Guest of Honor

From Candypedia
Guest of Honor
Chapter89 of 129 (list of chapters)
PublishedJune 15, 2015 (2015-06-15)
Page count48
Major charactersPaulo, Daisy, Abbey
Minor charactersMike, Sue, Stacy, Amaya, Daisy’s mom, David, Tess, Alec McCain
LocationsPaulo’s house, Comic convention venue, Burger-Tron, Daisy’s house, Roseville High School
Collected inVolume Six
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Daisy needs an escort to a convention, and Paulo is the only friend left to ask. What follows is the greatest day of her life, a suspiciously date-like outing for him, and one very dark turn in the men’s restroom.

Synopsis

Paulo lies awake replaying Tess’s words from junior prom (“someone else will love you..”) until a knock brings Daisy to his door.[1][2] After much stammering, she asks him to escort her to a convention so she can get her favorite book signed. Abbey was never really an option — a flashback shows him and Daisy each claiming SAT work for the weekend rather than admit their nerdy plans.[3] Paulo has a good laugh at her expense, then sighs and agrees.[4]

Con day starts with Daisy coming downstairs in full cosplay of Claret, the girl from her book.[5] When a pair of hecklers start on Daisy’s weight, Paulo grabs them both and sends them running.[6] Over lunch at the venue’s Burger-Tron, Daisy ends up with milkshake on her chin, and Paulo wipes it off with a napkin.[7] Later she spots ketchup on his cheek and returns the favor. “Now we’re even.”[8] Paulo turns bright red and flees the restaurant.

At the author’s booth, Daisy invents excuse after excuse until Paulo drags her over by the wrist and does the talking for her.[9] She gives her name as “C-Claret-- I MEAN DAISY” and floats away declaring it the greatest day of her life.[10] Then Daisy surprises Paulo with the voice actors of Hyper Space Cadets, his favorite childhood show, plus a tape recorder so he can take a message home.[11] While she hunts down a bathroom, Paulo slips back to the author’s booth for a purchase of his own.[12]

Heading back, Paulo runs into Sue, Stacy, Amaya and Mike. Abbey, of all people, is with them, and most of the group are cosplaying their SwordsVale game characters.[12] Daisy and Abbey catch each other in their matching SAT lies, and after a laugh the two are finally free to nerd out together.[13]

The whole day turns in the men’s restroom. Abbey follows Paulo inside, smiling, then slams an elbow into his neck and pins him against a stall door.[14] He warns the choking Paulo to stay away from Daisy: “On to the next, and on to the next.. I’m not letting it happen to her.”[15] Paulo tearfully protests that he didn’t do anything.[16] Mike finds him shaking on the floor afterward and offers to fetch security, but Paulo lies that some punk kid beat him up.[17] He begs off Sue’s panel to go home, and when Daisy reaches for him he flinches away. Abbey barks her back to the group while Mike looks on with growing suspicion.[18]

Daisy slips out of the panel anyway and catches Paulo at the bus stop to offer him a ride home.[19] On the drive she insists he keep her old Power Saber toy, telling him he’s “more of a fan than I ever was.”[20] At her door she hugs him in thanks, and he wriggles free and covers with a salute.[21] That night Daisy opens her signed book in bed, and a little Claret keychain tumbles out onto her lap.[22]

Character dynamics

Paulo grips two hecklers by the shoulders and grins ominously against a red background.
Paulo has a brief word with Daisy’s hecklers.
  • Abbey and Paulo: Their long-standing antipathy takes its darkest turn yet. Abbey is already convinced Paulo is a womanizer who will hurt Daisy, and the mocking forehead kiss Paulo gave him in Boy Toy did nothing to help.[23] He puts Paulo in a secret chokehold and warns him that he knows “the kind of person” Paulo is.[15] Afterward, Paulo is genuinely afraid of him. He covers for Abbey with a lie and flinches from Daisy whenever Abbey is in sight.[17][18]
  • Paulo and Daisy: At the start, they’re platonic childhood friends, right down to a flashback of them playing Space Cadets as kids.[24] Over the day, their friendship takes on a distinctly romantic tinge — blushes over the cosplay, mutual face-wiping, and a secretly bought keychain to answer her gifted Power Saber.[5][22] Abbey’s threat already shadows it, though, and Paulo squirms right out of her goodbye hug.[21] Oliver signed off the chapter’s commentary “excited for that Paulo x Daisy action.”[22]
  • Abbey and Daisy: Only Abbey and Daisy leave the con with their relationship in better shape than when they arrived. Each has been hiding their nerdy side for fear the other would laugh, so getting caught red-handed turns out to be a relief. The two end the scene giggling in matching embarrassment, free to share the hobby at last.[3][13]
  • Mike and Paulo: Mike proves a better friend here than Paulo will let him be. He finds Paulo on the restroom floor, stays close, offers to fetch security, and tells Sue “Don’t be a jerk” when she celebrates Paulo going home early.[25][26] He’s also the only one who clocks Abbey’s behavior, watching him with open suspicion as the group leaves.[18]

Trivia & observations

Abbey slams his elbow into Paulo's neck, pinning him against a restroom stall door.
Abbey blindsides Paulo in the men’s restroom.
  • This is the first BCB chapter drawn entirely digitally in a limited color palette, a style refined from Ask Roseville High, per the commentary under the first page.[1]
  • The convention chapter ran right through the authors’ real “con hell month”. Stretches of its commentary were written from Anime Expo, ConnectiCon and Otakon.[27]
  • Per commentary, the con scenes were drawn from reference photos Oliver took at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.[28]
  • The $7 “Anime Burger” truck was inspired by a real “Anime Hot Dog” stand the authors found at Anime Boston. As the commentary tells it, “it was just a regular hot dog.”[29]
  • The commentary under the face-wiping page calls it a deliberate riff on the shoujo “you got food on your face” trope, and notes that Daisy’s napkin is at least more hygienic than the genre-standard finger.[8]
  • Veronica has since confirmed that Mike did figure out Abbey attacked Paulo. A panel of him saying “I knew it..” was cut for space, leaving his knowledge implied on the page.[30]
  • The Claret keychain later became a real plastic charm, offered as a Kickstarter exclusive. The authors described Claret as “the progenitor of Daisy’s adorable cosplay.”[31]

Related chapters

  • Love Again: The restroom secret finally comes out at the lunch table, where Abbey admits that a “good chokehold” is the reason Paulo left the con early. Daisy is horrified, and their relationship ends over it.
  • Golden Hour: The summer beach trip that follows this chapter directly. Daisy holds the Claret keychain during a phone call there. Flashbacks of Abbey and Daisy include a milkshake visit to Paulo’s Burger-Tron that only adds to the tension.
  • Love My Way: Tess turns Paulo down at junior prom with “Please.. someone else will love you..”. It’s the exact line he lies awake replaying as this chapter opens.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 1
  2. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 3
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 5
  4. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 6
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 7
  6. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 15
  7. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 16
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 20
  9. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 22
  10. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 24
  11. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 27
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 30
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 31
  14. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 35
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 36
  16. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 37
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 40
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 43
  19. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 45
  20. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 46
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 47
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 48
  23. ↑ Chapter 87: Boy Toy, page 2
  24. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 28
  25. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 39
  26. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 44
  27. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 8
  28. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 21
  29. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 11
  30. ↑ “Ask response on whether Mike figured out Abbey hit Paulo”. 2017-01-21.
  31. ↑ “The last day - and the things you could miss out on!”. 2015-12-04.
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