Hostile
You may ask why Miss Maki is dressed as a cheerleader in panel 4. I couldn’t decide whether it was for a case, or whether her being a part-time cheerleader, totally at odds with her character, was a good character note for the imaginary manga she and Miyamoto star in. But had Wicked Things run on past issue 6, you would eventually have seen a whole issue of this.
Thanks to panel 4, I’m now worried about what happened to Miyamoto’s cat.
Probably in charge of a train station.
Thank you, I just learned something today about Tama the Station Master Cat
Mostly likely just became Maki’s cat.
Maybe it was Pom-Pom inspection day at the office?
Miyamoto and Maki are adults and whatever games they got up to is between them!
So the doppelganger was poisoning the waters back then but that leads us to the question we all have, is she still poisoning the waters now… or has she dragged herself ashore?
(insert ominous music and a view of ambiguous ripples at the water’s edge)
There have been no new incidents, so if she’s still alive she’s gone to ground.
Dun Dun DUNN!
Well, it sure was unfortunate that his sister intentionally mistranslated Charlotte when they met in person! Really muddled waters that were already muddled.
They aren’t siblings
Miyamoto-san and I have one thing in common: having a cat who lies on our desks.
Mine was very honest and only told the truth on my desk.
When my cat White died, we buried her with a marker that said, “White lies here.”
This story may be apocryphal.
Ah, I remember paper and envelopes.
I remember paper, 1949
and envelopes, Royal Mail
and old Beaujolais wine
I really now want to see a prequel of Miyamoto and Maki solving mysteries in 80s and 90s Japan in line with movies and anime like Tampopo, Maison Ikkoku, Patlabor, etc.
My assumption is that Maki would be wearing a different costume for every appearnece, with no explanation sought or offered. Surgeon, beekeeper, racing car driver, 17th century Polish hussar…
I can imagine in another life, Maki being an pop teen idol that no one remembers anymore who moon lights as a teen detective.
Actually mu question is why Miss Maki didn’t tell Lottie about the doppelganger. Miyamoto’ last words were about that. Was she so sure Lottie had a split personality to never think about others possibilities?
Maki was in a very emotional state the last time she saw Lottie. Telling Lottie about those letters may have simply not occurred to her. And she and Lottie clearly didn’t stay in touch afterwords.
Personally, my first thought whenever someone behaves erratically is NOT “does this person have an evil doppelganger trying to destroy their life”?
Well hopefully this Solver adventure will change your first thoughts in future
In the final panel, she says that she thinks he always knew the letters were from a doppelgänger. It doesn’t sound like she knew that he was thinking that at the time. So, she probably didn’t know what his last words meant until now.
Why would she, on meeting sane Charlotte, immediately put incoherent Charlotte’s words to Miyamoto? Methinks she felt herself the true scion of his legacy.
If memory serves, she explained why she did that when she spoke with Claire in Wicked Things.
Funambulists have more fun.
Funambulists literally ambulate on fun. That’s the etymology.
Okay, so ambulate means walk. And in this case, fun means rope, like also in funicular which literally means “little rope-er”.
Anyways I think we should have more “-ambulist” words. How about “ovambulist” for someone who walks on (metaphorical) eggshells? Or “aquambulist” for someone who walks on water?
Let us not forget the whambulist, who complains about walking.
Or at least carelessly whispers about it.
Well played indeed, O Tim.
“Manambulist” for someone who walks on their hands?
“Solambulist” for someone who, everytime they go to the mailbox, gotta hold themself down?
“Pluvambulist” for someone who is walking, walking in the rain…
Circumhamperambulist: One who carefully steps around any topic that might otherwise result in an obligation to purchase a hamper.
I like “somnambulist”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jkhs_1FBcE
No need to go all the way to The Ventures, you only need to go as far as Swindon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbkl97FJITQ
Was Skelottie a separate entity or a part of Beate, that’s the unanswered question.
Two more comics to go.
I hope she’s a separate entity and she’s still possessing Bea. Another great possibility is that she’ll possessing Maki a day.
Pretending you are someone else in a paper letter is incredibly easy (and does not require plastic surgery). But impersonating them convincingly or coming across as their alternate personality would require knowledge of prior correspondence or other details that only you share. I am not tooo impressed with Miss Maki’s deduction there.
Yes! There is some weirdness in all this: How could Beate/Skelottie know that much about the correspondence between Lottie and Miyamoto-san? Then again, he was miffed about the letters but didn’t fall for the doppelgängering(<- is that a word?), but Maki-san did. But given that he knew all the time that there was a doppelgänger of Lottie, How did Beate manage to poison him, especially, he was a detective and thus should have an idea about the personality of the doppelgänger, from the letters – while Bitsy didn’t have that advantage but figured the doppelgänger out on a whim and sensed some danger from the doppelgänger.
Looks like I have a bunch of details but can’t put them together.
Beate simply disguised herself as a red postbox and placed herself near to Lottie’s residence. Then she just had to wait for Lottie to sent a letter to Miyamoto-san so she could steam it open to read it before resealing it and sending it on…
I saw that in a spy documentary series called ‘Danger Mouse’
Classic Man-in-the-Middle attack!
Well, the last panel tells us. He underestimated her threat (perhaps because she had only appeared via letter, whereas a strange person barging into your manse inherently carries more threat).
Both Beate and Maki have been pipped at the post by Charlotte’s skill and charisma, they likely struck up an unholy alliance to bring her down (wannaBeate and “assistant and translator” but not mentee)
I would pay good money to see you create a Miss Maki/Miyamoto crime solving manga