Characters / Camp Weedonwantcha

Malachi

Twelve year old Malachi is Camp Weedonwantcha’s newest resident. He’s not sure how or why his mom left him there.

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• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Malachi often seems like he can barely deal with the quirky Seventeen, but he'd rather lie and make her feel good than tell her the truth about her mean cabinmates. He becomes more openly caring of her and so on over time.
• Butt-Monkey: Overlapping with The Chew Toy at some points. Adjusting to Camp Weedonwantcha's...different lifestyle does not come easily for him.
• Characterization Marches On: In the original Strip Search comics, he was a complete Jerkass that took advantage of Seventeen's naivety...only for it to backfire in the end.
• Control Freak: He loves the idea of being in charge and will get sour if he's not. We later learn that he was like this in school before he was sent to Camp Weedonwantcha as he had difficulties with working with his classmates. It's implied that this is connected to a desperate need to be important and or liked.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: The Talent show arc is based pretty much on this. He tries attempts in talents only to find someone better at him. Flashbacks show that this has been going on for a great deal in his life and is probably why he was abandoned at camp.
• Disappeared Dad: Never met his father but as we learn in "Like Father Like Son" his mother kept telling him that he was "a scientist, an athlete, a musician, mountain climber, amateur pilot, and all around 'superior human'." He also had a weird name: "Donor".
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Malachi often overestimates his abilities, which causes him to hold himself to a standard that he cannot achieve. This causes a lot of embarrassment and self-esteem issues when he falls short of his expectations, especially seen where he contemplates burning down the stage after the talent show auditions when he realizes that he has no talent.
• Freudian Excuse: All his flaws can be blamed solely on his upbringing. His mother would get mad whenever he screwed up. She even told him that he shouldn't follow in his father's footsteps because his father was a genius while he isn't. His dad is just not there.
  • When Malachi considers burning down the stage, we see backflashes to various failures and being told he just isn't good at anything.
  • Seeing how his father was labeled "Donor" it's likely that his mother was the only one raising him and perhaps that either she was lying to Malachi or she was telling the truth and got that particular individual's sperm in the hopes of Malachi replicating the success.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Despite supposedly have a large ego, he has crippling insecurities over his self-worth and his purpose in life. His inflated ego is then a way to cope with it. He starts losing this thanks to Character Development.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He tends to be pretty selfish and arrogant, but he genuinely cares about Seventeen and Brian.
• Lovable Coward: From time to time, seeing as he was willing to hypothetically sacrifice Brian in a situation involving bears infesting Seventeen's cabin.
• Naïve Newcomer: As part of being the new kid. His experiences allow the reader to see just how messed up the camp is.
• Never My Fault: As part of his prideful nature, Malachi will very rarely own up to his mistakes.
• Not So Above It All: Initially he was the Only Sane Man, being the newest kid at camp. As time passes, he's becoming more and more desensitized to the strangeness that is Camp Weedonwantcha.
• Small Name, Big Ego: While he is fairly intelligent, he's incredibly arrogant about it even though he can be just as, or even more clueless than Seventeen when it comes to a lot of things.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the earlier strips, he was shy, timid and generally very friendly. During the mountain lion arc, he's rude towards everyone. He's especially rude towards Seventeen, who saved him from literally having crap put on his head due to everyone believing his lie that his bad haircut was from a brush with the mountain lion. It's debatable if the change in personality is due to this trope or it was just that he always had a big ego and was just reserved in personality since he was new to camp. Flashbacks to his life before camp seem to indicate that it might be a little bit of both.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He has been becoming a better person, thanks to Seventeen and also because of Linus.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Being raised by a mother like his, it's not surprising. The fact he hasn't found what he's good at has also screwed up his confidence.
• What You Are in the Dark: Having giving up at finding his talent, Malachi considers burning down the stage, even prepping himself in doing so. Throughout him setting it up, we see flashbacks of all his failures and being told he just isn't good at anything. No one would have any reason to suspect him and the only people who could, Brian and Seventeen, wouldn't. However, just as he lights the match, he remembers Seventeen's words and he blows out the match.

Seventeen

Seventeen, unlike Malachi, is an enthusiastic camper and doesn’t miss her family – or at least she doesn’t let on that she does.

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• Break the Cutie: Flashbacks to her life before camp showed that she was abandoned - literally left in a box at the entrance, with only the Love Bug and the clothes on her back. It was so traumatic that she repressed the memories. When a funny incident involving "elephant candy" causes her to remember it, she snaps the stick she was playing with and stares off into the lake.
• Cheerful Child: Probably the only person that enjoys the camp for what it is, or rather, despite it.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: She is this all over, but this works to her advantage in the fact that she managed to somehow forget the horrible way she was abandoned.
• Hidden Depths: She may be a bit loony and eternally cheerful, but as the comic goes on it's clear that Seventeen is far less naive than she originally appears. She knows that Malachi isn't the font of knowledge that he claims himself to be, openly questioning his knowledge at times, and she knows that Brian's got anger issues as she is the one who calms him down once Purdy riles him up into his "darkplace" mode.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Whenever she cries, it's this.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Her family in her flashback.
  • Meaningful Name: Presumably, this is how she got her name. Notably, a later comic confirmed she's actually the sixteenth child of her family.
• Morality Pet: To Brian.
• Never Learned to Read: Never did before coming to camp and actively resisted Malachi's attempts to teach her. This is what starts off her backstory, as since she can't read the label on the memory-boosting pills, she unknowingly takes them thinking they were "elephant candy".
  • The epilogue to the "Linus arc,' has Malachi begin teaching Seventeen how to read again, with her now being more determined to learn.
• Nonindicative Name: Again she's the sixteenth child of the family.
• The Pollyanna: Is happy and child-like despite whatever horrible situation she's in. Sadly, this was the exact reason why she got sent to camp; her siblings couldn't stand how childlike and carefree she was despite how horrible their lives really were.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Her name is "Seventeen" since she's the last child of the family.
• You Are Number 6: "Seventeen" actually is her name, as mentioned above.

Brian

Brian is a bit on the mysterious side. No one’s sure where he came from or what he did to get left at the camp.

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• Berserk Button:
  • Harming animals.
  • Don't mistreat his friends. Harming Seventeen is an especially big no-no, but he doesn't like when people mess with Malachi either, as one of the Ropes Course kids finds out the hard way.
• Beware the Nice Ones: When provoked, he lapses into rage-induced state (called his "dark place") from time to time.
• Big Brother Instinct: A very strong one towards Seventeen.
• Bullying a Dragon: Features in his backstory, with him being the dragon. Randall and the rope course kids end up doing this as well.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Even for a big boy, he's freakishly strong. Shown not only as being able to carry logs by himself, but in his backstory it's implied he breaks another boy's arm with a palm strike.
• Characterization Marches On: In the Strip Search comics, Brian talks regularly.
• Friend to All Living Things: Often seen taking care of the animals that surround the camp. It's no wonder why he gets voted as the president of the camp's Animal Preservation Society.
• Gentle Giant: Most of the time.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Whenever he's in his "dark place".
• Speech Impediment: Before he came to the camp, Brian stuttered whenever speaking out loud. At the camp he hides it by barely speaking at all, though when he's speaking with Seventeen or Malachi his speech is much clearer.
• The Stoic: Brian doesn't talk much. Or make expressions.
  • Not So Stoic: Whenever he does, it's usually during serious moments, like when Seventeen remembered how she ended up at camp, or when Purdy tries to shoot a weasel.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: In his backstory, he refers to it as "getting scary".

Others

Colin

Camp Weedonwantcha's self-appointed counsellor. The oldest kid on the campsite, he carries around a whistle gifted to him by his father which he uses whenever he sees something he disapproves of. Also has aspirations to be a magician.

• Unreliable Narrator: His backstory in a nutshell. He claims to keep order with the whistle his dad - the school gym coach - gave him when he dropped him off at camp, to keep order like he would have done. Colin is in denial. His father actually abandoned him at the camp for not living up to his demands that Colin be an athlete like him, instead being interested in magic and illusions. Colin only got the whistle because he was clinging to it when his father physically pushed him out of the car.

Purdy

Leader of the Rope Course kids, a group who do not live in the shelters and instead make their homes in the treetops. She also hunts down animals and has a rather volatile temperament.

• Fiery Redhead: Her red hair makes her stand out from most of the group and she leads a group of kids who lives in the trees.
• Tomboy: She's a classic tomboyish tween and with a rebellious side.
• Unknown Rival: Seventeen very clearly hates Purdy after she shoots a weasel and Brian repeatedly with a BB gun, but Purdy is completely oblivious to this.

Linus

The camp librarian. Rather meek and soft-spoken, he prefers to keep to himself and read books.

• Big Brother Mentor: Is this to Malachi, who looks up to him a lot.
• But Now I Must Go: Created a very detailed map of the camp, and together with Malachi finds what he believes is the exit to camp. After a heart-to-heart, he ends up deciding to leave camp.
• You Are Not Alone: In his messege to Malachi, he concludes this is why everyone is at camp, to be there for one another.

Tanner

The fastest kid at camp. Known to be confrontational at times, he has a rather nasty scar down the side of his left eye.

Fred

The camp cook. He finds never-ending joy in cooking and somehow manages to make the terrible food supplies edible.

Neiman

A creepy kid who seems to have fixated upon Malachi for some reason.

• Abhorrent Admirer
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Bonus points for being one letter shy of "Newman".
• Stalker with a Crush

Braden

Camp Weedonwantcha's resident notcher. Carries around a plank with notches in.

• Ascended Fanon: Given a nod; Braden's name wasn't mentioned in the first few strips he appeared in, leaving the readers to give him the name "Molebert" in the comments section. When Malachi is challenged by Braden to tell him his name, Malachi's guess ends up being Molebert. In a later strip, Seventeen remarks that Braden reminds her of one of her friends... who happened to look like a mole.
• Non-Standard Character Design
• The Unfavorite: Braden's family forced him to stay in his room whenever they had company over because he looked strange. He's very nonchalant about it.

Lewis

A chubby kid who draws not just comics, but NSFC content as well.

Gwen and Leisel

A pair of supposedly psychic twins. They communicate in a secret language rendered in Wingdings font.

• Ambiguously Human
• Creepy Monotone
• Creepy Twins

Steve and Steven

Camp Weedonwantcha's Those Two Guys. Steve is a short, chubby blond who's a tad insensitive while Steven is a tall lanky redhead and insecure.

• A Day in the Limelight: "Steve N' Steven"
• Foil: To Kennedy and Marta. Both have the same group dynamic of one tall kid (Kennedy, Steven) and one short kid (Steve, Marta). Both groups have a habit of lying in order to make themselves seem cool, but Steve and Steven tend to lie about accomplishments while Marta and Kennedy tend to lie about their feelings. As a result, Marta and Kennedy take their disagreements far more seriously than the boys do.
  • To further drive the contrast home, Kennedy and Marta's mini-arc followed right after Steve and Steven's concluded.
• One-Steve Limit: Parodied.
• With Friends Like These...

Marta and Kennedy

A pair of girls who shun everyone around them. Originally Seventeen's bunkmates, but they kick her out with a lie about how bears invaded their shelter.

• All of the Other Reindeer: Implied with Kennedy, if the nickname "Horse Girl" is anything to go by.
• A Day in the Limelight: "Marta and Kennedy".
• Alpha Bitch: Averted. They act the part, but none of the other girls have (or want to have) anything to do with them.
• Foil: To Steve and Steven. Not only in just dynamic (short kid and tall kid), but Marta and Kennedy have the same problem the Steves have. Both groups try to be cool by acting like what they perceived as cool before ending up at the Camp and are trying to use the place as a fresh start to be the new cool kids. The difference is that the Steves just keep telling ridiculously tall tales in order to come across as interesting, popular boys like the ones at school, while the girls try to act like the mean girls they knew at school.
• Hidden Depths: Kennedy likes making art, while Marta likes to dance and sing. Neither will show these talents to a wider audience because both of them are too busy "not caring" about things.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: All both girls really want is to just fit in with the other campers. Unfortunately, they don't seem to realize that their toxic behavior is why the only friend they've made at the camp is each other.
• Jerkass: Aside from their lie to Seventeen, they're generally aggressive, hateful and unpleasant to other campers, including each other.
• Never My Fault: At one point, another girl calls them out on their behaviour and tells them that's why they're so unpopular. Their response is to whine about how the other girls are so mean to them.
• Pet the Dog: Lewis is the only camper besides Marta that Kennedy treats with any sort of kindness, due to the fact that they share a hobby for drawing. Naturally, this leads to some Ship Tease.
• Poor Communication Kills: Which heavily contributes to why they constantly have fights with each other.
  • In the first Marta and Kennedy comic, Marta doesn't realize that Kennedy is especially hurt at the fact that her best friend was laughing at her because Kennedy says she doesn't care.
  • In the second comic, Marta clearly wants to keep the "solo" role, but since she says she doesn't care, Kennedy takes over and is blissfully unaware of how pissed Marta is.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Their mini-arc showed them driving each other crazy, but it does end with each giving the other thoughtful gifts: Marta gives Kennedy a painting set because she likes painting, Kennedy gives Marta a hairband so that she can dance without getting her hair in her eyes.

The Proto Kid

The first child inhabitant of Camp Weedonwantcha. The legend goes that he is an insane feral who lives in the Deep Woods.

• Wild Child: All the kids are to some extent, but the Proto Kid is the furthest off the deep end.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Shoes.