Missing Monday
is a Webcomic by Elle Skinner about an inter-universal romance.
Apprentice mechanic Foyle Leaf is cheerfully going through a storage room in the old clock tower (that her long-suffering employer let her raid) when a locked door unexpectedly opens, letting through a bright light and a blonde in a silk nightgown. The visitor's name is Monday Rhodes, and she claims to come from another world.
The two teenaged girls discover a mutual attraction and start building a part-time relationship with Monday commuting between Foyle's world and her own. But one day, Monday fails to arrive, causing Foyle to worry. Worry enough to open the mysterious door and go looking for her...
Starting on March 14, 2011 the comic concluded after 15 chapters on March 21, 2023.
This webcomic provides examples of:
- Almost Kiss: While cooking a few days after their first meeting.
- Arranged Marriage:
- Learning that she was going to be put into one is what prompted Monday's initial journey through the magic door in her world.
- The Cat version of Monday, in her absence, has apparently gone forward with one.
- Crash-Into Hello: An unexpected step down from the magic door causes Monday to stumble into Foyle's arms.
- Culture Clash: There are significant cultural differences between Foyle's world and Monday's world. This is a cause of misunderstandings.
- Dances and Balls: Upon arriving in Monday's world, Foyle finds one. Being Underdressed for the Occasion, she crashes it.
- "Day of the Week" Name: Monday Rhodes and her sister Tuesday.
- Doppelgänger: When Foyle eventually finds Monday in her world, she coldly dismisses Foyle. Later on, it's revealed that this is Cat posing as Monday and not the real deal.
- The Fair Folk: Shadowy, animal-themed beings that inhabit the corridors between worlds. They make deals over letting people in and out, taking payments like an ability to sing a song, a name or in Monday's case, the life she's leaving behind.
- Forced Sleep: The real Monday was placed in one as part of Cat's machinations.
- Fully-Clothed Nudity: Monday has a minor freakout upon realising she's been wandering the streets of a strange town in her nightie.
- Gilded Cage: Monday describes her world as pretty in a cold, diamond-like way.
- Hairpin Lockpick: When Tuesday locks Foyle in her room, Foyle steals a hairpin from her vanity in order to do just that.
- Insecure Love Interest: Foyle has a bad tendency to jump to the wrong conclusion when faced with emotional hardships. For instance, when Monday fails to show up, Foyle immediately concludes she's been dumped.
- Intangible Price: The shadow creatures treat any other form of payment as incredibly rude. They're also very into Exact Words.
- It's All About Me: Foyle, curiously enough, displays this in her dealings with her boss, who's really had enough of her unreliability. Monday talks her out of it.
- Magic A Is Magic A: There are consistent rules for who is eligible to visit another world and how to open the magic door. Monday followed the instructions in her favourite childhood storybook. Also, Foyle's world has "knacks"—some people are supernaturally talented at specific occupations (her knack is for fixing things, despite coming from a family that usually has one for gardening/botany).
- Mysterious Waif: Monday starts out looking like one of these, but she can actually go home when she pleases (she just doesn't).
- Lonely Rich Kid: Monday and Tuesday seem to be these.
- Portal Crossroad World: A maze of twisty little corridors, all different and populated by shadow creatures who claim it's infinitely large. Portals are inconspicuous in their respective words, but can only be opened by an eligible person, using an appropriate key.
- Queer Romance: Same-sex relationships seem to be much more accepted in both Foyle's and Monday's worlds than in ours. The bakers who Monday works for in Foyle's world are boyfriends, and Monday's world has same-sex Arranged Marriages, with a bride price—we don't (yet) know how Monday's society works, exactly, but she herself treats it like slavery.
- Rich Bitch: Both guardian-Monday and her fiancee.
- Second-Act Breakup: Monday's failure to appear turns out to have heart-breaking causes.
- Secretly Wealthy: In Foyle's world, Monday works part-time as a baker. In her own, she's very upper class, making her an Uptown Girl for Foyle.
- Tattoo as Character Type: Foyle's family crest is a tattoo of leafy vines that runs from her neck across her shoulders and most of the way down her arms. Spider takes it as payment for allowing Foyle the chance to rescue Monday from the place where she had been put in slumber by Cat.
- Theme Naming: Subtle, but people in Monday's world tend to be named after time-related concepts (Monday, Tuesday, Summer), while Foyle's world goes for objects related to family knack (Foyle comes from a family of botanists, for example).
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Foyle is a trousers-wearing Wrench Wench with Boyish Short Hair who is impulsive and risk-taking. Monday's hair is a lot longer and more feminine, she acts tactfully and demurely, wears nice dresses and spends some time as a Damsel in Distress whom Foyle rescues.
- Wham Episode: When Foyle learns Monday's history with the doors and guardians and the deal she made with Cat.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: Foyle expects this, but their worlds turn out to be synchronised. That isn't the case for the corridors, where it seems anything goes.
- Your Universe or Mine?: Monday is unable or unwilling to move to Foyle's world permanently, and Foyle is not eligible (yet) for world-hopping. Thus the commuting. Monday eventually reveals that her periodic returns to her world are to fix any problems Cat may have caused while posing as her.
