Gonna be at MCM London next weekend! I'll have all 7 books, and may even be on a panel about webcomics on Friday! :O
Which also means one last update slowdown. There'll be a friday update next week but not a tuesday one, sorry once more.
Cast: Dr Esther Flack, Eliza Swift, Robert Hackett, Vincent Knott, Will Sharpe, Yasmin Rana
Comments (35)
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
Imbuing politicians with complacency? Not necessarily a bad thing. I can think of a few candidates who would benefit from the procedure.
Doesn't sound bad....until you realize that somebody would still be giving that person orders. And you won't know who they are....
Everyone loves a revolution
spin in a circle, 'til it comes round
everyone loves a revolution
'til it's on your doorstep, 'til it's on your ground
I was hoping complacency would mean the politician would think getting their Great Idea passed wasn't worth the effort, and retire from public life. Perhaps we should throw in a bit of sloth, just to be on the safe side.
Yes. "Complacency" carries the implication of "It'll turn out just the way I want it to, even if I don't do anything... so I can relax, there's no need for me to exert myself."
It doesn't change how the person feels about the Great Idea. It just persuades them that Somebody Else will do the work, so they don't have to.
If the person is already tired, or ill, or also busy with a lot of other things, that provides a colourable excuse for not acting. It's interesting that Councillor Rana yawns (so she IS tired), and agrees that "becoming mayor" isn't all that important (so she's NOT motivated by a desire for raw power or the office itself.)
I think if Flack had tried to suggest that ending the death penalty wasn't important, she'd have run into a lot more resistance.
ETA: Unfortunately, most of the politicians you have in mind are not so altruistic. Like Hackett, their true goal is power. Complacency would, at most, have them spending less time on fund raising and campaigning, and more on using (or misusing) whatever power they already possess. Not necessarily a good thing, although this COULD, on rare occasions, if they get complacent enough, expose them to an unexpected response from voters.
Wait a second... did Flack just invent the [SEP-field generator](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Somebody_Else's_Problem_field "https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Somebody_Else's_Problem_field")?
Yes, exactly! (Though -- a sign of age -- I had to google to remember that S.E.P. is from Life, the Universe and Everything: "Somebody Else's Problem")
This seems like a Knottey problem. It should be solved by a Knottey boy. Preferably with one sharp, swift cut.
And that's why every main character could use a magpie spirit
No evil meeting place is complete without a chalkboard schedule.
What does that say? "8am, chance intruder"?
"Change diameter?", I think. Maybe she was experimenting with the size of the circle.
I like how she tells him to fire away, then proceeds to do everything herself.
haha that was me screwing up actually. originally intended to give those last two lines to hackett but the panel composition didn't work it work and i forgot to sort out that one other line. you'd have thought i'd notice it after staring at the page for 12 hours :V fixed!
Honestly, it seems totally in-character for her to do something like that
Sometimes mistakes are better than what you plan.
Knotty is actually the ideal person to do the sneaking around; he's small and dressed in dark colors, so he's less likely to be noticed in the shadows.
Huh, with that kind of camouflage its almost like he's... Knott there
Certainly opens up many possibilities for him to be naughty, no?
What I imagine Dr Flack's to-do list on the chalkboard to be:
To Do:
-----------
- grade student papers
- review journal submissions
- help Mayor Hackett with his election problem
- kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia!
Interesting that the spell also seems to make the target forget the casting in the first place, unless she's so complacent now that she just doesn't care what all the glowing was about.
I dunno, an elected official who's to slothful to do much of anything sounds pretty good right about now. In both our would and their town, which is 2 for 2 at hatching Plots for Gains.
Hmm, Flack says fire away and starts talking... now I'm pondering if she didn't test this on herself and is carrying a second spirit herself
And to our protag under the table aiming for the papers - that's Knott a good idea right now T_T
Mission Impossible? Knott today.
I love how Knotty's response to sheer terror is to basically turn into an action hero.
Action Lawyer!
Objection!
Take That!
Hold It!
...
Not Guilty.
×cheeeeers×
A number of people who have some form of chronic anxiety disorder are surprisingly good in a crisis. Because they can get quite good at hiding the fact that they’re having a panic attack, they’re used to having to do things while panicking, and they may know some coping strategies to help them function while panicking.
This obviously doesn’t apply in all cases, so don’t automatically expect your nervous associates to turn into action heroes in a crisis.
See also: Ben Thackerey.
When everything is scary, the scary things are normal by comparison :D
The last frame raises questions:
Are those pages the misssing essay?
If so why was Dr Flack working from them?
Does this mean Sharpe is a better wizard than we thought?
I think the "essay" was a clean copy of the work they'd been doing, so it was easier to read than her own copy, and may even have had the most recent revisions.
Interesting the subtle differences we pick up on what certain words mean in detail. While the results are often the same, I don't really see complacency as the same thing as laziness or tiredness. Not a criticism really, just an observation at how different the words can seem.
That yawn might be boredom rather than tiredness.
To be fair, the yawn could be a natural reaction to how ungodly early in the morning this meeting is taking place (6AM or so, isn't it?)... :P
The second panel - look at that smug smile. Is there a chance that Flack's spell got both of them? She's looking very complacent right now.