October 20th, 2014
21 Oct 2014 · page 428 of 1306
Someone's unravelling a little..
I'll be at MCM Expo in London this weekend, come say hi!
Cast: Benjamin Thackerey, Heinrich Wolfe, Jack O'Malley
Comments (51)
Events
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
Awww, poor Ben. Can't even comb his hair right. It has been a tough night. passes him a cup of tea
Holy snap, so it's WRATH they are after! That'll be five of the deadlies, I think...let's see, Sloth, Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath...wonder if they are going for the other two, as well? Awww, and now Wolfe has lost faith in Voss. I mean, justifiably, but hopefully the situation can still be salvaged in the long run! YOU CAN DO IT SUPER SPIRIT SQUAD
Isn't Gluttony out and about as well? Or was it desummoned properly? Is has that not happened yet in the timeline? Since I know we had Gluttony in the hotel that was out of step with time. So, the only one we haven't heard anything about yet is Lust. I'm just not sure if Gluttony is out and about at this point.
There was some preview art I saw that makes me think the next story will involve Lust and that it might already be free. If I'm right, and I might not be, that would be all Seven Deadlies loose in Widdershins, if the Wrath summoning is successful.
The only question is why? Greed had been summoned a lot of times in the past. Only recently did he get un-banished or un-cursed... Well given back that statue and the thief king's mark. Sloth had been summoned to cause chaos. Pride had been accidently summoned and mixed with a bunch of explosives. When the explosive problem had been fixed Pride turned out alright. Gluttony... that one had to go. Envy is tricky which means that good/bad old fox has something planned. As for lust... which type of lust will be summoned? The one that makes attractions and lust or the one that makes people lust after it or somewhere in between.
Or both. No reason the Seven Deadly Sins need to limit themselves.
And Pride did not 'turn out alright'. None of the Seven is 'alright'. Released in a high-magic environment like WIddershins, there is no telling what kind of horrors they could unleash.
Yeah. We currently have (at least) five of the Seven Deadlies free in Widdershins. They currently seem to be infesting the anchor and aren't causing any day to day mischief, but It's unclear what their ultimate goal is (or if they even have an ultimate goal as a group. Envy and Gluttony seem to want to free all Seven, but the others are unclear)
The only thing Pride wants is for people to look at it. I think that's the extent of its plan.
Yeah = Gluttony was the hotel story.
Wrath! Ah, I really thought Wrath was going to be the last one for some reason! Loving the rising tension here towards this major event, Ben's increasing agitation, and he and Mal's joint determination to come along and face this challenge. Really gets across the urgency well, as well as the high stakes it personally has for them. I really appreciate the way this is symbolising the way nerves are wearing thin and composure is.. well.. unravelling for Ben. That said, I'm going to be in mourning if Ben ends up having short hair forever now D: I've grown irrationally attached to Ben's ponytail design enough that it's for some reason a big part of what makes Ben Ben to me! Leave the scissors, Wolfe, he looks better with long hair! (It's hopeless now isn't it.. RIP Ben's ponytail).
If they prevent Wrath from being summoned on this occasion, Wrath may yet be the last one.
That's true! And I mean, this chapter did already introduce Envy, so maybe there will be a future chapter involving Wrath being successfully summoned, and it won't indeed happen here (and Ben will also be spared the sight of Wrath, hah..) There does need to be a focus on envy in the denouement perhaps more than anything else- especially given that the resolution of the Ben with sight vs Mal without sight plot will presumably be very Envy-related.
"RIP Ben's ponytail"? No he's only gonna cut it off, not rip it off...
Hah.. R.I.P. I'm genuinely sad about fictional hair here.
Getting ready for battle, well... in a way... xD Poor Ben, though: losing handily to a comb. :(
It's probably more that he can't look into a mirror right now. Like O'Malley, he doesn't want to see himself through aura-vision...
Yup, I know that. :) But, that comb also looks well embedded: hair that eats combs doesn't care if you're looking in the mirror or not while it happens. Even if you care. ;)
He has straight hair, so he's not used to dealing with tangles, and hair sticky with dried-in wine would be difficult at the best of times. You don't need a mirror to deal with tangles but he doesn't know the technique.
Ahh... Having never had alcoholic beverages in my hair, I did not know about this... ^^
That just seems like an odd thing to say. Does straight hair not tangle? I'll try not to make wild assumptions here, and stick to facts: my own stick-straight, half-a-bottle-of-hairspray-for-waves-for-two-hours, limp-as-a-boned-fish hair gets into knots even when braided.
That said, it's also clear he's not used to dealing with tangles. One NEVER tries to brush tangled hair from the crown to the tips!
So Envy is trying to summon what is presumably a very angry spirit, and Captain Barber is an angry lady... I think I see where this is going.
But Envy did not know that before hand. All he (she?) wanted was a Barber. It could have been Nora or Flo.
Um. Even the most timid Barber we've met... could find it in her to bring on the righteous anger at need. <_< I think the whole family has a gene that can express wrath or righteous. Depending on circumstance. :|
... Envy is trying to get the soldier Sin. The one who hauls off and deals violence, sometimes guided by the other six of the Seven. o_o
Ben and Mal are both rather angry right now, too. This could descend to a brawl.
I thought wrath and lust were going to manifest themselves in that bar in Nepal.
Because alcohol.
O'Malley is making the tea? Before he wouldn't know how and he would have let someone else do the work anyway. Mr Thackeray can't even brush his hair. Perhaps the sight involves more than just being able to see spirits.
I don't think so. Remember, O'Malley's had a few months to learn to make tea (not a very complicated task), and Ben's been soaking in unspecified booze - quite sticky, and his problem is visibly that the brush is caught in his hair.
...there, there, Ben, it'll get better ^^;
Ben in the last panel, that is me, every morning, trying to comb through my hair. I feel for you, Ben!
And I see Mal is still not looking at Wolfe. Yup, he's really upset. But it's adorable that he calls Voss a thieving bastard, when before he saw his ability as a curse that he'd rather be rid of. Oh well, guess some people are hard to please.
Even though Mal isn't going to pieces quite like Ben, he's still missing the teapot... Not quite as composed as he's trying to be, I think.
Good eye!
The fact that it's going from one teapot to another is also weird.
That's how you make tea! Or at least, how I was taught to make tea. A pot for boiling, pour the boiling water into the pot for brewing, where the leaves are, let it sit and become tea for a couple minutes before pouring it into a cup!
Interesting! I hadn't heard of that before.
Also he wants to do it in the blue teapot.
It's not - it's from kettle to teapot! Similar shapes, but different functions.
I dunno, they look pretty damn identical to me. What is the difference in function?
A kettle is made of metal - you put it on the stove and boil the water. A teapot is usually made of ceramic, you pour the water into it with the tea leaves/bag to steep it.
And when it's steeped enough you pour from the teapot to your cup!
There's a lot of reasons for this. The big one is that pouring the water over the tea leaves gets it pretty well steeped right away! But also, you know, the kettle is hot and you don't want it to burn your table. Or the tea leaves. Or your hands (notice he's holding the handle with a cloth?)
There's also design differences because of the two different functions, which makes it a worse idea to use them not as intended. Like, a kettle will often have a whistle to let you know when the water is boiling. The teapot will have a strainer to keep the tea leaves out of your cup. Also, the kettle isn't really designed to be washable.
But they're both designed to be filled from the top and poured out the spout. So they do look pretty similar on the macro scale.
AH, he IS using a cloth. I was wondering what that was actually. :) Always delighted to learn new things, so thank you!
Captain Barber, who is so easily angered, would make an ideal vessel for Wrath.
And as Harry's big sister, she would be much more difficult for the intrepid Hunters to deal with than any other host, wouldn't she?
I expect that Captain Barber will be in no happy state of mind if she has go 'plain clothes' and wear a frock to the party. Then all Herr Voss has to do is walk up behind her, pat her bottom and say 'You know darling, that dress makes your bum look really big." And there you have it - this close to the Anchor, that's Wrath summoned, no problem. I only hope that Herr Voss can run very, very fast.
Bit surprised in retrospect - Ben doesn't know about the Greed situation, but based on chapter one, Greed goes with green too, and it's also very theft-themed - I wonder why he thought Envy before Greed? If I hadn't been reading the story (but knew what spirits are what color), I'd have put Greed before Envy for theft + green.
The phrase 'green with envy', which is probably part of the Widdershins culture too, suggests a stronger association with green and envy than with most other colours and the deadly sins. Additionally, Ben has now seen the green envious spirit of one person (though it's debatable if he realises it was that). You might attach some kind of extra potential significance to the part where Ben himself has been inclined to a bit of envy in this chapter (when Voss induced that emotion in him), but greed is not a terribly big part of Ben's character. All these things- particularly the clarity of 'green with envy'- and maybe also something about what he read at the brewery, make it make sense that he'd guess at that.
While both Greed and Envy are very theft themed, Greed is theft of goods and resources, Envy is theft of energies and talent.
More to the point: Greed is mostly about possession (acquisition being a means to an end), and can be engaged in a socially acceptable (if antisocial) manner (e.g. Ebenezer Scrooge). Gluttony is fixated on consumption (acquisition and possession may manifest, but only as a means to fuel the hunger), but similar to Greed may be socially acceptable. Envy is about coveting - you want what someone else has - and it will naturally flow into theft, because the nature of Envy is to always want something from someone else (and it's naturally a hole that cannot be filled).
I just noticed, but Mal and Ben have changed clothes and Mal chose to wear all grey. Maybe a subconscious move for normality in Mal's case.
Wrath-imbued wine, maybe?
I love how Mal has been avoiding looking at Wolfe (and a bit less so with Ben) because he can't see spirits and it's just too weird for him.
So another side effect of the sight is an inability to have well-groomed hair?
Aww, I liked his long hair. About the same length as my brother's, actually. Huh.
(Damned Discus wrecking my post)
I was right about it being about Wrath all along!
... Coincidentally... and despite the fact I was being facetious...
Poor Ben, this whole business has been rather distressing for him :(