March 19th, 2014
20 Mar 2014 · page 341 of 1306
And that's it for Piece of Cake! Thanks for reading, I know this one was a bit of a departure, but I hope you had fun with it all the same. If you liked it, please consider supporting the comic! There are a lot of ways to do it, look to the buttons to the right of the page for links to donate, buy books, or just vote on TWC and get us a little more exposure. Thanks!
Widdershins will be back on March 31st!
Until then, I'll be sketching character responses to reader questions. If you have a question for any character, from the last story or any before, ask in the comments, or via tumblr here.
Cast: Alexa King
Comments (56)
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Very cute, Kate! I'm working on my budget, to send you a little allowance each month.
I see what you did there.... When Nora and Alexa had tea and brownies together, Nora confessed that she had a husband and a daughter.
[http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/october-16th-2013/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/october-16th-2013/")
Later, she had a son. And she named him Alexander.
Alexander is gender-neutral. It could be a girl.
no, alex is gender neutral. alexander is male. alexandra is female. So sayeth Alexander the So So.
My wife is Alexandra. ^^
Agree, Alexander is a male name, Alexandra is the female form. As in many other names where there's a male and female version, the abbreviation is gender neutral.
It's not your fault, but I've had it up the HERE with gender politics.
If Nora had a second daughter, she might have named the child "Alexa."
But whichever of the latest 13 genders that child might have been, we are happy that the child was named after our Alexa -- the one with the many metal piercings and the rabbit tattoos. A sweet ending to a cute and clever tale.
You're completely right, Del! And I noticed that, too, that her son (see below on gender of the name) was most probably named after Alexa. The one who restored Nora back to her family. What a great ending! And yes, clever, too, because now we all want to know what'll happen with Alexa's broken phone, whether it'll be given to Harry and how she'll know what to do with it.
I'm just happy that the phone hook means there will be another story about Harriet!!!!
Lighting a pipeful of British tobacco from Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. right now!
This is directed towards any knowledgeable mage in the cast who wants to answer.
Which of the deadlies is considered the worst and why?
Traditionally, Pride is often held as the most sinful and dangerous of the Seven Deadly sins, and in many interpretations is also the originator of the other six.
I am down with the theology of sin. But as personification goes, Gluttony has been the worst by far (self-directed in his evil), and Sloth was the most widespread in effect. Pride was of little consequence.
Anger and Lust could be fierce in their ability to provoke widespread damage (as a quick glance at the real world confirms). I am one reality and a whole ocean away from Widdershins, and I'm still scared of those two!
I really wanted to know what was up with that butler. Was he a duplicate like mrs Sykes? Was he mind controlled? Or was he naturally "evil"?
Will we be seeing him again in the next exciting episode?
I'm wondering that too, especially since Sam the apparent future-agent-man was chastised for fighting him. Curious to see how he might be significant later.
Considering Gluttony's amusement over being in control of humans, he was probably just a standard thug doing his job. So I suppose "naturally 'evil'" would be the best of those options, though that seems a bit, shall we say, overly melodramatic.
I want to see what the "FYEAH BARBER SISTER" link is all about.
So many nice details in this page. Both Ms King's email addresses, the annoying ad offering to remove annoying ads, the clipped web pages that limit the information we get, so not to spoil the rest of the story but telling us what we want to know, Rosie's signature in the book - and Ms King still sitting in the aisle seat when the window seat is empty. At least this train looks fairly empty.
So Ms King. Do you know a good recipe for rabbit pie?
Of COURSE there'd be a Barber sisters fan-Tumblr. Frankly, I'm surprised there isn't one in real life.
Welll you're welcome to create it ! :D
On that note, I looked at the alexa-rah tumblr and the first post right now is about a cook which reminds me a little bit of Alexa:
[http://alexa-rah.tumblr.com...](http://alexa-rah.tumblr.com/post/78997041969/owls-parliament-jack-monroe-is-a-25-year-old "http://alexa-rah.tumblr.com/post/78997041969/owls-parliament-jack-monroe-is-a-25-year-old")
Coincident?
The family tree demystifies further! There's only one Barber yet to be revealed - I hope he's as neat as the rest have been!
"many credit with the possible find of a" - that sounds interesting!
Now that the comic is over: I appreciate how this story did not try to shoehorn in an extraneous romantic angle for Alexa. Not that there's anything wrong with Doomed Love or whatnot, but it wouldn't have fit the general tone of this story.
Alexa was a pretty solid character generally. And I kind of want to get that apron for my sister-in-law. Heck, I wouldn't mind one.
Damn right. We have to fight back against the shippers. Give characters the right to be friends.
Or just fight no-one, because it's all good, thanks :3
... I didn't mean fight in the fisticuffs nor swordsmanship sort of way... Just a sort of... constant... active... counterpressure against that sort of thing.
That also sounds kind of... unfriendly though? Shipping's pretty harmless, and it doesn't affect where I plan to take the story and characters, people saying 'these two consenting adults would be way cute as a couple' isn't really a thing I see as a problem.
Ship or don't, I'm just happy whenever people are thinking about the characters and their dynamics!
An idea is only as harmless as it is isolated. The very concept of shipping is considerably widespread to the point where it exerts an uncomfortable degree of influence upon the creation and progression of works of fiction.
Seeing as I favour social realism over the social idealism that shipping is categorically a part of (largely because social idealism has called me much trouble personally), it is in my interests to discourage it wherever possible.
It isn't anything personal against the shippers themselves, obviously. They're just hosts for the meme.
Has anyone Googled Nora Fenton and found this: [https://www.youtube.com/wat...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDFh-CDmUyc: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDFh-CDmUyc:") The resemblance is amazing!
OK, so I looked, and then I looked at the other video she has of herself, and I grabbed several frames with good profiles. And then I went back and looked at 'our' Nora. And I think you are suffering, like so many here apparently do, from Everybody-looks-like-a-Fenton-itis.
The body type is different, the chin is different, the lips are different, the nose is different. The hair color is different, and the hair texture is different. The eyebrows are similar.
Sorry if that makes me a grumpy cat, but...well check the icon.
Either that's an awfully wide seat or Alexa's butt is awfully narrow to have room for her and the trophy in one seat.
Brilliant, Bravo, AUTHOR AUTHOR! Do thay say that? Well they do now.
First entry is from "...Widdershinswiki.com/Barber_..." well played.
The ad in Panel 5 highly amused me. :)
Ah yes brilliant marketing "Don't want to see me or my kind? Click here for details."
Oooooh I have a very serious question for Mr. Malik:
Will you marry me? x
On a completely side note- I cracked up when i noticed the "one weird trick to banish banner ads" in panel five
Her screen name is Alexa-rah! I thought that tattoo was reminiscent of Watership Down...
Yep! She's got El-Arairah on one arm, the black rabbit of Inle on the other, and Lord Frith on her hip.
I know I'm beyond late to the party, but after rereading this whole arc after the next one started - is this the first arc that didn't contain any clues as to the next one? Or am I totally missing a reference somewhere?
Apart from the phone? Nah, it was in its own bubble, really. Made it a bit hard to drop in hints.
Gotcha! I figured that was probably it, but I wanted to be sure I wasn't missing any hints. Thanks for confirming!
Could you provide a sketch of Alexa-rah's hip tattoo, please? (All I can see is a sunburst, which might be the whole of Lord Frith, in which case please don't bother.)
It's Frith, indeed. I liked her tattoos enough to get a version of them myself, actually.
Thank you!
Is it wrong for me to want the secret agent and the gay guy (can't remember their names) to meet in the future -- where the former is clearly from if he has time travel abilities -- and recruit the latter for Dr. Who style adventures?
Hah, they would definitely have a Fifth Doctor/Turlough vibe going on.
Indeed, indeed!
Extremely satisfying conclusion! I just have two questions: just how many Barber sisters are there, and will we ever see them all together at once?!
How is it that I only just now, over 5 years later, noticed the banner ad with a clickbait lure about... blocking banner ads? Brilliant joke, almost made me spray water all over my keyboard.
I know it is only a small part of it. And I am really to the party but I love the Quickmail design.
okay I read this chapter while watching a cake baking show and lemme tell you gluttony was definitely lurking near my house today
ohh I'm not the first person to point it out, but it just clicked for me that Nora named her son after Alexa! That's super cute aa
I try to avoid commenting during archive binges when I'm this far away from present day, but I thought it would be right and proper to let you know I laughed out loud at the banner ad. Bravo!
I felt like this was a good arc to tell you that I'm currently reading this 10 years in the future, and I can't believe how good it still is.
It's this and Octopus Pie, those are the only two webcomics that I still love dearly.
Please get show rights. PLEASE.
Oh man, really liked this chapter. Satisfying to see the hotel kitchen team back in their own times. Sam, what?! The twistiest! Alexa and Harry, their legacies lasting into the future! And my favourite thing on this page: Alexa's mum's email address