Being Fiona 424 (Patreon)

So the danger with introducing new characters into the story is that they can start pulling the story in unforeseen directions. First Hugo changed my plans for the morning leading up to meeting Lisa by deciding to tag along for the morning on a 'date' with Fiona; and now Chelsea is starting to have her own influence.

Originally Hugo was just going to buy a phone for Fiona and Fiona was only going to use it for texting with Lisa and mobile payments. Then I got obsessed with the idea of "what if Lisa wants to do voice or video calls with Fiona," which, as Hugo has warned repetitively, is "overthinking it."

This of course led to Hugo having Chelsea show up, giving Felix an app that I realized too late might give Felix second thoughts about his plan, and adding an additional layer of complication just before Fiona was about to meet Lisa. Luckily, as I'll explain in a future post, this turned out to be a very good complication.

I have also been struggling to decide on what exactly Chelsea thinks of this plan Felix, Jess, and Hugo have been putting together. Does she not approve? Does she see this as a problem to solve? Is she only doing this as a favor to Hugo?

Felix is doing this because he thinks this is the best way to stay friends with Lisa; Jess is doing this because she is lonely and is over-helpful; Hugo is doing this because it feels like a quest on some big adventure, is getting carried away, and he thinks Fiona is cute.

And Chelsea, I've been inspired by the following Terry Pratchett quote from the Hogfather for her feelings about the trio of idiots are about to do:

“You can't give her that!' she screamed. 'It's not safe!' IT'S A SWORD, said the Hogfather. THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE. 'She's a child!' shouted Crumley. IT'S EDUCATIONAL. 'What if she cuts herself?' THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON.”

Anyhow, I original had written three or four strips centered around the features of this phone, when my only plan for it was for Hugo to call it later to talk with Fiona. So instead of wasting a bunch of narrative about a device that will barely appear in the story, I put a bit of effort into condensing their discussion about it.

That said, this phone is in fact going to have a huge indirect impact on the story, which I'll talk about in more detail in about a half-dozen strips from now.