Onwards to Adventure

Onwards to Adventure
Chapter	33 of 127 (list of chapters)
Published	February 23, 2007 (2007-02-23)
Page count	7
Major characters	David, Justin
Minor characters	Lucy, David's mom, Paulo, Mike, Flower Girl
Locations	David's house, Neighborhood sidewalks and streets
Collected in	Volume One, Omnibus 1
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All David wants for his birthday is a day off school, a trusty sidekick, and the girl of his dreams. What he gets is a hospitalized seven-year-old, a restraining order, and a starring spot on national television. Happy birthday, David.

Synopsis

A rooster crows David awake on February 22nd, his birthday, but his mom dashes any hope of a day off and shoos him off to school.

Outside school, Lucy goads him into skipping, and David eagerly invites her along: "C'mon, be a hooker with me!!" A mortified Lucy corrects him and chases him off with a threat.

David recruits a passing seven-year-old as his sidekick with a story about being a secret agent. He dubs himself Sergeant Rainpop, guesses the boy's name is Justin, and declares their mission is rescuing a goddess he saw in a vision.

From the bushes they spy the goddess, Flower Girl, watering a garden. When she wanders out of sight, David concludes kidnappers got to her, throttles Justin "Spirit Stone" Johnson over it, and sets out to climb a building for a better view.

Storefront TVs along the way air a bulletin about the kidnapping of a boy in blue goggles; Justin realizes the victim is him, while David hears only his darling described. One fourth-wall-breaking "SUPERRR PANELLL TELEPORT!!" later, David is greeting the camera crew and police squadron waiting on the roof, guns pointed up at him.

Who needs stairs when you know where the panel borders are?

His mom brings him home in disgrace; David tearfully insists he never meant to kidnap that boy, and he'll be apologizing to Justin in the hospital once the restraining order expires. When Lucy, Paulo and Mike drop by, David mourns his true love as gone forever, until Lucy works out he means the flower girl, who merely transferred to the private school up the road.

Character dynamics

• David and Justin: This is Justin's series debut, and the whole relationship is David's invention. He casts the seven-year-old as his "secret sidekick" without ever asking whether the kid wants the job, and stays cheerfully oblivious to how frightened his new recruit is getting all day long. Whatever bond David imagined between them ends with Justin in the hospital and a restraining order in place, though David does intend to apologize once it expires.
• David and Flower Girl: The obsession isn't new. Lucy calls her "that flower girl you've obsessed with", and the crush goes back to the middle-school prom in Farewell, Middle School. This chapter promotes her to "goddess" and builds a whole rescue mission around her, all without her ever noticing she has an audience. By the end David believes her lost forever, at least until Lucy mentions the transfer.

Trivia & observations

• The opening caption establishes David's birthday as February 22nd. Per Veronica's commentary, birthday comics are normally just one page, which makes David's full-length chapter quite the privilege when Lucy's birthday "only got a measly three pages".
• The rooster crows "Ki kiri kiriiiiiiii~!", the Spanish onomatopoeia for a rooster's crow. Veronica explains she always thought the Spanish version beat "cockle-doodle-doo".
• Per Oliver's commentary, page 1 was the sample page he and Veronica used to test their production methods for remaking the early chapters: "You walked so the Omnibus could run."
• David's spy patter is wall-to-wall video game references. Blinx the Time Cat, Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth, and Grandia II's Melfice all get name-dropped, his "Hold it!" is delivered in Phoenix Wright fashion, and Justin "Spirit Stone" Johnson nods to Grandia.
• Veronica admits she can't remember whether Justin's camera got dropped because she didn't want to keep drawing it or because it could give away his identity, "which will be useful for the future!"
• The kidnapping bulletin interrupts a program called "Football Scene Placeholders Caught On Tape".

Related chapters

• Follow Me: The chapter right before this one. David's spy rambling about a "super scary punk" his team recently encountered is aimed at Augustus, who had only just started hanging around the group. In fact, Follow Me ends with him drawing Daisy away from her friends.
• Bonding: The next chapter. Mike's remark that he hasn't seen much of Daisy and Abbey lately points straight at the ongoing Augustus arc, which Bonding picks back up.
• Farewell, Middle School: Where David's Flower Girl fixation began. He first noticed her at the middle-school prom, with his head submerged in a punch bowl.
• Pep Rally: Flower Girl actually debuted way back here, when Mike accidentally lifted her dress.
• Love My Way: Justin's next appearance. He turns up at the prom clutching a camera again, and after his day with David, he decides against offering to take anyone's picture.
• Witch Hunt: David is still calling Augustus "Final Fantasy Cat" years later, and here he even greets him as "brother Melfice", dusting off the Grandia II comparison he first coined on his birthday adventure.