Magick Chicks

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Magick Chicks is a Spin-Off Web Comic 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) Its 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 then willing to show the three "the ropes," 3) Its lead by a very powerful esper who practically has the whole student body under her thumb, and 4) its a school for monster hunters, and they consider 'witches' to be monsters.

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

It's co-written by both Gisele Legace (who originally did the art) and Dave Zero1, with inks (and other imputs) by Shouri. As of February '12, the full art duties were picked up by Cassandra Wedeking, who had worked on Evil Diva.

Updated Tuesdays and Fridays

Tropes used in Magick Chicks include:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Somewhat justified, since it is led by an esper of extreme power that seems to maintain control simply by touching her enemies.
• Alpha Bitch: Melissa of course. Faith Abbot as well.
• Ambiguously Bi: Jacqui and Cerise, based on comments from Eerie Cuties -- boy-crazy Jacqui, after Layla kissed male Melissa just as she turned back, was obsessed with hearing how it felt to kiss another girl, and Cerise's first reaction to Melissa's plan to seduce Layla was "she's too stuck up for my tastes," and to finding out they were at an all-girls school, "we're gonna have to become lesbians!"
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Dusk, to Tiffany.
• The Archer: Callie
• Ascended Extra: Tiffany.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Guilt Trip: 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.
• Awesome McCoolname: The names of the girls in the Hellrune Coven, Melissa Hellrune, Jacqui Brightmoon and Cerise Darkshade.
• The Beard: Inverted with Cerise and Callie; Cerise is using Callie in order to pretend to be a lesbian, which is necessary to be popular in the Schoolgirl Lesbian-dominated Artemis Academy. Unfortunately, she didn't tell Callie this little detail...no one expects this to end well.
• The Bechdel Test: Used in universe as Callie complains about a movie failing it.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Tiffany's opinion of the Applejack and Rainbow Dash expies
• Bi the Way: Faith.
• 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!
• Black Best Friend: Jacqui.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Melissa, Jacqui and Cerise respectively as seen here.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When the intruder alarm is sounded, Jacqui asks "Wuh-wuh-what's invading us?! Terrorists? Hipsters? Hipster Terrorists?!!!"
• Break the Haughty: The transfer was meant as a form of this. Considering Melissa meeting Faith, time will tell how this goes.
• Brought Down to Normal: Mel, Jacqui and Cerise used to being the queens of the school's social circle; unfortunately their new classmates didn't get the memo — and more unfortunately, they've completely forgotten how to earn their places as said queens, being used to everyone just giving them the respect and admiration they've taken for granted.
• The Cameo: Chocobanana Sofuto and Chop Chop Ninja Doom from Springiette.
• Catapult Nightmare: Mel in the first strip after dreaming that she was a Magic Maid. And later 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...
• Cat Up a Tree: A situation Mel finds herself dealing with twice.
• 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.
• Childhood Friends: Mel and Jacqui.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Sandi seems to dislike people Faith is interested in.
• Clothing Damage: The hazing and Ash's fight. The latter led to a Shirtless Scene.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Tiffany Winters.
• 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!"
• Crossover: One major crossover even with Eerie Cuties already, and characters from both appear in the other.
• Crouching Alpha Bitch, 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 (which turns out to be naked Faith) 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, only crippled by lack of foresight. 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. Maybe. News of it left their normally calm composed teacher at a near loss for words. Later she surprised her goddess by successfully performing single-handed the summoning ritual that requires three witches (she didn't know it shouldn't be posible). Again, we don't know whether she's so powerful on her own or that wand boosted her this much.
• 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.
• Death Glare: Mel tries one on Faith, only to have Faith deflate it.
• Delayed Causality: Clothing damage often shoes a few seconds after the damage has been done.
• Department of Redundancy Department: "I, Tiffany Winters, am Tiffany Winters!"
• 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.

• • The whole hazing thing could count too, considering Faith never met the girls and was just going off information Sandi gave her.
• 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.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: 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.

• Mr. Fanservice: Ash, The Ace of Apollo Academy definitely gets it In-Universe along with beyond the fourth wall.
• Everyone Is Bi: At least to some degree. Or gay.
• Evil Versus Evil: Faith and Melissa are both so nasty, it's hard to say whose side you're on.
  • The same can be said of Cerise and Melissa.
• Expy: Several
  • From Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we have Tiffany Winters(Of Buffy herself) and time will tell if Dusky(her brother) is of Dawn(Buffy's sister).
  • From Ranma ½, we have Ash, of Ranma himself.
  • 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 of Applejack and Sparkle of Twilight Sparkle
• Fan Girl: Sandi to Faith.
• Fan Service: This is a spinoff of Eerie Cuties.
  • The first story arc includes the three having their skirts shot off.
  • Ranma ½ Expy Ash getting his shirt 'cut' off helping give some balance.
  • And then Faith tips the scale back for the male audience by walking onto the track field completely naked but for some strategically placed maple leaves for Canada Day, while making really suggestive statements at Sandi, the one girl who would clearly jump into bed with her if she ever got the chance. Good thing for Faith she was tinkering with everyone's brain so she and Sandi wouldn't be noticed. Then it turns out Sandi seeing Faith nude was the result of a spell Jacqui was using so that she could disguise herself as Sandi and a tree as herself to defeat her esper opponent. It ends with Sandi naked and making out with a tree.
• Fantastic Racism: Yup, the whole point is to hunt anyone with the cursed blood. And Tiffany is still Tiffany. She immediately demonstrates the difference between such declarations and her own view of the situation, however. Unlike with Layla, with Melissa Tiffany needs merely to accept the most shaky explanation for most blatant evidence.
• Fish Out of Water
• Flash Step: Invoked by name.
• Foe Yay: Faith and Ash. So very much.
• Friendly Enemy: Ash seems good-natured.
  • Then again, he's from Apollo Academy across the street, rather than a 'monster.'
• Glamour: Jacqui's specialty.
• The Glomp: Jacqui does it to Ash, complete with the Unsound Effect "GLOMP!"
• Green-Eyed Monster: Mel is displeased.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Exactly what happens to Tiffany, when her "backup plan" blows up in her face. Literally.
• Hopeless Suitor: Poor Sandi. She's probably the only girl who hasn't gotten Faith's attention.
• Hot for Teacher: Jacqui will go to any length to get some time with Mr. Delatorre.
• Hot Teacher: The aforementioned Mr. Delatorre.
• How Do You Like Them Apples?: Faith while offering a 'treat' to Sandi.
• I See London: How Faith initiates the Hellrune Coven to the school.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Callie is good.

Jacqui: W-wow! That's impressive!

• 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.

Mel: They made such a cute couple afterward. I guess they bonded over the trauma of dating you.

• 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.
  • Then again, this is Tiffany we're talking about. She seems to have Les Yay tendencies overall as previous interactions with Layla hint at.
  • 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.
• Jerkass: Mel is still thinking like the Alpha Bitch, despite the new school, although she may grow out of this. Faith seems to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing variant of this, hazing all three girls on their first day for no readily apparent reason and smirking the whole time.
• 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."

• 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.
• Manipulative Bastard: Faith can't seem to get Tiff in her attention-loving claws despite seeming to have her right on the edge of submission. Solution? Spare her brother a broken arm in front of everyone and dangle the fact over her head.
  • Cerise has decided getting popular requires getting a popular but not too popular girl to be her girlfriend. As such, she's now started faking a romantic interest in Callista in hopes "a good second banana" can boost her back up to Alpha Bitch.
• Meaningful Name: Callista "Deadeye" Archer is an archer with Improbable Aiming Skills.
• Moment Killer: Sandi ruining Faith's Hannibal Lecture 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. But, it was, after all, an emergency.
• 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!

• Not So Harmless: 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. Then it turns into a Magical Girl outfit, which she finds even more 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.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Faith to Ash
• Panty Shot: Considering the shortness of those skirts, not too surprising. Given that the main characters are a couple of years older than most of the EC cast, the artists may feel a bit more free to do this.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Mysterious?
• Pet the Dog: Faith has generally been portrayed as a nasty Smug Snake who treats her schoolmates like toys, and this appears to be an entirely accurate view of her. When Melissa taps into the school's power and it goes out of control, however, Faith does seem legitimately concerned for her well-being, although she clearly goes right back to working on some scheme 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 got another one recently by tending to Tiffany with no tricks after Tiffany saved her life. The conversation afterward was rather candid for a manipulative young woman like Faith, and unless it's a particularly subtle gambit, Faith's new found respect and attraction to Tiffany seem genuine.
• Pool Episode: Starting here.
• Post-Modern Magik: Traditionally, sacrifices to Hecate include meat or live dogs and lambs. Nowadays, she'll take designer clothing instead.
• Really Gets Around: Faith seems to have at least fooled around with the majority of the student body.
• 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.
• Schoolgirl Lesbian: Cerise is convinced that this will be their fate in this all-girls school; given the wink one of the girls gives her while she says it, she might already have an admirer.
  • Sandi has a galaxy-sized crush on Student Council President, Faith.
  • The splash page for Chapter 5 shows that there seem to a large number of lesbian couples at the school.
• Shapeshifting: If her first actual fight is any indication, this may very well be Jacqui's specialty using her glamor spells. Considering her voice wasn't a give away, she must be capable of copying those too.
• Shipper on Deck: When word gets around that Cerise asked Callista out one gossiper says she's "shipping those two so hard."
• Shirtless Scene: Based on all the squealing girls, this fight just got a lot more entertaining.
• Shout-Out: Planets from Doctor Who are used as an incantation, along with a space colony from Superman (or a planet from Stargate SG-1). Argos, Galifrey, Skaro!
  • The girls from Springiette show up on the same page. Considering that the inker for MC writes that...
  • A couple of the girls in PE with Tiff appear to be humanized ponies. More follow in later pages.
    • And a Pinky Pie lunch box on this page.
    • They're back.
  • The words in Cerise's spell, Zaladane-Barbarus-Lupa are the names of members of the Savage Land Mutates, a group in the X-Men comics (though the last one is actually spelled "Lupo".)
  • Melissa's spell "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" is the one Raven uses in Teen Titans.
  • There's also the opening chant of Melissa's summon spell, which is exactly the same as a certain flatchested sorceress': "Darkness beyond twilight, Crimson beyond blood that flows, Buried in the stream of time..."
  • In fact, Mel seems to love invoking this trope. Three guesses what game she's referrencing here.
• Slap Slap Kiss: Faith and Ash from the looks of it.
  • Yep. Definitely Slap Slap Kiss.
• Slasher Smile: Tiff in the Fantastic Racism example.
• 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.
• Smug Snake: Faith
  • Smug Super: Who's also a ESP-er and a high level one at that.
• The Sociopath: Faith hits a number of the markers, particularly in being superficially charming, but considering others as merely toys to be played with. The closest we've seen her get to regarding someone else as an actual person is with Ash, her Worthy Opponent.
• Soft Glass: Ash tries to pull up a Prisoner of Zenda Exit (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 Starscream: Cerise
• 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...
• Stealth Pun: Probably intentional, but Chastity is Rarity
• 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 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 GLOM Ps him.
• Third Person Person: Tiffany, when she is in 'slayer' mode.

Looks it's up to I, Tiffany Winters, to save the day!

• Time for Plan B: What Faith resorts to after getting a earful of Jacqui's ditziness.

Faith: Sandi! We're moving to Plan B!
Sandi: Is-Isn't that dangerous?
Faith: Life is dangerous, Sandi! Embrace Life!

• Too Dumb to Live: Faith might be The Ace of her school, but deliberately berserking a vampire and then attempting to engage her in hand-to-hand combat is an astonishingly stupid spur-of-the-moment decision from her, and one that would have gotten her killed if Tiffany hadn't intervened to save her and calm Layla down.
• Transparent Closet: Cerise blurting out something pertaining to lesbianism before thinking is a Running Gag.
• The Vamp: A pseudo-example seems to be Faith's main ability.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Based on Tiff's reaction, it appears this is part of the curriculum.
• 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.
• What Could Have Been: The original concept was that Cerise's hair would shift colors whenever she used magic, but the parent comic (Eerie Cuties) shifting from color to black-&-white left this in history leaving her with (fan-loved) red hair.
• Worthy Opponent: Faith sees Ash as the only male worth her attention.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Was only Class-C before, but Artemis Academy bumps it to Class-A.

1. ↑ Top row: Ash, The Principal of Charablys High, Dusky. Middle: Cerise, Mel, Jacqui, The Mysterious Masked Acadamy Avenger. Bottom row: Sandi, Faith, Callista