Blurry Memories

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.

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
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Synopsis

In the present day, Mike is hard at work on his summer reading while Lucy hasn't started hers and doesn't intend to. When Lily teases Blur about his ignorance, he protests that he's just hazy about things and still remembers some stuff, and the story slips two years into the past.

At Lucy's house, Mike admires how tenderly Lucy comforts an infant Chirpy, and gets an uppercut and a trip through the front door for it. Caught in a downpour on the walk home, he shelters under a tree until lightning sets a nearby one ablaze. Beside the burning tree, a hedgehog is straining to drag an unconscious bird from the flames, and she orders Mike to help; soon he stands drenched in Lucy's doorway with the bird in his arms, pleading "Lucy.. please help him.."

The bird wakes bandaged, terrified, and ready to bolt, but Lucy refuses to let him fly back to his charred branch, while the hedgehog introduces herself as Lily, a self-styled traveler who doesn't actually know the patient. Mike learns the bird remembers nothing about who he is, and promises him a home and a place where he belongs. Lily asks for a pit stop, Lucy shrugs her assent, and Mike declares that if Lucy's keeping the hedgehog, he'll be keeping the bird.

Once the bird has recovered enough to fly over for a visit, Yashy welcomes him 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.

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

Back in the present, Lily takes back her earlier teasing, conceding that Blur has made some memories and certainly made a home. She admits she only stuck around town herself because Mike and Lucy are far too entertaining to leave behind, and Blur, though he'd still like his memories back, is happy with what he has now.

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.