Webcomic / Magick Chicks

Now with 20% more Epic^note Top row: Ash, The Principal of Charablys High, Dusky. Middle: Cerise, Mel, Jacqui, The Mysterious Masked Acadamy Avenger. Bottom row: Sandi, Faith, Callista

Magick Chicks is a Spin-Off Webcomic of the series Eerie Cuties. The series focuses on three witches known as the Hellrune Coven: Melissa Hellrune, Jacqui Brightmoon, and Cerise Darkshade, who are "volunteered" to transfer to a new high school after the three were caught using (or at least trying to use) a forbidden magic artifact (you can read the story arc from the start here).

Once there, they find that 1) It's an all-girls school, 2) while they were queen bees at their old school, this new setting has its own ruling party in the form of the student council who're more than willing to show the three "the ropes," 3) it's led by a very powerful esper who practically has the whole student body wrapped around her finger, and 4) it's a school for monster hunters, and they consider "witches" to be monsters.

To say the least, trying to regain their popularity is the least of their worries.

It's co-written by both Gisèle Lagacé (who originally did the art) and Dave Zero1, with inks (and other inputs) by Shouri. As of February '12, the full art duties had been picked up by Cassandra Wedeking, who had worked on Evil Diva, but duties returned to Shouri in May '14, leaving Cassandra to work only on Dangerously Chloe.

Ran from 2011 to 2015, ending around the same time Eerie Cuties finished up, though Gisele does some one shots in the same universe on occasions.

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Tropes:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Justified.
  • They're all either psychically empowered, or badass normals, and their president happens to be the most powerful esper in the academy's history. Which is why Cerise's first move in taking over the school was to get rid of them.
  • At the end of Vol.4, Mel uses her authority as the new student council president to exonerate Cerise for the attempted murder of 9 students and for mind controlling the school. Then decrees that no one is allowed to come after Cerise for revenge.
• Action Girl: Applies to all but a few of the girls at Artemis, who range from badass normals, to psychically/magically empowered, all of whom are being trained to hunt monsters. Seeing as the cast is predominantly female and the setting being at an All Girl School for monster hunters in training, it's easier to count the ones who don't count.
• All for Nothing: The final gag. Cerise spends the entire series trying to usurp and otherwise one-up Melissa. This ultimately builds up into enslaving the school with Mass Hypnosis and several cases of attempted murder. In the epilogue, when Melissa finally gives her control, Cerise realizes that she never thought about what she would actually do with it and simply turns it back to her.
• All Girl School: Artemis Academy is an all-girl military school, much to the Hellrune Coven's disappointment.
• All There in the Manual: Though the comic's cast page hasn't been updated since it began, the one in the print edition for Vol.4 reveals the majority of the main cast is now a year older.
• All Witches Have Cats:
  • Mostly averted with the Hellrune Coven, but Melissa herself has one. Later, after Mel finally saves the cat of the little girl who'd been after Mel about that...then told by the little girl as she vanishes, "Sorry, but that's not my kitty..That's your kitty!", she ends up with a second cat, which tries and fails to flirt with the first. Jacqui is shown to have taken in one of Cerise's magicked puppies.
• Alpha Bitch: Faith is introduced as Artemis Academy's Student Council President, the most powerful esper in its history, and the most popular girl on campus. Whereas Melissa begins as a former "queen bee" from Charybdis Heights, who's determined to regain her old status by overthrowing Faith.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Tiffany is frequently irritated by her kid brother, Dusky:
  • She doesn't approve of him participating in breastplate raids at her school, especially since the guys at Apollo treat it as a game at the girls' expense.
  • One of the bonus strips for the print edition of Vol.4 implies he has a habit of walking in on her during her morning workout - which she does naked.
  • Also seen in a crossover bonus story for Eerie Cuties, where she takes him with her on a monster hunting expedition at the beach, except he keeps insisting there aren't any. And when Tracy Milligan shows up, Tiffany tries to ignore her, but Dusky fails to take the hint.
• Attackof The 50 Foot Whatever: In her nightmare Cute Witch Magical Girl Melissa is taunted by Faith, Jacqui, Cerise, and Layla after "Miss Hekate" calls her out for being "most unorthodox." The BIG Capper? A Not-So-Little-Anymore Girl has a Not-That-Little Matter of her cat to deal with Mel about.
• Art Shift: Due to the comic changing artists three time: Gisele^note artist for Vol.1 and most of Vol.2, Cassandra^note for the remainder of Vol.2, 'til the beginning of Vol.4, and Shouri^note took over art duties for the remainder of Vol.4.
• Bad Boss:
  • The Charydbis Principal used the Hellrunes to spy on Artemis by placing them under an amnesia spell - which could have gotten them killed. During their report, she dismissed Mel's concerns about Tiffany and wouldn't tolrate any notions about peace between their schools.
  • And in chapter 16, Cerise lashed out at Skye for not knowing whether Melissa had been teleported along with the student council - even though it was her plan and her own fault for not making certain it was carried out.
• Beach Episode: Starting here.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: At the series conclusion, Artemis has a new triumvirate: Melissa (the beauty), Sandi (the brain), and Tandy providing the brawn as the Ninja Club's captain.
• Becoming the Mask: Cerise. Originally she hooks up with Callie to get popular. Then she starts getting...feelings. And Skye gets some about Cerise too — and has Cerise reply in kind.
• Being Good Sucks: Lamshaded by the comic's tagline: "Being good never felt so bad!", which is Played for Laughs.
  • The series tries to reform Melissa, who stubbornly refuses to change. Which is why it's taking a wannabe vampire slayer and the influence of a magic wand working together to drag Mel kickng and screaming towards becoming a heroine.
  • Also seen during the series' second major crossover arc with Eerie Cuties, when the wand literally had to drag her away from her date with Ace, to make her save Brooke from Ash. Except Mel still wasn't feeling it. Made funnier when she ends up having to save Ash instead!
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Tiffany seems to think Rain and AJ have a thing for each other, but they're just good friends.
• The Bermuda Triangle: In chapter 16, Cerise said she teleported Tiffany, Jacqui, and the student council into a volcano, but didn't divulge its location. When Light Melissa saves them three chapters later, Jacqui speculates that they might've been somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle, because of the octopus-faced mosters they saw there.
• Big Bad: Chapter 15 has a Cerise with some of Hekate's power become this, with Skye as The Dragon to her (and who has the rest of the power that had to be siphoned off to stabilize Cerise).
• Big Damn Heroes: Tiffany shows up to try to covertly get the Hellrune Coven out of their first encounter with Faith and her followers.
  • Well, as covertly as possible when using a miniature robotic smoke bomb and carrying the three off in a full run...
  • Tiffany pulls an even bigger one after Faith nearly gets herself killed in a fight she instigates with Layla! Tiffany saves Faith, but couldn't bring herself to stake Layla either. So she Takes a Third Option by taking the bullet for Faith in order to save both. Not only does she succeed, it causes Faith to fall in love with her!
  • Melissa gets one of her own, by saving Faith and Tiffany from a pair of possessed students, during which, she's revealed to be a Magical Girl!
  • The return of the Student Council (and Tiff and Jacqui) from Cerise's attempt to eliminate them.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Melissa, Jacqui, and Cerise respectively as seen here.◊
• Book Ends: The comic began with the Hellrunes transferring to Artemis Academy, after they were expelled from Charybdis Heights. It ended with them leaving Artemis to return to their former school.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When the intruder alarm is sounded, Jacqui asks "Wuh-wuh-what's invading us?! Terrorists? Hipsters? Hipster Terrorists?!!!"
  • Also, Melissa's about to throw up... and pass out... and pass out throwing up.
• Break the Haughty: The transfer was meant as a form of this. Considering Melissa meeting Faith, time will tell how this goes.
  • Rain's defeat by Mel without magick use could be another one.
  • Mel's recent Eerie Cuties appearance has her going through Training from Hell with Tiff again, and she's bemoaning that she hates the Wand, Tiff, and being at a school without boys (which she laments as she realizes how much she missed that part).
• Brought Down to Normal:
  • After getting the boot from Charybdis, the Hellrune Coven went from being 'queen bees' to finding themselves on the bottom of their new school's social ladder. So Mel and Cerise each began trying to reclaim their old status.
  • Faith was temporarily stripped of her powers by an indirect attack from Hecate, which hadn't been intended for her.
  • By the end of the series, however, Faith has abdicated her position to Mel and is no longer part of the student council. Meaning, she's now an ordinary highschool student.
• Capture and Replicate: Midway into chapter 16, The Ninja Club abducted Dark Skye and had someone else take her place. Which allowed them to spy on Cerise and undermine her authority during the school's takeover.
• Catapult Nightmare: Mel in the first strip after dreaming that she was a Magic Maid. And recently when she falls asleep after being unable to remove her Cute Witch Magical Girl outfit. Though the second time that NOT-so-little-girl might have had something to do about that...
• Cats Are Magic: In addition to its girl spirit, a white cat is "included" with Melissa's Wand package. It seems inseparable from it, as it was already there when teenaged!Dakota beared the Wand as the magical girl "Musical Starlight". The nature of its link with the the spirit girl of the wand is never completely explained though. It doesn't seem to be a part of it, as unlike her, it's a very material being with no particular standing-out characteristic, except maybe its probable above average cat-lifespan. Like the Wand's spirit, its looks hace changed since the days of Musical Starlight, but very less so. Our cat simply has become quite chubby, if not outright overweight.
• Cat Up a Tree:
  • A situation Mel finds herself dealing with more than once. There are hints that this is some sort of Secret Test of Character relating to the wand.
  • A more physically-trained Mel finally rescue the cat...then gets told the cat's hers now by the vanishing little girl.
• Cerebus Syndrome: This comic has been Darker and Edgier than Eerie Cuties since day one, but since chapter 14, the storyline has turned significantly darker, with Cerise becoming a villainess, Jacqui and the student council being MIA and presumed dead, after Cerise teleported them into a volcano, and a suicide attempt from Anastasia/Dakota when they were merged, among other things.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: By default, humans in the story verse are about as strong and tough as they are in the real world. But with training, it is possible for anyone to accomplish feats that would be super human for us.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The girl from Mel's dream at the beginning of the comic winds up helping her break out of Faith's mind tricks.
  • And then later appears before Faith to reveal what's going on and give her a pep talk.
• Clothing Damage: The hazing and Ash's fight. The latter led to a Shirtless Scene.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: How Faith initiates the Hellrune Coven to the school.
• Continuity Lockout:
  • It was originally intended for readers to be able to follow the comic without having to read Eerie Cuties, which worked for awhile. But after two major crossover stories, certain events overlapping, and cameos between both comics, the two became so entwined, that it became harder for newer readers to follow, unless they picked up EC as well and started from the beginning.
  • It eventually lead the writers to do a "soft reboot" of both series, to make it easier for newer readers to pick up the comic.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: How Mel reacted when she recognized Cerise's Starscreaming expression. The punishment? Fifties hair.
  • Relatedly, when an Esper student wonders why she should answer a question from a 'Magic Cadet', Mel replies, "Because I know a spell that accelerates hair growth! Only I won't use it on your head!"
• Cooldown Hug: Tiffany uses one to allow Layla to feed on her, to bring her out of her bloodlust.
• Crossover: As it's a Spin-Off from Eerie Cuties, it was bound to happen sometime, with characters from both comics occasionally making appearances in the other:
  • The first major crossover was when Faith met Layla in the park and invited her back to her house, in an attempt to seduce her. Which went about as well as could be expected, since Layla's a vampire while Faith is a monster hunter in training.
  • There was also the time Faith's boyfriend, Ash, met Brooke after she'd had an argument with her boyfriend at that time, Ace. So Ash decided the best way for her to let off steam would be with a good spar. At least, until he made the mistake of pushing his luck, which nearly got him killed had it not been for Melissa saving him.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The Hellrune Coven may consist of stereotypical high school girls, but based on the spell Cerise fried Dusky with and the spell Mel cast that (accidentally) dropped Tiffany in one shot chances are good all three of them could handle themselves in a fight.
  • Jacqui has proved her competence. She cast a spell that cause Sandi to see her greatest desire (Faith naked) to leave her indisposed then disguised herself as Sandi, and a tree as herself. The end result is her esper opponent flying head on into said tree and Sandi naked and dry humping a different tree.
  • In tune with the core CMHB trope, Tiff might be a Cloudcuckoolander, but she seems to have some genuine skills and knowledge in there.
  • The "moron" part of this word is debatable, but Cerise is a competent summoner. Too bad the fans are more concerned with her getting her Laser-Guided Karma to care right now.
  • And finally we have Melissa who caused a level nine magical event, which has the Artemis staff a little on edge. News of it left their normally calm composed teacher at a near loss for words.
  • Mel even took on Rain without using magick and won.
• Curse Cut Short:
  • Melissa becomes exasperated and almost uses the "f" word when the wand uses Friendship & Rainbows to stop Ash and Dio from fighting.
  • Dakota when stabbing Anastasia in the back with a magical sword she was certain would kill her didn't. Shortly after it's Anastasia's turn when she gets distracted by Melissa, looks away, and looks back only to find herself staring down the barrel of Dakota's magically charged flintlock. She only has enough time to get out "Oh sh—" before Dakota shoots her in the face. Twice.
• Cuteness Proximity: Tiffany can get distracted by this.
• Cute Witches: Indeed. Personality-wise, though. When Mel activates the wand, her new Magical Girl outfit is classic Cute Witch.
• Darker and Edgier: Downplayed, but this comic is noticeably more dramatic than Eerie Cuties, with less gag-related humor and an over-arching story-line.
• Death Glare: Mel tries one on Faith, only to have Faith deflate it.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Lampshaded with some sarcasm in this strip.
• Delayed Causality: Clothing damage often shows a few seconds after the damage has been done.
• Demon Slaying: It's what the students at Artemis Academy are being trained for and, presumably, Apollo's students as well.
• Deus ex Machina: Chapter 15 concluded with Cerise mass teleporting the student council to their uncertain doom, to which only she knew the location. So you'd think it would've lead to a Rescue Arc, or that she'd have to undo the spell herself and return them. Nope. Near the end of chapter 18, the wand suddenly became an all-purpose problem solver; enabling Mel to sense where they were, whisked her to their location, and back, in less than a minute.
• Didn't Think This Through: In a move bordering Nice Job Fixing It, Villain, Cerise's plan to eliminate all threats to her taking over the school is foiled by spell to transport them to the crater of an active volcano also took along the ground under her targets, plugging the volcano long enough for them to escape.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • At the start of the comic, Melissa has a dream helping a little girl get a cat out of a tree with her with her magic. She was horrified upon awakening. When she faces a similar situation on the way to her new school, she responds by making the tree grow.
    Cerise: Mel?! That was mean! Even for you!
    Melissa: I'll explain later.
  • Then again, the entire incident was staged.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Mel forgets Ash is the enemy. Jacqui glomps the guy.
• Dynamic Entry: Tiffany enters and exits with a smoke bomb when she's doing the MMAA thing.
• Empty Piles of Clothing: Melissa's parents swear to protect her—and then suddenly, this trope happens to them.
• Enemy Mine: Tandy and Sandi have more or less adopted this stance with regard to Mel being their new student council president, even though she's half witch. Because they need her in order to save Artemis from Cerise and Melissa can't save the school without their help.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: invoked From Eerie Cuties. Fan reaction to just their first appearance was so strong that the author's felt there was no question that there would be a spinoff.
  Giz: Fairly quick. We saw that there was an immediate interest in them when we posted the chapter break image for "See no evil." They hadn't even spoken, and the interest was there.
• Everyone Is Bi: At least to some degree. Or gay. It has been implied to be the result of Faith's subconscious connection to the school, remaking it in her image.
• Evil Costume Switch: When Brainwashed and Crazy by Cerise, the Artemis Academy students' uniforms are given an inverted color scheme, resulting in a mostly black outfit. When Melissa uses the Wand to restore one of them to normal, the color scheme also returns to normal.
• Evil Versus Evil: Subverted, since neither Faith or Melissa are actually evil. The former's a smug super-alpha bitch, while the latter is a former 'queen bee' with an entitlement complex. Faith has undergone a fair amount of improvement since then, and has been shown to be a "mother" to her girls. While Mel's stil a work in progress.
  • Cerise, on the other hand, is shaping up to be the comic's first real villain.
• Expy: Several
  • From Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we have Tiffany Winters (of Buffy Summers herself); time will tell if Dusky (Tiff's brother) is really an expy of Dawn (Buffy's sister), or just a minor character with a bit of a pun in his name.
  • From Ranma ½, we have Ash, of Ranma himself. His sister is one of female Ranma.
  • From My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, we have the whole Mane Six: Chastity of Rarity, Skye of Fluttershy, Rosie of Pinkie Pie, and, according to the tags, Rain of Rainbow Dash, AJ (later revealed to be short for "Abby Jo") of Applejack and Sparkle of Twilight Sparkle
• Eyes Always Shut: Melissa's unwanted and underappreciated pet cat, Mow.
• Fangirl: Sandi to Faith. As shown later, though, there's a reason for this.
• Fanservice: This is a spinoff of Eerie Cuties.
  • The first story arc includes the three having their skirts shot off.
  • Ranma expy Ash getting his shirt 'cut' off helping give some balance.
  • And then Faith tips the scale back for the male audience by seemingly projecting herself nude^note save for some strategically placed maple leaves, in commemoration of Canada Day onto the schoolyard, unnoticed by all except Sandi. Which turns out to be an illusion created by one of Jacqui's glamour spells, which causes whoever it's cast on to see their deepest desire.
    • Averted by the use of Modesty Shorts by Rain in her duel with Mel, though as a physical combatant, it would make a lot of sense for her too.
  • Fairy Sexy: After being shrunk out of her clothes, Melissa turned herself into a pixie. Barbie Doll Anatomy strikes again, of course.
• Fantastic Racism: The students at Artemis Academy seem to ascribe to the belief that all monsters are inherently evil and are trained to hunt and kill them.
• Fatal Flaw: This applies to several characters:
  • Faith is extraordinarily gifted, very powerful, extremely popular, and is so hot that even her enemies lust after her. As you can imagine, she's dangerously self-confident and has a pretty big ego. It eventually gets deflated. See the This Cannot Be! entry on her character sheet.
  • Rain underestimates her opponents, like in Melissa's case, where she was certain she could defeat her so long as she didn't give her time to cast any spells. And wound up flat on her back, seconds later. She's also a Sore Loser, as evidenced when she makes a show of challenging Mel to a rematch in front of the entire school. Except that didn't work out for her either.
  • Cerise schemes and connives, but often fails to plan ahead in case things go wrong. Made worse by the fact that she doesn't seem to learn from past mistakes.
• Felony Misdemeanor: This exchange between Melissa and her mom:◊
  Anastasia: Now Melissa... this may come as a shock to you but... I wasn't very popular in high school.
  Melissa: No... No! That's a lie!
• Feminist Fantasy: Sufficiently covered between the Absurdly Powerful Student Council, Action Girl, and Demon Slaying entries.
• Fish out of Water: The Hellrune Coven is accustomed to becoming popular by impressing boys. When they end up in an all girls school, they don't have a clue on how they are going to rise up the social ladder.
• Foreshadowing: Suddenly Skye's comments have a lot more weight to them.
  • An early Noodle Reference veers into Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Horror in light of events in the latest story arc.
    Cerise: You're not still mad about last time are you? It was only a tiny volcano!
• Friend of Masked Self: Played for Laughs. Tiffany tries to disguise herself as Artemis Academy's self-appointed champion, the MMAA, but she isn't fooling anyone. Nonetheless, she continues to insist she's the MMAA's friend, even though everyone knows it's her.
• Friendly Enemy: Ash seems good-natured. Then again, he's from Apollo Academy across the street, rather than a 'monster.'
• The Glomp: Jacqui does it to Ash, complete with the Unsound Effect "GLOMP!"
• Hereditary Curse: All of the monster races, which are classified as "cryptids", possess blood cursed with an evil taint. This is why the monster hunters consider all of them to be evil.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Exactly what happens to Tiffany, when her "backup plan" blows up in her face. Literally.
  • Cerise gets defeated by Mel deflecting her own fireball back at her. The worst part being, she knew she was screwed when it happened.
• Hot Teacher: The aforementioned Mr. Delatorre.
  • And Madamoiselle Lepommier.
• Idea Bulb: Parodied with Cerise's; hers is eco-friendly.
  • Fridge Brilliance hits when you realize how toxic and eco-unfriendly these things actually are.
• Idiot Ball: Invoked, on occasion; usually as a result of one of the characters flaws, or Rule of Funny.
• Implausible Deniability: The Mysterious Masked Academy Avenger (aka Tiff) runs on this, due to the Paper-Thin Disguise.
• Improbable Weapon User: An Esper and member of the sewing club uses a giant sewing needle as a fencing foil. It matches the giant spool of thread on her back.
• Incoming Ham: As befitting a being of her stature:
  Hekate: DAUGHTERS! May those that have wronged you beware my wr- Oh... It's you. What is it this time? Your lip gloss the wrong color again?
  Melissa: That was an emergency!
• Incompatible Orientation:
  • Cerise and Callie...not that Callie knows.
  • And Cerise's last two boyfriends turned out to be gay. Though Mel claims that this was because Cerise dated them (and did a number on them to make them gay):
    Mel: They made such a cute couple afterward. I guess they bonded over the trauma of dating you.
    • Apparently it's something of a trend for her.
  • Recent indications are that Cerise is bi (she was really, really into kissing Callie) and Callie is either straight or just finds the idea of having someone into her really awkward. Likewise, Skye didn't mind the short kiss Cerise gave her, either, so possibly Cerise might becoming more acceptable with being bi.
• Instant Seduction:
  • This appears to be one of Faith's esper powers to some kind of extent based off how Tiff ended up having to very suddenly snap herself back to reality after Faith began to sweet talk her. She's obviously doing something to affect Tiff's train of thought and this would certainly explain Sandi's behavior. But it may be relevant to ask why Tiffany has "Les Yay tendencies". Did she behave the way she did with Layla because Faith has been conditioning her to behave that way when dealing with a powerful, attractive female?
  • Mel seems just as susceptible to it when Faith really concentrates on her; Faith doesn't appear to have much difficulty removing a target's inhibitions to make it fairly easy to do what she wants with them.
  • Layla likens being around Faith to being on a sugar buzz.
• Interservice Rivalry: Artemis Academy is divided into 3 different specialties: The Esper Collective, The Magic Cadets, and The Combat Corps. The Esper Collective looks down on the Magic Cadets, and the Combat Corps do not take kindly when one of their own coaches a Magic Cadet in their field.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Faith and Tiffany may be two of the toughest girls at Artemis Academy, but they still know when it's best to haul ass.
  Tiffany: Ms. President, I vote we run.
  Faith: The motion carries.
• La Résistance: The Ninja Club are the only hold-outs, following Cerise's takeover of the Academy and have managed to capture Skye, with Rain acting as a stand-in to undermine Cerise's authority.
• Mage Species: Though the differences are not immediately visible, witches are dissimilar to other spell casters. The principal of Charybdis Heights describes them as having the same cursed, cryptid blood that other "monsters" such as the ones at her school possess and the Artemis monster hunters intend to kill.
• Magical Girl:
  • Melissa had a nightmare where she was one. See Disproportionate Retribution's first example.
  • And then in a long expected twist, it turns out it wasn't just a nightmare. She really is a magical girl.
  • Musical Starlight aka Dakota
• Marriage of Convenience: Downplayed with Cerise and Callie, who are only in a relationship. Cerise is only pretending to take an interest in her to use Callie's popularity and her status as Faith's right-hand, to gain recognition for herself. Which works for awhile, but ultimately doesn't end well.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Melissa likely derives her surname, "Hellrune," from being Obscuria's daughter. As in the Queen of the Shadow Realm.
  • Cerise's is a twofer:
    • One meaning of her name is "cherry," likely a reference to her hair color. However, "cherry" is also a slang term for virginity and it's later revealed that Cerise lied to her friends about losing hers.
    • Her surname, "Darkshade," comes into play when it's revealed that Cerise dyes her hair red. Her natural hair color is black. Hence, dark shade.
  • The name "Abbot" derives from the Greek word, "abbas" and the Aramic "abba", which means "the father" or "my father". Faith is initially perceived to be self-centered, but turns out to be a big sister figure to the girls at Artemis, whom they look to for guidance and protection.
  • Callista Archer is self-explanatory, but we're gonna spell it out anyway, 'cuz that's what we do. She's the captain of the school's Archery Club, due to her Improbable Aiming Skills. Which has earned her the nickname, "Deadeye".
  • And finally, a "Mnemonic" is a means of making information simpler and easier to process. Sandi is a technopath, whose power allows her to sort and store vast amounts of information. The cast page even describes her as, "a living Google".
• Memory Gambit: The Hellrune coven was sent to Artemis Academy by the principal of Charybdis High school to spy on the monster hunters, not just to punish them. Part of their cover involved erasing their memories of their actual mission until it was time for them to report.
• The Mole: Subverted. There actually is a mole, but he's harmless. The real leak is Faith's habit of talking in her sleep. Not so subverted with Mel, Cerise, and Jacqui, who are all unwitting Charybdis High School sleeper agents.With an Emergency Impersonation, "Skye" is revealed to be working with the Ninja Club. The real Skye was captured, stripped, bound and gagged.
• Moment Killer: Sandi ruining Faith's Breaking Speech moment with Mel.
• Mundane Utility: It seems that at least on one occasion that the (Goddess?) Hekate was summoned by Mel to fix lip gloss. It was an emergency, after all.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Brooke's face when Cerise thanks her for her dating advice says it all.
• New Meat: The Hellrune Coven seems to be, based on how things go.
• Noodle Incident: Why Toby is upset with Cerise.
  Cerise: You're not still mad about last time are you? It was only a tiny volcano!
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Melissa was loyal to you before you saw the wand, then what did you do? You went ballistic and shrank her down. It happened to be where pixie dust was, too. Well, it wasn't like turning Mel into a pixie would bypass the Power Incontinence problem she had that forced the wand to be separated from her, right? Or turn her into a Cute Witch Magical Girl, Right? It did Both AND put Mel's loyalties to you in jeopardy in the process too?!? Whoops...
  • Faith and Callie's Comedic Underwear Exposure trick prevented a Van Helsing Hate Crime by interrupting Melissa just as she was about to announce that they were witches to the entire student body at a school assembly.
• Not Himself: Skye after listening to a mysterious voice and going through a doorway. Before she was rather timid and gentle. But upon crashing a party thrown for Callista, she's voluptuous and threatening (if only in a playful way).
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Jacqui had been shown using simple glamors and such until her duel (save only for one point apparently charging up an offensive spell). Then she goes and shows that illusions can be quite useful in combat.
• "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: Melissa has a dream where she's about to present a report in front of the class in her underwear. She does not mind though, until she changes into a Magical Girl outfit, which she finds really embarrassing.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Jacqui is showing signs of this. The fact that no one (not even the fans) can really tell how true it is might just go to show you how good she is at it.
• Oh, Crap!: Cerise's face is full of this as she hears the MMAA standing behind her. Mel also realizes it when she finds the power she drew from the school overwhelms her. Faith has it when she sees Mel suddenly become a mindless force of destructive energy with Mel not being conscious enough to respond.
• Pet the Dog: Faith has generally been portrayed as a Smug Super with questionable moral boundaries When Melissa taps into the school's power and it goes out of control, however, Faith seems genuinely concerned for her well-being. Though she swipes the wand and forfeits the match to conceal the theft, once she's sure Mel is safe.
  • When Mel wakes up in the infirmary, Jacqui and Cerise are there, and seem to be genuinely glad that she's better.
  • Faith also nursed Tiffany back to health, following the Layla incident, as a show of gratitude for saving her.
• Post-Modern Magik: Traditionally, sacrifices to Hecate include meat or live dogs and lambs. Nowadays, she'll take designer clothing instead.
  • When Cerise takes over Artemis Academy, Chastity is made High Priestess and her Sewing Club has worked to get the "finest works of haute couture" for Hekate. Which pleases Hekate to no end.
• Reflexive Response: Mel judo-flipping Rain without thinking.
• Rejection Affection: Initially played straight, but ultimately subverted between Tiffany and Faith, when the writers changed their minds about Tiffany's sexuality^note a direct link to the quote concerning the change is included in the If It's You, It's Okay entry in her section of the character sheet.
• The Rival: Cerise occasionally reminds us she's The Starscream to Melissa. This may mean Mel is now actively out to beat Faith.
• Roof Hopping: Used by Tiff. And she got a Wand-controlled Mel to join her (though this is Tiff thinking Mel's good enough she's doing it in her sleep).
• Running Gag: The whole little girl and the cat in the tree, comes to a head when she winds up meeting her in real life. Mel decides to finally just get the cat down from the tree...only for the "girl" to fade away and leave her stuck with the cat.
• Scenery Censor: Onscreen nudity is kept to a minimum. In what few instances there are, the comic maintains its PG-13 rating by cleverly concealing all naughty bits with foreground objects, the characters hair, or speech balloons.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Invoked while Faith and her boyfriend, Ash, are making out in the park. In the first panel, here, his thumb is hooked in the waistband of her panties, pulling them partway down. The next scene shows them getting dressed.
• Sexy Shirt Switch: After coming over to Faith's house for a "sex workout" with Paul, Jacqui is later seen eating waffles with him and only wearing one of his t-shirts. The inference is obvious.
• Shared Universe: With Eerie Cuties, Dangerously Chloe, Vampire Cheerleaders, and Paranormal Mystery Squad.
  • However, they're clearly fictional in Ménage à 3 with with Gary buying a Nina Nina body pillow from Giselle and Dave at an anime convention with some disturbingly good Mel and Jacqui cosplayers. ,
• Shipper on Deck: When word gets around that Cerise asked Callista out one gossiper says she's "shipping those two so hard."
• Ship Tease: Despite Tiffany's reservations about it and her preference for guys, she finds herself steadily becoming attracted to Faith.
• Shirtless Scene: Based on all the squealing girls, this fight just got a lot more entertaining.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Faith and Ash from the looks of it.
  • Yep. Definitely Slap Slap Kiss.
• Slasher Smile: Tiff in the Fantastic Racism example.
  • Cerise gives a couple noteworhty ones once she's Drunk on the Dark Side.
• Slut-Shaming: Faith calls Tiffany out on this, while they're at the spa. Also counts as a mild what the hell hero moment, since Tiffany is the school's resident superhero.
• Smooch of Victory: Played with as not only was Faith not the hero this time around, but she has to go fishing for it. Regardless, once she does Tiffany does so with no resistance. Cue the collective "D'aaaaaaaw" from the majority of the fans.
• Soft Glass: Ash tries to pull up a High-Dive Escape (though he doesn't fully escape, with Faith Flash Stepping ahead of him). Given his Ranma-ish nature, no sign of any cuts from the window.
  • There's cuts, several on his arms, but they're small.
  • Then there's Tiffany's Super Window Jump through a glass door.
• The Spartan Way: There seems to be an undercurrent of this in both the school's training techniques and the relationship between them and Apollo Academy.
• Spear Counterpart: Balancing the all-girls nature of Artemis Academy is Apollo Academy across the street. Appropriate in that Artemis and Apollo were twins.
• Spin-Off: The Hellrunes and Tiffany originated from Eerie Cuties and were eventually given their own comic because of their popularity.
• Stranger in a Strange School: Turns out Artemis Academy is the polar opposite of the Hellrune Coven's old school. Its a monster hunter's school, and Tiffany has already made clear what would happen to any witches at the school...
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Hekate to Melissa, but not very directly.
• Stealth Pun: Probably intentional, but Chastity is Rarity. Also, Jacqui easily defeated her.
• Super-Deformed: There are a few scenes that go to put the characters in a Fun Size for laughs: Here, here and here are three examples.
  • The new Art Shift brings a new flavor of this, mostly at the end of strip.
    • Like so.
    • Cerise adorably pukes up rainbows.
• Supernormal Bindings: Faith invites Layla back to her place, looking to score. But when Layla vamps out on her, Faith ends up using her telekinesis to psychically restrain her.
• Super Window Jump: Ash escapes this way. Subverted in that, had she not been bound by the rules, Faith's Flash Step would have made escape impossible.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Cerise drops one when she finds out that witches are on the exterminate list.
• Take a Third Option: Hekate believed Melissa would kill Cerise (and break the Wand's influence over her permanently) or Cerise would kill Melissa (and definitively prove she's the rightful successor to the Coven). The Ninja Club through Rain (disguised as Skye) decides to take Cerise out first with "Skye" doing a Back Stab on Cerise first, possibly leaving Melissa's hands clean of this.
• Take Off Your Clothes: Cerise asks Brooke for dating tips with girls (despite being straight; it's solely to get more popular at the all-girl school). Brooke thus drags Cerise to her bedroom and asks her to strip; Cerise obeys, despite being convinced that they'll end up having lesbian sex — but in truth, Brooke just wants her to model for some nude painting.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Jacqui is dating her teacher, Mr. Delatorre. Not that he realizes he's dating a student.
• Telepathy: Yet another of Faith's powers.
• Tempting Fate: While Melissa grouses about Cerise's Starscreaming, she takes comfort in the fact that being at an all-girls school means that Jacqui won't be distracted by boys. Cue (male) Hot Teacher.
  • Also, in his initial appearance, Ash tries to taunt Faith with, "No one...can lay a hand on me." He only gets past "on" before Jacqui lays TWO hands on him—as well as two arms and a cheek as she GLOMPs him.
  • Rain said she'd dye her hair before she loses to Mel (who couldn't tell the difference between judo and kung-fu). She goes a dark black hair and tries to be what Dark Skye wants in their latest appearance.
• Third-Person Person: Tiffany, when she is in 'slayer' mode.
  Tiff: Looks it's up to I, Tiffany Winters, to save the day!
• Time for Plan B: Invoked by Faith, during the pool party, when she tried to ask Jacqui about the wand and listened to her prattle on for over 10 minutes straight. Which was enough to make Faith lose her composure and head for the door:
  Faith: Sandi! We're moving to Plan B!
  Sandi: Is-Isn't that dangerous?
  Faith: Life is dangerous, Sandi! Embrace Life!
• Torture Technician: Artemis Academy has at least one of these.
• Training from Hell: Poor Mel. Tiffany puts her through the wringer, including a 10K run, 80 sit ups, and pushups on one hand, after taking her Roof Hopping. And that's just the first day!
• Transparent Closet: Cerise blurting out something pertaining to lesbianism before thinking is a Running Gag.
• Two Beings, One Body: As a result of the rift Queen Obscuria and Musical Starlight were fighting in collapsing around them, it put them in a composite body with both minds going through Villainous Breakdown and Heroic BSoD as each felt what the other had at that point.
• Uncertain Doom: The fates of Faith, Jacqui, and the student council, after the teleportation incident, since Cerise claims to have sent them into a volcano. Tandy even believes they're all dead.
• Underestimating Badassery: Which has happened twice, so far:
  • The first was when Tiffany thought Faith was biting off more than she could chew, when she bloodlusted Layla and tried to take her on without her powers. But according to the comic's editor, the odds were still in Faith's favor regardless, and said she likely would have won.
    T Campbell: Basically, this is exactly right. Faith was introduced as the strongest esper in the school's history, a school where people train to fight, where they learn other things that help them in a fight, and pause for recreational activities like breastplate raids where they ALSO fight. She's basically the psychic morally grey Wonder Woman. Layla's not exactly a pushover, but she's had a relatively easy life, and has never before even faced a slayer who consistently wanted to kill her. Even if Layla were well-trained for combat, the odds would heavily favor Faith. As it is, anything resembling a fair fight was going to end more or less like this.
  • Tiffany, herself, has also been underestimated. When Melissa mentioned her during her report, the CH principal immediately disregarded her as an inconsequential buffon and refused to listen to anything else Melissa had to say about her. Whether that decision comes back to haunt her remains to be seen.
• Unsound Effect: FRIENDSHIP BLAST!
• Urban Fantasy: The story is set in a modernish environment. There isn't a lot of Magitek, but magic in general is pretty common.
• Vain Sorceress: All three of the primary trio, and it turns out their goddess is pretty much the goddess of vain sorceresses; she gets paid tribute with beautiful designer dresses.
• The Vamp: A pseudo-example seems to be Faith's main ability.
• Wall of Blather: What Faith gets when she asks Jacqui about Mel's wand, but Jacqui misunderstands (?) the question. Bonus for giving some back history of the three.
• Wham Episode:
  • Dakota being able to understand Mow, then running Anastasia through with her sword.
  • And shortly before that there was Cerise hijacking Faith's powers, taking over the school, exposing the Hellrune Coven as witches, and transporting Jacqui and most of the student council to a volcano in the Bermuda Triangle.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discussed. To the Artemis Academy, Magic users are somehow different from Witches.
  Melissa: Did you know they teach a class on hunting witches here? I never wanted to know my own burning point!
• Who's Laughing Now?: Cerise seems to be headed that way after drinking a bit of pure black magick (that was meant for Mel to break the Wand's hold on her)... though given how nonchalant Hekate is reacting to it...
  Cerise: I'll show NGG the world... ...Just how powerful a witch can be!!!
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Played for Laughs. One of Cerise's opponents is a cynophobe (fear of dogs). So Cerise, naturally, summons a horde of puppies which cause her to totally freak out.
  Girl: N-Noses... so cold!
• Worthy Opponent: Faith sees Ash as the only male worth her attention.

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