Gathering of the witches
Ordering a Pumpkin Spice cauldron :p
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Once again, I am in the unfortunate position of the antagonist experiencing something I sympathize with. I’ve more than once been in the unfortunate position of being so saturated in a smell that you can’t get rid of it with a shower. Two out of three times, it’s just the scent being stuck in your nose, so I hope Larissa’s 15 showers weren’t just how long it took that to clear out. (She might also have just been trying to get rid of it too fast and failed; that was the other one out of three.)
On a more relatable note (again), I hope Liz realizes what Larissa and Dinah are doing and abandons ship before they hit the choppy waters.
Nah, Liz is playing double-agent. Everything they talk about this afternoon get retold to McThunderpants.
I like your worldview and I want to believe it. But I’ve been burned too many times before to accept it before it actually happens in the comic. People who are exploited in the way Liz has been – not for her money but to leverage her innocence – tend to not see it for far too long. It’s not just a matter of telling them once. They’re so stuck in the thought that people only exploit people for money or tangible goods – a thought that’s encouraged by their abusers. Plus, they’re subject to the sunk cost fallacy, as people are taught to stand by their friends, and until they recognize that these people were never their friends, that established friendship seems like it has a lot of worth – after all, it’s so hard for them to make friends (in large part, due to the `friends` they already have.)
That was a joke on the last page, I don’t really believe she actually is one. Though I do think Liz might try to stop Larissa or rat her out if/when she realizes what’s going on. She’s definitely going to be mighty offended that Larissa called them together as an excuse for her to once again try to get revenge on Kaya.
*after the trio wanders around the festival for a bit Larissa spots Kaya & Cleo and has her group duck into an alley*
Larissa: Ah! There they are! C’mon girls I’ve got something special in mind for this time!
Dinah: Oh? Ooooh! Yeah, payback time!
Liz: ………
Larissa: Hey Liz c’mon they’re getting away.
Liz: I can’t believe this, you…. you…
Larissa: What? C’mon they’re getting away.
Liz: You knew they were going to be here! And you used us getting together as an excuse to go after them again!
Larissa: Shhh, not so loud! Yeah ok, maybe I didn’t tell you two everything about getting together –
Liz: No, you deliberately left it out!
Larissa: Look you don’t mention some things online, especially with a snoop like what’shispants with them!
Liz: It’s Nate and you –
Larissa: Hey whatever it is save it for later. We gotta move or we’re or gonna lose them in this crowd. Let’s go!
Liz: … no
Larissa: Excuse you, what?!
Liz: I SAID NO! Whatever it is you are plotting leave me out of it!
Larissa: …alright fine, you want to let them get away with ruining our friendship then fine. But before we go: Dinah, her phone!
Dinah: *snatches Liz’s phone* Got it!
Liz: What, hey!
Larissa: You can have this back later, but I’m not having you try to call and warn them. We’ll meet back at the diner later once this is done. Don’t try and stop me Liz! C’mon Dinah!
*Larissa & Dinah step out of the alley in pursuit of Kaya & Cleo while a distraught Liz watches, anxious and confused about what she should do*
Hmmm, that last line: Should be “anxious & conflicted” instead of confused.
I find it interesting that Robin is writing a relatable antagonist.
If Larissa had actually been wronged, then she would be seen as brave and righteous for trying to stand up to enemies who are both stronger, tougher and numerically superior. Readers would praise her for not giving up, and hope that her current plot would work and she would have her revenge. That must be how it looks from Larissa’s point of view. She feels that she has a right to Cleo’s money, which Kaya has unjustly taken from her, and she won’t give up just because the enemy is stronger. It’s just that Larissa is wrong about having been wronged, and won’t admit it.
I don’t relate to anything regarding Larissa’s motivations or attitude. I just relate to her minor sufferings like flame-induced hair loss or a persistent stench. She still deserves everything that’s happened to her since she met Kaya.
this, totally…. people who try to blame others for their own failings and mistakes are inherently unrelatable, so no sympathy for larissa from me….
Is that a Starbucks proxy, or are they at an actual restaurant? I would think that they wouldn’t fill up before the food festival properly started, but that looks like a menu on the table in front of Larissa.
There’s a Trope for it:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlandNameProduct
That’s not what I meant. I think I worded my question wrong. What I mean is, is that a coffee-shop, or is it somewhere you get a proper meal? (I don’t consider coffee shops to be RESTAURANTS so much as drink vendors.) Larissa’s cup looks Starbucks-esque, which implies the former, but the menu on the table implies the latter.
Does it really matter?
I find this comment interesting because it reminds me of reading about cultural differences regarding coffee.
In places like US, there’s a big difference between a place where you sit in and get food, and a place where you just buy coffee.
Whereas in places like and Australia (which copied Italy), they both have strong cafe cultures, where there are very few places which just ‘have coffee’ (unless it’s a mobile coffee van or something). Instead we have more cafes and the like which offer food and coffee, and a strong concept of sitting down, eating and drinking (in pre 2020 times anyway).
So the fact that you don’t consider coffee shops to be restaurants is alien to me.
Of course, this comic is set in America or a fictional counterpart, written by someone from Belgium(?), so the intent is up in the air.
The reason I’m asking is that there’s a food festival going on. One would think that with so many dining options available that aren’t normally there, they wouldn’t be eating at a usual place in advance. For Larissa, that makes sense if she’s focusing purely on revenge today, but she got her friends’ attention by inviting them to join her at the food festival, which would make a restaurant rendezvous conspicuous.
I saw it as a cafe/burger joint that also does food and drink to go.
I see it as, they aren’t interested in the food festival. If Larissa and co fill up on food before the festival, there’s less chance that they will find something likable about anyone associated with the twins.
I’d like to think that this would be something Liz would pick up on. I’ve been in a similar situation and did – but I wasn’t in as deep as she is, and I’m autistic enough to feel like an outsider in most groups of people who are actually my friends, let alone false friends.
To be clear about my similar situation: I was invited by `friends` to go to a food festival that they wanted to disrupt. They had a specific target in mind, someone with whom I was not yet friends because of my `friends`’ influence. I had not been exploited to get money from somebody else as far as I’m aware, but I was definitely exploited to make them seem more sympathetic to people. Seemingly everyone has heard of guilt by association, but they were looking for a perception of innocence by association, which is the flipside concept that fewer people seem to recognize.
Kinda like this, yeah. Or maybe Larissa is eating first because she wants to minimize her visible time at the Food Festival in order to minimize the risk of being caught and blamed for whatever she has in mind.
‘Double, Double, here comes trouble,
ovens burn and Fish stew bubble;
where we meet, upon this day,
we’ll cause worry,; let us play.
Where we’ll fillet our old snake,
the one whom the Dragon did take;’
Eye so green and wrath so wrong
She has others under her song.
Scale of Dragon and Canine fur,
she’ll make others do for her.
Her plans unknown, her power slight
much mischief will fall before tonight
Let those who stand against her fall,
Larissa comes for them; one and all.
One of the Harry Potter movies made a song out of that old quote, and I’ve been incapable of reading it straightforwardly without putting it to the tune despite not having seen the movie in ages. This week’s poem does a good number towards ending that habit, just because good poetry isn’t written with intention to put it to a song.
I’m just thankful the system accepted it without a fight this week. Last week I did 3 poems in half an hour before I found one the sstem would let me put up. I think it blocks posts with certain words but, as we don’t know those words…
I would love to know those words as well, but the plugin doesn’t seem to have a list that I can easily access. I would disable it, but it is still blocking bot spam regularly, which we also don’t want to get through. I’ll look into it, though.
By the prickling of my thumbs;
something goofy this way comes.
So, the 3 Stooges meet again. Must be the Shemp years, since nobody can be Curly….yet.
>:)
I think that Larissa is subconsciously aspiring for that part, but she’s just not sufficiently competent to qualify.
Yet.
Double Double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
is it naive of me to hope that liz has genuinely learned her lesson – and plans to lure her ex-besties into a trap?
Unless there was some other talking, that invite sounded like it was to hang out at the food festival. I don’t think she realizes it is a revenge attempt. Hopefully she will work it out in time tho…
These 3 together to converse does not bode well for things, still should prove interesting though.
I’m confused why is Liz here? she was gotten to…?
You can’t always expect a friendship since childhood, even a toxic one, to be so easily abandoned.
Liz no doubt hopes that all thoughts of revenge is in the past, and hopes to be able to keep her friendship without sacrificing her integrity.
After all, Larissa invited her to come along to the food truck rally, how could that possibly be a bad thing, maybe she wants to make up for the trouble she caused?
I would imagine that if Larissa were to skip back into her old ways, Lizzy would object. Perhaps strongly…. And perhaps Larissa knows that…
Besides, Lizzy does not have a force of nature and true friend like Kaya to convince her to leave her existing friends, like Kaya did for Cleo.
Larissa may even consider Liz a betrayer and try to make her the fall-guy for whatever she herself has planned.
Liz wants to believe her friends aren’t as bad as they seemed to be the last time she was with them, and confirm just how bad they are if they are genuinely bad. And if her childhood friends do turn out to be lacking those good qualities she wants to believe they had, she’ll address it with an adult nearby or tied to what’s going to be going down. Unlike the other two, as was stated by Nate when they last interacted, her family has strong ties to hybrids with their business that caters to their needs and she grew up in an environment that enforced a very positive approach to interacting with hybrids, she’s also the one who is more hopeful and is basically the voice of reason among the trio. Although, Liz usually has her input disregarded by the other two when they think her input is unhelpful.
A common term for Liz’s stance is the “Loyal Opposition” which is a term used to describe someone who is loyal to the rest of the group but still feels a need to give statements that go against everyone else, and their input often gets them labeled as a traitor among their friends and allies, even though that is probably the farthest thing from the truth about them.
“Extra ‘eye of neat’ in mine, please!”
Some newt Hybrids at another table glare at the person making the order.
Probably also Carrie Henn.
Panel 5: There should be a comma at the end of “little”.
In this case it would be acceptable to insert a comma before “as well”, but it’s not in any way necessary. It’s wrong to say that the absence of a comma is an error.
Well ……… In the previous strip , Cleo was “checking on HER” : what if she’s stayed in touch with Liz (after some explanations since the museum) ?
Also, am I the only one who thinks Liz looks a lot like Naminé in that last panel?
A storms a gatherin’. It’s nice to see Liz looking happy, looks like she’s wearing a summer dress. But what we know of Larissa, I’m afraid that smile may not last too long.
So chances of Larissa ending up thinking working at her Uncle fishery was a GOOD offer by the end of this and she ends up with a more FUN record for later in life?
I’ll give you a 2% chance for her wishing she was back at the fishery. It was clearly the first time she’s been made to do any serious physical labor, and it was done as a punishment, which means they weren’t going easy on her because it was her first day. Not exactly a good impression of one’s first job experience. But maybe a 32% for the “trying to have more fun with her life after the food festival” angle (that might be an optimistic estimate).
I’ve known someone who was given a job as a punishment and had people give him an easy time on the first day. It was still a pretty intensive day, as they covered all of the normal two weeks of new hire training on an accelerated schedule. It wasn’t *that* tight of a schedule, since he’d been very clear that he was a perfectly reasonable person who just didn’t understand why people couldn’t be expected to learn everything the first time they were told something. So instead of that training covering everything ad nauseam, it was just covered once. That sped things up enough that they were able to have an extended lunch break and still cut out early at the end of the day.
Oh, but that second day… The second day, they expected him to actually have learned all of that stuff. Well, no, they didn’t, but that was the point. If I recall correctly, his father at first asserted that he was going to insist that the goober learned everything the hard way before letting him quit without giving up his inheritance. But after about a week or two, the father realized his son was going to cost him far more from all of the idiotic learning errors doing it that way was permitting, and he relented and just grounded his son for the time he’d originally been planning on grounding his son before his son attempted his idiotic defense.
No, I meant the working at the fishery would be a much better punishment than ending up in jail sadly I think she will end up there as each attempt at “revenge” keeps getting more and more out of hand.
Peoples’ opinions will vary on that front. Ending up in jail means being stuck in one location with limited food options and limited recreational measures – which might be unpleasant for some people, while other people will find that relatively mundane or even appealing. You behave well while imprisoned, you tend to avoid the worst of it. Going back to working at the fishery means dealing with fish (which Larissa clearly hates), being kept on task by her uncle (who clearly has no sympathy for Larissa disliking fish), and possibly having to deal with customers who are not always right (although we didn’t see Larissa doing anything with customer interaction, we also didn’t see much of her time at the fishery). We don’t know for sure which situation Larissa would prefer.
Some normalcy before things go down. Liz and Dinah have nothing to suspect so far. They may even get to actually enjoy the festival some before Larissa finds Marco & Cleo’s food trailer and starts whatever she’s planning.
Something smells fishy
And it’s not Larissa’s clothes
This looks suspicious
Hmm, I have the sneaking suspicion Lizzy might be a double agent this time. . .
Larissa: “Lizzy, how have you been, girl? Dinah, check her for a wire.”
I find astonishing Larissa didn’t say to her frineds she was working for her uncle, even just for the sake of complaining about it.
She DID just say she’s working at her uncle’s fishery. Or did you mean that it’s strange she didn’t mention it sooner?
I was meaning it looks like if she didn’t call her friends these last days, just for the need to talk to them. But maybe was her phone confiscated.
Hmmmm, you know, come to think of it: did Dinah’s parents have a serious talk with her or punish her in any way about what happened at the museum. She certainly didn’t try to stop Larissa or talk her out of trying to toss that stone ball at Kaya.