Jean AKA Jeannie AKA Jeanie, is a film, book and magazine reviewer for a national magazine. Most of Jean’s work is done through e-mail, which means he does not have to go into the office.
On a trip to find a gift for his girlfriend, Jean found a empty Genie Bottle. Upon picking up this bottle Jean became the bottle’s new genie powered occupant. Not only was Jean turned into a genie, but the bottle turned him into what he believed a genie of the bottle to look like, which due to his fascination with a classic 60s TV show turned into a bust young Blonde female.
A junior engineer, who works for a small engineering firm in Cocoa Beach. The firm focuses mostly on NASA projects.Neil is Jean’s best friend. When Jean was turned into a genie, Neil somehow became Jean’s master.
OMG…it is over…I wouldn’t think that those ponies would invade every aspect of my life but it has now taken the last aspect over that I thought would be safe. My daughter is obsessed with My Little Pony and there it is Twilight sparkle as a equestria girl. :(( LOL 😛
If Belle sees herself making love to Neil, Belle will think she’s the one who needs therapy…
However, I think there are even more amusing possibilities with Araceli seeing “Belle” with Neil, getting angry, and then poofing the real Belle by mistake. Not out of the question by any means for someone who fires cannons in living rooms, or conjures entire automobiles through cineplex walls. (Check the bottom middle panel and you can see the hole in the wall.)
No kidding! Jean is just becoming off as desperate and crazy here. “Her” scheming is even worse when “she’s” sleep-deprived. Either that or “she’s” desperate for sexual desire. I don’t think Jean had any actual sex since before the djinnication.
Holy crap Neil found his balls and said no…….So far.
I though it was much to soon if ever for them.
Besides this is still all about Jeanie not knowing what Neil wants.
I would love to know more about Neil CD, what’s his deal. Maybe you can give us a flash back so we can get to know him more. Sure we know he likes his job but there has to be more to him. I really want to know how these two became friends.
Interesting observation. The hat came off in #279 when Araceli trapped her in her bottle. Makes me wonder if it isn’t a part of the plot – Araceli switched her hat with something that like a curse can’t be removed, and flips her personality. She assumed Jeannie loves her master, and this would make her hate him, thus getting her in trouble and banished. Except Jeannie is abusive to Neil, so a flip would make her especially caring and loving and… willing to sleep with him.
Which all sounds plausible, until you remember that there’s no way Araceli could be that clever.
Makes me wonder what would happen if Jeannie poofed into someone where that persons hat was iconic for them. e.g. Abraham Lincoln with his stove pipe hat (yes I know Jeannie can’t poof into a male, it’s just an example)
Are you kidding? I think Neil strongly implied he was not interested when he shouted, “WHOA!”, and knocked over the TV in his haste to back away from Jeanie.
I think he’s just confused and surprised. He’s not expecting this kind of behavior from Jeanie at all. Notice that he’s not saying “WHOA!” like how you command a horse to stop moving. He’s saying “WHOA…” like you would when something blows your mind.
You are also dealing with a sleep deprived narcissist who’s desperate to prove to themselves that they are better in bed. If she’s not making the connection she’ll be trying to compare sexual techniques when its her first time as a girl how much chance does the guy have of being listened to. This is why our local rape laws are such rubbish since its almost impossible to prove you were “raped” and half the time it’s the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrist if your a guy assuming they haven’t changed much since I was younger.
Well, I was partially right about Jean turning into Belle. If I was Neil right now, I would start yelling some sense back into “her” right now or just give her a time-out back inside her bottle until “she” listens. Jean is just really start to push it here with Neil’s friendship and Belle’s love.
@ TTraveller: Shakespeare was writing out a male fantasy of the time, not composing a psychological treatise based on study & observation. The Taming of the Shrew is, from my experience, a really bad model to base relationships on.
“Psychological abuse”? What the hell do you call turning your best friend into a scantily, dressed woman and then transporting her to a place where she may get raped or otherwise abused.
I’m just not finding what Jean is pulling both Neil and Belle through as funny nor appropriate anymore. This is being taken too far and as sleep-deprived as Jean is, the “girl” needs a major wake up call back to reality.
Yeah, yeah, having a genie’s power can mean being able to warp reality around, but that’s not as easy with people’s natural reactions. Not all the cosmic power in the universe can stop how a person will feel about his/her situation, not just rule-wise.
Jenny: “I’m just not finding what Jean is pulling both Neil and Belle through as funny nor appropriate anymore.”
I have to agree, although it’s not necessarily inappropriate storytelling. Jeanie’s way off her rocker, and it is crucially important for Neil to assert his mastership. He must not give in to this.
I’m not saying Jeanie’s in the right. I’m saying that the thought of being trapped in her bottle is so utterly terrifying to her that its affecting her behaviour. Simply thinking about being teleported in there when she goes to sleep is enough to not only make her shiver in fear but stay up all night long to try and avoid it. I’m not sure I’d call it a phobia but its something that could probably grow into that.
What was recommended here was the equivalent of taking the most terrifying thing in a persons life and using it as a punishment.
Try to think back on your life and find something that utterly terrified you (probably in childhood), something so terrifying your behaviour was altered to try and avoid it, something that changes your behaviour to avoid it because you know there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Now imagine someone you trusted used that as a punishment when you tried to do something you thought would be nice for them. That is what your “timeout in her bottle is” its making Jeanie experience the thing that terrifies her most right now, exposing her to all that fear, that uncertainty, that helplessness, its about telling her you will do this to punish her, that there is nothing she can do to stop you, that NO ONE will step in to help her, that you can do this at any time and for any reason you feel appropriate. To me that comes under abuse. Its not putting your foot down and saying this isn’t working stop turning me into a girl or I’m walking, its locking a girl up in something she can’t escape from and is utterly terrified of, leaving her never knowing if she’ll be let out (something could happen to you that prevents you freeing her and no one else is going to) and your doing this to her as a “time out”.
What would you call that? To me its abuse regardless of the reason and personally I can see doing that not just breaking their friendship but also breaking her as a person. But maybe that’s what you want?
It’s not about asserting control over Jean, but getting “her” to stop forcing others through such grief in order to mix “her” self-inflicted issues.
Jean chose to hide “her” genie status from Belle, plus made Neil posed as former Jean and go out with Belle which somehow led to them having sex. It gotten like this because Jean won’t be honest with “her” girlfriend and would rather keep lying to her and stand by watching reluctantly of other guys smooching and what else with Belle. For whatever reason Jean and Belle were dating before, it’s starting to be clear that it’s mostly for sexual pleasure on Jean’s part than love for Belle. Any decent boyfriend who cares about his girl wouldn’t be playing games like this, or at least a smart one. Granted that Belle is seeing other guys while Jean is “away”, but “Jeanie” haven’t been making an good effort on “her” part before to assure Belle that Jean still wanted to keep “her” relationship with Belle. So this does leave Belle with the feeling that she’s free to see other guys if Jean’s not serious enough with her to keep in touch. Using Neil as a quick fix is only more lying and poor compensation to mending their relationship.
For the sex part, that blame can fall on Neil because Jean just wanted him to substitute for “her” with Belle to keep their relationship. I don’t believe Neil intentionally wanted to have sex with Belle, but might’ve got pressured into it by Belle or was worried with Jean getting upset with him by not giving Belle a good time. Jean can be mad at Neil for having sex with Belle but to be sending Neil/Natalie to Rodge in lingerie to supposing have sex together and now pressing this hard to have sex with Neil just for selfish reasons, especially by rubbing it in with mimicking his girlfriend’s image after getting so steamed about it earlier, Jean is just plain deliberately cheating on Belle and is really straining it with Neil.
I’ll admit saying that using “her” bottle as a means to putting the brakes on this was extreme, but it was meant as a last resort. Jean is too impulsive with “her” powers at times and Neil’s only real defence from Jean would be that bottle of “her” if Jean start getting worse here with him. Jean does need a good talking here about how “she” should deal with all this. If “she” doesn’t get “her” priorities straight soon, the ones that should honestly matter most to “her” as a person, Jean can very well drive “her” only allies away “herself”, never mind being bottled up from them for a short while or for eternity over Genie rules.
The look of realization on Neil in the last panel implies to me that he is catching on to what’s happening. Also, I think inadvertently he’s doing to Jeanie what he did with Belle, making her pursue him and slowing the process down compared to typical “Jean” behavior. That alone may account for Belle’s perception of the best sex ever with “Jean.” Of course, Jeanie/Jean will never see that aspect . . .
Lack of sleep can result in increased incidents of poor judgement. In that respect it is much the same as being drunk. Jeanie is currently drunk on her own body’s toxins & would actually benefit from hitting the bottle.
I’m also noticing that you have links for some of those personae, but this is the “first” time any of them have appeared. Does this mean we’ll be seeing more of sexy B’Ellana or Twilight Jeanie?
Twilight Sparkle is a My Little Pony. We are seeing a version who comes from a movie in which the Ponies are transported to (roughly speaking) our world.
RL vs Comic World notwithstanding, Neil’s reaction is perfectly reasonable and understandable. The only way Neil could understand Gene’s actions is if prior to his Geniefication, he was bi and so far nothing has hinted at this. That said, it’s not about sex, it’s more of a matter of concern over a friend acting in an irrational and kinda Scarey manner. Given the same circumstances with any of my best friends, I’d be hiding behind that couch too. Hmm, actually that did happen with a best lady friend of mine. She came over to my place in need of consolation and a shoulder to cry on. After a few drinks she decided she need a more ‘intimate’ kind of consolation. One of the hardest (but best) things I have done was to gently say no three damn times. Glad she did’nt make a fourth attempt ’cause my will power and nobility were being stressed to the max and the little head was threatening to take control.
That could backfire really spectacularly, though, since sleeping puts her in her bottle. Neil doesn’t know that she’s deathly afraid of it, though, and that could lead to all kinds of Natalie-fication.
Also, I don’t think Neil can wish for things any more. He already used up his three wishes way back at the start of the comic.
Good point. She does change him back, but not for work.
We know she has a lot of control over how the wish is granted, and the sandwich incident shows she has some control over how quickly she grants the wish.
I have to admit, though, as intriguing as the reset idea is, it does seem a bit farfetched.
I think that Jeanie *does* still have to fulfill Neil’s wishes. She clearly can still delay a bit, and probably embellish or creatively interpret, but in the previous strip Neil asked to be changed back to normal so he could go to work. His *explicit* wish was to be changed back to normal and he was. He didn’t actually wish to be “sent to” or “at” work. For all we know he was planning to get a shower and change before leaving for work.
I don’t know for sure, but my take on this is that Jeanie has chosen her master and thus must grant his explicitly expressed wishes. She may have some leeway about timing and exactly how it happens, but I think she could not have, for example, sent Neil off to the Hiram Club in female form until *after* she had made him Neil again.
>> Nix on the wish reset; Neil already wished for Jean to poof him to work.
>What page was that? And was it a wish, or a request? Jean *can* do magic for him on request without being compelled.
The request was in the first panel of last weeks strip (#297). The first two of Neil’s compulsory three wishes were granted without Jeanie consciously doing anything (the key in #4/2 and the instruction manual in #6/6 and #7/1). If the “counter” had been reset, in 297/2, Neil would have been poofed to work as Natalie, in just the MIT tee.
I’d say there’s a decent chance Neil suspects somethings going on. Since being let out of her bottle she’s latched onto him and cried on his shirt and now she’s demanding sex. I doubt he understands how utterly terrified of it she is but I’d think he’d know something was going on.
It was the previous page and it was a request. My understanding though was she chose to give up some power to remain with this particular master. That implies she’s quite capable of granting any wishes he cares to make as long as she wants to and its within her remaining power.
I suspect she’s had at least one in that time period. However given the age changing and all its possible her biological timer got reset. Hmmmm sleep deprived Jeanie in the grip of her first period and the hormonal and emotional upset that goes along with them. This could explain somethings even if it would be a really, really bad morning after if Neil gives in.
Incidently this also means all the other’s she’s transformed (red haired nerd girl, ship captain) have probably experienced their first periods as well.
I would hope that if she were undergoing this aspect of femininity, we would know about it. I can’t imagine Jean letting such an imposition go without comment. To put it mildly.
Cramping, mood swings and other symptoms can show up before the actual discharge itself if my admitedly limited knowledge of such things is accurate. She could be spotting in the next day or so.
Uhh, that’s a human form of a pony from My Little Pony, not just some japanese school-girl thing.
And honestly, I’ve been too old for middle-school girls for a looooong time now.
They’re chosen specifically to be dream girls for a nerd. If you’re not a Star Trek nerd, a fantasy nerd, or a brony, Jeanie didn’t turn into your dream girl.
A Star Trek nerd would probably prefer a girl from the Orion syndicate to a half-Klingon. From Disney, maybe Tinkerbelle? And isn’t Shutterfly the go-to waifu for Bronies?
But Jean would not know about that, would she? She picks whatever is hyped at the time and assumes that is what nerds geek out about. Though they must have talked about Voyager, or she would no doubt have sported some Borg implants.
I am still surprised about the distinct absence of a brass bikini. Maybe too mainstream to be a nerd thing in Jean’s mind?
Actually, I think Jean poofed into the kinds of females that turn him on. And in nearly 300 strips now, the only female that we know has turned Neil on is Jean(ie). Neil was sweet to Araceli, but in a sort of big brother kind of way. And if he did sleep with Araceli, it would have been when he thought she was Jean(ie).
Even though I’ve been on record as being an Araceli fan, I guess I think Jean(ie)’s going to be the one he winds up with… or at least one among his harem.
BTW, I missed out on the brow ridges; been awhile since I’ve seen a Star Trek Voyager.
And I am disappointed that there wasn’t a brass bikini. According to Carrie Fisher when she was on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, if you were standing close to Princess Leia, like Boba Fett, you could see all the way to Florida.
Oh I’m into fantasy and Star Trek, but Belana Torres does NOT turn me on. Star Trek has SO many better women to offer. And treating a character from children’s/family shows as a sex object just feel very, very wrong to me.
Remember that Niel is an engineer. Speaking as an engineer myself, women who can fix things (e.g. other engineers like Belana Torres) are *really* hot. That’s more important than oozing sexiness. In fact there’s a good engineer joke that plays off that and pretty much describes the engineer’s perfect fantasy woman.
The (almost) never-changing costumes of the characters is a trope. Zits Jeremy has been sporting the same plaid flannel shirt, bulky jeans, and shoes that were old-fashioned in the Nineties. Belle never has been shown in anything other than the same vest-over-dress even when she took Jean(ie) clothes shopping. It’s not a bad cliche IMHO; reminds me of a simplified version of the sexy alien teacher in Please Teacher.
Jean(ie) probably keeps her hat because she’s so sloppy with her magic she doesn’t notice it.
Neil, of course, always wears the same things because he’s a dork.
Y’know., I just had a thought, albeit a bit far fetched. Could be Jean is trying to teach Neil a lesson specifically: Dude, boinking your best friend’s GF is just as bad as boinking your best friend.
Nahhhh, Jean isn’t that deep a thinker especially not when she’s goofy from lack of sleep. It also contradicts Jean’s burning desire (heheh) to find out why Neil is a superior boinker. I’m pretty sure we all know the answer to that one but it may be beyond Jean’s comprehension and mind set.
Actually, that’s pretty plausible. Wouldn’t bet the farm, but I like it.
Of course, Neil’s problem would be that Jean basically told him to do whatever would make Belle think Neil was Jean. See, ferex, ?p=1612 “Put your tongue in her mouth!”
Then, in ?p=1676: “He didn’t even want to at first…but with a bit of foreplay…”
I take that to be aggressive foreplay on Belle’s part.
It would be typical Jeanie to punish Neil for doing exactly what she told him to do.
That basically the way that Jeanie is. If you don’t do it, she get mad at you. If you do it, she get mad at you. So your in a no win situation with Jeanie, she going to get mad at you and then retaliate with retribution on you no matter what you do.
I dunno Neil gave in and slept with Belle which was clearly a bad idea, he might be saying no now, but with a little persistance I don’t see him holding out here.
Not to mention that Jeanie has a tendency to zap you if she doesn’t get her way too. Unless Neil grows Iron pair of ball’s real quick and forbids Jeanie doing what she trying to do. I don’t see this end very nicely and is going to get real nasty here.
I don’t think he’d mind they’re running a recruiting drive if Jeanies bottle is anything to go by and if a Genie is allowed to stay with a specific master because they love them then one assumes the other things that go along with that also apply.
Well, Jeannie from the TV series was pretty aggressive at pursuing Tony Nelson, at least as aggressive as a ’60s TV sitcom could allow, I mean they didn’t even let her show her navel.
I have sort have been seeing Araceli as the stand-in for TV Jeannie. Though with a bit of evil sister Jeannie as well.
Practically every TV series, comic, webcomic, etc runs off the perpetual will-they-won’t-they romance. Even in Accidental Centaurs, they agreed that ‘it didn’t happen’ afterwards, and in a later episode the guy got enchanted just before the fateful deed. It would be nice to see one where they do have sex – and continue to – and grow (not just deal) with it. It doesn’t matter if the sex is on-screen or off-screen.
Jeanie’s attracted to Neil, she just wants to know why Belle thinks Neil-Jean was a better lover than Jean himself.
But as many have noted, Jeanie is not thinking clearly at the moment. She’s sleep deprived, jazzed on java, and blinded by jealousy (see the story arc title: “I Dream of Green Eyes”).
Although Jeanie isn’t interested in Neil as such as most people have already noted. If she has her way and has sex with Neil to fined out why Neil-Jean is a better lover than she is. She will have to do it as a female and that will get her to thinking differently after she check Neil out in bed. It will also change Jeanie’s sexual desire too and her thinking Neil as a sexual partner now. Before this time, they were mostly as friend with no sexual intent on either party up to this point. But, that would change real quick and they would become lovers real quick.
Aargh, sense reversing typo! I meant, “Jeanie’s not attracted to Neil”.
Jeanie’s behavior here is so atypical that Neil is rightfully concerned about her motives, and about how she will treat him once she realizes what she did.
She needs to develop some respect, and even affection for Neil before she has sex with him.
Agree with the first two points. But, that not Jeanie style on the third point. That why Neil is a better lover than Jean is. I agree with you that she should develop some respect for Neil before having sex with hem, but not Jeanie way.
@Larry: “that not Jeanie style on the third point”.
Neither is it Neil’s style to be assertive, to assume master-ship over his genie.
Nevertheless, he must, first of all, not give in to Jeanie’s demand to have sex with her until he knows she’s in her right mind. Second, he must demand respect at least before allowing her to use her sexual allure to control him.
This is against both their natures. But that’s what learning and growing are all about: overcoming ourselves.
I recall something about genies not being able to kill…(is that correct?)
So, hypothetically, if Jeanie got pregnant would she be unable to poof it away?
That song would have an entirely different set of genie-driven visuals given the current context (most likely rated R), and I have to say I would be interested in seeing those visuals. “Can your girlfriends do this?” “Can your girlfriends do that?”
Shit!They broke the Sony 1080 high-def!
I’m sure Jeanie can fix that is a jiffy. Phenomenal cosmic powers, and such.
Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie, are those your fantasies?
Just how hot for Neil are you? Have you forgotten the game plan here?
Also, TV. Pfft. Neil lives with a genie. She can poof a new one together anytime.
OMG…it is over…I wouldn’t think that those ponies would invade every aspect of my life but it has now taken the last aspect over that I thought would be safe. My daughter is obsessed with My Little Pony and there it is Twilight sparkle as a equestria girl. :(( LOL 😛
Her skin isn’t purple, I don’t think it counts as an equestria girl.
I honestly thought it was Juniper Lee at first.
Do a GIS for reference.
Why would I want to do a Geographical Information Survey? lol
Google Image Search. 😛
They already made a pony version of Vectorman. 🙁
Thank you for telling me who she was, I knew the hair looked familiar but I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me! XD
A Twilight sparkle?
Eh, still a better love story…
And I’m sorry, but how is Belle going to feel when she comes back for the purse she forgot and finds Neil having sex with herself?
This is just twisted.
Amusingly twisted, but twisted.
If Belle sees herself making love to Neil, Belle will think she’s the one who needs therapy…
However, I think there are even more amusing possibilities with Araceli seeing “Belle” with Neil, getting angry, and then poofing the real Belle by mistake. Not out of the question by any means for someone who fires cannons in living rooms, or conjures entire automobiles through cineplex walls. (Check the bottom middle panel and you can see the hole in the wall.)
Now, I have to wonder if poofing into Belle will make Neil realize what the deal is. I hope so.
Yeah I think Jeanie just overplayed her hand with that last Poof xD
No kidding! Jean is just becoming off as desperate and crazy here. “Her” scheming is even worse when “she’s” sleep-deprived. Either that or “she’s” desperate for sexual desire. I don’t think Jean had any actual sex since before the djinnication.
Probably both.
We know Jean had “actual sex” because Belle reported that Neal/Jean gave her the best sex ever.
I’m sure thats of real comfort to Actual Jean, 50srefugee XD
Holy crap Neil found his balls and said no…….So far.
I though it was much to soon if ever for them.
Besides this is still all about Jeanie not knowing what Neil wants.
I would love to know more about Neil CD, what’s his deal. Maybe you can give us a flash back so we can get to know him more. Sure we know he likes his job but there has to be more to him. I really want to know how these two became friends.
Right now I’d lay even odds on Jeanie not knowing what she wants as well
I find it somewhat strange that Jeanie keeps her hat in all these transformations.
Interesting observation. The hat came off in #279 when Araceli trapped her in her bottle. Makes me wonder if it isn’t a part of the plot – Araceli switched her hat with something that like a curse can’t be removed, and flips her personality. She assumed Jeannie loves her master, and this would make her hate him, thus getting her in trouble and banished. Except Jeannie is abusive to Neil, so a flip would make her especially caring and loving and… willing to sleep with him.
Which all sounds plausible, until you remember that there’s no way Araceli could be that clever.
Who says Araceli would have to be that clever, could be whats his face (Gundo? I can’t be bothered looking up the correct name)
It’s a fez. Fezzes are cool. That’s all the explanation I need.
Kirby, no, it is not a fez. The fez is taller.
This might be a taqiyah, or kufi skull cap, although I don’t think women wear those, and Jeanie’s seems to be even shorter.
Makes me wonder what would happen if Jeannie poofed into someone where that persons hat was iconic for them. e.g. Abraham Lincoln with his stove pipe hat (yes I know Jeannie can’t poof into a male, it’s just an example)
Or Carmine Miranda with the iconic fruit hat…
I don’t think there would be any issue; her past transformations didn’t have the hat. https://jeaniebottle.com/?p=4
Does “no means no” mean anything when it’s the guy?
Well of course! But I haven’t seen Neil imply that he’s not interested…
Are you kidding? I think Neil strongly implied he was not interested when he shouted, “WHOA!”, and knocked over the TV in his haste to back away from Jeanie.
I think he’s just confused and surprised. He’s not expecting this kind of behavior from Jeanie at all. Notice that he’s not saying “WHOA!” like how you command a horse to stop moving. He’s saying “WHOA…” like you would when something blows your mind.
Nevertheless, he’s emphatically distancing himself from someone who is acting far out of character.
You are also dealing with a sleep deprived narcissist who’s desperate to prove to themselves that they are better in bed. If she’s not making the connection she’ll be trying to compare sexual techniques when its her first time as a girl how much chance does the guy have of being listened to. This is why our local rape laws are such rubbish since its almost impossible to prove you were “raped” and half the time it’s the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrist if your a guy assuming they haven’t changed much since I was younger.
Well, I was partially right about Jean turning into Belle. If I was Neil right now, I would start yelling some sense back into “her” right now or just give her a time-out back inside her bottle until “she” listens. Jean is just really start to push it here with Neil’s friendship and Belle’s love.
Really the girl gets pushy so you recommend psychological abuse to bring her in line?
Hey, come on – it worked in The Taming of the Shrew.
Yes, although I think “abuse” is way too strong.
@ TTraveller: Shakespeare was writing out a male fantasy of the time, not composing a psychological treatise based on study & observation. The Taming of the Shrew is, from my experience, a really bad model to base relationships on.
“Psychological abuse”? What the hell do you call turning your best friend into a scantily, dressed woman and then transporting her to a place where she may get raped or otherwise abused.
I’m just not finding what Jean is pulling both Neil and Belle through as funny nor appropriate anymore. This is being taken too far and as sleep-deprived as Jean is, the “girl” needs a major wake up call back to reality.
Yeah, yeah, having a genie’s power can mean being able to warp reality around, but that’s not as easy with people’s natural reactions. Not all the cosmic power in the universe can stop how a person will feel about his/her situation, not just rule-wise.
Jenny: “I’m just not finding what Jean is pulling both Neil and Belle through as funny nor appropriate anymore.”
I have to agree, although it’s not necessarily inappropriate storytelling. Jeanie’s way off her rocker, and it is crucially important for Neil to assert his mastership. He must not give in to this.
I’m not saying Jeanie’s in the right. I’m saying that the thought of being trapped in her bottle is so utterly terrifying to her that its affecting her behaviour. Simply thinking about being teleported in there when she goes to sleep is enough to not only make her shiver in fear but stay up all night long to try and avoid it. I’m not sure I’d call it a phobia but its something that could probably grow into that.
What was recommended here was the equivalent of taking the most terrifying thing in a persons life and using it as a punishment.
Try to think back on your life and find something that utterly terrified you (probably in childhood), something so terrifying your behaviour was altered to try and avoid it, something that changes your behaviour to avoid it because you know there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Now imagine someone you trusted used that as a punishment when you tried to do something you thought would be nice for them. That is what your “timeout in her bottle is” its making Jeanie experience the thing that terrifies her most right now, exposing her to all that fear, that uncertainty, that helplessness, its about telling her you will do this to punish her, that there is nothing she can do to stop you, that NO ONE will step in to help her, that you can do this at any time and for any reason you feel appropriate. To me that comes under abuse. Its not putting your foot down and saying this isn’t working stop turning me into a girl or I’m walking, its locking a girl up in something she can’t escape from and is utterly terrified of, leaving her never knowing if she’ll be let out (something could happen to you that prevents you freeing her and no one else is going to) and your doing this to her as a “time out”.
What would you call that? To me its abuse regardless of the reason and personally I can see doing that not just breaking their friendship but also breaking her as a person. But maybe that’s what you want?
It’s not about asserting control over Jean, but getting “her” to stop forcing others through such grief in order to mix “her” self-inflicted issues.
Jean chose to hide “her” genie status from Belle, plus made Neil posed as former Jean and go out with Belle which somehow led to them having sex. It gotten like this because Jean won’t be honest with “her” girlfriend and would rather keep lying to her and stand by watching reluctantly of other guys smooching and what else with Belle. For whatever reason Jean and Belle were dating before, it’s starting to be clear that it’s mostly for sexual pleasure on Jean’s part than love for Belle. Any decent boyfriend who cares about his girl wouldn’t be playing games like this, or at least a smart one. Granted that Belle is seeing other guys while Jean is “away”, but “Jeanie” haven’t been making an good effort on “her” part before to assure Belle that Jean still wanted to keep “her” relationship with Belle. So this does leave Belle with the feeling that she’s free to see other guys if Jean’s not serious enough with her to keep in touch. Using Neil as a quick fix is only more lying and poor compensation to mending their relationship.
For the sex part, that blame can fall on Neil because Jean just wanted him to substitute for “her” with Belle to keep their relationship. I don’t believe Neil intentionally wanted to have sex with Belle, but might’ve got pressured into it by Belle or was worried with Jean getting upset with him by not giving Belle a good time. Jean can be mad at Neil for having sex with Belle but to be sending Neil/Natalie to Rodge in lingerie to supposing have sex together and now pressing this hard to have sex with Neil just for selfish reasons, especially by rubbing it in with mimicking his girlfriend’s image after getting so steamed about it earlier, Jean is just plain deliberately cheating on Belle and is really straining it with Neil.
I’ll admit saying that using “her” bottle as a means to putting the brakes on this was extreme, but it was meant as a last resort. Jean is too impulsive with “her” powers at times and Neil’s only real defence from Jean would be that bottle of “her” if Jean start getting worse here with him. Jean does need a good talking here about how “she” should deal with all this. If “she” doesn’t get “her” priorities straight soon, the ones that should honestly matter most to “her” as a person, Jean can very well drive “her” only allies away “herself”, never mind being bottled up from them for a short while or for eternity over Genie rules.
I was about to ask “is Queen Elsa really a ‘dream girl,'” but then I remembered I had an Internet connection.
She also looks a lot like Jeanie to me.
Dear god I am so sick of Frozen!
I was sick of Frozen about half way through the first time I saw the trailer.
I asked my Disney fanatic (adult) niece what she thought of Frozen, her daughter is a fanatic, and the answer was it was OK.
My objections to Frozen are not to the technical aspects. More than that is beyond our scope here.
Also, I’d have to listen to That Song.
Just get over it and let it go.
😛
Kill it! Kill it with fire!
The look of realization on Neil in the last panel implies to me that he is catching on to what’s happening. Also, I think inadvertently he’s doing to Jeanie what he did with Belle, making her pursue him and slowing the process down compared to typical “Jean” behavior. That alone may account for Belle’s perception of the best sex ever with “Jean.” Of course, Jeanie/Jean will never see that aspect . . .
If one tries too hard to be all things, one often ends up being nothing.
But that level of thought seems to be beyond the blonde … er redhead(?) in the room.
Yep. Jeanie is definitely off her rocker. Looks like that lack of sleep hits hard.
Lack of sleep can result in increased incidents of poor judgement. In that respect it is much the same as being drunk. Jeanie is currently drunk on her own body’s toxins & would actually benefit from hitting the bottle.
No, wait… yes. Now I’M confused.
I’m also noticing that you have links for some of those personae, but this is the “first” time any of them have appeared. Does this mean we’ll be seeing more of sexy B’Ellana or Twilight Jeanie?
Should this thought scare me so much?
Wouldn’t think so. I assume the tags are there for search purposes.
Honestly, I didn’t recognize them. “Twilight” isn’t my thing. (Haven’t seen “Frozen,” either; probably should see that sometime.)
Twilight Sparkle is a My Little Pony. We are seeing a version who comes from a movie in which the Ponies are transported to (roughly speaking) our world.
I am ashamed to know this.
Ah. But I did recognize B’Lanna. Don’t like the show, but I recognized her.
RL vs Comic World notwithstanding, Neil’s reaction is perfectly reasonable and understandable. The only way Neil could understand Gene’s actions is if prior to his Geniefication, he was bi and so far nothing has hinted at this. That said, it’s not about sex, it’s more of a matter of concern over a friend acting in an irrational and kinda Scarey manner. Given the same circumstances with any of my best friends, I’d be hiding behind that couch too. Hmm, actually that did happen with a best lady friend of mine. She came over to my place in need of consolation and a shoulder to cry on. After a few drinks she decided she need a more ‘intimate’ kind of consolation. One of the hardest (but best) things I have done was to gently say no three damn times. Glad she did’nt make a fourth attempt ’cause my will power and nobility were being stressed to the max and the little head was threatening to take control.
“it’s more of a matter of concern over a friend acting in an irrational and kinda Scarey manner. ”
Yes, exactly. More, a friend who could turn Neil into a toad if she wakes up and decides that he took advantage of her.
Couldn’t Neil wish for Jean to get 10 hours of sleep, starting immediately?
That could backfire really spectacularly, though, since sleeping puts her in her bottle. Neil doesn’t know that she’s deathly afraid of it, though, and that could lead to all kinds of Natalie-fication.
Also, I don’t think Neil can wish for things any more. He already used up his three wishes way back at the start of the comic.
There’s still the chance that the mandatory wish counter reset when Neil uncorked the bottle.
Nix on the wish reset; Neil already wished for Jean to poof him to work.
Good point. She does change him back, but not for work.
We know she has a lot of control over how the wish is granted, and the sandwich incident shows she has some control over how quickly she grants the wish.
I have to admit, though, as intriguing as the reset idea is, it does seem a bit farfetched.
> Nix on the wish reset; Neil already wished for Jean to poof him to work.
What page was that? And was it a wish, or a request? Jean *can* do magic for him on request without being compelled.
I think that Jeanie *does* still have to fulfill Neil’s wishes. She clearly can still delay a bit, and probably embellish or creatively interpret, but in the previous strip Neil asked to be changed back to normal so he could go to work. His *explicit* wish was to be changed back to normal and he was. He didn’t actually wish to be “sent to” or “at” work. For all we know he was planning to get a shower and change before leaving for work.
I don’t know for sure, but my take on this is that Jeanie has chosen her master and thus must grant his explicitly expressed wishes. She may have some leeway about timing and exactly how it happens, but I think she could not have, for example, sent Neil off to the Hiram Club in female form until *after* she had made him Neil again.
>> Nix on the wish reset; Neil already wished for Jean to poof him to work.
>What page was that? And was it a wish, or a request? Jean *can* do magic for him on request without being compelled.
The request was in the first panel of last weeks strip (#297). The first two of Neil’s compulsory three wishes were granted without Jeanie consciously doing anything (the key in #4/2 and the instruction manual in #6/6 and #7/1). If the “counter” had been reset, in 297/2, Neil would have been poofed to work as Natalie, in just the MIT tee.
I’d say there’s a decent chance Neil suspects somethings going on. Since being let out of her bottle she’s latched onto him and cried on his shirt and now she’s demanding sex. I doubt he understands how utterly terrified of it she is but I’d think he’d know something was going on.
It was the previous page and it was a request. My understanding though was she chose to give up some power to remain with this particular master. That implies she’s quite capable of granting any wishes he cares to make as long as she wants to and its within her remaining power.
A long time ago, Neil asked Jean if she was upset because it was her time of the month. If genies have such, and it’s been a couple of months…
I suspect she’s had at least one in that time period. However given the age changing and all its possible her biological timer got reset. Hmmmm sleep deprived Jeanie in the grip of her first period and the hormonal and emotional upset that goes along with them. This could explain somethings even if it would be a really, really bad morning after if Neil gives in.
Incidently this also means all the other’s she’s transformed (red haired nerd girl, ship captain) have probably experienced their first periods as well.
They’re human; Jeanie is not.
I would hope that if she were undergoing this aspect of femininity, we would know about it. I can’t imagine Jean letting such an imposition go without comment. To put it mildly.
Cramping, mood swings and other symptoms can show up before the actual discharge itself if my admitedly limited knowledge of such things is accurate. She could be spotting in the next day or so.
Every form she chose in the fourth panel would have turned me off.
Really? Even the middle school girl in the sailor fuku? How much longer has your nose grown lately (not to mention other appendages.)
(FYI: Sailor Moon started out as a 14-year-old; Sailor Venus started at 13.)
Uhh, that’s a human form of a pony from My Little Pony, not just some japanese school-girl thing.
And honestly, I’ve been too old for middle-school girls for a looooong time now.
They’re chosen specifically to be dream girls for a nerd. If you’re not a Star Trek nerd, a fantasy nerd, or a brony, Jeanie didn’t turn into your dream girl.
A Star Trek nerd would probably prefer a girl from the Orion syndicate to a half-Klingon. From Disney, maybe Tinkerbelle? And isn’t Shutterfly the go-to waifu for Bronies?
But Jean would not know about that, would she? She picks whatever is hyped at the time and assumes that is what nerds geek out about. Though they must have talked about Voyager, or she would no doubt have sported some Borg implants.
I am still surprised about the distinct absence of a brass bikini. Maybe too mainstream to be a nerd thing in Jean’s mind?
Actually, I think Jean poofed into the kinds of females that turn him on. And in nearly 300 strips now, the only female that we know has turned Neil on is Jean(ie). Neil was sweet to Araceli, but in a sort of big brother kind of way. And if he did sleep with Araceli, it would have been when he thought she was Jean(ie).
Even though I’ve been on record as being an Araceli fan, I guess I think Jean(ie)’s going to be the one he winds up with… or at least one among his harem.
BTW, I missed out on the brow ridges; been awhile since I’ve seen a Star Trek Voyager.
And I am disappointed that there wasn’t a brass bikini. According to Carrie Fisher when she was on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, if you were standing close to Princess Leia, like Boba Fett, you could see all the way to Florida.
Huh. Princess Leia. Lara Croft. Can’t really think of who else.
Oh I’m into fantasy and Star Trek, but Belana Torres does NOT turn me on. Star Trek has SO many better women to offer. And treating a character from children’s/family shows as a sex object just feel very, very wrong to me.
But hey, that’s just my opinion.
Remember that Niel is an engineer. Speaking as an engineer myself, women who can fix things (e.g. other engineers like Belana Torres) are *really* hot. That’s more important than oozing sexiness. In fact there’s a good engineer joke that plays off that and pretty much describes the engineer’s perfect fantasy woman.
http://www.homebuilt.org/cmdrdata/jokes/01/0032.html
The (almost) never-changing costumes of the characters is a trope. Zits Jeremy has been sporting the same plaid flannel shirt, bulky jeans, and shoes that were old-fashioned in the Nineties. Belle never has been shown in anything other than the same vest-over-dress even when she took Jean(ie) clothes shopping. It’s not a bad cliche IMHO; reminds me of a simplified version of the sexy alien teacher in Please Teacher.
Jean(ie) probably keeps her hat because she’s so sloppy with her magic she doesn’t notice it.
Neil, of course, always wears the same things because he’s a dork.
Huh, just wondering why you didn’t draw any bags under Jeanie’s eyes.
She hasn’t had them since she got her coffee fix with Belle a few pages ago.
Just sayin, it’d make her sleep deprived insanity more obvious.
Y’know., I just had a thought, albeit a bit far fetched. Could be Jean is trying to teach Neil a lesson specifically: Dude, boinking your best friend’s GF is just as bad as boinking your best friend.
Nahhhh, Jean isn’t that deep a thinker especially not when she’s goofy from lack of sleep. It also contradicts Jean’s burning desire (heheh) to find out why Neil is a superior boinker. I’m pretty sure we all know the answer to that one but it may be beyond Jean’s comprehension and mind set.
Actually, that’s pretty plausible. Wouldn’t bet the farm, but I like it.
Of course, Neil’s problem would be that Jean basically told him to do whatever would make Belle think Neil was Jean. See, ferex, ?p=1612 “Put your tongue in her mouth!”
Then, in ?p=1676: “He didn’t even want to at first…but with a bit of foreplay…”
I take that to be aggressive foreplay on Belle’s part.
It would be typical Jeanie to punish Neil for doing exactly what she told him to do.
That basically the way that Jeanie is. If you don’t do it, she get mad at you. If you do it, she get mad at you. So your in a no win situation with Jeanie, she going to get mad at you and then retaliate with retribution on you no matter what you do.
Is that a Union flag on her skirt in the fourth panel?
That’s Twilight Sparkle’s brand, aka “Cutie Mark”.
I am ashamed to know this.
Cutie Mark. The form is a human version of Twilight Sparkle (from the most recent My Little Pony cartoon). For Reference:
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130704150138/p__/protagonist/images/4/4e/Twilight_Sparkle.png
…This is getting crazier by the second.
I dunno Neil gave in and slept with Belle which was clearly a bad idea, he might be saying no now, but with a little persistance I don’t see him holding out here.
Not to mention that Jeanie has a tendency to zap you if she doesn’t get her way too. Unless Neil grows Iron pair of ball’s real quick and forbids Jeanie doing what she trying to do. I don’t see this end very nicely and is going to get real nasty here.
This must happen, yes.
If Neil’s mastership means anything at all, it has to mean than he can check her more irresponsible behavior.
Can a Genie get pregnant?
Yes, Genie can get pregnant.
How do we know this? Tradition? TV show? In-comic?
TV Movie “I Dream of Jeannie… Fifteen Years Later” where Jeannie and Tony had a son.
It does happen, but, it doesn’t happen very often. Pregnancy that is. Maybe it was a planned Pregnancy. Who knows?
Source material; The Thousand and One Nights mentions the mixed offspring of djinn and humans.
Welp, Jean’s officially lost it ._.
I wonder if Lord Guano would approve of one of his genies trying to seduce a human, especially her master.
I don’t think he’d mind they’re running a recruiting drive if Jeanies bottle is anything to go by and if a Genie is allowed to stay with a specific master because they love them then one assumes the other things that go along with that also apply.
Seduce, sure why not? Probably most masters don’t need even that; see Jean himself.
But to aggressively demand sex, as Jeanie is doing here? To make her master retreat from her in confusion, even fear?
No, I wouldn’t think that’s acceptable at all. The master makes demands of his genie, not the other way ’round.
Well, Jeannie from the TV series was pretty aggressive at pursuing Tony Nelson, at least as aggressive as a ’60s TV sitcom could allow, I mean they didn’t even let her show her navel.
I have sort have been seeing Araceli as the stand-in for TV Jeannie. Though with a bit of evil sister Jeannie as well.
Practically every TV series, comic, webcomic, etc runs off the perpetual will-they-won’t-they romance. Even in Accidental Centaurs, they agreed that ‘it didn’t happen’ afterwards, and in a later episode the guy got enchanted just before the fateful deed. It would be nice to see one where they do have sex – and continue to – and grow (not just deal) with it. It doesn’t matter if the sex is on-screen or off-screen.
Hear hear! I fucking hate will-they-or-won’t-they plots.
If Neil’s head is currently not FULL of ringing alarm bells, I shall be very disappointed in him. ^^;
And I still say something’s off with Jean!
Just wanted to say, if something actually did take place here, it would be a first in the history of webcomics.
Elgoonish hinted at it, though never ran with it. TheWotch has always played it safe.
You can make history here, Robert.
Yea Robert….
You can make history here! (BTW, Where’s Katy?)
Hehe, well played CD. Perhaps you too can make history.
Yeah, nothing ever happens in web comics. They’re so static.
Flagg, just to note: I don’t draw or write this comic. CD Rudd does. I’m just the editor and web guru.
Perhaps Jean isn’t attracted to Neil, but giving a psychological shock to make a point about how uncool Neil was to bed Belle.
To REALLY mess with Neal’s head she could insinuate it was possibly Jean in Belle’s form when they shared the sack!
Jeanie’s attracted to Neil, she just wants to know why Belle thinks Neil-Jean was a better lover than Jean himself.
But as many have noted, Jeanie is not thinking clearly at the moment. She’s sleep deprived, jazzed on java, and blinded by jealousy (see the story arc title: “I Dream of Green Eyes”).
Although Jeanie isn’t interested in Neil as such as most people have already noted. If she has her way and has sex with Neil to fined out why Neil-Jean is a better lover than she is. She will have to do it as a female and that will get her to thinking differently after she check Neil out in bed. It will also change Jeanie’s sexual desire too and her thinking Neil as a sexual partner now. Before this time, they were mostly as friend with no sexual intent on either party up to this point. But, that would change real quick and they would become lovers real quick.
Aargh, sense reversing typo! I meant, “Jeanie’s not attracted to Neil”.
Jeanie’s behavior here is so atypical that Neil is rightfully concerned about her motives, and about how she will treat him once she realizes what she did.
She needs to develop some respect, and even affection for Neil before she has sex with him.
Agree with the first two points. But, that not Jeanie style on the third point. That why Neil is a better lover than Jean is. I agree with you that she should develop some respect for Neil before having sex with hem, but not Jeanie way.
@Larry: “that not Jeanie style on the third point”.
Neither is it Neil’s style to be assertive, to assume master-ship over his genie.
Nevertheless, he must, first of all, not give in to Jeanie’s demand to have sex with her until he knows she’s in her right mind. Second, he must demand respect at least before allowing her to use her sexual allure to control him.
This is against both their natures. But that’s what learning and growing are all about: overcoming ourselves.
I recall something about genies not being able to kill…(is that correct?)
So, hypothetically, if Jeanie got pregnant would she be unable to poof it away?
That’s just the big blue guy in Disney’s Aladdin movie.
In 1001 Nights, genies could definitely kill…
“You aint’ never had a girlfriend like me.”
That song would have an entirely different set of genie-driven visuals given the current context (most likely rated R), and I have to say I would be interested in seeing those visuals. “Can your girlfriends do this?” “Can your girlfriends do that?”
Hahaha, I love it!
“You ain’t ever had a girlfriend like–
You ain’t never had a girlfriend, period.”