Layla
Layla Natalie Quartment
Layla is a greedy, grouchy, selfish, abrasive, heartless young lady whose only goal in life is becoming as rich as possible and will do anything and everything to do it. At least, that’s what she tries to tell everyone, herself included. Layla’s father was a con man who built a career out of ripping off even shady characters by even shadier means, and she desperately wants to follow in his footsteps. Unfortunately… or VERY fortunately, depending on your perspective, ‘ol Dad was a softhearted type who taught Layla more about being a good person than she’d ever care to admit. For example, he put her in charge of a project to raise a little boy named Trigger in an underground bunker, teaching Layla all about the responsibilities of being a big sister and stuff. All this “being a good person” stuff managed to bite Layla in the butt, though, when her father unexpectedly died. Because Dad’s legal affairs were a total mess (as will happen when you make a living doing blatantly illegal things), a Nitpicker named Ichabod was brought in to sort things out. Although Layla was supposed to inherit the family business, Ichabod determined she was too scrupulous and moral for such an endeavor, resulting in her being kicked to the curb without a dime. Thankfully, Ichabod had also gotten Trigger kicked out of his bunker and felt sorry enough to offer him free passage off the planet, and Trigger wouldn’t leave without Layla.
As you can see, Layla’s got plenty of reasons to be a grump (and we haven’t even gotten into the rocky relationship with her mother), and she’ll gladly exercise them whenever possible. But deep, deep, DEEP down, there’s a much nicer person trying not to be noticed. She clearly loves Trigger very much and will be quite selfless about protecting him. In fact, ANY cute little boy will bring out that Big Sister Instinct. Also, there are far more lines Layla won’t cross than she’d care to admit, and she enjoys the company of others a lot more than she’ll ever dare let on. She doesn’t make friends easily, but she’s fiercely loyal when she does. It’s just that she ALSO hates being out of control of a situation, or showing anything that even looks like vulnerability. Layla’s been surrounded by a lot of bad people in her life, so she’s very, VARY wary of anything that might hurt her.
FAQ
Q: Wait a minute, some of that recap stuff sounds a little different than what actually happened in the early pages. Where was that stuff about Ichabod sorting out Layla’s Dad’s will?
A: Um… in my head? Yeah, I’m pulling a retcon here, because those early pages are, well, kinda bad. I didn’t have a good feel for any of the characters yet, so a lot of that stuff doesn’t fit with what later comics established (like, say, ANYTHING about Layla’s father). There have been some Voting Incentives that spelled out the specifics of this retcon, but we’ll probably never see what “really” happened first hand until I finally get around to re-drawing those early pages for a book or something.
Q: I know you said not to ask about a character’s age, but is Layla supposed to be older than Trigger? Sometimes it seems like she is, but… well, they ARE the same height and all.
A: Somebody read this page before reading Trigger’s page, huh? Yes, Layla’s several years older than Trigger, but it took me a while to figure that out. By the time I realized their backstory didn’t really make sense unless Layla was older, I’d already gotten used to drawing them the same height. So, it suddenly became cannon that Layla’s kinda short. (And that’s why I avoid nailing down details like ages, it makes them easier to change) That’s also part of the reason Layla got more… “developed” as the comic went on, to drive home the age difference.
Q: Really? The only reason you gave this comic’s main female character big ol’ boobies is solely to establish an age difference? There’s NO other reason?
A: Oh no, Layla is canonically established to be really smokin’ hot, but that’s totally for storytelling purposes. No, really. She’s supposed to get any dude she wants interested in her, but since there’s only so many faces I can reliably draw, I had to resort to… other means of getting that point across.
Q: Why does Layla act like she’s got no more family, even though we clearly see her Mom is still alive?
A: Layla wasn’t on good terms with her Mom even BEFORE she had the business taken away from her. When good ‘ol Mom didn’t exactly leap to her defense, that ended any relationship that might have been there.
Q: Layla really seems to care about Trigger. Like, REALLY care about him. Is there anything more going on there?
A: Still didn’t read Trigger’s FAQ, did ya? Nope, Layla’s feelings for Trigger are one hundred percent of the “like a brother” variety. Remember, she was present for the kid’s dirty diapers. That’s not the sort of thing that makes Layla think “potential romantic interest”.
Q: What about those rich kids she started babysitting? Are they, like, her harem or something?
A: Naw. Make no mistake, Layla DOES think they’re adorable and enjoys all the attention, but she’d absolutely never get “involved” with any of them.
Q: She also seems to really like Alphonse-
A: Um, eew. Don’t even finish that.
Q: Well, what about Tabitha? They seem to get along really, REALLY well.
A: No more shipping questions.
…but seriously, Layla’s number one requirement in romance would be the ability to absolutely trust somebody. She’d have to KNOW she could let her guard down and not regret it, something especially rare given all the shady characters she’s been around all her life. As much as Layla might enjoy Tabitha’s company, she’ll always find her a bit too weird to fully be vulnerable around, and that’s an instant deal breaker. (There’s also the fact that she’s demonstrably into boys, but since when has something as trivial as solid canonical facts ever mattered where shipping is concerned?)
Q: How weird should I find it that a teenage girl was basically running a criminal empire?
A: Not very. At least not the teenage part (the criminal part, that’s a whole other matter). In this universe, positions of authority held by what we would consider “kids” don’t seem to be unusual at all. Maybe future education has advanced to the point that people can be considered “grown up” much sooner than they are now (By the way, have you noticed that no one ever seems to go to school in this universe?) Or maybe human civilization has decayed to such a point that actual “grown ups” are no more mature than your average seven year old, so giving ACTUAL seven year olds lots of power and responsibility doesn’t seem any worse. Now, it IS true that Ichabod talks down to Layla the way a modern-day adult would to his junior, but Ichabod does lots of odd things.