A junior engineer working 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 became Jeanie’s master.
Natalie always looks hot and Jean maybe it’s a lot of mental and psychological stuff that happened to him all these chapters. He many needs time to help process all this.
Well it looks like Natalie’s here to stay for a while, especially since Jeanie has disappeared…..again. Last time this happened she was stuck in Haiji’s palace for a long time, I wonder where (or when) she ended up going now?
Is it just me, or does Natalie always end up staying in girl-mode longer than she planned on every time Jeanie decides to transform her?
Maybe her bottle’s gone *because* she was so miffed? I mean, does she *have* to stay with her master post wishes if she subsequently becomes unhappy? Plausibly not. A *conscious* decision to leave may not be required.
Maybe the bottle disappeared because of the “have to stay” rule. If Neil/Natalie is going far out to sea on that yacht, then Jeanie has to be out there with her.
I *think* this page could be interpreted as “She HAS to be his genie until he dies”, but it could be that she’s only allowed to be his genie UNTIL he dies.
In fact, Asha’s situation (https://jeaniebottle.com/?characters=asha) suggests it’s more likely the later than the former, since she needed a special loophole to be allowed to not go to a new master when hers died.
Nat may have more fabric on than some of us would wish–but what she’s wearing fits her quite well.
BONUS: It’s not green! (Well, her pack–but that’s not ON her.)
===
Pretty sure Jeanie, and her totem, were blinked away by some other power. Not Jeanie’s intent.
How much fabric should she remove? She’s going to a boat. She isn’t on it yet. She should be dressed for travel: a sensible top and a sensible pair of pants (and presumably sensible/comfortable shoes).
Neil once asked Jeanie to poof up some permanent clothes for Natalie for times like just this. I don’t think CD actually showed that happening but I guess we can assume it happened.
Rodge, just as an experiment, just, you know, in the interest of science, try treating Natalie with a bit of courtesy and respect. Try to make her at least comfortable with being female, rather than making her more uncomfortable than she is.
Don’t revel in making it “awkward” for her. That’s not going to help your cause.
I think Rodge’s reply, “No can do,” is telling. Of the three of them he seems to be the only one that is being honest. He knows that he’s a horn dog and admits that that isn’t going to change. Obviously, he has the hots for Natalie, and it doesn’t matter to him that she’s actually Neil transformed. He knows who she really is and doesn’t care, only seeing her physical attributes.
Of course, he could also just be a lonely guy that keeps getting rejected (his only successful date was a man-eating plant) and Natalie is a safe haven.
That reminds of the commercial that has the girl dressed up nice and the guy has a stretched-out T-shirt, and she comments (derisively) that he looks “comfortable.”
Where is the “around here” you are referring to? Double front doors are a signature 1960’s mid-century modern feature and Cocoa Beach is a space age boomtown that grew 1000% between 1950 and 1960. So most of the town is 1960s midcentury modern tract houses and anything that isn’t is more likely to be a later replacement than not. Double entry doors have largely fallen out of fashion because they’re more difficult to seal and secure but sealing is less of an issue in Florida’s mild climate.
Has anyone else noticed that the door lites seen here are different from the ones shown in IDOJB 717? (Can you guess I used to be in the door & window business?)
That’s an interesting strip. Note Jeanie’s reasoning: “You should spend quality time as a teenager, learn to enjoy things.” And she evades Natalie’s WISH by pointing out that she’s not yet in possession of the Bottle.
I kinda think that Jeanie would be more accepting of Neil, male or female, as Master if only he wasn’t such a drudge. Jean may be a single-minded horn dog, but Neil? He’s worse. He’s boring, something Jean absolutely can’t abide. Remember how offended she was early on when all Neil could think to wish for was a ham sandwich?
That whole sequence was interesting. See, ferex, ?comic=jeanie-bottle-652, where Jeanie seems to have enjoyed doing all sorts of girly things, and is flabbergasted that Natalie couldn’t get into any of them to any degree.
Neil’s a terrible master. He’s a grind, a doormat, and in his way, every bit as selfish as Jeanie is. Truly, he deserves everything Jeanie’s done to him.
I agree, Neil is boring. In his defense, though, he’s an engineer, a sub species of humans not known for their devil may care personalities. In the sequence you referenced he was a male engineer in a teenage girl’s body, a square peg (literally). Had Jeanie boosted Natalie’s hormones like she did earlier, Natalie might have enjoyed the day spa outing.
“In [Neil’s] defense, he’s an engineer.” Sorry, that’s not even a good excuse, much less a defense. Neil is the warden, the steward, of one of the most powerful beings on Earth; a being who is nevertheless selfish and impulsive (although she has gotten better). That’s a serious responsibility, And yet, he cannot even keep his genie from being bored, allowing her to get into all kinds of trouble. As for being an engineer–Jeanie has been on Mars. The implications of that are staggering, yet Neil seems not to have even considered the potential. Sightseeing alone–Good Grief, Neil could take Jeanie surfing on solar flares or hang gliding in the clouds of Jupiter.
Neil’s a putz and a grind. I really believe Jeanie didn’t put him on a boat with Roger to be mean, she’s showing him what she wants him to wish for from her. She really is trying to show him how to have a good time. If he doesn’t like it, he needs to come up with his own ideas. I’d bet anything Jeanie would be thrilled to grant any wish along those lines.
Neil doesn’t have any power over Jeanie whatsoever. She could turn him into a mouse, keep him in a small cage and Neil would have no way to defend himself.
@Dagor: Neil may not have much power over Jeanie, but consider why she keeps his worthless ass around. What happens to Jeanie if Neil grabs the bottle and announces, “I wish I wasn’t Jeanie’s master anymore”?
On the other, and friendlier hand, while Neil no longer has the power to force Jeanie to do things she doesn’t want to do (as Jean has over genie-Natalie) she has demonstrated a willingness to take his suggestions for doing fun things together. There is still, however faintly, the power of friendship between them, and I believe Neil could strengthen that by exercising it. I believe Jeanie’s bottle-genie nature makes her want to have a benevolent, masterly friend who will help her find fun, interesting, and even good things things to do together.
In fanfiction she went the other way, dragging Neil off to fun places (London, Paris, pirating) because she did have the power. Neil being a doofus is only half the equation.
Shadowrnnr: First, fanfic, not canon. Second, she is still trying to get Neil to have fun, not to humiliate him or simply force him to serve her. Jeanie’s main problem with Neil is not that he’s a doofus, but that he’s a joyless grind and a doormat to his boss. [BTW, which fanfic is this?]
On the other hand, what Jeanie doesn’t understand is that Neil isn’t JUST a joyless grind. He is working towards goals larger than himself. He is, in his way, his own genie, but through study and application, not by accident.
Jeanie and Neil are very much two halves of a whole person; each has a lot to teach the other. Jeanie currently has the upper hand, so Neil gets to bend first–but once he shows a willingness to work with Jeanie, rather than to ignore or worse, scold her, I believe she’d follow him to the ends of the Universe.
This is more in the nature of a general observation about aviation, not about the characters. One of the things that made commercial-aviation-as-we-know-it-today work, is that all that “knights of the air,” “off we go into the wild blue yonder” stuff, that thrilling stuff that went before, had to die. If it made the people who work in aviation a little, well, stuffy, that couldn’t be helped.
Exactly, because Jeanie knows all too well what a male master could demand. Natalie being Jeanie’s master would put them on a more even footing–and might help Neil get over his hangup over Jeanie having once been Jean.
That would make it easier to move furniture in ans out. I had to take the door off and remove part of the frame one time to get my fridge in. I kind of like it.
For the spelling nerds, 2nd panel, “AKWARD” could be changed to “AWKWARD”. But then again, maybe Natalie actually said, “AKWARD” in a slip of the tongue.
I’m still curious how all the introduced plots and subplots will come together or be resolved.
Hmmm I wonder where Jean is …a big mystery. As a side note to CD since you have been doing JB for awhile now, it be cool to see one of your first year strips redrawn in your latest style. Think this might be possible?
I relayed this request to CD via the #suggestions channel on our Discord (linked in the sidebar). He draws from there to come up with ideas for bonus art that he posts to his DA and sometimes his Patreon.
“Don’t make this any more awkward…”
“No can do.”
And of course, the reason Roger rejects the idea is because he knows that Neil is something of a pushover, and hopes Natalie will be the same.
Meanwhile, Neil can only think in terms of the trip being “awkward”; he’s incapable of thinking about, you know, relaxing and having a good time. Roger might actually have understood if Nat had put it that way.
What you say is probably true about Neil/Nat not relaxing and having a good time, but I would suggest that Neil’s/Nat’s idea of a good time isn’t the same as a majority of other people. Interacting with other people Neil/Nat doesn’t know well doesn’t get the endorphins flowing.
Yes indeed; see my reply to Shadowrnnr upthread, the one that opens with, “what Jeanie doesn’t understand is that Neil isn’t JUST a joyless grind. He is working towards goals larger than himself. He is, in his way, his own genie, but through study and application, not by accident.”
Natalie always looks hot and Jean maybe it’s a lot of mental and psychological stuff that happened to him all these chapters. He many needs time to help process all this.
Well it looks like Natalie’s here to stay for a while, especially since Jeanie has disappeared…..again. Last time this happened she was stuck in Haiji’s palace for a long time, I wonder where (or when) she ended up going now?
Is it just me, or does Natalie always end up staying in girl-mode longer than she planned on every time Jeanie decides to transform her?
Maybe her bottle’s gone *because* she was so miffed? I mean, does she *have* to stay with her master post wishes if she subsequently becomes unhappy? Plausibly not. A *conscious* decision to leave may not be required.
Maybe the bottle disappeared because of the “have to stay” rule. If Neil/Natalie is going far out to sea on that yacht, then Jeanie has to be out there with her.
And the merriment ensues.
But Nat’s not out to sea yet.
> does she *have* to stay with her master post wishes if she subsequently becomes unhappy?
https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jeanie-bottle-78
I *think* this page could be interpreted as “She HAS to be his genie until he dies”, but it could be that she’s only allowed to be his genie UNTIL he dies.
In fact, Asha’s situation (https://jeaniebottle.com/?characters=asha) suggests it’s more likely the later than the former, since she needed a special loophole to be allowed to not go to a new master when hers died.
I’m betting Jean has been recalled by Haji for more Guano-related hijinx. We’ll see.
Nat may have more fabric on than some of us would wish–but what she’s wearing fits her quite well.
BONUS: It’s not green! (Well, her pack–but that’s not ON her.)
===
Pretty sure Jeanie, and her totem, were blinked away by some other power. Not Jeanie’s intent.
How much fabric should she remove? She’s going to a boat. She isn’t on it yet. She should be dressed for travel: a sensible top and a sensible pair of pants (and presumably sensible/comfortable shoes).
nod-nod. I concur. But I’m responding to Robert’s note.
===
Also, I see Neil apparently keeps a few items of Natalie’s wardrobe on hand, just in case.
Neil once asked Jeanie to poof up some permanent clothes for Natalie for times like just this. I don’t think CD actually showed that happening but I guess we can assume it happened.
Rodge, just as an experiment, just, you know, in the interest of science, try treating Natalie with a bit of courtesy and respect. Try to make her at least comfortable with being female, rather than making her more uncomfortable than she is.
Don’t revel in making it “awkward” for her. That’s not going to help your cause.
‘Rodge’ should treat Natalie exactly the same way as he treats Neil.
I think Rodge’s reply, “No can do,” is telling. Of the three of them he seems to be the only one that is being honest. He knows that he’s a horn dog and admits that that isn’t going to change. Obviously, he has the hots for Natalie, and it doesn’t matter to him that she’s actually Neil transformed. He knows who she really is and doesn’t care, only seeing her physical attributes.
Of course, he could also just be a lonely guy that keeps getting rejected (his only successful date was a man-eating plant) and Natalie is a safe haven.
As I guy, I would suggest a knee to the groin might give Rodge a bit of the insight he needs.
If not, repeat.
She’ll have to find a way to discourage Rodge. A broken jaw is good as always.
Never underestimate the salutary effects of a properly-applied clue-by-four…
So Rodge shows up for his big weekend wearing… a t-shirt? All the guys in this strip are slobs.
That reminds of the commercial that has the girl dressed up nice and the guy has a stretched-out T-shirt, and she comments (derisively) that he looks “comfortable.”
Is it common for houses in Coco Beach to have double front doors? Don’t see them around here.
I’ve never been to Cocoa Beach, but double doors aren’t uncommon in this area, particularly in older single-story homes.
CD based Neil and Jeanie’s new house on some actual homes we saw when we visited Cocoa Beach in January 2020, for the fan meetup.
Where is the “around here” you are referring to? Double front doors are a signature 1960’s mid-century modern feature and Cocoa Beach is a space age boomtown that grew 1000% between 1950 and 1960. So most of the town is 1960s midcentury modern tract houses and anything that isn’t is more likely to be a later replacement than not. Double entry doors have largely fallen out of fashion because they’re more difficult to seal and secure but sealing is less of an issue in Florida’s mild climate.
Has anyone else noticed that the door lites seen here are different from the ones shown in IDOJB 717? (Can you guess I used to be in the door & window business?)
Clearly, Jeannie poofed up some new front doors for the place. She had them installed by just 2 strips later, #719.
“around Here” God’s country the Ozarks
And I am struck by a BOLT OF RANDOM THOUGHT:
Would Jeanie accept Natalie as her Master?
My guess is she’ll continue on the way she is. After all, she knows linear logic.
https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jeanie-bottle-645
That’s an interesting strip. Note Jeanie’s reasoning: “You should spend quality time as a teenager, learn to enjoy things.” And she evades Natalie’s WISH by pointing out that she’s not yet in possession of the Bottle.
I kinda think that Jeanie would be more accepting of Neil, male or female, as Master if only he wasn’t such a drudge. Jean may be a single-minded horn dog, but Neil? He’s worse. He’s boring, something Jean absolutely can’t abide. Remember how offended she was early on when all Neil could think to wish for was a ham sandwich?
That whole sequence was interesting. See, ferex, ?comic=jeanie-bottle-652, where Jeanie seems to have enjoyed doing all sorts of girly things, and is flabbergasted that Natalie couldn’t get into any of them to any degree.
Neil’s a terrible master. He’s a grind, a doormat, and in his way, every bit as selfish as Jeanie is. Truly, he deserves everything Jeanie’s done to him.
I agree, Neil is boring. In his defense, though, he’s an engineer, a sub species of humans not known for their devil may care personalities. In the sequence you referenced he was a male engineer in a teenage girl’s body, a square peg (literally). Had Jeanie boosted Natalie’s hormones like she did earlier, Natalie might have enjoyed the day spa outing.
Would you rather fly in airplane build by “devil may care” engineers?
Which has what to do with a discussion about genies and their masters?
Not after the recent demonstration of OceanGate’s “devil may care” engineered submarine.
“In [Neil’s] defense, he’s an engineer.” Sorry, that’s not even a good excuse, much less a defense. Neil is the warden, the steward, of one of the most powerful beings on Earth; a being who is nevertheless selfish and impulsive (although she has gotten better). That’s a serious responsibility, And yet, he cannot even keep his genie from being bored, allowing her to get into all kinds of trouble. As for being an engineer–Jeanie has been on Mars. The implications of that are staggering, yet Neil seems not to have even considered the potential. Sightseeing alone–Good Grief, Neil could take Jeanie surfing on solar flares or hang gliding in the clouds of Jupiter.
Neil’s a putz and a grind. I really believe Jeanie didn’t put him on a boat with Roger to be mean, she’s showing him what she wants him to wish for from her. She really is trying to show him how to have a good time. If he doesn’t like it, he needs to come up with his own ideas. I’d bet anything Jeanie would be thrilled to grant any wish along those lines.
Neil doesn’t have any power over Jeanie whatsoever. She could turn him into a mouse, keep him in a small cage and Neil would have no way to defend himself.
@Dagor: Neil may not have much power over Jeanie, but consider why she keeps his worthless ass around. What happens to Jeanie if Neil grabs the bottle and announces, “I wish I wasn’t Jeanie’s master anymore”?
On the other, and friendlier hand, while Neil no longer has the power to force Jeanie to do things she doesn’t want to do (as Jean has over genie-Natalie) she has demonstrated a willingness to take his suggestions for doing fun things together. There is still, however faintly, the power of friendship between them, and I believe Neil could strengthen that by exercising it. I believe Jeanie’s bottle-genie nature makes her want to have a benevolent, masterly friend who will help her find fun, interesting, and even good things things to do together.
In fanfiction she went the other way, dragging Neil off to fun places (London, Paris, pirating) because she did have the power. Neil being a doofus is only half the equation.
Shadowrnnr: First, fanfic, not canon. Second, she is still trying to get Neil to have fun, not to humiliate him or simply force him to serve her. Jeanie’s main problem with Neil is not that he’s a doofus, but that he’s a joyless grind and a doormat to his boss. [BTW, which fanfic is this?]
On the other hand, what Jeanie doesn’t understand is that Neil isn’t JUST a joyless grind. He is working towards goals larger than himself. He is, in his way, his own genie, but through study and application, not by accident.
Jeanie and Neil are very much two halves of a whole person; each has a lot to teach the other. Jeanie currently has the upper hand, so Neil gets to bend first–but once he shows a willingness to work with Jeanie, rather than to ignore or worse, scold her, I believe she’d follow him to the ends of the Universe.
50srefugee: There are 41 stories linked to the 7th sidebar tab on the left of this page. The vast majority were posted to Discord.
This is more in the nature of a general observation about aviation, not about the characters. One of the things that made commercial-aviation-as-we-know-it-today work, is that all that “knights of the air,” “off we go into the wild blue yonder” stuff, that thrilling stuff that went before, had to die. If it made the people who work in aviation a little, well, stuffy, that couldn’t be helped.
She barely accepts Neil as her master.
But would Jeanie be more amenable to having a female “master” than male?
Exactly, because Jeanie knows all too well what a male master could demand. Natalie being Jeanie’s master would put them on a more even footing–and might help Neil get over his hangup over Jeanie having once been Jean.
Yes Gary. In SE FL double front doors are the rule.
That would make it easier to move furniture in ans out. I had to take the door off and remove part of the frame one time to get my fridge in. I kind of like it.
They come in handy, about once a year or so.
For the spelling nerds, 2nd panel, “AKWARD” could be changed to “AWKWARD”. But then again, maybe Natalie actually said, “AKWARD” in a slip of the tongue.
I’m still curious how all the introduced plots and subplots will come together or be resolved.
Thanks for the heads up. Gave me an opportunity to make some other text tweaks, too.
Wherever Jean is right now, hopefully she’ll work out some of her baggage.
Hmmm I wonder where Jean is …a big mystery. As a side note to CD since you have been doing JB for awhile now, it be cool to see one of your first year strips redrawn in your latest style. Think this might be possible?
I relayed this request to CD via the #suggestions channel on our Discord (linked in the sidebar). He draws from there to come up with ideas for bonus art that he posts to his DA and sometimes his Patreon.
Thanks for passing that along for me, it is appreciated Robert.
looking cute in outfit
Indeed. Looking forward to what kind of swimwear she’s got in that bag–or is it just a couple of manuals?
“Don’t make this any more awkward…”
“No can do.”
And of course, the reason Roger rejects the idea is because he knows that Neil is something of a pushover, and hopes Natalie will be the same.
Meanwhile, Neil can only think in terms of the trip being “awkward”; he’s incapable of thinking about, you know, relaxing and having a good time. Roger might actually have understood if Nat had put it that way.
What you say is probably true about Neil/Nat not relaxing and having a good time, but I would suggest that Neil’s/Nat’s idea of a good time isn’t the same as a majority of other people. Interacting with other people Neil/Nat doesn’t know well doesn’t get the endorphins flowing.
Yes indeed; see my reply to Shadowrnnr upthread, the one that opens with, “what Jeanie doesn’t understand is that Neil isn’t JUST a joyless grind. He is working towards goals larger than himself. He is, in his way, his own genie, but through study and application, not by accident.”
Rodge is awkwardness impersonated.
It’s a Jeanie thing.