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Written by: Daphne • Inks: Plutonian Knight • Colors and Lettering: Octavia Moon

Aagh! Is this the advent of the dreaded Purple Plague and will she take out the watch and the crystal? Is she hot enough?

This isn't a trick of night lighting?  It's an opponent or problem for Erin with pink hair?  Oh boy.

Main Takeaway: Daphne is still on a mermaid kick.

Oh.  *sigh*  Maybe we'll see more of Mal later.

Say, if her name's Amalthia, were her parents hoping for unicorn camp?

It's not like this hasn't been extremely well telegraphed.

Him being in town does not mean they have to find the first convenient flat surface.

His presence could be interesting but where The Luckiest Programmer in the World has Reka as a balance, this guy is solo.  Besides, this guy has historically been a font of bad ideas.

Yeah, well, here's hoping Adrian can actually redeem himself a little bit and deal with this guy.

Winston is harmless and a little funny, though if I were Adrian I still wouldn't want him banging Erin. This guy is different.

Is there any need for me to point out that they have not actually done so?  Perhaps they will.  Or they might talk.  Or they might go to sleep, seeing as it's pushing oh-dark-thirty.


Perhaps I'm forgetting something, but I'm honestly not sure why you say that.  We've seen very little of Aiden so far in the comic.

I'll have to refer back to the guest pages, but wasn't the Conjuring Night that Warped Cherry his idea?

I'm pleased they haven't gotten physical yet, but the Weston experience has me skeptical.

I just scanned through the guest pages and can't see any evidence of that.  The only guest page that even features the relevant characters is g002 and that doesn't involve any planning for conjuring night.

Ok, I did some scanning through the regular comics and I think you have the situation exactly backwards.  When Cherry and Erin are discussing their back-story in #232, they have the following exchange:

Erin: "I did what I could.  I didn't know what you were planning."
Cherry: "Erin, we had talked about it."
Erin: "We had *joked* about it!  Neither of us could have done that safely!  Aiken said he couldn't do it!"

This pretty clearly indicates that Cherry's actions were not his idea.  If anything it suggests he was against it and Cherry went ahead anyhow.

A lot depends on tone and dynamics that feel like they're still in question.  We know that Aiken said he couldn't do the spell.  We know Erin read that as "Do NOT do this!!" but we also know that Cherry seemed unaware that Erin had healed her after the Bad Night.  Which is weird, because Aiken was there when she woke up and he could (and one expects should) have told her that.  If I'm reading that right, and that's a big IF, it does NOT look good for Aiken that this was new information for Cherry.

Also, the group dynamics are a little fuzzy.  We know that Cherry had an attraction to Erin.  We know that Aiken and Erin were in an intimate relationship before she left.  Were they exclusive?  How aware was Erin of Cherry's feelings?  Did they ever act on them?  Did Aiken and Cherry also play?  He was mentoring both in their Practice.

Cherry could have read the same comment by Aiken as a challenge regardless of tone, or he could have spoken about it differently to her.

to Erin:  "Even I can't do this.  Trying it would be completely irresponsible."

to Cherry: "Y'know, I can't do this.  It would be amazing if you succeeded.  I bet Erin would be really impressed."

That's the worst case scenario, though.

Or he could have said the same words to both Erin and Cherry and Cherry could have taken it as a challenge.  "They'll have to notice me...take me seriously when I succeed..." etc.

None of those interpretations, even if granted, supports the initial claim of Aiken as "a font of bad ideas".

Worst interpretation is that Aiken knew he was goading Cherry into trying it, didn't care, and then let Cherry think Erin abandoned her when Erin actually saved her life.

He seems to have done the last part for reasons that are still not clear.

I read it as he was the source of the idea for the summoning (brought it up in lessons, mentioned it in passing) that this initial seed piqued their interest and then the exchange that Erin and Cherry seem to have taken in opposite ways.

If you remember, I've had to work to erase my prejudice against Weston.  I might have to go through a similar process with Aiken.