Amaya

From Candypedia
Amaya
Age16
BirthdayDecember 11, 1992
GradeJunior as of Table for One
SpeciesCat
BreedTabby
Family
OccupationStudent, Eagle Cinema employee
AffiliationSwordsVale, Drama club, Junior friend group
DebutUnfit for Education, page 3
May 12, 2006 (2006-05-12)

Amaya is a short tabby cat in a bow tie who has been at Sue’s side since Roseville Middle School, and in all that time they have never said a single word on-panel. They work the popcorn counter at the Eagle Cinema, sit at the junior lunch table, and get their point across with smiles, thumbs, and the occasional hand-lettered sign. Their friends translate them without a second thought, while Paulo has learned the hard way that a quiet cat behind a ticket counter still has opinions about who gets into a restricted movie. Veronica has described Amaya as having a deliberately subtle background journey of self-discovery, with Amaya still unsure and experimenting around people they trust.[1]

Personality

Amaya’s cheerful thumbs-down ends Paulo’s argument before it can begin.

Amaya is small, they smile a lot, and they have a way of sitting perfectly still while a whole conversation happens on their face. Ask them a question and you will get a thumbs-up, a thumbs-down, a raised eyebrow, or, on special occasions, a piece of paper with the answer written on it. Their closer friends read all of this fluently, which means they can be as chatty as they like without saying a word. They are also, given half a chance, a bit of a schemer, and the sunny smile that makes them look so harmless is the exact thing that ought to worry you.

Amaya’s speech balloons in the main comic contain symbols, a question mark or a heart or a musical note, and the people around them fill in the rest.[2][3] When they want to be exact they write it down, which is how Paulo once ended up on the wrong end of a sign at a pep rally.[4] The rest of the time their friends do the work. In Tickets Please they bring a pair of tickets to lunch and smile. From that alone, Sue and Lucy work out that Amaya has snagged the last two seats to a preview screening only their theater gets to show, and James can only ask how on earth they are getting all this information.[5] Veronica’s commentary calls Sue and Lucy bilingual in English and “Amayese”.[5]

Amaya is not actually mute, either. Veronica has said they are quiet by choice, and the main comic itself shows them dialing Sue in Back and Forth without letting the conversation be heard.[6][7] David later reports an off-panel dressing-down from them in Participation Trophy.[8]

In response to a reader praising Amaya’s understated queer characterization, Veronica said she worried about being too subtle because Amaya was “not quite sure yet either” and was “experimenting with trusted people”, calling the process a little journey happening in the background.[1] Later material remains mixed about Amaya’s pronouns: David refers to Amaya as “they” in Participation Trophy,[8] and Veronica uses they/them throughout a later answer about Amaya’s speech,[6] while Lucy still calls Amaya “she” in Tickets Please.[9]

Most of what Amaya says with their face is a verdict. When Lucy clings to Zachary’s arm on the Silvershore Islands trip and Sue and Tess call him names, Amaya contributes a long, judging frown of their own.[10] Sue gets this treatment more than anyone. She fakes an opinion about a painting in Critical Hit and Amaya frowns her into retreat,[11] and later Sue calls David a buffoon and gets a flat, unimpressed stare, which, to Sue’s credit, she understands perfectly well and argues back against.[12] Stacy gets a subdued, skeptical look when she walks into the computer lab in Popularity Contest.[13]

The smile is the other half of their vocabulary, and it unsettles people who don’t know them well. David spends a plane ride in Arrival trying to crack it. He works his way up from “I don’t trust that smile” to accusing them of being a double agent, and they beam at him the entire time until Lucy ends the interview with a thrown book.[14][15] The same pleasant expression stays put while they give Paulo a thumbs-down on an NC-17 ticket in Boy Toy, and while they hand him a broom in Payback after he can’t cover a bill he insisted on paying.[16][17] In the BCI story Everyday Life, the smile is also a bit of a mask. Customers leer at them and ask them to smile, and they give them a strained one because they have to. A polite customer who tells them to keep the change gets the real thing, sparkles included.[18]

Amaya’s innocent grin suggests Sue’s encounter with Jessica was not entirely accidental.

Amaya will happily run interference for a friend. They physically plant themselves in front of Sue, arms waving, to stop her marching up to Stacy and Katie in Popularity Contest,[19] and in Participation Trophy they quietly get Sue into a needed conversation with Jessica and push David to apologize.[20][8] The instant James lets slip who sent David, though, they blush, sweat, and look anywhere but at Sue.[21]

Amaya has their own nervous moments, too. They hug their knees and stare at the pavement when Lucy walks over in It’s All in the Mind,[22] and they sit with their knees up and their hands in their lap through the first-kiss stories at Daisy’s slumber party.[23] When Paulo laughs at their SwordsVale cosplay, all they can manage is a nervous smile.[24] That doesn’t stop them stirring things up in Tickets Please. As Sue and Paulo squabble over their tickets, Veronica’s commentary has Amaya privately cheering that a bloodbath is imminent and taking credit for it.[25]

Appearance

Amaya is a short tabby cat. Their orange fur is broken up by dark tabby stripes across their forehead and the sides of their face. They have large yellow eyes, short cheek whiskers, and a rounded face that often carries a small, closed-mouth smile.[16][5] They debut as a little figure in a bow tie,[2] and David has to lean down to interrogate them on the plane.[14] Sue smiles down at them in the hallway,[26] and a drunk Sue can dip them on the dance floor without much trouble.[27] The bow tie has stayed with them from eighth grade through junior year, and when they produce their preview tickets, the tickets peek out from just below their big bow.[5]

Amaya’s off-duty wardrobe leaves little room for blending in.

At work they wear the Eagle Cinema employee uniform behind the concession counter.[28][16] Off the clock, Amaya sometimes dresses in ways the comic itself treats as masculine. They arrive at Rachel’s birthday party in Happy Hour in a red suit and bow tie.[29] In Boy Toy, Paulo turns to flirt with their silhouette, realizes who he is talking to, and waves the attempt off because Amaya is “PRACTICALLY a boy”.[30]

It’s All in the Mind takes the wardrobe further. Amaya turns up in a purple shirt with striped yellow sleeves, a purple-and-blue baseball cap worn backwards, blue shorts and blue-and-yellow shoes, with a skateboard to complete the look — reminiscent of “Sonic’s favorite clothes” worn by Old Man Owl in the Sonic OVA.[31] They are already blushing when Lucy approaches. Lucy calls it a “nice getup”, and when Amaya wilts at the remark Lucy quickly clarifies that they are “looking good, no sarcasm”.[22] Veronica later said Amaya had expected only Sue to be around and “wasn’t ready to be seen by someone else”.[32] While Sue and Lucy catch up, Amaya lies flat on their stomach on the board and rolls along the street.[33]

An alternate BCI vignette in Ships Ahoy, Season Six plays with the same idea more openly. After Lucy’s compliment, Amaya appears for her in a tank top, baggy pants and a beanie, then a flannel shirt, cap and sunglasses, and finally a leather jacket. Lucy realizes Amaya keeps getting dressed up when they come to see her and admits that she is “VERY impressed”.[34]

They go trick-or-treating dressed as a Hershey’s Kiss in Witch Hunt,[35] play an injured villager in a tattered shirt and bruise makeup in Sue’s play in Curtain Call,[36] and attend the convention in Guest of Honor in SwordsVale cosplay alongside their guildmates.[37]

Significant events

Amaya first appears in Unfit for Education, already a middle-school classmate of David, whose hypothesis about puberty earns him a smack.[2] Amaya and Sue share a crush on Mike,[38] and the group discovers their popcorn-counter job at the Eagle Cinema in Off to the Movies.[39] Amaya and Sue are partners for both the tied-legs race and the wheelbarrow race in Field Day, with Sue holding their ankles and asking them nicely not to kick.[40][41]

During freshman year they back Sue on guitar at Tess’s party in Feline Festivities[42] and struggle to keep their head above water in swim class in Under Pressure.[43] In Invitation, Tess invites them on the Silvershore Islands trip, to Sue’s delight.[44] The two room together and return with photos and plans for a slideshow.[45][46]

In Off to the Movies, Amaya’s shift includes one customer who takes the popcorn machine personally.

By sophomore year the cinema job is paying off for other people. Amaya lets Paulo and Jasmine into an R-rated film in Back and Forth, then calls Sue about them.[28][7] Away from work, they attend Daisy’s slumber party in Pillow Talk,[23] get danced dizzy by David at Tess’s Christmas party in At Loose Ends,[47] and play an injured villager in Sue’s production in Curtain Call.[36]

On the gallery trip in Critical Hit, Amaya helps Sue with the assignment and brings tickets to the special exhibit.[48][49] At Rachel’s party in Happy Hour, they enjoy dancing with Sue, until Matt later insists that everyone cheer up and dance whether they feel like it or not.[27][50] In Payback, which is exclusive to Volume Four, Paulo’s offer to pay for his friends leaves him working off the cinema bill with a broom.[17] Amaya is also part of the SwordsVale guild with Sue, Stacy and Abbey,[51] refuses Paulo an NC-17 ticket in Boy Toy,[16] and joins their guildmates in cosplay for Guest of Honor.[37]

After Lucy returns, she catches up with Sue and Amaya in It’s All in the Mind, where she compliments Amaya’s skater outfit.[22] Amaya goes trick-or-treating with her in Witch Hunt[35] and tries unsuccessfully to keep Sue away from Stacy and Katie in Popularity Contest.[19]

Amaya offers Sue two tickets, making generosity look effortless.

In Participation Trophy, Amaya arranges for Sue to talk with Jessica and also presses David to apologize to Sue.[20][8] In Tickets Please, their preview-screening tickets become the prize in a contest between Sue and Paulo. They give Sue both tickets despite Paulo winning, but Sue passes them on to him.[9][52]

Major relationships

Sue

Sue takes the karaoke stage at Tess’s party while Amaya plays guitar in Feline Festivities.

Sue talks and Amaya nods, and that arrangement is older than the comic itself. Veronica has said the pair began in her pre-BCB comics, where Amaya would tag along and Sue would do the talking for them, and her commentary in Participation Trophy notes that Sue has known Amaya for pretty much all her life.[6][12] The early chapters treat them as one unit, from cornering Mike about the dance in Prom Preparation[38] to sharing a stage at Tess’s party with Sue on vocals and Amaya on guitar.[42] Sue’s bedroom has a framed photo of the two of them.[53] Sue leans on them in ways she barely notices. She relies on Amaya for the art-gallery answers in Critical Hit,[48] and when Stacy has rattled her in Popularity Contest, the person she asks whether she’s a loser is Amaya.[13]

Amaya doesn’t need to say a word to argue with Sue. They frown Sue out of a fake art opinion in Critical Hit,[11] and Participation Trophy shows how far they will take it. Sue is on crutches and insisting she is fine about Jessica’s play getting the praise hers didn’t. Amaya carries her books, steers her down the hallway, and lets her cry, right in front of the locker where Jessica and Madison happen to be standing. Sue works it out at once. “You led me here on purpose, didn’t you.” Amaya gives her a small, coy grin.[20] Sue thanks them afterwards, then adds “Now never do that again”, and Amaya’s smile hitches into a sweat.[54] It gets worse when James exposes Amaya as the “little birdie” who tore into David about apologizing.[21] Veronica’s commentary calls the whole operation delightfully devilish, and notes that Amaya put Sue in the perfect place to talk it out because they weren’t about to do much talking themselves.[20]

Underneath the managing, the friendship is a warm one, and Sue is the one who notices when Amaya is happy. In the BCI story Everyday Life, Sue visits them at the counter and thinks about being told not to intervene when customers leer, which she finds hard. When a polite customer makes Amaya beam, Sue reflects that seeing their brightest smiles makes her happy too.[18] The loyalty runs the other way as well. When Paulo wins the ticket contest in Tickets Please, Amaya hands Sue the envelope containing both tickets regardless, and Lucy observes that Sue was always going to get priority.[9] Sue calls after the departing group, and Amaya turns around with a bright smile. Sue hands the tickets to Paulo anyway.[52]

Paulo

Paulo knows exactly which friend can rescue his movie plans.

Amaya noticed Paulo growing up before Paulo did. At the freshman pep rally in A Different Side, he admits that ogling the cheerleaders feels a little disrespectful. They hold up a sign reading “Character development” with an arrow pointing at him,[4] having spent the kickball game earlier that day worrying for him and clapping when he homered.[55][56] A flashback in Feline Filibuster shows him gripping their shoulders and ordering them to vote for Daisy.[57]

In Boy Toy he turns to flirt with a silhouette, realizes it is Amaya holding a broom, and waves them off, claiming Amaya is “PRACTICALLY a boy” so it wouldn’t count. They watch him go with a bright smile.[30] Veronica has said the pairing “sorta appeared out of nowhere” and that she finds it cute all the same.[58]

At the Eagle Cinema they are his connection, and the connection has terms. In Back and Forth he begs them for R-rated tickets for himself and Jasmine, and they give him a big thumbs-up, which Veronica’s commentary rewards with “Amaya, you are such a bro”.[28] Then they watch the pair walk off with a puzzled frown and dial Sue without taking their eyes off them.[7] When Lucy confronts him about his freshman date a few pages later, all he can manage is “God dammit, Amaya!”[59] Their generosity has a ceiling, too. An NC-17 showing gets a pleasant smile and a firm thumbs-down in Boy Toy, and pleading gets him a popcorn to go and nothing else.[16] In Payback they cover for him beautifully, refusing Jasmine’s money so the girls work out that Paulo has arranged to pay for them.[60][61] Then they type up his total, watch his face fall, and hand him a broom without changing their expression.[17]

The ticket contest in Tickets Please starts with them, and the tickets end up in Paulo’s pocket. They bring the last two seats for a preview screening to lunch, and Sue claims them over Paulo’s objections. When Sue tells Amaya to just hand the tickets over, Amaya smiles toward Lucy, who proposes that the two of them fight for it.[62] Paulo wins the park contest, and after a detour through Sue’s hands, both tickets are his.[9][52]

Lucy

Lucy assures a flustered Amaya they’re “looking good, no sarcasm” in It’s All in the Mind.

Lucy is Sue’s friend first and Amaya’s by extension, and Amaya gets visibly shy when Lucy approaches them. On the plane in Arrival, Lucy ends David’s interrogation of Amaya by throwing a book at him.[15] Later, when Lucy has come back and is circling the edges of the group in It’s All in the Mind, Amaya spots her before Sue does and sits on the curb hugging their knees, blushing, and studying the pavement.[31][22] Lucy says “Nice getup”, and Amaya’s face collapses into self-doubt until Lucy hurries to add that she means it, “no sarcasm”, and that Amaya could give Sam some tips. That earns an appreciative smile.[22] By Tickets Please, Lucy is choosing to sit with Sue and Amaya at lunch.[63]

Lucy takes Amaya’s silence in stride and translates it aloud for everybody else, even when Sue is the one being managed. In Tickets Please she helps Sue read the preview-screening story off Amaya’s smile,[5] and when Amaya refuses to settle the fight over the tickets, Lucy is the one who says it plainly: “Sounds like Amaya wants you two to fight for it.”[62] James, new to all this, asks whether they all just guess what she’d say, and nobody bothers to answer him.[62] When Amaya hands the tickets to Sue after Paulo has won, it is Lucy again who explains to the group that Amaya is Sue’s friend, so Sue would always get priority.[9]

Minor relationships

David

David declares Amaya a fly dancer, apparently unaware that dizziness is not a compliment.

David has been getting on Amaya’s nerves since their very first panel, when his hypothesis about puberty earned him a smack in Unfit for Education.[2] He shoves them aside at the pep rally in A Different Side,[4] spends a plane ride in Arrival accusing them of espionage,[14][15] and in At Loose Ends dances them so dizzy that they throw up offscreen while he is still declaring them a “fly dancer”.[47] None of it gets a word from them on-panel. When he hurts Sue in Participation Trophy, they give him an off-panel dressing-down he describes as the angriest he has ever seen them, and the pair glare him clean out of the hallway.[8]

Mike

Amaya gets a quiet apology in Puppy Love, rather than the dance invitation they hoped for.

Mike was an early shared crush for Amaya and Sue, though Veronica’s commentary in Prom Preparation makes clear the crushes are light; Sue and Amaya just like to think about him sometimes.[38] He lets them both down gently during the dance preparations,[64] and offers a disappointed Amaya a quiet “Sorry.” in Puppy Love when Sue’s latest pitch gets shot down.[65] Amaya later picks up his dropped clipboard for him at the gallery in Critical Hit,[66] and in Date Night they have popcorn and soda ready at the counter while he and James chat.[67]

Amaya’s dad

Amaya’s father works at the Eagle Cinema too. In Featured Attraction he apologizes to the audience and agrees to restart a dubbed film with subtitles after some moviegoers complain. Paulo, recognizing him, silently begs him not to think he’s with the rowdy crowd.[68] Veronica’s commentary sums up Paulo’s panic as wanting very badly to impress his friend’s dad.[68]

Quotes

Amaya has never said a word on-panel in the main comic, so this section belongs to the people trying to figure them out.

.. I don’t trust that smile. David, sizing Amaya up on the plane in Arrival

God dammit, Amaya! Paulo, learning who told Sue about his date in Back and Forth

I’m not a loser, am I Amaya? Sue, turning to Amaya for reassurance in Popularity Contest

Do you all just.. guess what she’d say? James, watching the table translate Amaya in Tickets Please

Gallery

For a complete gallery, see Gallery:Amaya.

Appearances over time

Outfits

Trivia

  • Veronica has said she considered making Amaya properly mute, but decided they were too much of a gag character to be good representation.[6]
  • In the body-swapping BCI comic Magic Tricks, it is Lucy speaking from Amaya’s body when she tells David to fix his wand. David asks since when Amaya talks, and Lucy says it should be obvious; Amaya, in Lucy’s body, is still smiling silently.[69]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Veronica (2025-11-20). “Answer regarding Amaya’s developing queerness”. Tumblr.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Chapter 4: Unfit for Education, page 3
  3. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 1
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 10
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 12
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Veronica (2026-01-24). “Answer regarding Amaya’s quietness and speech”. Tumblr.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Chapter 54: Back and Forth, page 25
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Chapter 126: Participation Trophy, page 16
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 24
  10. ↑ Chapter 43: Search and Rescue, page 19
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 79: Critical Hit, page 17
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 126: Participation Trophy, page 9
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Chapter 109: Popularity Contest, page 6
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Chapter 42: Arrival, page 3
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Chapter 42: Arrival, page 4
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 Chapter 87: Boy Toy, page 13
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “Payback”, page 6
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Everyday Life, page 24 🔒 (members only)
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chapter 109: Popularity Contest, page 3
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Chapter 126: Participation Trophy, page 11
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Chapter 126: Participation Trophy, page 15
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 Chapter 103: It’s All in the Mind, page 5
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Chapter 61: Pillow Talk, page 38
  24. ↑ Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 31
  25. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 15
  26. ↑ Chapter 62: Call Waiting, page 5
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 11
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Chapter 54: Back and Forth, page 23
  29. ↑ Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 7
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Chapter 87: Boy Toy, page 16
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Chapter 103: It’s All in the Mind, page 4
  32. ↑ Veronica (2020-04-20). “Answer regarding Amaya’s outfit”. Tumblr.
  33. ↑ Chapter 103: It’s All in the Mind, page 6
  34. ↑ Ships Ahoy, Season Six, page 2 🔒 (members only)
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Chapter 105: Witch Hunt, page 16
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Chapter 74: Curtain Call, page 20
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 30
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 Chapter 7: Prom Preparation, page 3
  39. ↑ Chapter 12: Off to the Movies, page 2
  40. ↑ Chapter 16: Field Day, page 3
  41. ↑ Chapter 16: Field Day, page 7
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 Chapter 28: Feline Festivities, page 7
  43. ↑ Chapter 35: Under Pressure, page 3
  44. ↑ Chapter 41: Invitation, page 2
  45. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 7
  46. ↑ Chapter 45: Return, page 17
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 Chapter 69: At Loose Ends, page 21
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 Chapter 79: Critical Hit, page 3
  49. ↑ Chapter 79: Critical Hit, page 12
  50. ↑ Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 38
  51. ↑ Chapter 82: Local Area, page 8
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 52.2 Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 25
  53. ↑ Chapter 53: Casting Call, page 1
  54. ↑ Chapter 126: Participation Trophy, page 14
  55. ↑ Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 5
  56. ↑ Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 6
  57. ↑ Chapter 60: Feline Filibuster, page 16
  58. ↑ “Answer regarding BCB ships including Paulo and Amaya”. 2026-05-29.
  59. ↑ Chapter 54: Back and Forth, page 30
  60. ↑ Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “Payback”, page 3
  61. ↑ Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “Payback”, page 4
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 62.2 Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 17
  63. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 11
  64. ↑ Chapter 7: Prom Preparation, page 4
  65. ↑ Chapter 13: Puppy Love, page 3
  66. ↑ Chapter 79: Critical Hit, page 9
  67. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 3
  68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 Chapter 113: Featured Attraction, page 14
  69. ↑ Magic Tricks, page 20 🔒 (members only)
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