cover of the first book
"I don't have a quote. Hey, remember the Air Buddies franchise? I mean what was that all about, right?"
Softies
is an episodic Sci-fi comedy webcomic. When the Earth just kind of explodes, the sole human survivor, Kay, becomes the world’s youngest space debris. She’s rescued from the vacuum by Arizona, an alien space-waste collector, and Euclid, his erudite cybernetic pet. Stumbling through a galaxy full of alien life together, they meet new faces, get in trouble, and say big words.
This webcomic contains examples of:
- Aliens Speaking English: Kay is the only human in the setting and Earth is entirely unheard of by the broader universe, but everyone speaks in English (barring specific alien terms and Thestrich's use of "pardonnez").
- The Alleged Spaceship: The Stylish Carriage has seen better days. When Arizona brings it in for repairs in "The Experiencer", he mentions that he hasn't had anything fixed up in a couple years.
- All There in the Manual: The Cast page has a bunch of info that isn't mentioned in the comic, such as each character's species and homeworld.
- Ambiguous Gender: With Arizona and Euclid's long eyelashes and Kay's lack thereof and androgynous style, it would be easy to get their genders confused on first look.
- Casual Interstellar Travel: Arizona is essentially an interstellar garbage man, collecting junk from various planets and cleaning up space debris, occasionally finding useable salvage that he can resell on other planets.
- Collector of the Strange: Kay ends up keeping any Earth trinkets the group recovers in their salvage. Eventually her collection takes up too much room on the ship, prompting Arizona to bring her to his family's home on Squambal so they can store it in his old room.Kay: Like an Earth museum.
Arizona: Sure, but without the plaques or the curation or the funding - Cyborg: Euclid's brain is integrated with spaceship parts, which is why he knows so much.
- Identical Panel Gag: The Brick Joke variant shows up in "Who's Minding the Print?" when Arizona explains to Kay why they're called Hardies.
- Inexplicable Cultural Ties: Interplanerary jargon aside, a lot of the planets Kay visits aren't all that unfamiliar compared to Earth.Kay: I'm in outer space with aliens and the first place I go is the public library?
- Last of Her Kind: As far as anyone can tell, Kay is the last survivor from Earth.
- Little Stowaway: In "The Experiencer", it's discovered that Scrabatha (the possum-like girl from "The Third One") hid on the ship to see other worlds and spend some time away from her overbearing mother.Arizona: Di— did you stow away in my engine?
Scrabatha: Well that's not the most diplomatic way of phrasing it, but yah. Your generator runs really hot by the way. Gets hard to sleep in there. - Lizard Folk: Arizona's species are called "lisques". He sleeps on a flat rock with a heat lamp.
- Messy Hair: Kay is the only one in the main cast with regular hair, and it's about the size of the rest of her head.
- Monumental Damage: In the first episode, the characters dodge impact from the Eiffel Tower as it hurtles through space. The Stinger from the end of Book One shows it crashing on Liphibi.
- No Seat Belts: The Stylish Carriage doesn't even have a chair for the driver.
- Obviously Not Fine: Obvious to everyone except Arizona.Arecibo: Is she okay?
Arizona: Oh don't worry, she's always like this.
Arecibo: That... makes me worry more. You never mentioned what happened to her.
Skute: She's doing bad dude.
Arizona: You would think that, but she always says she's doing fine.
Skute: ...Sometimes people lie bro. - Painting the Medium: The text in Euclid's speech bubbles is in a unique font.
- Prophet Eyes: Most characters have eyes with normal-looking pupils, but certain species like Scrabatha's and Thestrich's do not.
- Sand In My Eyes: Kay makes an offhand remark about Arizona getting emotional about visiting home, only for him to retort that he doesn't cry because his species doesn't have tear ducts. Later on she sees his sister cry, and quickly realizes that he was lying.
- Silent Scenery Panel: In "Twilight Revue" when Thestrich dares Kay not to talk for a minute, it's represented with an entire page of these.
- Stepford Smiler: Hinted at occasionally in Book One, but comes to a head in "Everybody Wants to Have a World": Kay has a lot of unresolved feelings about losing her home, but refuses to acknowledge any of it and quickly changes the subject whenever it comes up. Arizona has failed to pick up on this because he's spent most of his life bottling up all of his feelings and keeping all of his friends and family at arm's length. His sisters point this out to him, and he doesn't take it well.
- Team Pet: Euclid.
- Third Eye: Euclid, who is even called "The One With Three Eyes" by the Cast page.
- Unsound Effect: "High Five" and "High Five Again", among others.
