Page 294 – Childhood trauma much?
This was kind of a tricky page to write, and I’m still not sure I quite nailed it. I basically have two setting as a writer: twisted comedy and dark tragedy, and everything about this page wanted to be the latter. One could easily build Shinji Ikari-level psychoses out of ANY of these unpleasant childhood histories. Well, hopefully I restrained myself enough to keep this page from being too much of a mood shift.
Oh, but look at that nifty out-of-focus trick in the third panel! How cool is that?
And speaking of cool things to distract you, there’s a new voting incentive up! And it’s something that’s guaranteed to cheer ANYBODY up!
(There’s probably more to be said about not knowing if it’s really appropriate to refer to Avatar as a “kid,” but all Tabitha really needs is for her to LOOK like one. There’s probably also a lot to be said about Layla’s version of her fallout with her Mom… but I just spent two hours trying to fix a problem with image compression that turned out to only require flicking a single switch. I’m just not up to it right now.)
Maybe Layla forgot to read the memo she received from FOT management when her history got retconned? 😉
Also, I’m not sure if this should make Tabitha feel better or worse about the fact that her dad went insane and her mom is a noncorpoeal invisible entity (or something) – she may still have the most functional family in FOT.
I don’t think the retcon affects her feelings here all that much. One way or another, Layla’s relationship with her Mom isn’t happy, and that’s what matters.
And oh, if you only KNEW what I haven’t told you about Tabitha’s family yet…