[Wyler household, early evening of August 13, 2016 on the strict timeline of ZP-51498. The Wyler family, minus Nicole, is gathered in the living room, dressed in formal attire]
Dong-hoon: “And to think, Judith, that just thirteen years ago this day, this hour in fact if I recall, you handed her to me to hold for the first time. Dolly had yet to become bat mitzvah, the twins weren’t even in school yet.”
Judy: “Mm-hmm. And a fifth daughter wasn’t even a thought we had yet.”
Dong-hoon: “Yes, that too.” [Wendy glances over at her parents before going through her phone] “And after tonight, we’ll have had four daughters called to the Torah, four to have become grown sows. And the date for our last’s big day, to plan for.”
Wendy: [reading the day logged] “The tenth of March of 2018. Three days after my thirteenth.” [puts phone away gets up] “Of course, Nicole has her bat mitzvah celebration right on her birthday. Mabrouk to her!”
Dolly: “So much watching my little sisters grow up, so little time.” [wipes away tears. Wendy hugs her]
Wendy: “Grow older, Dolly. Not grow up. Growing old is inevitable, the horizontal axis on which everyone and everything travels. Growing up are the events that happen to us, either by choice or not, and the incline or drop that event causes on the travel across the horizontal axis. For some, the line stays flat for a long time. For some, it’s like stalagmites all the way through.”
Dolly: [beat] “How are you eleven years old and talking like some bearded leporine?”
Wendy: “That’s not important right now.” [sees that she and Dolly are in front of photos of Nicole] “Let’s look at how vertical Nicole’s journey’s been.”
[Dolly and Wendy first take notice of a five-photo frame, with each of the Wyler sisters as babies, lying stomach-down on a blanket, wearing a diaper and a T-shirt in their signature color. The photos are in landscape orientation and arranged in birth order, oldest (Dolly) on top and youngest (Wendy) on the bottom. Dolly looks at her baby photo]
Dolly: “Wow, I was a fat baby.”
Judy: “Yeah, you were. You were nine pounds flat and I had to have my belly cut open.”
Wendy: “This isn’t about her, Mom! This isn’t about you, Dolly.” [takes breath] “The year was 2003. Stacy’s mom had it going on. Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro hit their 500th home runs. And Arnold Schwarzenegger, right before becoming governor of California, played the Terminator in an unwanted, unnecessary, cash-grab of a sequel.” [points to Nicole’s baby photo] “But most relevant to this story, Judith Wyler and Phil Dong-hoon, with the help of the nurses at Albaneigh County Medical Center, brought their fourth daughter into the world. A blue-eyed baby with a full head of blonde hair, that they named Nicole Willow.”
Dolly: “I held her when she wasn’t even a full day old. And you, too!” [to Roz and Maddie] “I was still little when you two were born, I didn’t get to hold you until about a month.”
Wendy: “Two years later, 2005.” [points out her own baby photo] “I’d been born for several months, because Mom and Dad couldn’t wait a full two years.”
Dong-hoon: “Your mother wanted to get one last one out before she turned thirty-five. And, well, you know, that last one was you, my little Magamog.”
Wendy: [beat] “But more relevant to the story I’m trying to tell.” [points out photo of Nicole as a toddler, holding a koala plush and sitting next to a large plush of a rubberhose-looking anthropomorphic baseball] “Nicole had grown into a quiet and shy toddler, barely speaking outside of short phrases, having a sensitivity to loud sounds, finding shirt tags itchy, preferring to play alone, and having a deep interest in baseball and Ausnailian animals. She was found to be on the autism spectrum, and that led to you being diagnosed soon after.”
Dolly: “And with that diagnosis, thirteen years of my special interest of fashion, and my hatred coarse things and homework assignments, was explained.”
Roz: “And through studying you and Nicole for the next decade and counting…”
Maddie: “…we became experts on autism!”
Dolly, Wendy: “No, you didn’t.”
[Wendy points out Nicole’s kindergarten photo. She’s against a blue-cyan background, showing her rodentine teeth in a big grin]
Wendy: “Four years later, 2009. Nicole at age six. At the advice of a doctor, mom and dad had waited a year before sending her to kindergarten. Despite her autism, Nicole managed to befriend two other girls, who happened to share her interest in baseball. A musteline named Murphy Grubenstein, and a cingulatan named Charlotte Roth.” [points out a photo of Nicole, Murphy, and Charlotte, again in kindergarten. It’s an All Hallows’ photo, and they’re dressed as the Powerpuff Girls: Murphy as Blossom, Nicole as Bubbles, and Charlotte as Buttercup]
Dolly: “You know how impressed everyone was that that friendship ended up a thing, Wendy?”
Wendy: “I imagine pretty impressed, seeing as I was better at speaking at four than Nicole was at six.”
Dolly: “Well, yes, that. But also, Charlotte, as you know, spent most of her early years in a Gerbilman-speaking town in Texas, forgot the name of it. She barely spoke Eaglish at all when she came to Grunvale. Can you imagine being six years old, and friends with someone you didn’t understand when they talked?”
Charlotte, Murphy: [from behind Wendy and Dolly] “Tell me about it!”
[Wendy and Dolly turn their heads back to see that Charlotte and Murphy had been listening in on them. Their sudden appearance startles them, as well as the rest of the Wylers]
Roz: “Woah! When did you come in here?!”
Charlotte: “’bout the time Dolly said she forgot what town I’m from. So, like only a few seconds.” [to Dolly] “Froschricksburg, by the way. I’m from Froschricksburg.”
Dolly: “Froschricksburg, there it is.”
Murphy: “You’re all lucky I’m bilingual, guys. Or else the friendship between me and her and Nicole, wouldn’t have happened.” [beat] “Oder, vielleicht, es nur hätte viel länger gedauert. Ich weiß nicht.” Or, maybe, it just would’ve taken a lot longer. I don’t know. [shrugs]
Charlotte: [looking at the All Hallows’ photo] “Ah, yeah, I ‘member this! My first All Hallows’ in Grunvale! It was on one of them Crunch bars I got that night, that my first baby tooth came out.”
Murphy: “Mein Zahn, mein Zahn!” My tooth, my tooth! “Yes, we all remember that. Oh, and it was fun doing a group costume for my first time.”
[Charlotte blushes and hides her face in her hair as Wendy points out a photo of Nicole in her baseball uniform]
Wendy: “2010, age seven. Nicole played in the Grunvale little league for the first time. And turned out to be practically born talented, in the sport she’d love since toddlerhood, not just applying her natural running ability playing centerfield, but also hitting the ball around forty percent of the time. It was from this uncanny ability, that she gained the nickname ‘Little Miss 400’. Which would be shortened to just ‘Ms. 400’ around the time she hit double digits. Speaking of which!” [points out photo of Nicole and Murray Rose] “2013, age ten. Nicole ended up in the same fourth-grade class as a perameline named Murray Rose, who’d just moved from Seattle. Murray of course being a marsupial, her love of Ausnailian culture attracted her to him. They really fell for each other, however, when they found out they both liked baseball. She came to love him for his goofy and kind personality and being a marsupial, and he came to love her for her skill and knowledge in baseball, and tough but goofy personality.”
[Murray pops up between Wendy and Dolly to chime in, startling them and the others]
Murray: “And despite my bitch of a sister Kate’s protests that I’d gotten too easy a catch and we only ended up together because we’re both stupid and clumsy, we’ve enjoyed each other’s company and that’s all that matters.”
Wendy: [pause] “Uh, yes, that. Thank you, Murray. No more interruptions.” [beat] “Anyways, it was about the time she met…” [glances at Murray] “…you. That she learned she’d be called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah right on her thirteenth birthday. Which leads us to today. August 13, 2016.” [beat] “On the eve of my sister Nicole’s bat mitzvah, I told a story recapping her life that kept getting interrupted by the rest of the family, and her friends who came into the room without anybody noticing and just started talking.” [everyone glares at Wendy] “Which leads us to now, as we…” [sniffles; voice breaks] “Celebrate how far she’s come on her journey to becoming a grown sow.”
[Wendy wipes away a tear as she and everyone else turns to the stairs]
Dong-hoon: [calling to Nicole] “You ready, my little Somteul?”
Nicole: “Yes, papa!”
[Nicole comes down the stairs, gripping the skirt of her dress in both hands as she smiles softly. Dong-hoon, Charlotte, and Murphy wipe away tears, Judy takes photos, and Murray stands awestruck]
Dolly: “Nicole, you look gor –“
Nicole: “WHAAA!” [trips a step. She breaks her fall by grabbing onto the stair rail] “Hmph. Damn heels.” [gets back up. She walks the rest of the way down with her left hand on the rail and right gripping her skirt]
Murray: “You look lovely, Nicole.” [takes her right hand and kisses it]
Nicole: [squeals and blushes] “You are such a charmer!” [hugs and picks Murray up. Murray hugs back as everyone else gushes]
Murray: “It’s gonna be great dancing with you tonight, Nicole. I take it it’s a lot of Ausnalian songs, the playlist for the party, right?”
Nicole: “You know it! Ever heard of the Little River Band?”
Murray: “Little River Band, isn’t that a boomer band?”
Nicole: “Yes, but it’s a damn good boomer band. What did you call it again, dad? Boat rock?”
Dong-hoon: “Yacht rock.”
Nicole: “Yacht rock! And I’ve got their whole greatest hits album on tonight’s playlist! And a bunch of other Aussie songs too!” [sets Murray down] “Of course, there’s the Torah reading to get through first. You won’t understand anything I say. But after that, it’s par-tay time!” [fist-pumps the air and runs to the front door] “WOOOOO!” [pause, as she realizes the rest of the family isn’t following her] “Well, what’re you waiting for? Let’s get to the synagogue already!”
[everyone starts making their way out of the house]
Wendy: “Crikey, the energy in that girl.”
Outside of the Tetrad, Nicole Wyler feels like the character I’ve written the most of in these ficlets. To the point where she feels almost like a secondary main character in Grunvale/OTOG. And in my defense, she is a fun character to right for. She’s clumsy but caring, tough but sweet, and on the tomboy/girly-girl scale, sits just about perfectly center. And of course, she’s the sister that Wendy’s closest to, in age and in sibling relationship. Wendy picks up the slack that Nicole has in her social skills, and Nicole in turn teaches Wendy about compassion, friendship, and the simple joys in life. And also what life on the autism spectrum is like. She’s one of my personal favorite non-Tetrad characters, and I wish I had someone with her personality as an older sibling growing up.
On August 13th (Nicole’s canonical birthday), I decided to draw this artwork featuring her in her bat mitzvah dress previously seen in Holt Burns for Nicole, as practice drawing complicated poses, using fanart of Marcy Wu from Amphibia as a reference. There’s not much to say here, other than about the background. No, it’s not a glitch… well, okay, in-universe it is, kind of. But what I’m trying to say is, yes, the background is supposed to look like that.
What I was going for was that, in-universe, this is a photo of Nicole, taken with a filter that replaces the negative space with a background, that comes out looking janky as all hell, with jagged pixels around the subject. You know the ones I mean. I achieved this by putting the brown background you see under the pink, and using a pixelated and thresholded version of Nicole’s asset as a mask. Not a perfect attempt, but I think it illustrates what I was going for pretty well.
As for the ficlet, it was nice to finally write for Dong-hoon and Judy, the Wyler sisters’ parents. I… I still need to come up with a design for both of them. 😅
And that’s all for this time. Overall, I feel the artwork came out nice, as did the ficlet to go with it. If you liked both yourself, then drop me a follow on this blog, and on my socials, linked below. And stay tuned for my YouTube debut, coming soon! It’s a review of a Ghost and Molly McGee segment. I’m aiming to have it out sometime… well, now it’s this month as I write these words. But for the West coast it’s still August. Um… I’m aiming to have it out this month. It should be, it’s more done than not.
Until next time, take care, stay safe, support the Hollywood strikes and an Asimovian amendment for AI, remember to call the site ‘Twitter’ and not ‘X’ (and not even ‘the site formerly known as Twitter’, it’s not Prince), and have a good one.
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Grunvale/OTOG is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart or write fanfics of it, as long as you credit me as the creator of the series.
This artwork was made at a resolution of 2160×2880 (aspect ratio 1:1.33).
The Gallery of Stormy Adler 