Jeanie Bottle 485
We’ve got another great new piece of art from C_Prime in the FanArt Gallery! It’s Natalie once again, but this time she’s wearing a new dress: a gorgeous 1860s-style ball gown.
I asked C_Prime to make this for me after I was so impressed with his other Natalie fanart. I also came up with a little story to explain how Natalie came to wear such an outfit. Jeannie has co-opted Neil and Rodge into helping her to “acquire” an artifact from a high society collector. She sends in Natalie and Rodge as a distraction at a ball the collector is hosting, which for a reason that Jeannie doesn’t explain, requires that Natalie play the role of Rodge’s fiancĂ©e! Thus, the huge diamond ring on her finger.
Neil is, unsurprisingly, quite perturbed by this predicament, which explains the expression. Rodge, on the other hand, is having a ball off-panel. 🙂
tfw you forget you’re talking to someone magic
Now we just need fanart of Natalie in a wedding dress from him. ^^
Even if Asha’s master came back as a zombie, she still wouldn’t be able to go back to her bottle.
Because zombies normally aren’t capable of speaking, instead they usually just moan, howl or growl.
So unless a moan counts as a command, then Guano’s out of luck.
Don´t temt me, I don´t want to overwhelm CD with Natalie fan art, but believe I could kept going indefinitely.
As a side note and funny enough, the original concept of the Ghoul came from Arabian mythology as a type of shapeshifting Jinn, highly astute and with a diet consisting of dead bodies and lost travelers, so yeah, there is and actual relation within the concept of Zombies and classic Genie folklore.
You should consider drawing Melvin Chronicles C_Prime
I have to agree with CD here. I dig your art style, and think it would be a good fit.
You truly flatter me with this offer CD, I wish I could say yes, but in all honestly I can´t compromise with a weekly comic right now, I am kind of sorting some things about may career and how to make business and I don´t even have a portfolio to show off yet, not to mention may complete lack of experience. Tell you what, as I said, I am still working in some personal stuff, but I hope to have things working later this year, if bay then you are still looking for someone to take care of the Melvin Chronicles and I have the time and the means to trully work in a project like that, maybe we could talk this over If you are still interested. But in any case, I am truly thankful bay the offer.
Oh, you’re not on CD’s Patreon? He’s already drawn Natalie in a wedding dress. 🙂
As for Asha’s hypothetical zombie master, he wouldn’t necessarily become a Romero-style, shambling, brain-eating zombie. Voodoo zombies, for instance, are fully articulate.
Hu… this is interesting, after this dialogue and checking the information page, there is no rule that state what happen with the genies once there master is dead, so I suppose that as long there bottle is safe and they are not trapped inside, they are in theory free?… that could be bad for Neil in the future with the Blue Djinn around sharing body with Jean.
Also Robert, sorry for messing with your side story, but a good excuse for Jean to involve Rodge and Natalie in her little scheme, instead of just Neil, may be that at least one of the girls in charge of the Jean-Hate page is in the party, Jeanie may want to clean the mess that Rodge and Natalie made of his name making sure that everyone knows that Natalie is totally with Rodge and has nothing to do with Jean… of course the fact that the whole mess was her fault to begin with was never taking into consideration. Also, the dress is of course to make sure all the eyes are on Natalie.
AFAIK we can apply the “Jeannie, Jeannie, Who’s Got the Jeannie” rule here–after a full lunar cycle with no master, she can be claimed by the next mortal to seize control of her Genie totem–in other words, she had better keep her bottle secure, lest somebody claim it (and her).
Well, that rule actually is sited in the information page, but even though I am not familiar with how it worked in the original show, here it state that the Genie must be contained for the a full lunar cycle to loss there link to there master, actually it doesn´t say anything about not having a master to begin with, so, assuming Asha´s totem is still cited has a “in possession” of her master in some weird legal way, secure somehow of the taking bay any other mortal, and she is free to enter and leave it as she please, well… yeah, she may as well be in a legal loophole were she is actually free.
I suppose her totem could be buried with her “master.” In other words it’s in his possession and fairly secure. I assume if she returns to her bottle when she’s asleep she can just poof herself out into the world again when she wakes up. Just speculating here. She could just as easily have the totem in a safe deposit box with the cork in a different box in a different bank. If it’s not corked she can always get out.
Thanks for the additional detail on the Natalie story. That’s a good idea!
Speaking of loopholes, I see several possibilities here. Like that house she living in, could be her old masters house and he left it to her in a living estate. Technically, she the head of the house even in his absents and she can run it anyway she want too. Her master could have made pacific wishes to take care of his Genie Friend and thus open up any number of loopholes for Asha to use. She is also a very powerful Genie too, so she may have either earned a certain amount of freedom or was granted a certain amount of freedom on a limited basses.
Either way, Guano is dealing with someone that can probably go heat to heat with him, so he needs to be careful.
So I guess this is a little bit in the past then? Right about when Jeanie is first poofed to Haji’s place?
And so if a Master dies the genie is still attached to them and is basically free of other’s control? This doesn’t seem right. I thought that when their Master dies they automatically go back into the bottle for the next one?
If so, then how do genies get passed around and find new Masters?
And I would love to see the story of that 1860s dress and art heist depicted in this series! We do know there is precedent for time travel in this strip, since we saw Jeanie and Neil during that flashback arc sometime in the 1960s!
Still waiting to see that explained! And to see Natalie and Jeanie in some go go boots and mod dresses!
> So I guess this is a little bit in the past then?
I assume this takes place right after they release the genies from Haji’s palace. I’m not sure there’s any reason to believe otherwise. Though I’m basing that on knowledge from upcoming pages.
> Natalie and Jeanie in some go go boots and mod dresses!
Yes, please! 🙂
> And I would love to see the story of that 1860s dress and art heist depicted in this series!
You just might get that chance, sortof. C_Prime did another piece of art depicting a scene with Natalie in this dress, though I’m saving it to act as a filler for some time in the future.
I hadn’t considered that Natalie might be wearing this dress in the 1860s, but that actually adds a really interesting extra twist to the art heist story. Perhaps Jeannie brings them all back in time to steal this artifact before it falls into the hands of some other genie? I like it!
Robert:
It looks to me like Jeanie was watching Disney’s Cinderella – and poofed Rodge and Neil into the movie! Next thing you know, Prince Rodge will show up with a glass slipper!
Or else it was Gone With the Wind, and Rodge is playing Rhett Butler. Woo-hoo!
“Frankly, my dear Jeanie, I don’t give a damn.”
Gone with the Wind definitely came to mind when I designing that dress for C_Prime to draw. I love that film.
Right after? I thought the ceremony with those hibjab jabubabs things took place on his birthday? Was I mistaken then?
Though I guess I really could be mistaken, for I also misread that 1860s dress thing as being, them going back into the past to acquire some rare artifact! Sorry, late night brainfart!
Though that would be cool now I think about it! Imagine CD doing a Gone with the Wind cameo arc?
@Robert: I hate to interrupt your love for Natalie Artwork, but you forgot to tell us about this comic page, along with who Asha is.
Who says I forgot? I’m not obligated to reveal anything about the page, after all.
In fact, CD specifically told me to keep the few details I know close to the chest.
Hmm Asha wasn’t in the palace. Why is she unique? Something weird here…
I think Lord Guano rubbed her the wrong way.
He does that a lot. To a lot of people.
Well, this adds another tidbit to our knowledge of genies. If a master dies, his genie is still technically attached to them… yet now free of obligations. Apparently the only way to change that would be for someone else to get ahold of their bottle.
And let’s not forget that this is the first time we’ve seen Guano put in his place by anyone else. Mark this day on the calendar.
Hm… given Asha’s remark in panel 1, I get the impression that she may have been around quite a long time. And may likely have been involved in the previous exploit with the Blue Djinn. (Otherwise, why would Guano be asking help from her?)
We saw Guano put in his place once, before he became a Genie Lord, but, yea, this is the first time that we seen Guano put in his place since he became a Genie Lord.
The way there talking, it probably been several years at least. If we are talking about the Blue Djinn being there, then it has to be ten years or more that what ever happened, happened. Melvin’s dad died when five or younger and Melvin is 15 now. So what ever happened it happened in 10 to 20 year period of time.
I know Witches aren’t suppose to have Genie’s, because they have there own magic and that not suppose to happen, but, I am thinking that her master might be Melvin dad and she was there when Guano double cross them and saw it. That would be an interesting twist to the story.
is she suppose to be the Jeanie from the show?
Nope. There are clues about who she is on the previous page, though.
Completely a theory here, and could be completely wrong. Asha has her totem locked in a gun safe that she Macguyvered so that it can’t be opened, but she can poof her way out of it when she wakes up in her totem every morning (The helpful Information page says they have to sleep in their totems). How her master ended up dead is a mystery so far, but one I hope CD plans to answer at some point.
Another possible explanation is that Asha is an old genie unbound from her bottle, like Kazom and his heretofore unseen totem, but she got stuck in Christina Aguilera instead of a cat. It’s interesting to me that Guano’s come to her for help, implying that A)she’s either pretty powerful still or has some inside knowledge on the Blue Djinn, and B) she’s either smart or genre-savvy enough to bend the rules while still following the letter of them. Wonder if she plays any TCGs or wargames?
The safe would need to have vents or some other sort of opening to it–if it were fully enclosed then it would be like the Moon Safe and she would be trapped. The opening does not need to be large enough to allow the bottle to be extracted however.
Drill two holes in the back, then weld the door shut, maybe? And leave just enough space between the back and the wall to let a gas out. That’d work, right?
Djinn are wind spirits, therefore breathing not required. Any hole in the totem, would allow the Djinn to escape, so the only way out, is through the top. I studied Arabian myths.
@Sasha Whitefur – I was referring to whatever she stashed her totem in, so that she could get out after waking up in the morning, as opposed to the totem itself. Sorry if that was less than clear in my post.
Your master is buried six feet under? And you let that happen?
Genies can’t be everywhere all the time. He may have died suddenly in an accident when he wasn’t in Asha’s presence. Even genies can’t bring back the dead.
Or he just had a stroke or heart attack while she was in her bottle. There are a lot of things that even a genie couldn’t save him from.
Maybe, if her master had been cremated, then he’d be in the bottle.
A Zombie!!!. As a card carrying member of the Z. A. D. L. (Zombie Anti-Defamation League) I think we need some zombies in the script to deal with. Not joking, my daughter is a member of the St. Louis Zombie Response Team.
Ah…k…
I’ll keep the idea in mind. (though I have a couple plots to go through first.)
BTW I am the only one who think that Guano looks younger? I mean, it has been a while since we see his face (not including the flashback in the 60s) and is most likely that this is just how he looks in CD´s current drawing style after all this time, but still, I find it curious.
I think it’s because he’s not busy scrunching his face up, while scowling.
Happy May Day. Give your Mom a basket of flowers. Traditionally around here it is always dandelions.
I’m pretty sure Guano was NOT qualified for his position thanks to this page – not only in terms of ability, but actual effing knowledge of how genies work (which is why he SO failed “teaching” Jean)
Also wanna say I’m 90% sure she’s flipping Guano off off-screen.
Well, I certainly would.
From what I could find on the web Asha is Old Persian and means Truth, Righteousness, or Best Truth. It is also closely associated with fire. Its no wonder the lady doesn’t like Guano.
The only thing worse than bat poop is burning bat poop.
Got that right – bat poop got burned!
Guano did chain Jean to the ceiling once, so unless Asha is very powerful, he should have options.
Hey Robert, how is Asha’s name pronounced? I can think of at least three ways, so I would like to know please.
Dunno how CD pronounces it, but I’ve been saying “Ah-shah”.
Yea, that is one of the ways I thought of. The other two are “Ay-shah” and “Ash-ah”.
Well, it could be that her husband had one last wish before he died and mad have found a loophole in the laws that govern genies and with that wish gave her free reign of his estate and and freed her from going to a new master by taking her bottle to the grave with him so in a way he still possesses her bottle and is still her master so bt that logic, unless they bring his soul nack from the dead and I bet that would piss off God, I doubt very much they can pry the bottle from him because I bet they had a lawyer like magical person no doubt go over the wish to make sure it was air tight.
Perhaps the last wish was “I wish you were a witch” and Guano doesn’t know about it.
A genie is not permitted to kill by action or inaction…. according to the rules.
So… natural causes seem likely. If it wasn’t natural causes it was unnatural… and something so out there that a genie with phenomenal cosmic powers was unable to stop it from happening.
She’s clearly a genie of a higher station yet is not one of Haji’s harem. In an archaic society this is actually quite strange. What loophole she has can’t hold out forever. Could it be that her master… took the bottle to his grave? Though this doesn’t explain why she was exempt from the palace summon…
She could be Haji’s sister.
Or his mother-in-law.
“A genie is not permitted to kill by action or inaction…. ” – The first law of geniebotics
“A genie must obey their master except where it conflicts with the first law” etc
Now why does that seem familiar????
To be fair, this rules did come from the Aladdin movie, and a lot of magical granting-wish creatures in kids media since then have share those rules.
@C_Prime: Well, yes, but Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (to which Fearless Ferret is referring) long predated Aladdin, and greatly influenced not only that but a lot of other stories, simply because they were the first time anyone had sat down and formulated some logical guidelines for how that sort of thing should work. After that, it was hard to justify writing a story that did NOT have similar rules of behavior.
Yes I get that, I should have been more clear, I know Asimov came with the idea first, don´t get me wrong, I was just saying that at least with genies, fairies and other “benevolent” wish granting beings the rules of no kill has been a constant for some time now, alongside not rising the dead, not so mush the one of obeying which varies depending of the creature, mostly to differentiate them from Imps in bottles, monkey pawns and general deals with the devil.
Or to avoid a Dragon Ball case, were live a death loss any meaning with the constant use of wishes