Jeanie Bottle 480
Ohhhhh myyyyyyy….
And if you were wondering, yes: high-res copies of Natalie from each panel are on CD Rudd’s Patreon.
EDIT: Note to readers: since this comic was so late, the next comic will go up on Thursday, April 5th to prevent readers who come in on Tuesday from missing this week’s comic.
I guess Natalie is here to stay then.
I think the story is better off with Natalie rather then Neil.
Plus Natalie is rocking that outfit, what little there is of it of course. ^^
Poor Neil… He will never live this down when he gets turned back! Nor will he get over the memories of how he has been feeling and acting. Hopefully it hasn’t been too long. And he hasn’t gone too far!
And I am sort of disappointed that he wasn’t wearing that outfit Jeannie poofed for him when she sent him to Rdge’s that one time!
Though I guess it is sorta hot that he apparently has been buying some this like this for herself now!
Yeah, that outfit was probably just made of magic, so when Jeanie eventually poofed her back to Neil, the clothes most likely vanished.
I do like how you’ve pointed out that Natalie obviously had to buy this lingerie, though. 🙂
It look like it going to be Jeannie to the rescue when it come to changing Natalie back to Neil. Assuming that Natalie can be or will be turned back into Neil and what ever charm or incantation that was put on Neil can be removed before Natalie has sex with Rodge. Which could possibly make Neil permanently Natalie forever. There also the possibility that Natalie/Neil may suffer being split apart or they may be decouple from each other and we end up with two people, a Natalie and Neil. But, I don’t see that happening. Jeannie still doesn’t see the seriousness of this problem yet.
This problem will be more than just blinking this problem away too.
But, this is obviously the next arc in the series and now we are going to see how Jeannie bring Neil back from women hood or lose her friend forever.
I don’t see why sex with Rodge should make Neil permanently Natalie forever. However, there is question if it would be good idea to change him back after that.
I see two possibilities for Neil stay Natalie forever.
1. I hasn’t been determined if sex will permanently keep Neil in Natalie form or not. But, it could violate cosmic order or something like that. But, it was referring to Jeannie not being able to change back into a man after being transformed into a Genie. Having sex with Rodge could be the permanent switch that may make Neil, Natalie forever.
https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=06202009
2. Possibility is, Natalie is still Jeannie Master even in female form. Natalie could pick up Jeannie’s bottle and wish to stay Natalie forever. Jeannie would have to comply, because she is Neil/Natalie Genie even if she doesn’t want to grant the request.
Jeannie does have her work cut out for her, to get Neil back to male form. Rodge may soon cave in to Natalie female charm, because, she is Rodge’s dream girl after all.
@Larry:
Sorry, but Neil has already used up his three wishes. And Jeannie has never acknowledged him being her “master”, so she may well disregard anything he says, anyway. Jean is is pretty stubborn about that sort of thing.
@Kattgirl:
Jean may not have called Neil by the term, but it is clear that he is her master. In strip 77, Jean states she doesn’t want a new master after granting Neil’s third wish. In response, Guano, who was going to return her to the bottle, allowed her to “serve this master for the remainder of his days” in strip 78. Both Araceli and Kazom have also stated that Neil is Jean’s master as well. So although she may try to disregard what Neil says, she may not be able to, which could make it interesting if Neil’s sense of identity resurfaces just before Rodge knocks on the door as Natalie has already commanded Jean to go away.
(and yes, I managed to misspell “Hammond.”)
Hamond Cheese, The Key words here are: “I WISH” to stay Natalie forever! “I WISH” that you would go away! Natalie hasn’t use these two key words “I WISH” yet, so Jeannie doesn’t have to go away.
Until she does, then we will see what happens then!
@Hammond Cheese:
It’s never actually been established that a genie HAS to obey a “master”, beyond the three-wishes stage. They can stay with them, if they choose, but Neil has already used up his three wishes, and there’s no guarantee that Jeannie has to necessarily do what he asks from here on out. And given Jeannie’s personality, I sure wouldn’t bet on it in any case.
@Larry: Has it been established in the strip that the a master must phrase everything in the form of a wish to make it valid? Does the form trump the meaning along the lines of Final Jeopardy or, since a master’s wish is the genie’s command, might a direct command be enough?
@Kattgirl: I agree, which is why I said Jean may not be able to disobey a command. Maybe she can, maybe she can’t. We don’t know how Lord Guano defines the term “serve,” so we can only speculate until CD shows us.
Hammond Cheese, There isn’t any stated claim made that, all legitimate wishes have to start with “I WISH” to make them a legitimate wish, but, I don’t remembering seeing a wish that didn’t start off with the words “I WISH” either. It almost like saying “I WISH” is the magic key for making a wish by the Genie in the lamp.
If she turns back you mean.
Sadly we know she turns back for the flasback of chapter 383, but yeah, after all this tease I hope Natalie stay permanently at some point, she has beco me in May favorite part of this comic
Yes — *blink* “Wait… You were supposed to change back to Neil.” *blink* *blink* *blink* “Nothing’s happening!” Hilarity ensues.
Getting a lesson about the interaction of genie magic with other magic will be a learning experience for Jeannie.
Not really, we don’t know how far ahead that is.
Ohhhh my…
Well Jeannie, time to wait in the bottle for a new master! She’s way too busy now
Naughty, naughty Nat. No sex until you’re _married_ first.
I don’t see why.
Basic morality.
According to you. Not according to most people.
In fact, it’s been shown pretty conclusively that waiting to have sex until after marriage frequently leads to really shitty marriages. You don’t know if you’re going to be sexually compatible with your SO unless you, you know, actually have sex with them.
@Robert:
I’m remembering a lecture about this topic… There is a correlation, but it’s not causative. That is, it’s not that having sex first causes a better relationship; rather, it’s that the kind of uptight people who insist on waiting for marriage are also the kind who are likely to have a poor relationship afterwards.
So it’s not that having sex first helps, per se; it’s just that that kind of relaxed attitude towards doing so, benefits everything else, too.
At least, that’s what I remember as being the explanation.
It’s also been shown that people that “play around” before marriage are quite likely to continue playing around after marriage …. with people not their spouses.
No, basic morality does not say “wait to have sex till you get married”. At best, it’s a society which says that and passes it down as if it were “basic morality”, when in fact it’s one of the rules for being part of that society. Given that morality has been developed by humans as we matured as a species, it should not come as any surprise that we tend to have a number of moral systems, and that people tend to favor the moral system they’re most familiar with. But that doesn’t make it some kind of default.
Well, modern society is perverted and sick, so I can see how “most people” may not view it as basic morality.
‘No sex before marriage’ is a cultural precept going back thousands of years, and is rooted in patrilineal inheritance and the fact that, prior to DNA testing, a woman could be certain a child was hers, but a man could only _expect_ a child was his if the woman bearing the child was a virgin prior to entering into a relationship with him and kept from engaging in sex with any other man. As such, it was at its basis a _legal_ issue, which was enshrined after the fact as a moral one to justify its existence.
Sean is basically correct. It is not and never was a moral issue to begin with; men just didn’t want to raise the equivalent of cuckoo babies, set up laws to discourage it, and over time, made it over into a moral issue.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s the only moral issue.
Some genie out there is probably saying: “another happy ending” 🙂 yes Nat! Rodge and you make such a cute couple!
Seriusly, this is torture, we know for Rouyaa chapter that Neil will come back at some point, but all just want Natalie to stay, please CD stop playing with our feelings!
… On an unrelated note. I finally figured out why the animated bottle in the header bobs up and down. It’s because .header-info in the css file has height set to 148px, when it should be set to 149px.
.. Sorry it had been bugging me for a long time.
Yea! That was something I couldn’t figure out. I’ll make the change right away. Thanks! 🙂
I thought it was done intentionally. I liked the wave effect
I wouldn’t mind the wave effect if it looked intentional. The way it was displaying though just gave an air of it not being the case.
Does Rodge know?
Considering how forward Natalie was being at the theater, I’m guessing “Yes”.
Well, we know that Rodge knows that Neil is currently Natalie, because they went out to a movie together. But, he doesn’t know that Natalie has to turn back to Neil. Neither does Rodge know what we know. He just a glorified extra for this series, that a semi reoccurring main character here that step onto the sense when needed.
I have a feeling that Rodge is going to be pretty surprised to find out about Natalie’s plans for “their” future. And given the way his character has developed, I think his likely reaction may be to run like hell.
Yes this is a great change in pace.
Well, Jeannie’s “sensitivity” score just hit a new low…
Of course, somewhat in Jeannie’s defense, this is a pretty fast development. One day or so, and Natalie’s (and Rodge) are in love? Teenage crush time, here. Probably because Natalie’s new to feelings like this.
Yeah, I don’t think that Jean is laughing at the concept of love, but rather at the idea of it being Neil/Natalie in love with Rodge, since it flies in the face of how Neil/Natalie has always felt about Rodge before. Hopefully Jean will realize that Natalie is serious before Natalie does something that Neil is going to regret.
Let’s not forget this is RODGE we’re talking about here… the same couch potato Rodge who lets Neil do most of the work at their job – naps in his cubicle and want his niece to eat nothing but mac and cheese so he doesn’t have to cook 😛
On the potential relationship scale he’s about as reliable and mature as… well, Jean 😛 the only advantage he has is that he’s fairly decent and considerate as long as he’s paying attention.
Forget JEAN laughing – I’M laughing. If Neil wasn’t brainwashed none of this would have happened in the first place
@Kattgirl: Maybe Natalie’s feelings aren’t well-rooted, but looking back at Rodge in I Dream of Verisimilitude, Rodge’s Shoulder Natalie was shaming him for thinking of cheating on her, which I think may be the real reason Rodge has attempted to hold off Natalie now that she wants to have sex with him: Rodge loves her and doesn’t want to do anything to hurt her.
And if Rodge has grown responsible enough to do that, maybe he’ll learn to cook hot dogs instead of just cheese pasta.
@Tom:
Rodge? Cooking anything? Isn’t that one of the signs of the Apocalypse? What’s next, plagues of locusts?
it could be that jean used a lust spell and is amused that Neil confused love and lust, which can be funny watching people do.
I just want to know how much time has passed between Natalie and Rodge at the theater and this comic….
It would help explain a lot.
I suspect that this is the next morning after the theater.
You know, this is the first time (with the possible exception of the Greek fishing boat captain) that anyone in the strip has actually found that they enjoy being the opposite sex. Kind of a novelty.
And that is really a cute outfit that Natalie found. I’m envious.
Maybe we shouldn’t forget that Neil had sex with Belle. Also, that Araceli wants to have sex with Neil, and maybe even has had sex with Neil.
@Tom: And therefore… ?
Jean specifically told Neil to act like Jean would… and I’m sure Belle was pushing for something to happen – so he probably felt like he had to keep up appearances.
You might be right about Araceli… although that seems iffy to me. And all it means is that Neil’s human, and single. But Rodge has not indicated any similar inclinations… yet. And having sex once is a far cry from saying “we’re in love and destined to be together forever.”
Well, SHE may be in love… but I think she’s deluded if she thinks Roger is too.
I dunno, Rodge has clearly had a crush on her for a long time.
In other clues Roge has both Neil and Nathalie as an internal moral compass (with his mental Nathalie as a girlfriend), then Nathalie was the only girl who made him take the risk of face Jeanie wrath and forget his cover a her fiance, he does care for Neil as seen in this chapter and in the long run, between his previous relation as friend and cowoker of Neil, and all his weird and ramdom dates with Natalie, they kind of have history enough to be a couple, at least Rodge would be willing more soner than later, the only mis sing piece is Natalie giving in beyong whatever is happening to her now.
Agreed, but Rodge has been developing quite a bit as a character, and seems to have come a long ways since his horn-dog days on the Las Vegas trip.
Well, that creepily escalated rather quickly lol
OK. Go back to an early panel of the story. Jeanie is poofed away to Haji’s palace BEFORE Neil becomes Natalie. So Jeanie did not poof Neil. Another genie did, probably the Blue Djinn. Which is why Natalie is acting differently. And why Jeanie won’t be able to undo the change. There is probably a LOT of plot yet to go in this story. What is the Blue Djinn up to? Will Jehane’s unfair punishment be corrected? Who is Haji’s next going to be? Will Jeanie keep Natalie and Roger from getting it on by poofing Roger? Tying up all the plot threads could take years (at one strip a week).
> Who is Haji’s next going to be?
Natalie.
Which makes things difficult for the relationship with Rodge…
It isn’t clear that Neil wasn’t Natalie when Jeanie poofed back in 436. The person sleeping in panel three is clearly Neil, but in panel four it could be Natalie. The fourth panel shows the bookshelf and the door at a larger size than they were in panel three, indicating that this panel is a closer shot of the room. Despite that, the sleeper’s face is the same size as in three, indicating that the sleeper is smaller relative to the door and bookshelf. Additional evidence of this are that we now can see more of the books on the shelf as well as more of the sleeper’s body despite this being a tighter shot than in panel three. I think it is Natalie in panel four.
That’s PROBABLY true… but Jeannie can cause things to happen without necessarily being physically present, so she COULD have poofed Neil into Natalie from elsewhere.
However, we also don’t even know if the person bending over Neil in strip #436 is actually Jeanie or not. It’s Jeannie’s costume, all right, (as opposed to Jehane’s, which has a different waistband) but that doesn’t prove anything, as any other genie could be using her form.
So we really can’t draw any conclusions here about whether or not Jeanie can undo the transformation, until she actually tries it.
It is debatable whether or not panel four shows Natalie or not. My vote is not. Simply because his face does not change, and there is quite a difference between Neil and Natalie’s face. I do not see the background as much bigger if at all. The tops of the door and shelf stay the same, as does the size of Neil’s face and the couch.
And… if you notice the cast icons to the left side underneath the strip, they only show Jeannie and Neil. Which would conclude that it is actually Jeannie in the strip! Whether she is in her own mind or taken over is another story.
Another detail that is being overlooked and seems to be important is in the second panel. There is a discussion going on in Jeannie’s bottle. It takes at least two to hold a discussion. And who else but a genie can freely go into a genie’s bottle? Well we do know that humans can get poofed into them, but who would Jeannie poof into hers? Not many humans know of her.
I’ve been going on the theory that the conversation shown is half of a phone call between Araceli and Jean, which would explain why the word balloons all come from a single source. We know genies know about phones and that at least some have them from both the television series (Jeanie calls her mom at least once) and Lord Guano’s surprise that phones are mobile now (the panel is shown on the archives page so I didn’t look for the specific strip).
Uhhh, Natalie or Neil? You might want to think this over some more before committing to this permanently. A crush is one thing but going as far as to say you’re in love from just finding Rodge attractive only recently doesn’t guarantee a happily ever after marriage.
Whatever caused this mental state in Neil, it definitely isn’t Jean’s handiwork. Jean’s a hardcore bachelor”ette” that doesn’t believe in such attachments.
Jenny, I’d say you’re right about Jeannie’s attitude towards attachments… except that her magic sometimes has a mind of its own and does things that she didn’t really intend. Recall her making the “General Lee” car disappear without even knowing what it was that was being referred to. So if she did this to Neil while, say, sleepwalking, it might have turned out entirely differently from anything that was intentional.
While that’s true, Jean hasn’t been to able to change the will of a person intentionally. Like when “she” was trying to get Melvin a girlfriend. Anytime before when Jean changes Neil into Natalie, “she” couldn’t or didn’t change his mind into thinking like a woman’s. How would “she” be able to do this subconsciously somehow when “she” couldn’t consciously and breaking the genie laws at that?
The only two things I can guess why Neil’s mind is like this is: 1) this was done with magic that’s not genie-based, that’s not restricted by their set of laws OR 2) Neil has been changed into Natalie so many times now that his mentality is starting change into a similar psychological mindset of a woman’s on his own.
@Jenny:
I don’t know; I’m just thinking that maybe doing magic unintentionally might be a way of avoiding some of the rules. Put that in the “unproven speculation” category. Besides, maybe just upping someone’s hormone levels doesn’t count as changing their will?
But I can think of a third scenario: That the person bending over Neil in #436 is actually the Blue Djinn, in disguise as Jeannie. It’s semi-canon that the BD has found some way around Haji’s restrictions, so it’s possible that that includes being able to bend human minds to his will. In which case, Neil may be stuck as Natalie for quite a while.
It would also account nicely for the incident in the palace – that the person who swiped the valuables there was neither Jeannie nor Jehane, but managed to get the latter blamed for it.
Just for the sake of the argument, the Blue Djinn isn’t under Haji rules like all the other Genie are. Blue Djinn is what known as a Rough Genie or independent of the rest of Genie World. So the Blue Djinn can do what he want to do or make his own rules, which he does. So all bets are off to what the Blue Djinn can do and what he can’t do. That what this power struggle between Haji and the Blue Djinn is all about. This is a battle between the two top most powerful Djinn battling for control over the Genie world and who going to rule it and make rule that all the other Genie have to abide by.
We have Haji rules of how Genie are going to act like.
We have Blue Djinn rules of how Genie are going to act like and they have different rules.
Just about everything you know about Genie is out the window if the Blue Djinn does something.
Hmmm. Genies aren’t supposed to change the human will. Haji edited the memories of Rouyaa and the memories of the humans who knew her when she was with Andy. Anyone else see a contradiction here?
You know, that’s certainly an interesting point. There MIGHT be some special stipulations involving violations of the genie code that permit exceptions such as this, but so far it hasn’t been explained.
Tom, the only way I can see to resolve that contradiction is to say that removing memories isn’t the same as interfering with free will. They still are free to make their own choices, they just may not remember what those are. Granted, that IS a pretty fine distinction, but the only other way out is to assume that Haji is not bound by the rules he imposes on other genies. Which is also possible.
I have been assuming that the not changing free will thing is more of a natural law, not a Haji imposed rule. In other words, Haji can’t change a person’s free will either. Remove memories, sure, but that’s not the same. I think there are limits to Genie powers that are like the laws of physics in our world. For example, Genies eventually use up their magic power and become mortal/die at that time. This is sort of an expression of entropy and the laws of thermodynamics. Not even a Genie Lord can change it, maybe make some temporary alteration, but eventually nature will restore itself.
Altering memories isn’t quite the same thing as screwing with one’s free will. Plus, it’s Haji. He may have root privileges and cheat codes that other genies don’t.
EDIT: Holy carp, Katt and I made the same comment at the same minute!
Damn, Robert. GMTA!
Neat, bunny Jean!
Ahh, someone finally noticed the new header image! 🙂
I’d be excited, but given how Sailor Sun and this comic are, I doubt Natalie will stick around, which annoys me.
I’m just kinda tried of the gender bending teases. Just once I’d like to see a guy become a girl and remain that way, and no Brad/Bay doesn’t count as that happened before the comic technically started.
I don’t see Neil staying Natalie, it a too big of a departure from the original story line of male master and female genie type of story line, which is what this story revolve around and operates so well at. It basically a female genie falling in love with her male master and ultimately getting married to him, which has a long way to go yet.
We have our blond female genie, who is formally a male Alfie type and unwilling to participate in being a female genie called Jean, but, now going under her female name of Jeannie.
As the master of that Genie, we have Beta male or Coma male dealing with Alfie female now. This is basically the story line.
There might be occasional diversion into side story lines, but, this is the basic story line of this series at the end of the day. It basically, boy meet girl with strange twist to it. The only thing in question is how CD Rudd chooses to get there.
About the only way that I could see that we can save Natalie, is for Neil to have a split personality of having two people in his mind. One being Natalie and other being Neil. Then separate Neil/Natalie into his female and male bodies and have two people from that split. They would basically be twins, but, that would really screw up time continuum and change history. But, that going a little overboard and I don’t see that happening, Especially right now, there still too many side story out there with Neil turning into Natalie out there to be had.
Can Jean even understand love?
Good question!
Well Jean, if you snooze you lose!
The real question is how long has it been since the cinema has Rodge been able to hold out against Natalie’s advances and if not will that change anything in Natalie like say a little life in Natalie’s belly. because if so and I remember correctly in genie rules you can’t wish for someone’s death and a pregnant Natalie becoming Neil would do that.
As Hamond Cheese said, Guano said that Jeanie will “serve this master for the remainder of his days.” The word “serve” would mean obey his orders and/or grant his wishes. BUT “the reminder of HIS days” would be the day that Neil decided not to be male any more. That would release Jeanie, so she could change Natalie back to Neil. Ironically, that would mean that there were more days of his remaining, and Jeanie would have to “serve” him again.
On the other hand, if it turned out that a permanent gender switch was all it took to release Jean from service, rather than be free to transform Natalie back to Neil, Jean would likely go back into the bottle to await a new master as Guano originally planned. I’m more inclined to think that Lord Guano used the terms “master” and “his” in a more general rather than gender specific way, though.
After all the time he has spent as Nat i am wondering if there is not a lot more girl in him than we have been lead to believe. The fact that there is no mention of any girlfriends past or present also gives this some weight. Maybe CD will give us a flash back to fill in some of the blanks someday.