April 27th, 2018
27 Apr 2018 · page 790 of 1306
Orientation: Smug
Cast: Jack O'Malley, Mr Luxuria
Comments (67)
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The ace in the hole ;D
You know, if the scarf were purple, he’d look like the ace flag.
His old scarf was red, so it averages out, I guess?
Where once O'Malley was a bitter, broken man who got along poorly with others, he has steadily come into his own to become exactly the sort of witch that Widdershins needs: an ace, whole.
... take your upvote, but I'm not happy about it.
Mal should use Luxuria's oncoming Villain Monologue to hatch a plan of defeat and/or bind him while he's talking...
Even if Mal looks really imposing in the fourth panel, I think he is careful enough not to try binding before Lux explains why "he" warns against it. A plan, well, would be good.
"A plan, well, would be good."
Why? They've never needed one before.
Not exactly. They've never had one before. That's a nice distinction...
I wondered where Lux got the gun; it's in Harry's bag, which he now has.
It's Acedia's gun infused with Wrath, goddamn! Envy did mean its "See you soon" to Mal, it seems.
Update: Or Lux just wants to use it as a weapon. But it's unloaded, as far as I remember.
Oh dang, I think you're right.
Does that mean he also has all the other focus items now? I'm thinking they'd either have to be in the bag or strewn about, and Harry doesn't strike me as the "let's leave potentially important artefacts strewn about" type.
Oh crap, you're right.
I agree that it is very likely that Luxuria has all of the focus items now. I really hope it can not use them, because things are going to get a lot more uncomfortable if it can use them to do anything. Our best hope may be that the one dimensionality of spirits prevents it from summoning the other sins well enough to use those items effectively, but I am worried that its smugness means that things are still proceeding according to its plan.
I think a spirit can't summon a spirit, it is why Envy needed Voss for its plan. At other hand, Envy possessing Voss did summon Wrath, so, maybe, an embodied spirit, as Lux, can.
In any case, I thought about the scenario "Lux makes Mal re-summon Deadlies using hostages".
The hope may be that Lux doesn't want any rivals in taking over the Anchor, but if "he" needs their powers...
Remember back in Find the Lady? Lux summoned the other six from his chosen humans. I expect he thinks Mal will react to his capture of Wolfe, et al. the same way Invidia did to his threatening Superbia.
Yeah, I did forgot about that for a moment. :/ The fact, "he" can summon.
We saw the wrath infused gun for a reason, he's going to try anger first I guess. And there are 6 of them in this little band, one for each of the unsummoned deadlies.
Now don't tell me it's Acedia's gun... though it is, of course. :/
142 comments and counting on the last strip. Is this the record? Perhaps Widdershins needs to go all soppy more often. :-)
The page with Ben breaking the main mirror has 116 comments and the next one after it has 127. Due a lot of comments where readers explain to Ben how much he is wrong about himself, I think. :))
Edit: The page with the magpie and Verity's "Benji?!" has 132 comments, the former record. 120 there: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/january-19th-2017/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/january-19th-2017/") and 116 there: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/december-15th-2017/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/december-15th-2017/")
You went and checked every page, didn't you?
No, I just clicked the link: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn-storyline/curtain-call/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn-storyline/curtain-call/") and looked through 20 pages of it. )) (I'm sure there weren't more-than-100-comments pages before the last chapter.)
But the pages with Ben I recalled without this. :)
Mal.. don't you have a "desire" to punch his smug face?
Orientation: Smug looks like it describes both of them right now.
Smug is kind of Luxuria’s default state.
Point taken.
Although since it has been free in the human world for far longer than most spirits ever are it probably thinks it has good reason to be smug.
We've been waiting for this interaction for a long time, and it's great to behold. Instead of the flirt-off, we get to see the smug-off.
"She's exactly where she wants to be."
"Where I want her to be, anyway. Same thing currently, of course."
I wouldn't be so sure about that, Mr Luxuria.
Alright. Chips on the table. How panels 'till a man gets shot?
2, but I'm hedging for an "interrupting Barber". (Oh, alright, I'm hoping dearly.)
I wonder where Harry's gun is and whether it is loaded. And I hope Mal won't give Lux a time to load Acedia's one.
Now, besides trapped Harry, smug Lux, Acedia's gun and uncertainty about fates of the other team, I have one more thing to worry about: Mal's purple outline. Well, maybe it's OK... I hope not really.
It's not just the purple outline; the interior has completely faded to the point of everything being a dark pink fog. When the other Deadlies appeared in the in-between space, the circle and white floor within it would still be visible, although the "walls" would change color somewhat. But now all the features of the "room" have disappeared : [
After she shot Grandpa Barber, Acedia told Wrath she really didn't want to reload the gun - so it only had one bullet in it to begin with, and probably no more are lying around.
Acedia was Luxuria's pawn from outset, though, and he's played everyone like fiddles. I wouldn't put past him to have brought along a bullet or six for that pistol, or to figure out where Harriet keeps hers.
If he uses her loading rod, odds are good it's the trick one from way back when.
Yeah, I'm more worried about the possibility of re-summoning others Deadlies, with the gun for Wrath. Envy's "See you soon", Greed's hints, all that.
I wonder if Luxuria's going to follow "Let me tell you why" with something about the current state of his friends' spirits. I can all too easily see it using Wolfe's spirit, and possibly Ben's as well, as hostages to make Mal do what it wants.
Yeah, he did this "hostage thing" before, with Invidia and Superbia, and with Izzy and Henry.
Excellent point. Both of those times he was threatening one half of a romantic couple to control the other half; even though that's not the situation this time, it's likely to work essentially the same way. Mal may be ace, but there's no question that he cares deeply about Wolfe.
Weird thought I had when first looking at this page: To Mal, who sees people in greyscale with their spirits in color above them, Lux looks less like a normal human than he does to us.
That’s a really good point. Because Lux is a spirit, Mal is seeing him in color, which wouldn’t be the case if he were really the human he looks like.
Hadn't noticed that. I recall that the witch who released Lux centuries ago tried to hunt it for the rest of her life. If we're seeing this through Mal's eyes and this type of sight is common to all witches, then Lux' disguise would have been ineffective (as it would positively stand out anywhere in the witch's eyes) and it must've resorted to more traditional forms of hiding. I can imagine Lux posing as some rich person's lover to hide in their mansion, of course, where the witch would be unlikely to lay eyes on it.
The more I think about it, the more I want it to be true! :D It would make for a great detective-story.
(edit: Corrected a small mixup I made with the witch's identity. Nothing that affected the "theory")
Interesting point. I wonder if putting part of its power into the Liars Heart caused it to appear in grey scale to the witch where it normally would have appeared in color.
Yeah, I'm definitely betting on on The Liar's Heart allowing it to appear as fully human to Witchsight. Izzy does specifically cite its various forms as being the main reason for not finding it, rather than its keeping one step ahead of the hunters and just making sure it's not there when they show up.
It does make me wonder about simulating a human aura, though. Spirits, by their very nature, have one-track minds, so I'd imagine just projecting Luxuria's spirity self as though it were a human aura would make it kind of obvious. The Liar's Heart might have a more elaborate simulation subroutine built in, or it might just make the wearer look like a Wizard to Witchsight (since their auras are pretty much a floodlight).
...but Mal's sight isn't necessarily shared by all witches. It seems that different witches have different types of spirit-sensing.
But Acedia asked about "people who could see things", in her search for a witch: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-8th-2017/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-8th-2017/")
True. For now I still stand by my theory that different witches have different ways of sensing, I feel like there are subtle things that point to this, but I could be wrong. Waiting until we find out more...
>For now I still stand by my theory that different witches have different ways of sensing, I feel like there are subtle things that point to this, but I could be wrong.
When Nicola is putting the pieces together about Mal, she says “They [witches] can see spirits,” to which Grandma Izzy replies, “That’s one way, yes.” [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/february-23rd-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/february-23rd-2016/")
Ok thank you that was a lot less subtle than I remembered lol
I interpreted that as one way (among others) each witch can sense in. I mean, we see Mal suffered from headache in crowd with his eyes shut. (There, for example: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-28th-2012/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-28th-2012/") ) So, it seems it isn't only his sight he perceives others' spirits with.
I don't argue with your interpretation, just put my two pennies in. :)
Yeah, we at least know that after coming to Widdershins Mal started being able to hear malforms as well as see them.
Personally I'm hoping we'll get to meet the other two witches and that that will give some new information on this topic...
Yay for ace Mal but not yay for how smug Luxuria is... and I know Mal smokes a lot but the cigarette here worries me? Just with the whole craving/desire sort of thing if that makes sense?
"Right now, you seal me, you also seal all your friends."
"Pretty sure we can handle that. You escaped, and we are out-smarting you."
"...This wasn't how it was supposed to go..."
Oh dear, with Harry temporarily indisposed what is Mal going to do about the "bloodline requirements" of the spell?
So, why does he still have the neck scar? Now that he's re-absorbed the shape shifting power from the necklace, shouldn't he be able to control exactly how he appears?
Pretty sure he thinks it looks cool.
Looks like we're gunning for a "I have your friends hostage" situation and it is going to HURT!
SMUG
Well, something has got to go wrong: Kate has already waved the two minutes of respite in our faces, and then there's the "rest of the witches coming soon" thing. She wouldn't have done that without a reason. (I'm also assuming that the reason O'Malley shouldn't just desummon Luxuria has to do with Harry's promise to Cat to keep the sins away.)
Oh, and Mr. Luxuria...Mal desummoned Sloth without a circle. The circle only serves to keep the spirit locked up. The desummon doesn't require the blood line. Just sayin'
To be fair, Sloth sort of just wanted to get everything over with.
I am wondering now if that may not have been way too easy. Acedia was the human most completely allied with Luxuria. Like Greed, Sloth may have known something of Lux's plans, and been quite content to be desummoned because that was the easiest path to success.
"With the bloodline requirements to make or break it"... But Acedia shot Henry, not Isabelle... Marriage doesn't count the hubby himself as her bloodline does it? hmmmmmmmm....
The bloodline needs to be present only, without giving blood. :) (Envy intended to kill a lot of strangers, not Florrie.)
Isabelle says about it there: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-6th-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-6th-2016/")
Novel angle of attack. Let's see how well it works.
Oh my gods, I just noticed that Luxuria hints at the solution here, implying that Mal doesn't HAVE to use the same binding as the previous Witch.