January 18th, 2019
18 Jan 2019 · page 867 of 1306
Pffh no, who'd use that as a magic word? ...besides Mal, I mean.
Cast: Eliza Swift, Vincent Knott, Will Sharpe
Comments (48)
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Oh, there is a mechanism of reversing, it's good.
Eliza's body language is, again, wonderfully expressive in the final panel.
She wants to strangle SOMEONE and she has to choose between three deserving victims.
One she actually likes, one is an innocent bystander, and the third she needs alive for the moment. :(
Beyond a certain point, it doesn't really matter how you feel about the victim - you just want to strangle SOMEbody.
Very, very true.
if he utter that word, it may undo the binding on himself ?
He said you have to "incant" it, which sounds like you have to do something more than just saying the word. (Or else he's just trying to sound pretentious...)
Now I'm wondering, when we see wizards doing magic with the words in the fancy font, does that happen automatically when someone who's a wizard says the right words, or does the wizard have to deliberately put their will behind it to make the words magical? I'm imagining, say, Sid explaining that spell that shows if something's imbued ("Oh, it's really easy, all you do is say 'Lecta phasmia' and then you can feel what spirit was summoned..."); it seems likely that in a case like that, "Lecta phasmia" would be in plain text, whereas if he was actually doing the spell it would be "Lecta phasmia" in the magical font.
It must be something more than just saying the words, right? Otherwise anyone could be a wizard in this world, and there wouldn't have to be schools for that, or natural-born wizards like Sid.
Given the magical font on Bugger off, I suspect that it's based on the power imbued into it vs. just the words: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-3rd-2018/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-3rd-2018/")
Though Harry's reading of the binding spells did also have that font, as I recall? Perhaps just because Mal imbued them by his presence?
> Though Harry's reading of the binding spells did also have that font, as I recall?
After checking. No, it isn't.
Ach, ty! I'd been flipping through the archives on mobile for the Bugger off panel and gave up after I found it, heh. That answers that, then.
I think when you're a Witch, anything can be a magic word
That's an interesting choice of safe word ... oh I see, never mind.
Well, the rule for porters in Porterhouse Blue was "If you can't catch 'em, you can't book 'em." So...
Wolfe: Sorry, my friend. punches porter in solar plexus
Vee: rushes to porter, unstoppers bottle of knockout gas, holds up to his face, holds her face away from it, counts breaths One.. two... three... four... five... six... seven... eight. restoppers bottle He should be out for a good hour. Help me get him onto a bed. He won't remember anything, he'll assume he lay down for forty winks.
Wolfe: nods, grabs porter's feet
Hang on - I'm using the wrong crew here...! And this isn't Porterhouse College either. So unless the porters have a major "Will Sharpe is innocent" thing going, they're all in serious trouble. Now, what's the betting that Will will pull that purloined pistol on the porter?
Eliza: Don't! It's not loaded!
Will: ... X-(
>:=)>
...Shouldn't there be, er, students? In this student dorm? They're there in the middle of the night, not at class time. One or two having snuck out, given the last few pages, would be expected. All of them missing at once seems...worrying.
Will said, "And at this time on a Friday night, most of the students will have snuck out to the pub. It'll just be cleaning staff around". ( [https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/december-18th-2018/](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/december-18th-2018/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/december-18th-2018/") )
Must be an awfully big pub
Now you've made me think about some questions. How many students are there in the Widdershins University, at each year? How many wizards are there in entire England, and in Widdershins only? What is a "concentration of wizards" in England/Widdershins?
Kate said that being a wizard isn't a genetic thing, but still it is interesting that there are 3 wizards between 4 grandchildren of Victor and no wizards among 5 grandchildren of Isabelle.
I'm not British, but I don't think the expression "go to the pub" necessarily refers to a specific establishment. From my (limited) understanding of British culture, I imagine most if not all of the students and faculty have specific pubs that they frequent most of the time. I can personally attest that a midsized American college can happily support about a dozen decently-sized bars--not quite the same thing, but still a relevant point IINM.
Not the best failsafe word, that; one stubbed toe could bring trauma crashing down. ;)
Well, if you're saying it, your day isn't going well, anyway. What's a little more grist for the mill of Sod's Law? :P
What? You mean to tell me nobody brought the chloroform?!
But I thought you had it
You win the Internet for today, my friend. <3
Someone just failed to undo the binding on himself, if some theories are to be believed.
I've managed to not keep as up to date with the comments as usual (for Reasons), but yeah, that's been my reading.
Of course, I look forward to finding out exactly how wrong I/we are as the story plays out. 😄
Just a modest proposal there, I see.
And... there goes the rest of my self consciousness. I'm going to have to cosplay Eliza.
You have good taste. :)
I marinate regularly. ;)
For some reason, I got the feeling that he is saying bugger since he forgot the word not because someone walked in.
This page really emphasizes how awkward the handcuff thing is for Vincent - not only can he not help search because the chain doesn’t stretch far enough, but he’s attached to someone making dramatic hand gestures.
He should've established a failsafe word before agreeing to this
Only one failsafe word? That doesn’t sound very secure. Wouldn’t it be better to have individual passwords? Preferably including at least one capital and number and a symbol.
Now identify which of these images have deadly sins in them.
Ah, that simplifies things. The failsafe word is obviously "failsafe word".
The answer is always "correct horse battery staple."
Why not "sunstone"?
klaatu... barada... nnn...
Looks like somebody's going to need to do some real grade 'A' fast-talking to get out of this situation.
I miss Mal....
anyone else find it odd that for someone who wrote the paper he seems to be struggling to remember any details of it?
Oh, I don't think it's odd at all. Because it likely has everything to do with how he ended up in that cell.
No, it's not odd at all if the failsafe word had been erased from his memory.
It's quite possibly related to him having been bound by his own methods, but it's also worth remembering that it was explicitly a last-minute paper and rush jobs like that tend to be fuzzier in one's mind.
Who wants to bet he can't quite remember it?
I'm so glad Eliza's genre-savvy. Or even better, just savvy. 🙂
She does seem to have an IQ well above room temperature, which is more than I can say for most people I know. (Including myself most of the time, TBH.)
Quick! Everyone impersonate students!