Essential Worker
 | This chapter is exclusively available to members of Bittersweet Club International. |
| Essential Worker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Published | January 17, 2022 |
| Page count | 16 |
| Major characters | Daisy, Teddy |
| Chapter navigation | |
| ← Another Intervention | On Call → |
| Read in the BCI Members’ Library | |
Essential Worker is a Bittersweet Club International-exclusive comic in which Daisy tags along for Take Your Child To Work Day and learns that her father Teddy’s job involves rather more than the door marked “Janitor” would suggest.
Partial synopsis
It’s Take Your Child To Work Day, and Daisy dresses in a suit jacket, pearl necklace, and high heels. Teddy gushes over how cute she looks, prompting Daisy to protest, “DADDY you must take me seriously as an employee!!”[1] At the office, Teddy leads her past cubicles and a water cooler. Impressed, Daisy says he really does contribute to society. Then he stops in front of a door labeled “Janitor”.[2]
Daisy recoils at the thought that Teddy is a janitor, and he rebukes her for looking down on maintenance workers. She immediately overcorrects with a speech calling them the bedrock of society. Teddy says that is the attitude she will need “..when you become a magical girl!”[3] He takes her hand, and the janitor door clicks shut behind them.[4]
A flash erupts from the building. Moments later, Teddy is soaring over the city on enormous wings, glowing wand in hand, with Daisy shrieking under one arm.[5] Being a magical guardian turns out to be a job like any other, and the workday is far from over. Daisy came determined to be treated as a serious employee, and she may end up with rather more responsibility than she dressed for...
Character dynamics
- Daisy and Teddy: Teddy dotes on Daisy in the main comic, calling her his “li’l pumpkin” and asking Abbey to treat her right.[6] Here, he gushes over her work-day clothes while she insists that he take her seriously.[1] At the janitor door, he tells her that she will become a magical girl.[3]
Trivia & observations
- Teddy drives Daisy and Abbey home in At Loose Ends.[6] He hosts Daisy’s sixteenth-birthday cookout in Moments Apart.[7] Both are brief appearances, while this story gives him a much larger role.
- Teddy treats flying as a chance to catch up on sleep, calling it “the only time I get to sleep”.[8]
Related chapters
- Moments Apart: Teddy’s biggest appearance in the main comic. He hosts and caters Daisy’s sixteenth-birthday cookout, doting on her in an entirely wingless fashion.
- Family Comix: An earlier set of BCI gag strips from 2013 that includes a “Take your children to work day” page of its own, with Teddy among the parents on the job.
- Candied Bacon: Another members-only magical-girl sendup. Paulo reacts with disbelief when he learns that Rachel is a magical girl.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Essential Worker, page 1 🔒 (members only)
- ↑ Essential Worker, page 2 🔒 (members only)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Essential Worker, page 3 🔒 (members only)
- ↑ Essential Worker, page 4 🔒 (members only)
- ↑ Essential Worker, page 5 🔒 (members only)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 69: At Loose Ends, page 12
- ↑ Chapter 98: Moments Apart, page 2
- ↑ Essential Worker, page 6 🔒 (members only)