Ships Ahoy, Season Six

Ships Ahoy, Season Six
Published	August 8, 2021 (2021-08-08)
Page count	14
Major characters	Paulo, Daisy, Lucy, David, Tess, Amaya, Mike
Minor characters	Jessica, Rachel, Haley, Ellen, Frank, Chris, Augustus, Jordan, Abbey, Flower girl, Sue, Zachary, Catherine
Locations	Mike’s house
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Read in the BCI Members’ Library

Ships Ahoy, Season Six is a Bittersweet Club International-exclusive anthology of fourteen 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 shoots his shot.

1. Tess and Lucy: Tess piles on the invitations, from karaoke to a free lake house to a spa day, a bit faster than Lucy can cope with.
2. Lucy and Amaya: Lucy’s awkward comment about dressing up prompts Amaya to model several outfits.
3. Paulo and Tess: Paulo tries a pickup line on Tess.
4. Daisy and Rachel: Daisy and Rachel perform a cheer stunt at practice.
5. Mike’s parents: Haley asks Ellen whether having a different work schedule from Frank ever leaves her lonely.
6. Paulo and Augustus: Paulo tells Augustus to stop picking on Tess.
7. Paulo and Jordan: Paulo consoles an insecure Jordan with a compliment at Lucy’s expense.
8. Paulo and Abbey: Paulo asks Abbey how to cope with losing family, and Abbey answers from his own experience.
9. David and Flower girl: the Flower girl waters her garden while thinking about David.
10. Daisy and Sue: Sue nervously models a cheerleader outfit and asks whether Daisy still finds it cute.
11. Daisy and Jessica: Jessica gives an insecure Daisy a makeover.
12. Zach and Catherine: Zachary plays Catherine an audition tape.
13. David and Mike: David tries to give Mike a dramatic look.
14. David and Amaya: David and Amaya go on two movie dates.

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 strips are numbered #66 through #79, carrying the running count straight on from Ships Ahoy, Season Five.
• Paulo headlines four consecutive strips, the most in the season.
• The caption “Mike’s parents” is the only one that names a family relationship instead of using an “x” pairing. Its wordless final panel shows Ellen, Frank and Chris asleep together on the couch, echoing an earlier family-couch scene in the main comic.
• In the Paulo and Tess strip, Tess calls Paulo’s pickup line “corniest”. Abbey had used the same word for their end-of-freshman-year toast, calling it “the corniest thing we’ve ever done” while Tess and Paulo were present.
• This strip is Zachary and Catherine’s first appearance since the Silvershore Islands arc. Zachary first tried managing talent in Arrival, and the two became a couple in Return.

Related chapters

• Popularity Contest: The Daisy and Sue strip follows Sue’s cheer tryout in this chapter. Daisy lends her an old uniform, and Sue injures her leg on her first leap.
• Time Out: The Paulo and Abbey strip revisits their detention conversation about Abbey’s mother’s death and Paulo’s mother’s abandonment.
• Onwards to Adventure: The David and Flower girl strip revisits this chapter. David watches the Flower girl from the bushes instead of speaking to her, and Lucy later tells him she transferred to a nearby private school. This is the Flower girl’s first appearance since that chapter.