Roseville Park

From Candypedia
Roseville Park
First appearanceFlying Lessons, page 1
June 9, 2006
Related charactersMike, Lucy, Paulo, David, Yashy, Chirpy, Blur, Sandy

Roseville Park is Roseville’s big wooded public park, sitting directly downhill from a shopping street[1] and within easy walking distance of Roseville High School.[2] The main cast have treated it as their default hangout from early childhood right through senior year, and a good share of the comic’s confessions, kisses, and turning points happen under its trees. None looms larger than the lone tree at the top of its grassy hill.

Description

A wooded lawn edge along the path, marked with a stern little sign: DON’T WALK ON GRASS.[3]

The park’s upper edge runs along a row of storefronts, with a hedge-lined slope leading down from the sidewalk onto the lawn.[1] Past that boundary it is nearly all trees, big climbable ones in every direction, enough of them that finding one particular person takes real searching.[4]

The park has its share of water, too. There is a flat stretch of river below the trees,[5] a shallow crossing with stepping stones beside a small rocky waterfall,[6] and a stream that passes near the picnic spots.[7] The comic does not make clear whether these are parts of one waterway or several.

A round tiered fountain stands where a broad paved path bends, with wooden benches facing it.[8] Paved walks cross the park, among them a long avenue lined with black lantern streetlights[9] and a wooden boardwalk.[10] For sitting and playing there are benches among the trees,[4] picnic tables,[11] a sandbox,[12] and a swing.[13] A posted sign reads “DON’T WALK ON GRASS >:O!!!”, which no one has ever mentioned.[2]

Out of everyone, Mike is the park’s most regular visitor. He reads alone under its trees,[4] takes his dates walking through it,[6] and says himself that going to the park usually helps when he’s feeling low.[14]

The Tree

A single large tree stands at the crest of a grassy hill in the park, with mountains visible on the horizon behind it.[15][16] Mike treats it as his thinking spot (“I come here when I need to think, sometimes..”).[16] The ritual of sitting under it began in childhood because of Sandy, and he kept it up for years after she left.[17] It reminds him of the tree at school where the two of them first shared lunch.[16] Lucy used to sit under it with Mike too, and she has kicked it a few times on her own.[18]

After Lucy leaves Roseville, Leaving Home opens at the tree’s snow-covered base, where Paulo finds Mike sitting alone. Paulo punches him, then breaks down sobbing that he never got the chance to tell her.[19][20]

Mike carries the ritual on alone after that, and Table for One closes with him walking straight from school up the hill to read Pride and Prejudice under the branches, thinking “Happy birthday.”[15][21]

Sandy herself finally sees the tree on a sunset walk in Model Girlfriend, when Mike leads her across the stepping stones and up the hill.[6][16] Mike then impulsively challenges her to a race, and she shouts “Why don’t you just GROW UP?!”[22] The two patch things up before they leave.[23]

In Eternal Flame, Sandy’s cheating ends her relationship with Mike, and he flees to the hill only to find Lucy already sitting under the tree.[24] A long, raw conversation follows, from screaming to apologies to Lucy’s flat anger at Sandy on his behalf.[25] Along the way Mike realizes the ritual he called his safe place had been hurting Lucy for years.[17] The night ends with a confession and a kiss in the falling snow.[26][27]

History

A round fountain flanked by benches beside a winding path.[28]

The park’s darkest memory comes from a childhood flashback in Troubled Waters. Mike and Paulo race through the branches until Mike swerves to spare a bird’s nest and falls into the river.[29] David’s rescue attempt fails, so Lucy dives in after him even though she cannot swim.[30] Both children go under before Paulo hauls them out, and Lucy pounds on Mike’s chest, screaming, until he coughs awake.[31]

A row of streetlamps glows along the park’s night path, marching off into the starry dark.[32]

The near-drowning leaves Lucy terrified of water for years afterward. In Carry On she returns to the river alone to face that fear and nearly faints. She settles on avoidance instead, telling herself “I don’t need his promises. I can handle it. By avoiding it.” while Augustus watches from behind a tree.[5]

A wooden picnic table among the trees, with a paved path winding past and a nearby branch low enough for pull-ups.[33]

A much lighter visit happens in Flying Lessons. Too young to fly herself, Yashy catches a falling egg against a park tree after a snake menaces its nest, then raises the hatchling as Chirpy.[34]

A walk home through the park gives the series its first kiss. After the Alejandro ordeal in Confrontation, Mike asks Lucy whether he’s really her best friend and thanks her for saving him.[2][35] Lucy answers by kissing him, then runs off with “That’s for what you did last night. Now we’re even.”[36]

In New Beginnings, Daisy leads Abbey past the fountain to a surprise picnic.[8] Jessica and Rachel wander by to tease the pair,[37] and once they’re gone Abbey blurts out that he loves her.[38]

Lucy combs the grounds for Mike in Pick Me Up and finds him reading under a tree. The conversation curdles into a shouting match that ends on “Please just take a hint and leave me alone.”[4][39]

In Carry Me, Paulo wheels a feverish Lucy down the slope from the shopping street in a shopping cart, then carries her piggyback along the path.[1] When she’s too embarrassed to sing for him, he tells her “I’ll love anything that comes outta you..”, and she sings against his back until Jasmine appears on the path ahead.[40][41]

Walking James down the lamplit avenue after the movie in Date Night, Mike thanks him for making an awful year bearable, and James answers by kissing him.[42] Mike lets him down with “I’m sorry. I have a girlfriend.”, and the two manage to salvage the friendship.[43]

The park draws its biggest crowd in New Year’s Resolution, when a snowy New Year’s Eve gathering brings out half the town.[44] Paulo, reeling from what he has just worked out about his half-sister, slips off to sob alone under a tree.[45] Mike finds him and holds him through the midnight fireworks, saying it outright: “I’m asking because I love you, Paulo. You’re my best friend.”[46][47]

The group is still gathering there in senior year. In Tickets Please, they settle who gets the contested Danger Throat tickets at a picnic table, running through arm-wrestling, pull-ups, and trivia before Sue simply hands the tickets over.[11][48]

Trivia

  • The park is never named on panel. Characters only ever call it “the park”, and “Roseville Park” is the wiki’s own label for it.
  • Veronica’s commentary under the first-kiss page reads “Silly tsundere Lucy YOU BASICALLY WROTE YOUR FUTURE NOW.”[36]
  • The side stories drop by as well. Picture Perfect, which began life as an interactive iPhone-app comic, follows Mike and Lucy on a park stroll that ends with a boy mobbed by the geese he was taunting. Another Perspective replays the Eternal Flame night with Daisy by the tree instead of Lucy, and in Two-time Love Daisy comforts Mike under what she recognizes as “Mikie’s tree”.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 64: Carry Me, page 18
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 14: Confrontation, page 28
  3. ↑ Chapter 14: Confrontation, page 28
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Chapter 47: Pick Me Up, page 1
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 31: Carry On, page 6
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Chapter 94: Model Girlfriend, page 28
  7. ↑ Chapter 98: Moments Apart, page 17
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 46: New Beginnings, page 5
  9. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 6
  10. ↑ Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 12
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 19
  12. ↑ Chapter 6: Flying Lessons, page 1
  13. ↑ Chapter 64: Carry Me, page 27
  14. ↑ On Call, page 4 🔒 (members only)
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 92: Table for One, page 19
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Chapter 94: Model Girlfriend, page 31
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 48
  18. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 49
  19. ↑ Chapter 76: Leaving Home, page 1
  20. ↑ Chapter 76: Leaving Home, page 4
  21. ↑ Chapter 92: Table for One, page 20
  22. ↑ Chapter 94: Model Girlfriend, page 33
  23. ↑ Chapter 94: Model Girlfriend, page 34
  24. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 36
  25. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 47
  26. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 53
  27. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 56
  28. ↑ Chapter 46: New Beginnings, page 5
  29. ↑ Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 4
  30. ↑ Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 7
  31. ↑ Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 9
  32. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 6
  33. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 19
  34. ↑ Chapter 6: Flying Lessons, page 2
  35. ↑ Chapter 14: Confrontation, page 29
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Chapter 14: Confrontation, page 30
  37. ↑ Chapter 46: New Beginnings, page 7
  38. ↑ Chapter 46: New Beginnings, page 8
  39. ↑ Chapter 47: Pick Me Up, page 3
  40. ↑ Chapter 64: Carry Me, page 19
  41. ↑ Chapter 64: Carry Me, page 21
  42. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 8
  43. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 9
  44. ↑ Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 13
  45. ↑ Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 22
  46. ↑ Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 25
  47. ↑ Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 36
  48. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 24
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