Jeanie Bottle 426
Well, I stand corrected. SageM suggested yesterday that Jeanie’s next strategy should be to bring Natalie into play, but I figured it was too good of an idea for Jeanie to come up with. Clearly I was wrong, in alllll the right ways. Hot DAMN.
Yep, Natalie does look damn hot… and very, very surprised.
You’re really thinking that “Natalie” aka Neil is actually going to sleep with “Jean” aka Rodge here!? “She” didn’t while they were dating or when you made “her” sleep over at his place with lingerie!
Well, for a last ditch effort, you could threaten them to play along with your scheme to win your bet.
Maybe she’s just thinking that they’ll be seen together at the party, with “Jeannie Bottle” not in attendance, and come to the most likely conclusion? Most likely in Jeanie’s mind, of course.
Aren’t you supposed to be stuck in a moving box right now????
I’m still not sure about Jeanie’s whole plan here. She’s trying to prove that to the other girls that Jean isn’t a gigolo and that all men sleep around…by having Jean sleep around. Isn’t this just reinforcing the other girls’ point?
Robert – So they’ll see “Jean” aka Rodge as the player they already know him as, how does that show about how other men would sleep around too? Unless Jean can pull off some slight of magic use and wit at the right moment.
Ran-San – I’d been continuously thinking that too but maybe CD Rudd might have some interesting plot twist where Jean might actually make this ridiculous plan work.
Wow, I am surprised that my guess turned out to be true…. ^^ And its great to see Natalie again, we definitely need more of her in this comic!
Yes it is, and yes we do! I hope Natalie spends plenty of screen time at this party. 🙂
Maybe Jean actually was summoning Neil for advice, but…? Tune in next week, I guess.
Note that Jeanie has redecorated; she has more pillows in more colors in her bottle.
Also note that Neil has no idea that “that new Scarlet Avenger” is really a boy Jeanie turned into a girl. We have got to see Neil find out one of these days.
Maybe Neil should just go with the flow and be Natalie full-time. Of course, if that really was Agent Anderson at the last function, this wouldn’t be exactly the best time to start.
> Maybe Neil should just go with the flow and be Natalie full-time.
Yes please!
Jean also decorated her bottle with a large white board. Very ‘Engineer’ of her.
I was wondering if anyone would get the Scarlet Avenger reference.
Oh, yeah. The instant the term, “War Mallet” showed up, that was a tip-off.
It’d be interesting if Jean was irritated that Neil was spending too much time on video games, and poof’ed HIM into the game as the Scarlet Avenger, for a bit.
I almost commented on that myself, but got sidetracked. I was going to suggest someone mention that to Bach-Mann to bring up in Melvin Chronicles. I’d love to see Red using that as a class of choice.
OK, it just occurred to me that the War Mallet that Neil is playing before he poof away, is the same game that Red is the modal for. She the one that carries the Mallet.
Well, Dur.
The one question that people have sort of alluded too, but never outright asked:
Can Jean ever go back to being Human?
Answer to the question of can Jean go back to being Human?
No!
He or she can’t go back to being a guy instead of a girl either.
He or she is stuck being a girl Gene.
And even if he could go back to being Human and not a Gene, he would still be a girl, because, that his core identity now and he or she stuck with it whether or not she want to be stuck with it or not. She would just not have any Gene powers is all.
If you go back to the beginning of this series, when he first picks up the battle or totem. He imagines what the Gene that inhabits this bottle should look like and that exactly what he became when the bottle made him a her and a Gene too and now it her core being forever.
@Larry: “Core identity”?
I don’t think that’s remotely been established. Jeanie’s shown she’s willing to work with being female when it suits her plans, but she doesn’t strike me as being attached to it in any way.
If I remember correctly, It was Lord Guano that refereed to Jeanie being her new Core Identity of who she is now and it not who he use to be, which was a guy. So if that true, it has nothing to do with what Jeanie want anymore, she will always go back to being a Blond Genie at the end of the day, because, that who she really is now and that her true identity now.
We will have to go back to when Jeanie first became a Genie to find out.
Basically, I am saying is that she can scream and yell all she want to, but, at the end of the day she going to be a female Genie.
Well Natalie would seem to be better equipped to play the Scarlet Avenger class than Neil. But then we don’t know what Neil’s avatar is like 🙂
(Gasp) Jean what in gods name did you do now??
Another thought: Has Jeanie accidentally merged with Natalie?
Would be interesting but I doubt it. It’s most likely Jeannie’s magic affecting Natalie/Neil.
Oh dear god. Welp we know how Jean f’s this up.
I don’t entirely agree. We certainly know that Jean will screw up even more, but we don’t know how.
If Jeanie has a plan at all at this point, I think it might be something like make an excuse why she can’t go and persuade Neil and Rodge to go together. Then sneak into the party as another Natalie to try to seduce Rodge in front of the Hussies Three. Why bring Neil at all? Well, Neil is the “real” Natalie and Jean wants Rodge to believe she’s the real Natalie.
It would be nice if Jean actually did merge with Natalie because that way we could have arguments between Shoulder Jean and Shoulder Neil and perhaps a struggle for control over Natalie. But maybe that would violate the whole “strength of the human will” thing Kazom warned Jean about. Jean did get a pretty strong object lesson in why that is a Bad Idea.
My guess is that Jean will be insider her purse. That way she can easily monitor Neil’s progress. But yes, the idea that the two have an inner conversation would be interesting.
Nope, don’t bother seeing what he’s doing first, just poof him where he needs to be.
Thank goodness he wasn’t on the toilet at the time.
I wonder if Jeanie even can do that? Can she “detect” what the target of her magic is doing before using it?
And does she have the foresight to try to do so?
She probably doesn’t know that she has the power to do what Robert is suggesting. But, she doesn’t have the foresight to do what Kattgirl is suggesting. At least she hasn’t shown any foresight like that before in this series. So I would say, NO!
I fell like Jean really like to complicate her plans for nothing.
Ok, she finaly figured out that “Natalie” is “the girl” to get Rodge’s attention. (She should have figured that out a lot sooner after Rodge said the first time “you’re not my type of girl” before trying numerous other girl form.)
But why oh why did she bring Neil into this!!!! Yeah she transformed him into Natalie….but it’s STILL Neil! It’s bound to not work like she wish to be.
If she really wanted to make this work perfectly and exactly like she wanted, she should have just changed HERSELF into Natalie! (Instead of all those other girls….) It would have been a lot more simplier.
She can make herself look like anyone after all!!!
That would have been less funny, though. 🙂
Excellent point, Robert. 😉
Yeah, it’s kinda true i guess…..but still…
I think it’s funnier (and interesting to readers) when funny ideas like this happend and the plan of the plot has a chance to work. Having Jean in disguise as Natalie would have been also quite funny. (Especially if Rodge think it’s Neil and not Jean behind Natalie)
By the way, CD, I just wanted to say that that’s a great “match cut” you did between panels 3 & 5. Nice graphic match on the positioning. Excellent!
Thanks. I was kind of worried the comic wouldn’t flow right with the unique panel placements.
Is that what Rodge is into?
No Jean, you are supposed to turn into Natalie, not Neil.
You know, the first two times Jeannie was turned down by Rodge it was in front of the girls that she is trying to prove wrong. I’m guessing this is on purpose for Jeannie as she wants them to see, but it’s also giving them a mountain of evidence in the opposite direction. I mean, hell, it looks like they are taking photographic evidence of it the first time around. Not sure if this means anything, just found it interesting.
I believe this is the first time that Jean has admitted that Neil is smarter than he/she is.
Ooh, good catch!
Except that she immediately forgets and summons Natalie instead.
How does a paunchy nebbish turn into such a sizzling hot babe? Yes, as others have noted, Neil really needs to consider being Natalie full time because yowsers.
So, two possibilities here: Either Natalie discovers that Rodge is actually kind of a fun date, or Jeanie discovers her Master’s lap can be a very uncomfortable bench to lie on.
As much fun as Natalie is, I’m really kind of hoping that Neil finally takes control of his genie.
Q: How does a paunchy nebbish turn into such a sizzling hot babe?
A: Genie powers of course!
Iknow! Jean anf Natalie could become roommates. Naralie could date Roger and jean…. I am sure there is some nice guy out there for Jran
There is a nice guy for Jeanie: her Master, Neil.
Natalie is a sexy as hell, she makes me smile every time I check this page, but Neil is more important.
I’m wondering how much planning Jean put into this scheme.
Did she just poof Neil and hope for the best or did she plan further ahead and arrange for a room and luggage for Natalie too.
“Plan further ahead” ??? JEANNIE ?
You’ve got to be kidding.
I really like the way Natalie looks here, and I like Natalie in general, but Jean is really starting to get on the “do not like you at all” list the way Aracelery was….
Jeanie very seriously needs to be spanked then stood in the corner for half an hour. Without pants.
Out of self protection, Neil commands, “I wish you wouldn’t transform or transport me without my permission. –Ah! Nope! Not even!”
I honestly think Jeanie has cracked a bit, and has yet to fully recover sanity. What we get when we piece her back together may be a bit different, however.
I think rather that she’s drunk with power. She no longer has human constraints on her powers or on what she can do, at least at the (fortunately rather limited) scale of her desires. She hasn’t yet gotten what it really means to be a genie.
I like the way Neil’s controller transformed into a little black purse. Wonder what’s in it?
Make up.
Sewing kit.
Black lace hankie.
Ibuprofen.
Tampon.
Cond–wait, have I mentioned Jeanie needs to be spanked?
Also, she’s wearing a choker. Chokers are good.
Why is Roger calling her “Natalie” still. He knows who she is at this point. His reaction should be “Oh. Hi Neil. I guess Jean must have teleported you here just now for some reason against your will. Damn but she sucks.”
I do like how Jean has “boys” written on the whiteboard, though crossed off. The thought crossed her mind that he might be bisexual apparently.
Welp. I think I’m done with this webcomic. It was a hoot, reading through the stuff all the way from 2009. And it was fun, for a while. But I don’t want to deal with such annoying characters if there is no resolution in sight, and I’m not even sure I’d want to keep reading even if I could right now binge read all the material that would be released far into the future. And the status quo is no good. Jean is SUCH a douchebag. Like I said before, like Dan from Dan Vs., except unlike Dan, there’s nothing likeable about her, nothing charming, nothing endearing, not charismatic, she’s just a good looking bitch with powers and gets to always get her way (maybe that’s the difference with Dan, Dan doesn’t have the power to crush other peoples’ lives, he’s the pinball in the game and the whole series is about him trying to get justice when he is treated unfairly, whereas Jean in this is the CAUSE of all injustice because she has vast powers and no moral compass/problems bringing innocent people to harm). She’s not conceited in a CUTE way that makes sense like Dan (though Neil certainly reminds me more of Chris from Dan Vs. than of Major Nelson from IDOJ, he’s such a codependent it’s painful to watch). And the teenaged friend of that guy who got left as a girl, that bothers me, that I’m expected to just accept that and be titillated by it. It’s like the school newspaper guy in The Wotch who was turned into a girl as reality warped around him so no one remembered him as he was. Or the guy who went out to get tacos in their “Something Wicked This Way Comes” arc and got left as a girl. I could try to read some more of El Goonish Shive, that doesn’t seem to have those issues, but after the material from 2004 it just becomes a good cure for insomnia.
Well, thanks for reading as far as ya did Something. Sorry the comic doesn’t appeal to you any longer.
As for your points… well, as I was telling someone today, I believe in karma. Good things will happen when you’re good. Bad things when you’re bad. Sometimes you just have to wait till the good/bad catches up to ya. But the universe will eventually balance if you have the patients. The key is recognising the good and bad when it arrives and not to dwell on the bad.
Jean, Neil, and all the other characters have had and will get their punishments and blessings in due time. What comes around goes around.
But thanks for your readership, and I hope you find comics out there you enjoy.
For everyone who is still reading. As for the why Rodge calls girl-Neil Natalie…Well, there is a reason for that. If you think about it, you might figure out why.
He’s still subconsciously disassociating the two, isn’t he? I mean he KNOWS that Neil and Natalie are the same person, but he doesn’t FEEL it. That would be admitting he has a crush on a guy.
I would assume that he’s calling her Natalie because (a) he’s surprised and that’s the first name that comes to mind, and maybe (b) because he’s hoping that maybe Jean poofed up a REAL Natalie for him.
When Natalie answers back, “I’m still Neil, Rodge.” Rodge will probably look crestfallen and be jolted back to reality.
Ran-san: Rodge has a crush on a beautiful woman, Natalie. For him, and for most guys, Natalie’s lovely face and devastating figure outweigh the fact that Neil lives inside her head. He can’t SEE Neil, but boy howdy Natalie cannot be missed.
I may be missing some other reason Rodge is calling her Natalie instead of Neil, but I think that’s the most realistic one: right now, she IS Natalie, not Neil.
The reason Rodge calls Neil Natalie is because …. there’s other people around. Calling a beautiful young woman by a stodgy guy’s name is likely to raise some eyebrows.
Especially since folk around seem to know a bit about Jean, and thus may know that Jean has a friend named Neil. Miiiight do more than just raising eyebrows.
Wow, you’re probably the first person I’ve seen who thinks that post 2004 wasn’t a huge improvement for EGS.
Perhaps you should consider starting your own webcomic? James Fenimore Cooper started writing when his wife challenged him to write a better story than the one he criticized to her.
And I’m not entirely sure that Cooper’s work was a lot better. He knew roughly as much about Indians and the wilderness, as he knew about, oh, say; the planet Neptune.
Tom, have you ever read Mark Twain’s essay, “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” ? It’s incredibly funny – and somewhat bitingly accurate.
I’ve read it and laughed at it, but I’ve never read through any of Fenimore Cooper’s works, only excerpts I had to digest as part of second-year English in high school, back in the days when American Literature was part of the minimum curriculum. So I’m not passing judgement on his writing. But good or bad, Cooper produced a large body of work which sold well, meeting Robert Heinlein’s “beer money” test (That is, writers must always remember they’re competing for money that could be spent on beer.)
I struggled through “The Last of the Mohicans”… I’m sure it did well as a popular book back then, but reading it today, it’s so unreal that it’s hard not to keep laughing. Very melodramatic, and the descriptions are so off base that it’s clear that the author was a city boy who had no idea of what a forest actually looks like, or how animals and Indians lived. It probably wasn’t too bad – by the standards of the time, but it doesn’t wear well now – or even in Twain’s day.
But the 1992 movie version is brilliant in its own right. It almost doesn’t matter whether or not it gets historical or Indian social details right–it tells a great story. (And has a thrilling theme song.)
A rare instance of the movie far surpassing the book.
Lol I remember posting the ‘Scorched Earth’ posts when I was a kid. Fun days (not really).
Clearly jeanie is going to catch jean talking with nat and have a fake out rage.
I think i speak for a few people when i say jeanie needs to be punished for how she treated both neil and rodger here. If she had asked them to help her in her plan instead of manipulating them i would give her a pass. But she just uses them for what ever she wants with no regard for there feelings. She is a shitty friend and a terrible person.
That being said Nat is amazing as always.
I see CD is doing LIPS now on his women (something new)—-Will Jeanie get lips? 😉
I think they have lips if they have lipstick. and not when they don’t.
This is my own observation as well.
‘Coming to the to the’…?
I see unintended repitition there.
Oh, wow! I totally missed that!
HEY, ROBERT! (Sends up a signal flare)
In my defense, this is literally the UR example of extremely easily missed typos.
Forgiven. I looked right at it, and missed it, too.
Sorry to be a pest, but I’d like to point out another couple of typos in the poll.
Vale should be veil
Cloths should be clothes
In all fairness. Robert doesn’t manage the polls… that being said…
“It’s all his fault! He’s over there! GET h’em!”
I am thoroughly enjoying your comic. Thank you for sharing your story and the characters. I look forward to all the twists and turns that are forthcoming 🙂
I can just imagine the next panel given that Neil went from sitting down to standing up, in heels, in a figure hugging dress, and a different centre of gravity. That is really going to throw her balance off and she will fall into “Jean’s” arms in front of the other girls.
OK heels is an assumption but a good one I think given the evening wear.