Ships Ahoy, Season Five

Ships Ahoy, Season Five
Published	February 22, 2021 (2021-02-22)
Page count	12
Major characters	Sue, Stacy, Paulo, Rachel, Blur, Yashy, Jordan, Tiff, Matt, Amaya, Katie, Augustus, Daisy, David, Janet, Kevin, Lily, Chirpy
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← Ships Ahoy, Season Four	A Better You →
Read in the BCI Members’ Library

Ships Ahoy, Season Five is a Bittersweet Club International-exclusive anthology of twelve one-page vignettes, each built around a different pairing from the cast. They contradict one another by design: some are couples the comic actually has, some are couples it never will, and some are jokes about the idea of the pairing itself.

Pairings

Paulo’s idea of fine dining.

1. Sue and Stacy: Stacy helps Sue finish a newspaper article.
2. Paulo and Rachel: Paulo and Rachel share a candlelit dinner.
3. Blur and Yashy: the pets have strong opinions about Mike and Lucy’s love life.
4. Jordan and Tiff: Tiff watches Jordan play basketball while Matt sits beside her.
5. Matt and Paulo: Matt asks Paulo to put on a different movie.
6. Amaya and Emma: Amaya and Emma share popcorn during a shift at the cinema.
7. Katie and Stacy: Katie writes Stacy a love poem.
8. Augustus and Sue: Sue researches housing and food assistance that might help Augustus leave home.
9. David and Daisy: Daisy asks David about the difference in their size.
10. Abbey’s parents: Janet and Kevin talk parenting before bed.
11. Lily and Blur: Lily has an evening planned for Blur.
12. Blur and Chirpy: a game of fly tag.

Trivia & observations

• The Ships Ahoy strips were drawn for Weekly Roundup, the Bittersweet Candy Bowl newsletter, and first went out to subscribers between 2018 and 2021. They were later collected into seasons and remastered for the Bittersweet Club International Members’ Library.
• The “Ships Ahoy!” captions keep one running count rather than restarting each season. This set covers strips #54 through #65, and Ships Ahoy, Season Six picks up at #66.
• Blur gets three strips (with Yashy, Lily, and Chirpy in turn), more than anyone else in the collection.
• Only one strip is captioned by relationship instead of by names, “Abbey’s parents.” The couple are his foster parents, Janet and Kevin, introduced back in Rising Temperature.
• Katie’s “that thing you do with like the poems” refers to the flowery love letters Mike received as a child. In Local Area, Stacy all but admits she wrote them.
• At the Roseville cinema in the main comic, Amaya staffs the concession stand and Emma sells tickets.
• In the Augustus strip, Sue concludes that he cannot claim housing aid or food stamps until he turns 18. In main continuity, Harvey offers Augustus his family’s guest room at the end of Love Again.

Related chapters

• Blurry Memories: Blur finds a lost baby Chirpy in this chapter and teaches her how to fly. During the lesson, he suggests fly tag. Their vignette returns to the same game.
• Eternal Flame: This chapter ended two weeks before the collection was released. Mike and Lucy kiss at the tree, but Mike then reconciles with Sandy. In their vignette, Yashy and Blur complain that Mike and Lucy still have not confessed their feelings.
• Fair Game: Paulo and Matt end a night out in this chapter by crying together in the car. Their movie-night vignette echoes that scene.