminder of how Lucy’s actions impact not only our main characters but their families. Not to mention Augustus is just adorable, and seeing him interact in this new environment, with people who legitimately care for him is very refreshing. I like it a lot.

And come on, just look at how cute and amazing Lucy’s mom is. She’s the best thing about this chapter. It’s really nice to see Lucy’s family and how they act.

and the chapter ends with cute Augustus finally finding a place to call home~

Overall, this comic is just a bunch of disappointments with one nice little light at the end. There were many chapters I’d point to as infuriating but this one…

For what it set out to do, and what it tried to do, and what it should’ve done. In a word it is utterly disappointing. And leaves me so hollow.

I give it a 2/10. I hope to god that Taeshi does better. I’d say it can’t get worse than this, but I keep hearing about this carnival chapter, and man…

I’ll see you guys when i miss the next update. Till then, this is Lt_Amazil signing off.

#Bittersweet Candy Bowl #rant

8 notes · View notes