January 26th, 2018
26 Jan 2018 · page 767 of 1306
Less than a week left on this pin kickstarter of mine!
Cast: Lei Feng, Sidney Malik, Thomas Macavity
Comments (85)
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"The beginning of a beautiful friendship..."?
Wouldn't it be more the re-igniting of a prior friendship?
Or the rekindling of one, in this case...
To add a spirit of Thievery to the spirit of Greed... It would be, ermmm... A bomb.
But if Thievery will rob Greed of its treasures again and again... Hm?
I think it's a spirit of stage magic, actually. My head canon is that a younger Sid wanted to be better at sleight of hand tricks and decided to summon a sprit to help him with them. Being Sid, and, worse, a younger Sid, he did a great job of beginning the summoning but lost interest halfway through, winding up with a magpie which is "just trying to help!"
AHEM, trying to be a serious criminal over there. Nerds.
I love it when Sid geeks out like this
His enthusiasm never ceases to amaze me.
The question is, what is it a half-summoned spirit of? It might be half-summoned Greed.
Both Lei and Sidney are definitely sparks. The joy of doing is the end goal.
Greed really seems like it would be too obvious and it doesn't always take items of much value on their own. I'd say Mischief but that is unclear. Fortune or Luck?
Curiosity, perhaps? It definitely seems more inclined to take interesting things, so far.
mmh, maybe interest, obsession, fascination or neediness
I'm thinking about which emotion would fuel a collector, one of the kind who'd hire thieves to get what he wants (since the magpie doesn't hold itself to property rights)
Oooh, fascination! I don't know, but it's a cool idea and goes with the magpie form...
Kender.
Yes, kender is an emotion. Look it up. :)
You'll have to give me a refence then, because I only got Inventors named "Kender" or a Fantasy creature called a "Kender" not any emotion
Fantasy creature from the Dragonlance world. Read up on them and then compare to the Sidney/Lei shenanigans up above.
I rather wonder that, if it's a mis-summoned or not fully summoned spirit that might not be acting right, that it might actually be a spirit of giving (as it keeps giving things to Sidney), rather than taking.
Having Charity appear in a place where Greed is hiding might make for an interesting turn...
Please remind me where I've heard 'spark' used in that way before. It's on the edge of my brain and it's actually killing me.
GirlGenius most likely.
That would be it. Thanks!
That, or TV Tropes
Whatever it is, it's certain to be entertaining.
Mischief? Boredom?
What if it's generosity? Always trying to give things to Sid, but without a real good grasp of other people's property and what is its to 'give.'
A-ha! I've been watching for the Greed influence since Our Heroes got to the bank. There it is!
:D
I think it's more a combination of curiosity and some lingering love/lust on Sid's part. Can't speak for Lei.
Macavity's 'A-hem' is green-tinged. Edit--I suppose it might not be Greed's coloration--would it instead be purplish?
No, you're right. It is, in fact, green. Good catch.
Greed itself is green, but I think I remember Kate saying once that the overall color for that chapter was a sort of golden-brown - much like the backgrounds of several panels on this page, come to think of it...
However, since the spirit itself is green and speaks "in green" (as it were), I think the green color (especially in speech text) still ought to be a marker of its influence.
Isn't green for envy? Green-eyed monster and all that? Though I do think it's been associated with greed in Widdershins thus far.
They've both been green, but different shades of green. Envy was more of an emerald green. Greed was, like, forest green.
These dorks.
Please, Sid, do remember to be properly frightened. You're embarrassing the King.
No - Sid is the King - or the most recent one, which is probably embarrassing enough.
As the stolen items seem to materialise in Mr Malik's pockets, perhaps the Magpie could dematerialise them out of the vault, so they don't have to open the door at all. Of course, having a large quantity of gold bullion suddenly materialise in your pocket brings its own problems.
winces
You've been reading Making Money, haven't you?
So: Half a circle - but which side?
I can't help but picture him leaning over the railing to ask Ben, because Ben's knowledge is more technical based. And then this leading to the three of them getting lost in a spirited discussion on theory until the rest of the group interrupts to remind them of the current situation.
Now I really want to see this happen!
Also, Sid already summoned Curiosity earlier to get the map.
This is a very good plan that could in no way go horribly awry.
(In other news, I had a look at my bank account and accidentally saw where my birthday present is coming from. I'll give you guys three guesses but my Sid-like squealing will give it away before you can start.)
Summoning the rest of the spirit is a good idea in theory, but can you summon something if you don't know exactly what it's a spirit of? From what we've seen of summoning, it seems like the circle, words, etc. have to be specific to whatever spirit you're trying to get, and I don't think Sid knows the exact nature of his malform any more than we do. He may run into technical difficulties here.
Furthermore, has it ever been confirmed that Sid himself did the initial summoning or if this is a malform that just decided it liked him? Because if it was Sid then we can rule out things based on knowing him, but if otherwise that opens up a lot of new possibilities.
It's a really interesting problem! I'd like to see them work it out... : )
monotone If only we had someone who could see, speak to, and otherwise directly interact with all malforms. But of course, that's black magic, such a person would have to be a... I don't know... a witch or something?
I like how sids just like ugh money i dont want this and just drops it he is so adorable
Well, it's not his. Also, he has to be pretty inured to the whole situation after living with it for several years.
its still cute
The fact that he only takes advantage of this when it will save his life is one of my favorite things about him.
Agreed. If he was female (or really, really feminine) I'd marry him. :P
Two words: Harry Barber.
Well, she has dibs, obviously. But I'm fairly sure she prefers men.
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't O'Malley identify Sid's spirit as a magpie? Or rather it took the form of a magpie?
Correct, but we still don't know exactly what emotion it embodies. Is kleptomania an emotion? (I don't think so.)
Refreshing myself on the symbolism of magpies, versus the reality, they are traditionally seen as thieves and harbingers of ill fortune. They were also seen as collectors of shiny things and precious things.
So maybe not theft as much as collecting something interesting. Acquisition? Is the spirit actually a Ferengi?
The bit about shiny things is actually real, as far as I'm aware.
Apparently, no: [http://www.bbc.com/news/sci...](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28797519 "http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28797519").
Kate knew about this, but couldn't not use the symbolism, she says.
I stand corrected. Thank you. :)
I doubt the accuracy of a symbol's origin has any influence on its power. That would depend upon how firmly the symbol is rooted in the collective zeitgeist, I assume.
I agree. I think Kate did the best thing to leave the symbol there in spite of its objective error: it reflects how people see the spirit.
As the spirits arise from human emotions, and enough people believe that magpies like shiny things, then a malform that collects shiny things might well manifest as a magpie, even if real magpies don’t collect shiny things.
The power of belief, yeah. :)
Maybe, it had something with Sid liking birds, especially the very clever types of city bird, too. ( [https://katedrawscomics.tum...](https://katedrawscomics.tumblr.com/post/122274871447/sids-favourite-colour-animal "https://katedrawscomics.tumblr.com/post/122274871447/sids-favourite-colour-animal") )
Generosity, maybe? It keeps giving things to Sidney, so...
Now there's a thought. Fascinating.
=== It keeps giving things to Sidney, so... ===
Just a shame these things are always sombody's else... So generous, however :)))
Magpie... Sidney must secretly be AN AUSSIE!
Kleptomania is an impulsive disorder, like OCD. It is significantly rarer, though.
Macavity: Stop. Having. Fun!
Sid: Sorry! I've just never participated in a bank job before! I had no idea how thrilling it would be!
[...]
Macavity: YOU don't get to do the laugh and triumphant pose in front of the open vault! Who - or what - do you think you are??
Sid: Sorry! Didn't mean to - er - steal your thunder!
Macavity: GRRRRR!
[...]
Macavity: Alright, Mister Malik: are we clear on what our roles are here?
Sid: Ah... I, the victim, get locked in this empty vault and left to my fate, and you, the master thief, get your heart's desire?
Macavity: facepalm We get the MONEY, Sid! The MONEY!! What other desires are there?! What other desires could we have??
Lei: Um...
Thugs: Er...
[...]
Thugs: exit pet shop C|-)
Kitten (in Thug 1's hand): purrrrrr
Puppy (in Thug 2's hands): Arf!
[...]
Magistrate: ...and in recognition of this, all your crimes are hereby pardoned and your record will be wiped clean.
Nicola: But I'll be keeping an eye on you, just the same.
Lei: Don't worry, I'm not going to waste this opportunity. I only ever wanted to be an inventor and engineer...
[...]
Mayor of Widdershins: ...and so, I hereby unveil this statue of Macavity, the greatest thief ever to have lived! Er...
Macavity: smirk produces and hands over shroud, now neatly folded, and then the mayor's chain of office
Crowd of spectators: APPLAUSE
Macavity: bows floridly :-D
Meanwhile, in Hell...
Greed: This is SO messed up!
Pride: Tell me about it!!!
>:=)>
The best part of this is the smiley for the thug with the bowler hat over his eyes. C|-)
If, God forbid, something ever happens to Kate, you get her scripts and finish the story out as a novel.
Sid: alt universe archetype for science geeks everywhere.
I still can't remember our crime boss friend's name, but it feels so fitting that I should forget it that I'm not sure I want to look it up until after this ark is over...
Thomas Macavity
It's right below the comic page :)-
Hush, Macavity. You are neither a protagonist, nor somebody that a protagonist is fond of. Don't add any more logs to your comeuppance bonfire.
He'd never believe you. He's still convinced he's the protagonist of everything.
Never stop being adorable, Sid.
Macavity's starting to annoy me on a personal level. Maybe it's how his arrogance is so imposing, the way entitlement is? It really detracts from his likeablitity for me.
To me it's more that he can't back up his bravado. Maybe he used to be as good as he thinks he is, but not anymore by a long shot. So he really should be French rather than English.
They're so cute together. Shame Sid's already taken.
Goddamnit, I will not become a shipper! Curse you, Ashwin!!!!!
Deep down, everyone's a shipper.
Okay that makes a degree of sense... But isn't this just blind guessing? If you don't know what kind of spirit the Magpie is wouldn't you just summon a totally random Spirit instead of....whatever the heck the Magpie actually is?
What is the Magpie anyway? Enthusiasm?
This hostage situation is SO EXCITING!
Sid is so... un-greedy. He's literally in an area under the influence of the spirit of greed (and his little buddy obviously feels it as it seems to be trying to take... everything) but he just tossed the money out. It doesn't even seem like he even thought about the fact that there was money in the vault that he's being forced to break into.
Aww, they work so well as a team! Super cute. Lei x Sidney forever <3
HRM. >: [
Watch he opens the safe and greeds inside and he is not going to share!!!