February 27th, 2018
27 Feb 2018 · page 776 of 1306
Oh yeah, these two.
Cast: Harriet Barber, Jack O'Malley
Comments (75)
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ThoughtBubble
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Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
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In many ways, Avaritia has been the most interesting and insightful of the Seven exactly because of its propensity for making deals and willingness to give something so long as it profits thereby, or at least does not lose.
It does not fully understand humans, but it can work with them a lot better than its siblings can.
It indeed has been working with them for a long time through the thieves mark, certainly longer than any of the others except Luxuria.
And Luxuria cannot fully embrace the concept of freely giving something. All it wants to do, deep down, is take and take and take...
Mal's skills are improving.
This latest circle looks much better than the first one he drew!
He's had a lot of practice today!
Luxuria is not making any friends anywhere, is it?
Seems Avaritia does not care for the deeper design, even if it couldn't help but leap at the chance to manifest on Widdershins-Earth and increase its market share...
Increasing its share, haha, I hadn't thought of it like that...
Really, Avaritia would be so much better off manifesting over here. Or maybe it already has. It would explain much...
I would say Greed is too greedy to not manifest.
Big Green has a point. What is Luxuria's endgame?
I had the same thought, as well as, why is Greed telling them this? Is he too greedy to share humans with the other sins?
If he's gonna go, he's not gonna go alone
Maybe the current situation suits Greed perfectly well? -- And Greed may think that it should serve Lust perfectly well, too. Leave trying to take it all to him.
I'm thinking that currency doesn't come just in cash. Here, information is currency.
Tempting humans into acquiring info instead of pursuing the right course of action, binding a Sin? Maybe it's not greed, but it may veer close enough.
By bartering with the humans, Greed is in his element.
Your last statement couldn't be more real. I was thinking earlier myself about how different Greed's arrival in the in-between place has been than any of the others so far. Appearing, not just not antagonistically, but as a friend...
Of course, that's why only Greed would realize Luxuria's endgame. Greed is the sin of desire for material things, while Lust is the sin of desire for non-material things. Since the Sins are all non-material, Lust's endgame becomes clear.
WAIT A MINUTE.
What we should be asking ourselves is, where is Lux right now?
That's a worrying question. Last time we saw Lux, it had just learned from Wolfe that Mal wasn't interested in what it had to offer, so it's probably been lurking and making new plans. Question is, is it putting those plans into action yet?
Maybe the right question is who is Lux right now?
If this is Lux in disguise, can they bind him as Greed? They can't bind them out of order, either, so maybe waiting until they have Lux in hand then binding Greed first then Lux is what's needed. It's a sticky situation, for sure.
I don't think Lux is impersonating Greed. It might be impersonating someone else, though.
The only person Lux has had contact with personally is Wolfe. Could it be him?
I mean it doesn't have to be impersonating any of the main characters, or even anyone we've met in the story before -- impersonating a random hot redhead was enough to fool Wolfe...
Last time we saw Lux, it was right outside the Anchor. Now presumably, only the Witch can get in to this metaspace that Mal and Harry are in, but who knows, really? So we know that Lux is nearby, we know the Anchor amplifies spirits, and we hope that Curiosity's map can pick up on Luxuria's location even if it's being masked by the Anchor's own signature.
Lux has been shadowing them from the beginning - we saw him near the start of the journey watching them (https://www.widdershinscomi... "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-21st-2016/)") and of course seducing Wolfe for information (https://www.widdershinscomi... "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/december-19th-2017/)"). But that's why Greed might have a point. Lux clearly knows what they're up to, yet it doesn't look like he's tried to stop them at all, even though it looked like his plan was to release all of the sins for much longer than they've lasted so far.
Maybe all it needed the other Deadlies for, was to serve as a distraction while it did its own thing.
Scary thought; it went to all that effort and played such a long game, involving entities of roughly the same power-level... so they could distract its most likely opponents from its real plan. What is it up to...?
Yeah, that's exactly why I'm worried about where he's at...
We've had a lot of time to think about it since early Chapter 7 and I still have no idea. Maybe during the desummon attempt, he's able to gain access to the Witch Control Center?
Yeah, about that...
Not that our heroes know it, but Lust was curious as to how they are operating at the moment, so it could be possibly its first plan didn't involve them getting nabbed.
But whether it did or not, it surely plays a part in it now.
And if Greed can talk its way out of this one... Well that just leaves room for more shenanigans. :D
Heyyy... that would sort out the shipping pattern: Sid x Lei, Vee x Wolfe, Harry x Greed! Ben... can pair off with another Barber - if he doesn't like Nicola, there's bound to be loads of cousins!
Dame Harriet Riss: You know, I quite like living in a mansion, having the best food, equipment and tobacco, and a pipe that never needs filling or lighting.
Sir Alvar Riss: Heh, I knew from the start that I wouldn't be able to part Harry from her job. But I like married respectability and domesticity, and-
Mayor of Widdershins: What can I say? Greed works, and works very well, to bring money into our fair town. In fact, we may soon get to be incorporated as a city! rubs hands "Lord Mayor of Widdershins..."
Sir Alvar Riss: Freedom of the city... they pat each other on the back
Gren: concentrates on gnawing large, meaty bone ♥
Dame Verity Wolfe: I really like the new Harry... so well equipped, so professional... almost as much as I like my fine Teutonic husband. And not being beaten to a damehood by Harry! ;-)
Sir Heinrich Wolfe: British citizenship is good. Knighthood is good. Vee is very good. I feel I have landed on my feet after encountering a dangerous fall.
Lei Malik: You can go back to university, finish your degree, we could do a masters each, then doctorates, then-
Sidney Malik: Then get a nice house, with a large adjoining workshop, and make... things!
Lei and Sidney Malik: ♥HUG♥
Lei Malik: ...along with the odd baby ...if we have time. :-)
Luxuria: watches group of Barber cousins and aspiring mothers-in-law fighting over Ben At least I escaped all this irksome marital fidelity. But what woman could pin me down?
Miss Acedia: surprise glomp deathlike grip
Luxuria: Gnnnnnnn! struggles in vain to escape
>:=)>
Oh dear XD
Nicola may have an ongoing preference for female partners, let us remember.
True. Vee was going out with her. And Vee used to be Harry's hunting partner before they split up, apparently with acrimony. Come to that, back in those days, a woman who wore men's clothes (as Harry always does) or smoked a pipe in public (as Harry habitually does) would be indicating (at the very least) that they were not suitable for gentlemanly courting anytime soon, and could even be indicating that they didn't play for that particular team at all. Which rather puts a different complexion on the whole thing. Did Harry and Vee split over a lovers' falling-out? Did Vee decide to try out another likely-looking Barber girl? Is Harry able to work alongside Sid because he exists far enough from the normal male types? ...Yup, back to Shipping-pattern Normal: All Frankly Uncombobulated. At least that leaves Sid free for Lei...
Lei: X-D
Kate mentioned once that Harry is straight, which makes me wonder if part of the reason Vee is so bitter about the breaking up of the partnership might be that she had feelings for Harry that weren't returned.
Vee: B-but you wear a suit with trousers and smoke a pipe! None of the other huntresses are so unladylike! How can you not be a lesbian, and a butch lesbian at that?!
Harry: ......
Vee: I mean, you're carrying me in your arms right now, like- like- tears form sudden anger Do you mean that I've spent all this time with you and endured your pipe smoke for so long for nothing?? And do you really think that I would actually have twisted both ankles at once like that??
Harry: stops walking So your ankles are fine then? drops Vee Then I shall take myself and my pipe away. walks off
>:=)>
Have I mischaracterised Vee there? Maybe, maybe not - we don't know what she was like before the breakup.
It's also possible that Vee's relationship with Nicola helped tank her partnership with Harry some way, either by "I can't believe you're going out with my sister! You know we don't get along!" or by "I can't believe you broke my sister's heart! How could you?"/"You don't even get along"/"It's the principle of the thing!"
I don't have the encyclopedic memory that others seem to, but as I recall the conversation where Nicola was depressed over her (lost?) relationship, Harry seemed quietly sympathetic in a way that was not fraught like you might expect from siblings who'd been involved with the same lover.
Not to mention that Harry may have a preference for humans rather than Deadly Sins...
Indeed!
Oh ho.
I have to say I'm with Mal on this. Can they handle binding both Greed and Lust at the same time? Or is Greed actually willing to help them bind Lust, even though the end game will involve binding Greed as well? (Greed certainly realizes this, even if it hopes to escape.)
And now I wonder if the unusual circumstances of freeing Greed (the cave, the statue, the map and all) and Luxuria designs are somewhat connected with each other.
It's not often that Mal is the cautious, sensible one - which means you should probably be listening to him, Harry...
I like that Mal is calling her 'Arry now. They really have become friends.
F is for friends who do stuff together!
U is for you and me!
N is for anywhere and anytime at all!
Okay, Sidney, calm down, there.
Yeah I really thought it would be Mal who would be compromised by Greed not Harry.
You know what I want now, which is probably influenced by the fact that I was recently rereading the short story of the Henry/Izzy wedding? For The Witch to be able to preform weddings inside Widdershins city limits, and for Harry to rope him into preforming her's when she eventually marries Sid.
Any wedding performed by Mal would probably end up having an...unconventional form of words!
Mal starting to call Harry by her nickname reminds me that what I want is for Ben, when this is all over and the outside and inside teams meet up again, to walk up to Mal and say something like, "I know you didn't want any of this, but you did a good job, and we couldn't have done it without you........Mal."
Interesting, I've never seen "Harry" as a nickname, but as just a form of her first name. (Like "Benji" and "Vee", yes. :))
About Ben using the name "Mal", I thought about that, certainly. But this name seems to me somewhat... Wolfe-specific, so to speak. :) And it is remarkable that Mal calls Wolfe by his surname (and Wolfe used a "malform" of O'Malley), but he called (when he did and before "Benji") Ben by his first name. There's a chance that Mal doesn't like name "Jack", though.
Your response is interesting to me too - I've always thought of the term "nickname" as covering shortened versions of someone's first name (like "Harry") as well as the kind of nickname unrelated to their real name. Maybe it's a language difference.
It's not just Mal - nobody ever calls Wolfe Heinrich, even Voss, the only other German-speaker in the cast. I wonder if he doesn't like his first name either.
Yeah, and with Voss there's the same asymmetry that with Ben, Wolfe called them by the first names. (There was one exception when Envy took Voss' mind and he fell to his knees, Wolfe asked "Voss? What happened?")
It makes more plausible that Mal doesn't like his first name, Wolfe knows that and so, doesn't use it.
Greed has a point... But, so does Mal. Hmmn.
Never expect much loyalty from a vice... Never.
I don't know about that - my vices have always been all too eager to stick around!
Likewise. Sloth is my most faithful companion. ^_^
What would Mal want more than anything else? The choice on whether he got to see the spirits. I think Lust will try to abuse that want.
If Mal learned anything in Green-Eyed Monster, it was that the Sight is a much more deeply ingrained part of who he is than he ever realized. I don’t think the chance to give it up would tempt him now.
I wholly agree, but Lust may not actually know that. Hopefully.
And Greed is confirmed as probably the smartest of the other sins... can't say I'm super surprised. :)
So Ms Cunningham's pride is strong enough to keep a Deadly Sin in the world, but Macavity's avarice is not. Says it all really,
Ms. Cunningham is the best, and don't you forget it!
Greed is a wheeler and dealer. An untrustworthy one. Tread carefully.
While the deals might not be fair, there is nothing that indicates Greed is untrustworthy. He kept his previous agreement with Harry & Sid.
By untrustworthy, I meant he doesn't tell you the full parameters of the deal...until after you make it.
Like making a deal with the devil.
Is this working now?
OK cool. So..
a) I'm caught up. Yay!
b) You moved some slightly spoilery character Q&As before the start of this chapter.
c) This comment system is giving me a headache.
d) Hi! Oh wait this really should've gone first huh
Greed seems... different than a lot of the other spirits. So I'm wondering what he has to say here.
Strangely enough, in every depiction I've seen Greed in, it's always been moderately down to earth and willing to help, or at least accept when it's been outplayed. I'm pleasantly surprised that Avarita is the same!
Hmm... they could indeed strike up a deal where Greed gives off the impression that it has been sealed and trick Luxuria into jumping the gun. I get the feeling that Luxuria is trying to pull the same kind of gambit that Alex pulled in the Golden Sun series.
And where is that errant monkey-wrench Acedia?
Good point about Acedia, ugh.
Huh. Greed for knowledge. Clever.
Here's a thing: The Seven Deadlies have to be unsummoned in the reverse order that they were summoned. Lust has been out for who knows how long... and Greed was bound to the mark of the king of thieves and a statue for who knows how long. So only Greed and Lust know which one was summoned first. If Greed was summoned first, and he gets unsummoned now, then that means that they skip Lust. And that means that they won't be able to unsummon Lust. But if Lust was summoned first, and they unsummon him, they'll skip Greed. That means that they can't unsummon Greed. So, be very careful about who you unsummon next, you two...
Interesting theory!
Ah, as Heylir points out, is the freeing that matters, not the summoning. [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-24th-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-24th-2016/")
> The Seven Deadlies have to be unsummoned in the reverse order that they were summoned.
In the reverse order that they were freed. Envy was summoned three years ago, before Sloth was, for example.
True. But the others were freed from a much less complicated summoning. Greed's was a lot more complicated, requiring the Mark be brought to a specific place, and Greed only being able to be freed under very specific conditions.
[https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/january-4th-2012/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/january-4th-2012/")
That looks a lot like something that someone would do if Greed was already out, and they didn't have a means or knowledge to unsummon him properly. Why else would someone go through all that trouble? It's possible that with Greed, he might have escaped a summoning a long time ago, and then Lust tricked someone into locking the escaped Greed into the Mark, doing so that, if all Seven Deadlies got loose, anyone who tried to do the unsummoning would assume that Greed's release was done when they saw it done. But, which would be the escape that mattered, the first or the second?
Maybe someone had summoned Lust in order to find a way to contain a rampant Greed. After all, who would know more about conquering 'Want' than 'Desire'? But instead of telling them how to do it the right way, Lust told them how to do it in a way that benefited Lust's long term goals. Even if Lust didn't escape during that summoning, but on the next, it would still have set up its perfect escape clause.