Arrival

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Arrival
Chapter42 of 129 (list of chapters)
PublishedJune 8, 2008 (2008-06-08)
Page count30
Major charactersLucy, Mike, Paulo, David, Tess, Yashy, Zachary
Minor charactersSue, Alec McCain, Amaya, Lily, Catherine, Chirpy, Blur
LocationsSilvershore Islands
Collected inVolume One, Omnibus 1
Chapter navigation
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Tess flies the whole gang out to the Silvershore Islands, where Paulo and Mike get one bed between them, David mourns his ruined role model, and a ponytailed stranger named Zachary becomes hopelessly obsessed with Lucy’s singing voice.

Synopsis

The gang arrives at a beach resort in the Silvershore Islands on the trip Tess promised in Invitation.[1][2] Check-in goes badly for Paulo, since Tess has booked four non-coed rooms and the list sticks him with Mike.[3][4] That evening Lily tips Tess off to listen as Lucy sings beautifully in the bath, and Lucy throws her out of the room for hearing it.[5]

Back in their room, the boys discover exactly one queen bed between them, and Paulo claims the whole thing since he doesn’t “swing that way”.[6] That night, Paulo delivers a tender apology to Mike that drifts into a lick to his face. He turns out to be sound asleep and drooling, and it’s never clear whether it was a dream, sleep-talk, or a very committed prank.[7]

At breakfast, Paulo is flirting with Tess when Lucy deadpans, “Thought all that moaning was Mike-related,” right as Mike staggers up rubbing his sore back and grumbling about his rough night.[8] David tearfully accuses Tess of turning his former role model into a groveling lapdog. Paulo only wins him back with the promise of a proper beach day.[9]

Towering waves roll in just as Yashy hauls her homemade jet-propelled bodyboard into the surf.[10] Lucy has been terrified of water ever since Troubled Waters, but she sprints in anyway, shields Yashy with her own body, takes the wave head-on, and collapses on the sand with Yashy held safely overhead.[11][12]

Lucy wakes on a beach chair, finds a ponytailed stranger hovering over her, and kicks him in the chin.[13] The stranger is Zachary, no lifeguard but the one who carried her to safety, and he leads the group to a burger place in town.[14] Over lunch Lucy admits that water scares her, and Zachary reveals he can’t swim either, earning the nickname “fake lifeguard”.[15] When he begs her to sing and Tess learns he is twenty-one, he ends up bruised outside. His childhood friend Catherine then has to vouch that he is a harmless music freak who heard someone with potential.[16]

On the evening stroll, Mike starts to boast about a much nicer, sweeter, prettier girlf-- before Lucy muzzles him, since Yashy isn’t allowed to know about Sandy. It’s the closest he’s come yet to blowing his biggest secret.[17][18] Yashy dares him to yell the truth out, and Mike wilts under her adorable stare and backs down.[19] At the goodbyes, Zachary holds up cash in one last plea to hear Lucy sing. She names her price, pockets his $100 and strolls off without singing a note: “I can’t believe you fell for that.”[20]

Character dynamics

Paulo turns in horror as Mike arrives at the breakfast table; Lucy drops her food, Tess gapes and David's jaw hangs open.
Mike picks the worst possible moment to complain about his back.
  • Lucy and Zachary: They are strangers until this trip. From here on, he fixates on her singing voice while she answers with prickly amusement at his expense. Zachary means well in everything he does, even hauling her out of the surf without knowing how to swim, but his obsession keeps landing him somewhere between endearing and alarming.[13][16] Lucy repays him with a kick to the chin, the “fake lifeguard” nickname and a hundred-dollar con, yet when the group turns on him she’s his fiercest defender: “He didn’t DO anything!! He wasn’t GOING to!!”[21][20]
  • Paulo and David: David’s side of the friendship is pure hero-worship, which is why Paulo going soft under Tess’s influence wounds him so badly. This chapter is the first time he says so out loud, accusing his old role model of becoming a “pathetic lapdog”.[9] Paulo admits he’s been more emotional since meeting Tess. A promised day of sandcastles and surfing is enough to convince David that the old Paulo is still in there, and they make up after David finally airs the grievance.[22]
  • Paulo and Tess: Paulo has gotten nowhere with Tess, and his courtship has curdled into a hot-and-cold routine of wooing her one minute and punishing her the next. On this trip alone he begs to share her room, spitefully leaves her locked out in the hallway, grovels at breakfast, then parades two beach girls right past her.[4][23][9][24] Tess is rather less indifferent than she acts. She scowls and sweetly delivers “Oops, silly me” as the volleyball bounces off his face.[25]
  • Mike and Lucy: Lucy asked Mike not to mention his girlfriend around Yashy, and Mike has kept the Sandy secret ever since.[18] Here, he comes closer than ever to breaking it. He declares he hates “keeping this stupid secret”, winds up to yell the truth out, then deflates under Yashy’s stare and plays along instead.[19] Yashy remains in the dark for now, though she learns the truth later.[26]

Trivia & observations

Lucy tucks Yashy behind her back and faces the cresting wave, ears down and tail puffed out.
Lucy takes the wave so Yashy doesn’t have to.
  • Tess’s ears briefly reshape into Chiyo Mihama’s pigtails on arrival, an Azumanga Daioh gag Veronica says she has explained to Oliver “like 20 times” over the years.[27]
  • Per Veronica’s commentary, Lucy’s beach sundress is the one Asuka wears in Evangelion, and it’s “meant to be yellow”.[28]
  • Veronica calls Yashy’s bodyboard scene an “obvious reference” and jokes about disowning anyone who misses it. Readers identified it as the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA.[10]
  • David’s “You say BARK!” gets no rise out of Paulo, whose terror of barking was established in Off to the Movies, making this a genuine continuity slip.[29][30]
  • Arrival is the first chapter Veronica inked. Everything before it was drawn entirely in pencil.[31]
  • Zachary went through several redesigns. Veronica originally nicknamed him “surfercat”, then reworked him because he looked too much like a cat version of one of her friends, and he isn’t actually a surfer at all.[16]

Related chapters

  • Invitation: The setup for the whole trip. Tess announces the weeklong Silvershore Islands vacation by letter, while Abbey and Daisy stay home.[2]
  • Feline Festivities: The first time Lucy’s singing was overheard. David, Tess, and Mike all caught her singing to Yashy at Tess’s Christmas party, which is why Tess knows exactly what she’s hearing in this chapter.[32]
  • Search and Rescue: The vacation continues straight into a hiking disaster, with Zachary and Catherine along for much of it.[33]
  • Intervention: Zachary confronts Mike about Lucy, acting on the worry he shows while watching the two of them here.[34]
  • Return: The island arc’s farewell chapter. Zachary finally gets a real conversation with Lucy on the beach at night before the group heads home.[35]
  • Troubled Waters: Where Lucy’s fear of the water comes from. It also mirrors this chapter’s rescue, since Lucy once dove into a river for Mike despite not knowing how to swim.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 4
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 41: Invitation, page 1
  3. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 6
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 42: Arrival, page 7
  5. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 8
  6. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 10
  7. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 11
  8. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 13
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Chapter 42: Arrival, page 14
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Chapter 42: Arrival, page 18
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 1
  12. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 21
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Chapter 42: Arrival, page 22
  14. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 23
  15. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 24
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Chapter 42: Arrival, page 25
  17. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 28
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Chapter 32: Follow Me, page 2
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chapter 42: Arrival, page 29
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chapter 42: Arrival, page 30
  21. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 26
  22. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 16
  23. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 9
  24. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 19
  25. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 20
  26. ↑ Chapter 71: Just Beautiful, page 31
  27. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 5
  28. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 17
  29. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 2
  30. ↑ Chapter 12: Off to the Movies, page 3
  31. ↑ “Veronica on shading old comic pages with pencil”. 2018-03-10.
  32. ↑ Chapter 28: Feline Festivities, page 15
  33. ↑ Chapter 43: Search and Rescue, page 16
  34. ↑ Chapter 44: Intervention, page 1
  35. ↑ Chapter 45: Return, page 2
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