Serfs
It’s a simple matter to have your hub converted to Dark Web running. Just talk to your ISP. Ahhhh, who am I kidding? Openreach said they’d come back to clip the broadband cable to my house wall back in July, citing a “shortage of long ladders”. No sign. No sign.
Chekhov’s dark web. Or red key.
If you need a physical key, perhaps that means the Dark Web is physically separate from the regular Internet, rather than just being logically separate.
Then again, maybe it’s magically separate…
“I’ve set your hub to default to the Dark Web.” Brian knows Tom very well, doesn’t he.
I’m glad to see that somewhere under all that… normalcy… Brian’s still Brian.
A “shortage of long ladders”? John, I think you may want to bring a complaint to the BLC.
A long-ladder shortage is but one of the many undesirable consequences of titting about on them.
I like the little oxymoron he’s got going there.
Certainly better than a longing for short ladders!
I must say, that looks like quite the isolated bothy. Just how big are the grounds of the CoS?
And you DON’T tit about with long ladders. Or any ladders.
The wiggle lines in panel 5 just slay me.
I’m just checking, everyone is hearing Brian as Nick Frost, right?
Stop reading my mind, Farrell!
A remote second would be Manny from Black Books.
An even more remote third would see Tom as Harry and Brian as Ken from In Bruges. The Bothy would then have to be in the Market Square in Bruges, so I’m saying it’s a very very remote third.
Nah, I’m hearing him as my old mate but anglified. But I’m from the states so cultural cues don’t always (often) line up.
I hear Tom as The Great Vorelli from “Devil Doll” of MST3K fame.
Pretty nice router that can put you on TOR.
Untied laces. Nice touch
Well it still looks like Brian adheres to some aspects of “Do What Thoust Will.”
Or perhaps “Do What Thoust Customers Will.”
Well, at the end Brian is still the lovable naughty dude he was before, just with different look and passions. It’s not so bad and I hope Tom will go to drink with the person who’s probably his oldest and dearest friend.
Or, let’s be honest, his ONLY friend.
I wonder if for Tom not having friends is something to be proud or something to be ashamed. Maybe he has eome sort of an internal conflict about that.
OOooo, the Red Key. My ISP tech installer never told me how to score that. It seems we were not as tight as I thought …
Good to see Brian is wearing a boiler suit, sparing us the a sight of plumber’s crack – that really is going straight!
No doubt it’s a stipulation in his employment contract.
The red key?! That’s not for civvies, lest they flit between dark and light too often and summon the internet equivalent of a Balrog. And it’s a pain getting rid of one of those from your network once they start flinging around their burning digital whips, I can tell you.
Still, good to see there’s still a lot of Brian still there underneath the normie facade! I was very worried for a minute.
I’m pretty sure one of Tom’s goals in using the Dark Web is to summon the internet equivalent of a Balrog.
It’s not unlikely. This universe contains eldritch computers.
Is that Tom’s Pied-a-Terre in the grounds of the Church of Satan? Is this where he entertains ‘special’ friends?
Bloomin’ Virgin left me with a hub with a dodgy 𝔟͞𝔶͢ ̷𝔠̶𝔬҉͠𝔫ͪ͏͢𝔱̸̛ͯ𝔦̡̂͞𝔫̄́͡𝔲ͨ͘͡𝔦̶̍́𝔫͆̀͡𝔤̸̨͑̅͘ ̔͟͏𝔶̶̒͡𝔬̧̽͜𝔲̵̡͆ ͨ̕͝𝔞̒͜͝𝔠̸̧̄𝔠̨͞𝔢͘𝔭̴𝔱̡ ́𝔱̡𝔥̷𝔢͠ ͟͝𝔡̡̀ͅ𝔞̡̨̮𝔯҉̳͜𝔨̴̙͡ ̵̪͘𝔩̷͕̀𝔬̴̙͡𝔯҉̸͉͍͞𝔡̸̖͞’̴͉͞𝔰҉̺͡ ̧̧̗𝔠̢͇͝𝔬̢̫͟𝔬̡̧̯𝔨̧͠𝔦́𝔢̷𝔰͞ connection, it keeps flipping to the dark web and back, usually whenever the neighbours use their microwave. I keep meaning to get them out to fix it but I’m about 10 ready meals left to go streaming the unaired season 2 of Firefly 𝔖̨𝔞͞𝔱͘𝔞͞𝔫̸ ͟𝔴̚̕҉𝔬̶̸ͤ𝔲̵̛̽𝔩ͤ́̕𝔡̸ͬ͟ ̴ͦ͘𝔩̀̚͘𝔦ͩ́̕𝔨̏͏͟𝔢̿͟͟ ̨̾͘𝔱̧̧̽𝔬̴̢͗ ͧ͟͝𝔞̓҉̶𝔡̂͢͡𝔡̛̛̄ ̢̧̄𝔶ͪ́̕𝔬̒̀͟𝔲ͪ͠͝ ̸̨͂𝔱ͧ̀̀𝔬̢ ̀𝔱̀𝔥͠𝔢͢𝔦̡𝔯̶ ̢𝔭̡𝔯͠𝔬̀𝔣͞𝔢̭̀͠𝔰҉̵̝𝔰̯͟͜𝔦̷̙̕𝔬̸̗͞𝔫͈͘͠𝔞̷͔͘𝔩̢̠͟ ̶̛̫𝔫̛͍͞𝔢̨͔͜𝔱͝҉̹𝔴̙́͡𝔬̝͘͠𝔯̵̢̲𝔨͢͏̼ ̕͏̭𝔬̱͝͝𝔫̵͚͞ ̸͚͡𝔏̶̞͡𝔦̨̡̖𝔫̡͍͡𝔨̨𝔢͠𝔡̀ℑ̧𝔫҉
I’m trying to figure out if Brian’s werewolf curse has been domesticated (weredog) or just fully lifted.
Or maybe it’s been increased to the extent that all his former wildness is now concentrated in his werewolf form, leaving him basically normal the rest of the time? Or maybe the change he’s undergone has nothing to do with whatever was done to his curse.
He’s become a Wirewolf.
“A change is as good as a holiday.”
This inspired the uncomfortable memory of (briefly) working a 9 to 5 job. Drive to the job during the morning rush hour. Work until 10.30. 15 minute break in the break room (no, you can’t read in the mail room by yourself, company rules). Half-hour for lunch. Work until 2.15. Another break. Down tools at 5 and drive home in the evening rush hour. Saturdays and Sundays off.
Can’t say I miss it going back to 2nd and 3rd shift work, but it was a holiday.
Hmm.
On the one hand, Brian seems happy.
On the other hand, Billie seemed happy with the Church of Satan until she learned of her curse.
Hmm.
It took Billie a bit to become happy with her place in the Church of Satan, though (as seen at the link below). And Brian’s line about how is change is “as good as a holiday” makes me think he sees his transformation as temporary. https://steeple.church/comic/bwaak/
That reminds me, I wonder if Tom considers Billie’s departure to be a win or a loss. On the one hand, he kind of *wanted* her to leave but on the other, he wouldn’t have been able to stand the idea of Penrose “winning.”
Bob Warren has an iron in this fire too. Billie was part of Tom’s defense against Bob’s Trident. Now that Billie has left the COS we may see Bob returning to torment Tom.
Given what we’ve seen of Bob a couple of pages ago, that may no longer be a problem for Tom.
I can’t believe it was that easy. We shall see!