Flying Lessons
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| Flying Lessons | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chapter | 6 of 127 (list of chapters) |
| Published | June 9, 2006 |
| Page count | 4 |
| Major characters | Yashy, Chirpy, Mike, Lucy |
| Minor characters | Blur |
| Locations | Park |
| Collected in | Volume One, Omnibus 1 |
| Chapter navigation | |
| ← The Burden of Parenthood | Prom Preparation → |
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Why does a baby bird call Yashy "Mommy"? Chirpy's flying lessons stir up the memory of a snake, an abandoned egg, and one very brave catch. Mike, meanwhile, has taught her a new word, and Yashy intends to make him regret it.
Synopsis
Chirpy is convinced her "Mommy" just needs a little practice to get airborne, and Yashy has run out of ways to explain otherwise: "FOR THE LAST TIME, I CAN'T DO IT!!" Yashy gently tells Chirpy that she simply isn't a bird, and settles for watching her show off from a nearby tree instead. Looking on, she reflects that she's the closest thing to a mom Chirpy has, and the memory takes over.[1]
Two years earlier, at a park, a younger Mike and Lucy play a game of tag rough enough to involve shoving each other out of trees, then chase each other clean out of sight. Little Yashy is left alone in the sandbox, and she starts tearing up once she realizes her own "Mommy" is nowhere to be seen.[1] What catches her eye instead is a mother bird up in a tree, and then the snake slithering toward the nest.[2]
Yashy shouts a warning, and the panicked mother bird scoops up her eggs and flies off, leaving one behind. With the snake still closing in, Yashy slams into the tree screaming "LEAVE IT ALONE!!", knocks the egg loose, and dives to catch it. Lying on the ground with the egg in her arms, she quietly promises the mama birdie that she'll take care of it.[2]
The egg hatches under Yashy's watch soon after. When the shell starts cracking, a panicked Yashy tries to break the baby out herself, but Lucy tells her to let it manage. A little bird emerges, Yashy melts, and Mike announces "I'm calling child services." Yashy names her Chirpy. The mother bird was never found, though Yashy hopes she'll fly back one day, and a short montage of walking lessons and video games covers her years of trying to be a good mom.[3]
Back in the present, Yashy declares herself far too awesome to fly anyway, and hands the flying lessons off to Blur, the "busted-up loser" Mike once found lying on the ground. Blur asks Chirpy for her best dive, and she happily agrees, calling him Daddy while she's at it. Yashy demands to know who planted that idea. Boy-Kitty did, Chirpy cheerfully reports, and he said Yashy is her mommy and Boy-Birdie her daddy. A snickering Mike calls the prank overdue payback for a familiar theme, and that's the last coherent thing he gets to say before Yashy leaps on him and pounds away. Chirpy is starry-eyed for all the wrong reasons: "Did you see how far Mommy FLIED??" Lucy rates it more of a fancy jump, but when Chirpy checks with Daddy anyway, Blur just blushes.[4]
Character dynamics
- Yashy and Chirpy: Chirpy has been calling Yashy "Mommy" since before the chapter opens, and this is where the comic explains why. Yashy rescued the abandoned egg and vowed to raise it herself, and in the present day she privately accepts that she's the closest thing to a mom Chirpy has, even if she can't join her in the air.[1][3]
- Yashy and Blur: On panel they mostly bicker, but Mike's prank saddles them with a new arrangement. Chirpy now calls Blur "Daddy", and Yashy's furious denial ("Blur and I are NOTHING like that, scumbag!") does nothing to shake the label. Blur's blush in the final panel does her case no favors either.[4]
Trivia & observations
- This chapter is a redrawn rework of a chapter from the comic's old DeviantArt run, originally titled "Chirpy's Introduction". It was cut when the chapters were reworked for Volume One in 2011, and Oliver went through "all the rejected chapters of yore" specifically to get this one back, since it explains where Chirpy came from "and it has a lot of charm!"[1][2]
- Per Veronica's commentary, the original stayed cut for so long partly because early Yashy "acted like a certain copyrighted dinosaur", particularly in the egg-rescue scene. By the redraw she had settled into being "a vague lizard-creature" who merely resembles the character Lucy named her after.[2]
- This is Chirpy's first appearance in the series, egg and all.[3] Blur, on the other hand, has been around since Gaming Rivalry, but the flashback panel of Mike finding him is the first glimpse of his backstory.[5][4]
Related chapters
- The Burden of Parenthood: Yashy spends the previous chapter loudly casting Mike and Lucy as a couple and expectant parents during a sex-ed assignment. If you're wondering what "familiar theme" Mike thinks she's due payback for, start here.
- Blurry Memories: The companion origin story. It shows in full the moment this chapter only glimpses, with Mike finding Blur lying on the ground, and has Blur offer to teach Chirpy to fly.
- Feline Festivities: Chirpy's abandonment resurfaces at the Christmas party, where she breaks down crying for the mother who left her and Lucy has to comfort her.
- Witch Hunt: The dangling thread gets tied off much, much later, when Lucy recounts that Chirpy's mom was eventually found, tearful reunion and all.