VANESSA

In Issue #1044, Ivy is on her quest to learn more about talking to people, and she encounters her first reluctant subject in Vanessa. She's a cashier at a shop who seems completely disinterested in talking to Ivy, and what's worse, she actually seems suspicious or annoyed by her. Ivy sees this store employee peering at her while she's talking to another customer, and she's noncommittal when Ivy asks her whether she can still keep her charity box in the store.

When Ivy returns to the store a second time, Vanessa is again unwilling to converse with Ivy, but this time she reveals her suspicion: She believes Ivy is not REALLY collecting food for charity, and that she's hiding the fact that the food is for herself. She understands being in that situation because she was once a food-insecure child, but she would have been more willing to help Ivy if she would be honest about it.

Vanessa is a late-twenties woman with dark skin, very short curly black hair, and dark eyes. She's tall and always wears collared shirts. She's worked at the store for a couple of years and is proud of how she's been able to fend for herself, as she's now able to pay her own bills after growing up in poverty and living on the edge of it as a young adult. She's responsible and not very social, has no strong needs to find a companion (and has none), and doesn't really know what she wants out of life. She is not discontent but also doesn't really have any passions. As demonstrated in the comic, she does have a strong sense of justice and morality. She has sometimes thought her strongly held beliefs might lead her to studying law and becoming a judge one day, but that seems very out of reach for her at this time since she lacks resources.