History Recap / QUILTBAGPartOneQ

* WhatDidIDoLastNight: PlayedForDrama with Lisa's casual bedmate Chrissie, who wakes in a panic because she's a male-to-female pre-operative [[{{Transgender}} trans]] person who's sufficiently confused in her identity that she keeps having penetrative sexual intercourse and subsequently regretting it.

* BiTheWay: Lisa. She mainly likes guys, but [[http://quiltbag.keenspot.com/d/20111108.html doesn't rule girls out]]. She does, however, refuse to categorize herself.

* NightmareSequence: Sara has one within a single strip. As she ages instantly from childhood to mid-adolescence, a pixellated mass she calls "[[TheNeverendingStory the Nothing]]"--here a previously-seen visual metaphor for the emptiness she feels inside--pursues her at the beach and enters her. The dream briefly turns [[EroticDream erotic]] as her latest crush, Leah, seduces her at her current age. Then it abruptly transitions into a NotWearingPantsDream when Sara is suddenly in class, wearing "underwear" (actually the skimpy outfit Lisa pushed her to wear the night before) and everyone laughing at her. She's actually woken up when someone ''else's'' underwear falls on her bunk.

* [[AmbiguouslyGay Ambiguously QUILTBAG]]: [[http://quiltbag.keenspot.com/d/20111117.html Hank]] and [[http://quiltbag.keenspot.com/d/20111218.html Fiona]]. Campbell eventually [[WordOfGod confirmed]] on the comic's {{Facebook}} page and forum, what most readers had suspected: that [[spoiler: Hank is gay]], while a strip toward the chapter's end confirmed that [[spoiler: Fiona is straight.]]

Later that day, Sara, reading Descartes in the library, has an extended ImagineSpot in which the philosopher comes to life and beats her up, while castigating her for failing to take responsibility for her own mind, instead allowing others, and her own libido, to dictate what she should be. He then tosses her, out of the cabin in which he'd written his ''Meditations on First Philosophy'', into the snow to die. However, Sara, as memories of her past identity struggles haunt her, manages to break back into the cabin and rough Descartes up, while reminding him he was no different from her, in following "the pack" before managing to figure things out for himself. She says acting Sartre's ''NoExit'' had taught her "every goddamn day on Earth is a chance to define who we are." The philosopher says she's beginning to understand, and he and the cabin fade away.

** Lisa's [[http://quiltbag.keenspot.com/d/20111215.html creative writing composition]] recalls the film ''{{Bent}}''.
** "The Nothing" in Sara's nightmare is an allusion to the PowerOfTheVoid entity in ''TheNeverendingStory''.

The next morning, Lisa, Sara and Fiona head off to their first classes. The first lecture of Sara's modern philosophy course, on René Descartes's method of doubting everything in order to establish what's real, perplexes her in that it causes her to wonder "What's the point?" and to feel an inner nothingness. In contrast, Lisa, with her love of memes and other creative uses of language, spends her first linguistics lecture in ecstasy. She also takes instantly to her afternoon creative writing class, writing a short story about a romance between two gay males in Dachau, one of whom she secretly pictures as Hank. Sara, however, experiences complete writing block and feels the nothingness continuing to spread within her.

Sara Kim (née Velte), a serious, introspective college freshman, settles into her dorm while reflecting on her recent change of surname and her uncertainty about which medium she wishes to pursue an acting career in, and what sort of woman she wants to be with. Her queer sexual orientation is the only thing in her life she's sure about. Interrupting her reverie is her roommate and high school friend Lisa Winklemeyer, her impulsive, hyperkinetic and silly foil, who nonetheless admits that she too is uncertain about what college will bring.

* Ironic Echo: Leah talks about [[http://quiltbag.keenspot.com/d/20120117.html wishing she had managed her conflicts better]] in her previous year of college. One passive-aggressive booting out of Lisa and one badly mismanaged conversation with Sara later, it's obvious she still hasn't learned how.

* DidNotDoTheResearch
** The strip showing how Sara came to her new name originally claimed that Iseul's last name was "Quon." This led to many people on the forums pointing out that Korean names are not rendered in English in such a fashion. In response, Campbell changed "Quon" to "Kwan" to more accurately reflect the actual English rendering of the name he wanted.
** One strip, in its original version, had Lisa refer to Chrissie as a "tranny," a term widely recognized as a slur on transgender and transsexual individuals. This usage resulted in some reader confusion as to whether the comic meant for Lisa, a normally QUILTBAG-friendly character, to come across as insensitive to trans people, as well as some reader complaints. Campbell responded that he didn't know it was offensive, and changed the dialogue to read "trans."

* {{Expy}}: VitriolicBestBuds Uma and Emma of LAZ are thinly-veiled versions of Penny (long blonde hair, quick temper) and Aggie (medium-length, asymmetrical, [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair odd-coloured]] hair, DeadpanSnarker). Sara [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this by commenting, as she watches them argue, "I didn't realize how much I missed this."

At that very moment, Leah invites Sara to a study session at LAZ. While tweeting Lisa to let her know where she'll be, Sara discovers via Lisa's tweets that she hadn't left the rush party voluntarily after all and that she accuses the fraternity of biphobia. At first, Sara thinks her friend is peeved that not everyone finds her entertaining, but then reflects that in high school, that never led her to assume others were biphobic. So she confronts Leah about the previous night. Caught off guard, Leah repeats the lie she'd told Sara the previous night, but Sara no longer buys it, so Leah says she doesn't want "fauxmosexuals and experimenters" at LAZ. Seeing that she's losing Sara as a potential conquest, she turns concilatory and suggests the two of them "go somewhere" private. Sara is momentarily tempted, but walks away, as the imaginary Descartes smiles in approval.

Meanwhile, Lisa, still mooning over Hank, drops by her dorm lounge and finds him there. Playing it cool, she apologizes to him for her earlier rudeness and, convinced he likes her later rushes off giddily, while leaving her story behind. When she returns to pick it up, she discovers him reading it and runs out in panic, sure that he'll recognize himself in the story and consider her sick. At that very moment, her phone rings and she has a tense conversation with Stan, her high school friend with benefits, attending college elsewhere. When Stan calls himself her boyfriend (after they'd agreed from the start not to get that close), but then subsequently asks if it's okay for him to flirt and possibly hook up with girls at a rush party he's attending, this upsets Lisa further, and she lashes out at him. She then apologizes and says goodbye, sensing this will effectively be their last conversation.

* MemeticMutation: In-universe, Lisa [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this by creating, and attempting to spread, new memes. She films herself "ducking" (a novel combination of [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/duck-face Duck Face]] and [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/owling owling]], and refers to her creative writing class as "cree-wri," predicting it'll catch on.

* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: Gender-flipped version with Lisa, who, in talking to her [[FriendsWithBenefits [=FWB=]]] Stan, is adamant that he not call himself her boyfriend, so as to keep their relationship commitment-free and thus heartbreak-free. Nevertheless, Stan's wish, in the same conversation, to be free to hook up with another girl at a rush party clearly hits a sore spot with Lisa, as she lashes out at him again and, after hanging up with the feeling it's over between them, goes back to her room to cry. Furthermore, when reminiscing to Hank the next morning about how good sex with Stan was, she catches herself using the word "boyfriend" and quickly amends it to "partner."

* WebcomicTime: A single day within the comic may take anywhere from a few days to several weeks in real-world time.

Sara Kim (née Velte), a serious, introspective college freshman, settles into her dorm while reflecting on her recent change of surname and her uncertainty about which medium she wishes to pursue an acting career in, and what sort of woman she wants to be with. Her queer sexual orientation is the only thing in her life she's sure about. Interrupting her reverie is her roommate and high school friend Lisa Winklemeyer, an impulsive, hyperkinetic and silly foil to her, who nonetheless admits that she too is uncertain about what college will bring.

!!Tropes

As the two of them tour the campus to find their classes, Lisa notices Sara overtly checking out every attractive woman she sees, and cautions Sara about her past tendency to fall instantly head over heels for girls in rapid succession. Irritated, Sara assures her she's not going to be like that anymore, but then immediately excuses herself to chase after the cheerful, somewhat ditzy Fiona Ziegfried. The exasperated Lisa returns alone to her dorm, only to overhear Hank, on the phone with his mother, saying that he'll never come back to his hometown because everyone there tries to ignore or cover up the murder of a guy who was somehow close to him. Lisa abruptly shifts from disliking Hank to crushing on him.

The next morning, Lisa, Sara and Fiona head off to their first classes. The first lecture of Sara's modern philosophy course, on René Descartes's method of doubting everything in order to establish what's real, perplexes her in that it causes her to wonder "What's the point?" and to feel an inner nothingness. In contrast, Lisa, with her love of memes and other creative uses of language, spends her first linguistics lecture in ecstasy. She also takes instantly to her afternoon creative writing class, writing a complete short story about a romance between two gay males in Dachau, one of whom she secretly pictures as Hank. Sara, sitting beside her, experiences complete writing block and feels the nothingness continuing to spread within her.

That evening, Sara asks Fiona to a movie, and afterwards gathers up the courage to take her hand and invite her back to her room. Fiona accepts, but then suggests they double date sometime, throwing Sara off as she can't get a grip on whether Fiona is interested in her romantically, or indeed is interested in women at all.

Meanwhile, Lisa, still mooning over Hank, drops by her dorm lounge and finds him there. Playing it cool, she apologizes to him for her earlier rudeness and, convinced he likes her later rushes off giddily, while leaving her story behind. When she returns to pick it up, she discovers him reading it and runs out in panic, sure that he'll recognize himself in the story and consider her sick. At that very moment, her phone rings and she has a tense conversation with Stan, her high school friend with benefits, attending college elsewhere. When Stan calls himself her boyfriend (when they'd agreed from the start not to get that close), but then subsequently asks if it's okay for him to flirt and possibly hook up with girls at a rush party he's attending, this upsets her further and she lashes out at him. She then apologizes and says goodbye, sensing this will effectively be their last conversation.

Later, Sara returns to her room to vent her frustration to Lisa over not knowing where she stands with Fiona. Lisa, who's been crying into her pillow, suddenly suggests they put on "slutastic" clothes and go to a rush party of their own, presumably to get laid. However, the party they choose at random turns out, much to their embarassment, to be that of Lambda Alpha Zeta, an exclusively-lesbian women's fraternity. Sara, taken with the fervent discussion of queer issues, feels immediately at home, while Lisa chats up and flirts with an upperclassman sister. However, Sara accidentally lets slip to Leah, one of the chapter leaders, that Lisa has (as she thinks) a boyfriend. Leah glowers in Lisa's direction, then, with a false smile, hands her a copy of the LAZ charter and, suggesting she read it over, ushers her out of the building. She then lies to Sara that Lisa had left on her own initiative after being "turned off" by LAZ's political nature.

Upset over being kicked out of LAZ on top of everything else, Lisa had struck up a conversation with Chrissie and, noticing her arousal, had invited her back to her dorm. Chrissie hesitated to come in, claiming she wasn't "normal." Lisa reassured her that she could see her "bulge" right off, and found it sexy. Notwithstanding Chrissie's hesitation and discomfort, Lisa seductively talked her inside and they slept together. However, despite the mutual consent, neither partner found it enjoyable, Lisa because Chrissie was too rough and Chrissie because she was ashamed of her male genitalia, hence her later fleeing in anger and shame. This, Lisa tells Hank, makes her feel all the worse because she realizes Chrissie has far more serious problems than her, and yet she still feels badly that her usual gift for making people happy has failed her. She acknowledges that the sex she'd had with Stan had been much more playful, and hopes she can experience that again.

Now feeling better, Lisa rushes off to her history of music class and finds she's missed the entire lecture. However, her floormate Jade, previously introduced as an enthusiastically flirty bisexual woman, and an unnamed guy, both offer her their notes to copy. Jade is visibly miffed when Lisa seemingly pays the guy more attention.

On that note, the two of them head off to their residence floor orientation. As everyone takes turns introducing themselves--revealing a mix of sexual orientations as well as a refusal by some (including Lisa) to label themselves--Sara attempts unsuccessfully to flirt with Temperance, a vulnerable-looking woman who starts to talk about her "home life" but breaks off. Hank, the intense, brooding and somewhat sarcastic student resident assistant for the floor, outlines the conduct rules, only for Lisa to mock him, bringing the meeting to an abrupt end.

As the two of them tour the campus to find their classes, Lisa notices Sara overtly checking out every attractive woman she sees, and cautions Sara about her past tendency to fall instantly for girls, including outright dangerous ones. Irritated, Sara assures her she's not going to be like that anymore, but then immediately excuses herself to chase after the cheerful, somewhat ditzy Fiona Ziegfried. The exasperated Lisa returns alone to her dorm, only to overhear Hank, on the phone with his mother, saying that he'll never come back to his hometown because everyone there tries to ignore or cover up the murder of a male close to him. Lisa abruptly shifts from disliking Hank to crushing on him.

That evening, Sara asks Fiona to a movie, and afterwards gathers up the courage to take her hand and invite her back to her room. Fiona holds her hand and accepts, but then suggests they double date sometime, throwing Sara off as she can't get a grip on whether Fiona just wants to be friends, is interested in her, or indeed is interested in women at all.

Meanwhile, Lisa, still mooning over Hank, drops by her dorm lounge and finds him there. Playing it cool, she apologizes to him for her earlier rudeness. He accepts this and, twenty minutes later, she rushes off giddily, convinced he likes her, while leaving her story behind. When she returns to pick it up, she discovers him reading it and runs out in panic, sure that he'll recognize himself in the story and consider her sick. At that very moment, her phone rings and she has a tense conversation with Stan, her high school friend with benefits, attending college elsewhere. Stan's calling himself her boyfriend (when they'd agreed from the start not to get that close), and subsequently asking permission to hook up with any girl he may meet at a rush party, aggravates her when she's already upset and she lashes out at him. She then apologizes and says goodbye, sensing this will effectively be their last conversation.

Later, Sara returns to her room to vent her frustration to Lisa over not knowing where she stands with Fiona. Lisa, whom the reader can see has been crying into her pillow, suddenly and gleefully suggests they put on "slutastic" clothes and go to a rush party of their own, presumably to get laid. However, the party they choose at random turns out to be that of Lambda Alpha Zeta, an exclusively-lesbian women's fraternity. Despite the roommates' embarassment, the LAZ sisters urge them to stay. Sara, taken with the fervent discussion of queer issues, feels immediately at home, while Lisa chats up and flirts with an upperclassman sister. However, Sara accidentally lets slip to Leah, one of the chapter leaders, that Lisa has (as she thinks) a boyfriend. Leah glowers in Lisa's direction, then, with a false smile, hands her a copy of the LAZ charter and, suggesting she read it over, ushers her out of the building. She then lies to Sara that Lisa had left on her own initiative after being "turned off" by LAZ's political nature.

The next morning, Sara, noticing Lisa sleeping late, wakes her and asks her about the previous night. Lisa volunteers only that she'd picked her up on her way back to the dorm, and that Chrissie has "issues"; otherwise, she seems unconcerned and even cavalier about the incident. Staying in bed, she claims not to be hungry for breakfast, despite normally having a huge appetite. Sara senses something's wrong, but leaves for class without comment.

Hank comes by to return Lisa's story and, hearing no response to his knock, enters the room, only to be caught off guard when Lisa, looking the worse for wear, wakes up and asks him sullenly what he thought of it. He says that the scene in which Dr. Josef Mengele prevents a Jewish woman prisoner from covering herself made him concerned that she'd suffered sexual abuse in the past. She says she ''wishes'' that were the case because then she'd feel she'd have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, when in fact she knows she's had an easy life. Hank's initial response is irritation, as he takes her for just another sheltered, naive frosh. While not denying this, Lisa tells him the full story of what happened with Chrissie.

Now feeling better, Lisa rushes off to her history of music class and finds she's missed the entire lecture. However, her floormate Jade, previously introduced as an enthusiastically flirty bisexual woman with an immediate interest in Lisa, and an unnamed guy, both offer her their notes to copy. Jade is visibly miffed when Lisa seemingly pays the guy more attention.

Sara's feeling of elation turns to one of inadequacy and stupidity when she finds it difficult to follow some of the more intellectual conversations going on. However, as the party breaks up, Leah assures her that she'll be okay, and Sara, seeing Leah as a mentor, returns to her dorm now crushing on her. Later that night, she wakes from a combination nightmare and erotic dream about Leah to find a pair of men's underwear on her bed. Above her, a pre-operative Québecois transgender woman, Chrissie, awakens in confusion and flees from the room in panic and anger with herself, as Lisa tries in vain to comfort her.

On that note, the two of them head off to their residence floor orientation. As everyone takes turns introducing themselves--revealing a mix of sexual orientations as well as a refusal by some (including Lisa) to label themselves--Sara attempts unsuccessfully to flirt with Temperance, a vulnerable-looking woman who starts to talk about her "home life" but breaks off. Hank, the intense, brooding and somewhat sarcastic student resident assistant for the floor, outlines the conduct rules, only for Lisa to mock him, bringing the meeting to an abrupt end. Lisa then entertains everyone with a rapid-fire series of impressions--everyone, that is, except Sara, who, recalling Lisa's "trying too hard" reputation even amongst her friends, is simply confused.

The next morning, Lisa, Sara and Fiona head off to their first classes. The first lecture of Sara's modern philosophy course, on René Descartes's method of doubting everything in order to establish what's real, perplexes her in that it causes her to wonder "What's the point?" and to feel an inner nothingness. Meanwhile, Lisa and Fiona have linguistics, which Fiona finds confusing. In contrast, Lisa, with her love of memes and other creative uses of language, spends the lecture in ecstasy. She also takes instantly to her afternoon creative writing class, writing a complete short story about a romance between two gay males in Dachau, one of whom she secretly pictures as Hank. Sara, sitting beside her, experiences complete writing block and feels the nothingness continuing to spread within her.

Meanwhile, Lisa, still mooning over Hank, drops by her dorm lounge and finds him there. Playing it cool, she apologizes to him for her earlier rudeness. He accepts this and, twenty minutes later, she rushes off giddily, convinced he likes her, while leaving her story behind. When she returns to pick it up, she discovers him reading it and runs out in panic, sure that he'll recognize himself in the story and think her sick. At that very moment, her phone rings and she has a tense conversation with Stan, her high school friend with benefits, attending college elsewhere. She takes him to task for referring to himself as her boyfriend, because they'd agreed at the start not to get too emotionally involved, lest he break her heart as he did that of his previous girlfriends. He then tells her he wants to attend a rush party where "senators' kids" will be, and wants to know if he's free to hook up with other girls while there. Lisa retorts that he needn't ask her permission because she knows he'll do that whether she likes it or not. She then apologizes and says goodbye, sensing this will effectively be their last conversation.

Later, Sara returns to her room to vent her frustration to Lisa over not knowing where she stands with Fiona. Lisa, whom the reader can see has been crying into her pillow, suddenly and gleefully suggests they put on "slutastic" clothes and go to a rush party of their own, presumably to get laid. However, the party they choose at random turns out to be that of Lambda Alpha Zeta, an exclusively-lesbian women's fraternity. Despite the roommates' embarassment, the LAZ sisters (and prospective pledge Jules, one of their floormates) urge them to stay. Sara, taken with the fervent discussion of queer issues, feels immediately at home, while Lisa takes to chatting up and flirting with an upperclassman sister. However, Sara accidentally lets slip to Leah, one of the chapter leaders, that Lisa has (as she thinks) a boyfriend. Leah glowers in Lisa's direction, then, with a false smile, hands her a copy of the LAZ charter and, suggesting she read it over, ushers her out of the building. She then lies to Sara that Lisa had left on her own initiative after being "turned off" by LAZ's political nature.

----