Chapter 5 — Page 1
Just a brief visit back in our world to see how “Kevin” (me in cartoon form) is fairing with one of the fair folk. So far, so … okay?
For those curious, yes that apartment is basically what my old place in NE Portland looked like a couple of years ago. The setting for this story is admittedly fluid, reflecting the difference between our time and Fae time, but I have tried to reflect current events in small ways, such as the mask wearing the last time we looked in on “Kevin” and his world. In real life, I moved to a new house a mere six months before the pandemic came to lock us all down and perversely make the local real estate market even more accessible for lowly middle class yobs like myself. I have kept the apartment setting, mostly because it is simple in design and it gives me the opportunity to draw my old neighborhood with its restaurants, boutiques, and condominiums. And it suits the story thematically. Where I live now doesn’t reflect gentrification quite as well as my old place did, unless you are attuned to some subtle changes.
And the person I am talking to is Owen’s mom. I have left her name off the script to protect her privacy, but I tried to get her speech rhythms and phrases down as best I could. She is not the first friend to in Fetch. My friend Barry costarred in a 2016 strip on health care, and my current partner has appeared a couple of times as a background character. Back in the 1990s as I was learning my cartooning chops I frequently made comic strips about my friends. They’re fun people.
KEVIN: Have you noticed anything odd about Owen lately?
PANEL 2: Kevin on the phone. He is talking to Owen’s mom.
OWEN’s MOM: He’s always a little odd. What do you mean?
KEVIN: He’s been really cranky lately. Snappish. He sulks a lot, doesn’t talk, and I don’t know if he’s been showering at all. Frankly, he reeks.
PANEL 3: Kevin peers around the corner in the background to look at the Changeling in the foreground, playing video games.
OWEN’s MOM: Oh, yeah. It’s bad. I told him to shower the other day and he gave me a hard time. I was not having it.
KEVIN: Yeah, I bet.
PANEL 4:
KEVIN: Maybe it’s just hormones. Adolescence makes teens act unpleasant sometimes.
OWEN’s MOM: Yes, I suppose so. But he seems pretty “extra” unpleasant, if you ask me.
PANEL 5: Close up on Changeling’s eyes looking sideways to the left at Kevin off-panel.
KEVIN: Hm. Yeah. Maybe we should talk with him about it.
OWEN’s MOM: Heh. Good luck with that.
This is weird. I would expect you to be more suspicious, since you spent your previous comics hanging out with a “magical cat”. Your comic book self knows, that magic is a thing and yet you still go for non-magic explanation.
Fair point. The trope of the changeling is that it often fools parents (or other family) for awhile before fairy magic is suspected. So at this point “Kevin” is at the notincing-something-is-weird stage.