Amanda Lafrenais
patreon
A script for a short comic (Polly & Peggy)
🕑 Added 2021-12-23 17:49:11 +0000 UTC
Above: Polly (left), Peggy (right)
I have more stuff to share in the coming days (I've been so dang busy), but I wanted to share something different and kinda weird. Peggy and Polly are these sister characters I made up ages ago, these cute animal girls who are sisters, and kinda exist to be like mouthpieces for my own traumas and a way to fictionalize the shit I went through but in a way where I can swap genders and change details to obscure.
Recently, I attempted auto-bio comics to try and work through shit, but it just doesn't work for me. So after a really, really rough few years and months, I decided to revisit Peggy & Polly in a series of short self-contained comics. And I'm including the script I finally typed up for the first one.
I want it to be the kinda script for a single issue that gives you a general idea of where these two are in life and what they're trying to move on from without being overt, or making you sit through exposition and flashbacks.
So I'm sharing it here, one cuz I'm happy to have SOMETHING to share with y'all, and two in case y'all have feedback.
CONTENT WARNING: Implied abuse, harsh language
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SCRIPT #1 - ROUGH PASS
Peggy and Polly are both in pajamas, sitting on the fold-out sofa bed that is currently where Polly sleeps. They’re eating snacks and half-watching TV. Peggy and Polly are twins, though time and lifestyle has made them less identical. Peggy is fat, hyper-femme and while tired in this scene, usually peppy - to a fault. Polly is thin, maybe a little gaunt in the face, and dresses a bit like a punk, though she’s obviously dressed down here. Polly has a very “over it” affect, she’s already been through shit and has finally embraced absurdism and nihilism to cope. Peggy is in a “fake it til you make it” phase of coping with anxiety and depression. But right now, both sisters are relaxed and uninhibited. Peggy is even kind of deflated.
Poly: I’m serious, Peggy, you should see my therapist.
Peggy: God, no.
Polly: Peggggyy-eeeeee!!
Peggy: That’s the LAST thing I need.
Polly: Maybe you could go with me! I bet that’d work, two for one, twins discount. Same birthdays, same trauma!
Peggy: Eugh, I don’t want some educated asshole telling me what I already know. And I DON’T need to learn some new bullshit that makes me realize that everything was, actually, WAY WORSE and I just didn’t KNOW it cuz of my tiny baby brain.
Polly: Pppfftt. Oh, come on. How the hell could any of that been WORSE.
Peggy: Are you serious.
Polly: Uh, yeah. Like what horrible dark secrets could possibly still be festering in that dumpster fire.
Peggy: [pauses] That we were nasty little incest babies.
Polly: [flipping the fuck out] EXCUSE ME?! PEGGY, WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU SAY THAT.
Peggy: Don’t act like it’s out of left field!
Polly: We are NOT, and-- oh my GOd, have you thought about this before?! Jesus christ you HAVE! Peggg-eeeeeeee!
Peggy: Look! At every goddamn turn, who was there ruining our lives? Mom and Buddy! Every time mom pulled her shit, who was backing her up and giving her alibis? Her trailer-trash-ass brother. When dad was fighting for custody, who was stalking and trying to blackmail him? Uncle Fuckin’ Buddy, like mom’s simp-ass dog! With that kinda trash dynamic, yeah! I’ve THOUGHT about it! A lot!
Polly: [ speechless for a few panels ] Peg. Peggy. PEGGORY. Dad is so obviously our DAD.
Peggy: I know! I know that it’s like, not true. But fuck, Polly, even when I was a kid I thought they were WEIRD and after we watched that one fucked up movie in school, I thought about it.
Polly: Why didn’t you tell me you were worried about that.
Peggy: Cuz if I was right, what the fuck were we gonna do about it. Eliminate our nasty asses from the gene pool and feel disgusting forever? Shit. I wasn’t gonna make you as paranoid as me. Not more than you already WERE.
Polly: ... well. Thanks I guess.
Peggy: You’re welcome, I guess.
[ There is a bit of silence, with Polly in deep concentration and Peggy just sorta over it, probably eating chips lizard-style ]
Polly: OKAY, thought experiment time!
Peggy: POLLY.
Polly: No no, here me out, this’ll be fun. I’m gonna give you a “WHAT IF.” You know, like we used to do at sleepovers!
Peggy: [doesn’t move, before reluctantly rolling over to give her her full attention] Okay.
Polly: Right. Okay. So. One of those billionaires, right, like Bezos or Musk shows up at your front door--
Peggy: I shoot them.
Polly: NO, NO. In this thought experiment you can’t shoot the billionaires. We need them here.
Peggy: Fine.
Polly: Ok. So they make you an offer. No questions asked, no debt owed, they are willing to use their money, resources and influence to help you get revenge on Mom and Uncle Buddy however you want. Like, they’ve got government connections and shit, you will NEVER get in trouble for it, ever. What do you do.
Peggy: I dunnooooooo... mmmmm... this is stupid. You know what, you go first.
Polly: [manically] OKAY I WILL. SO. Here’s my plan. We run this huge marketing campaign, right, about these two people who are gonna do a performance art piece. Get interviews on the news and talk shows, prep the whole country for it. And then we have Mom and Buddy put in this like, glass box in a major city. Signs around it, this is it! The performance art they been expecting! Mom and Buddy trapped in this goddamn box, surrounded by people ooo-ing and aaa-ing while they fuckin beg for help. But nobody’s gonna help them cuz this is the show, right? Right?
Peggy: [has a serious think] Mmmm. You’d be like, involving the public though. I don’t like the idea of innocent people unknowingly being involved. Seems like, extremely bad vibes.
Polly: Oh, ppfft. I guess. Shit... WELL, you do better then!
Peggy: [very serious, she’s clearly being thorough] So. We separate them, physically. Maybe forcibly relocate them to new cities. They aren’t restrained or locked up, they can live their lives. But there’s like a network of people working in the shadows to make sure they can never reconnect. Blocking them from calling, or even looking each other up. Government is involved - no way to look up their records. They try to go to the news, the cops - never get through. Oh, they’ll investigate a robbery for them, do all the stuff they’d normally do. But if they’re like, “Help I need to find my sister, my brother?” Nothing. Any reports just get shredded. Then one day, one day mom would call us. We’d pick up the phone, and she’d be like “Peggy, Polly, I need your help. I can’t find Uncle Buddy.” And we just calmly are like, “Who is Uncle Buddy?” And hang up.
Polly: ...... PEGGGGYYY. Peggy that’s perfect. It’s beautiful. PEGGY, you know what this means, right?!
Peggy: [mock sighs] That one of us has to go suck some Bezos dick?
Polly: I’m sorry but it’s the only way.
Peggy: It’s ok. I’ll take this one for the team.
Polly: You’re so selfless. So brave.
Peggy: I know, I know.
Fades out on them laughing and joking. End of issue 1.
