Blurry Memories

Blurry Memories
Chapter	19 of 127 (list of chapters)
Published	August 25, 2006 (2006-08-25)
Page count	8
Major characters	Blur, Lily, Mike, Lucy, Yashy
Minor characters	Chirpy
Locations	Lucy's house, Neighborhood sidewalks and streets
Collected in	Volume One, Omnibus 1
Chapter navigation
← Mike's Birthday	Yashy's Birthday →
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Ever wondered where Blur and Lily came from? Blur certainly can't tell you. Two years after the fact, the pets look back on the stormy night that gave Mike a pet, Lucy a lodger, and Blur his much-hated name.

Synopsis

In the present day, Mike is hard at work on his summer reading, keen not to blow his first-ever Honors class, while Lucy hasn't started hers and doesn't intend to. Yashy heckles the bickering pair from across the room ("Skip to the make-up sex already!"), and Lucy answers with a thrown book that bends Blur's beak. As the pets wander off, Lily teases Blur about his ignorance, and Yashy jumps to his defense. Blur insists he's just hazy about things, and that he still remembers some stuff.

The flashback opens two years earlier at Lucy's house, where Lucy is playing peek-a-boo with an infant Chirpy. Yashy tries to reassert herself as the little bird's mother, but her offer of video games goes down poorly and she stomps off in a huff. Lucy scoops the worried chick up for a hug, and gets an "I love you, Girl-Kitty.." in return. Mike admires the tender scene out loud, which earns him an uppercut and a one-way trip through the front door.

The walk home does not go smoothly either. Mike gets caught in a downpour and shelters under a tree, until lightning sets a nearby one ablaze, close enough to send him running. His path home leads right past the burning tree, where a hedgehog is straining to drag an unconscious bird away from the flames. She orders Mike to help. Inside, meanwhile, Lucy spots smoke out the window while Yashy assures Chirpy that Smokey the Bear will handle it. Then comes a frantic knock, and Mike stands drenched in the doorway with the bird in his arms: "Lucy.. please help him.."

The bird wakes the next morning bandaged, terrified, and ready to bolt, but Lucy sternly refuses to let him fly back to his charred branch. The hedgehog introduces herself as Lily, a self-styled traveler ("It's more flattering than 'hobo.'") who admits she doesn't actually know the patient at all. Mike tries a gentler approach and learns the bird remembers nothing about who he is or where he came from. He promises the bird a home and a place where he belongs. The tender moment ends abruptly when Lucy's table snaps in half, to her loud displeasure. Lily asks for a pit stop of her own, and Lucy shrugs her assent. Not to be outdone, Mike declares that if Lucy's keeping the hedgehog, he'll be keeping the bird.

Yashy's christening goes over about as well as her controller did.

The name comes later, once the bird has recovered enough to fly over for a visit. He offers to teach Chirpy fly tag, only to discover she can't fly at all. He is aghast ("Yer a bird! Who's your mother?!"), and Yashy's answer is a flat "'Sup." Yashy then welcomes him properly with a hurled controller and demands his name mid-assault. All he can tell her is that his mind is all a blur, and as far as Yashy is concerned, that settles it — however loudly he objects.

The story returns to the present, where Lily takes back her earlier teasing. Blur has made some memories, she concedes, and he's certainly made a home. She admits she only stuck around town herself because Mike and Lucy are far too entertaining to leave behind. Blur would still like his memories back, but he's happy with what he has now. Lucy gets one last jab in by taunting Mike as "Daisy," and his roared denial sounds a lot like Blur's. The chapter closes on a three-panel retelling of Blur's origin: an egg, a hatching, and a scrawled "END NOW THIS IS GOING NOWHERE".

Character dynamics

• Blur and Mike: They begin the flashback as total strangers. To Mike, Blur is just an unconscious wild bird he carries through the rain. Everything turns on Mike's offer once the amnesia comes to light: "You don't ever have to feel like you don't have a place to belong." Blur goes to live with him, and two years on he's settled enough to say he's happy with what he has, missing memories and all.
• Lily and Lucy: Lily arrives as a complete stranger passing through town, and her "pit stop" at Lucy's quietly becomes an open-ended stay. By her own account she considered moving on, but stayed because Mike and Lucy are "a walking teenage melodrama" and endlessly entertaining.
• Blur and Yashy: Their first proper meeting involves a controller thrown at his head and a name he never asked for. Two years later the two are card partners, and Yashy is the one who jumps to his defense when Lily teases him.

Trivia & observations

• The book Mike is reading is Things Fall Apart. Veronica's commentary notes she asked around about what ninth-graders actually read, and a friend entering ninth grade had it assigned. Veronica herself was assigned it in senior-year Honours English.
• Per Veronica's commentary, Chirpy was found near the end of 6th grade, and the fire happened at the beginning of 7th grade, around October. That fits the flashback's "Two years ago" caption.
• In the pre-BCB comics, Mike's house was infested with termites and he lived at Lucy's for about two years, sleeping in the living room back when the characters slept in boxes "a la Garfield." Veronica's commentary offers this as the reason Mike is at Lucy's house so much.
• Blur went unnamed for a very long time in the pre-BCB comics, acting as though he knew his name and simply wouldn't tell it. Veronica originally named him after an artist she admired at the time. When a 2025 ask wondered whether "Blur" is a Sonic reference, she said she doesn't remember, but "probably was Sonic-brained" when she named him.
• Per Veronica's commentary, fly tag was a common game among the flying pets of the pre-BCB comics, at one point including a Togetic from Pokémon.

Related chapters

• Flying Lessons: Chirpy gets her own origin story there, from egg rescue to hatching. Its present-day scenes also show Blur running the flying lessons he promises her here.
• Farewell, Middle School: The chapter right before this one hands out the class placements Mike is studying for, and puts a delighted Daisy in his Honors English class. That's the nerve Lucy pokes with her "Daisy" taunt.
• Gaming Rivalry: Blur's actual first appearance in publication order. He had been part of the cast for years before this chapter got around to explaining where he came from.
• Yashy's Birthday: The immediate follow-up keeps the whole pet household on stage, with Blur and Chirpy fretting over the humans going back to school.
• Leaving Home: Mike's promise of a place to belong gets a sad echo years down the line. A flashback in that chapter shows Blur leaving Mike's household.