02-02-17 Hot enough to burn

[Giz]

New strip! http://www.ma3comic.com/strips-ma3/hot_enough_to_burn

[Jackass Mask]

Ah!!! You tease me! You tease me so good! I just know this is about to derail in the silliest of ways. Who's gonna show up? What's about to happen to ruin this? Taking all bets!

[Milnoc]

What if, just once in this Webcomic, Gary does get the girl, no strings attached?

Doesn't mean it can't be awkward in the morning!

[gwtheyrn]

And Eric shows up in 3...2...

[KittyHat]

Okay, Gary's being awfully smooth here. Is this just accidental, or is he finally, truly coming into his own?

And how will the comic predictably derail it for him?

[brasca]

And Eric shows up in 3...2...

I don't see how that would make a difference. He broke up with her after she was getting ready to jump Didi's bones. He can appreciate her for being the artist she is and I don't think he's bitter, but I don't think he'd care to reconcile with her. And it would certainly make things awkward managing Angel.

Nice call back to Zii's first meeting with Sonya. It was 7 years ago, but in their time it's been about 1.

[worldshaking00]

Slippery slope small talk can be. Zii should have gotten a cruller or some such, to keep her mouth full enough to take half a second to think first instead of being more reactionary in this conversation. Mind you, I prefer the way it unfolded for us. Zii has been in the comfort 'teflon' zone for far too long (not even including her rather lengthy absence from being an active character in the strip). I miss the times like when she thought she broke Gary's transformer, and I am happy to see her on the hot seat now. Gary seems oblivious to Zii's pain... not much new there though.

In panel 4.3, Zii drew in the beginnings of that 'Dreamweaver' starburst pattern around Gary. I wonder what is it that Zii is finally seeing in Gary, or if she really is just that pent up. I suppose her just coming to grips that Gary is maturing as a sexual male and her actually talking about it might force the issue for her. He's holding up their conversation well, too, displaying a competent level of confidence (note: I'd let slip 'peen' since assumingly they are in a public space and just blurting out 'penis' might attract undue attention).

Face it Zii: give Gary a turn on the Zii tour bus. Are you afraid you'll enjoy it?

I still want to see Zii's shoulder angel & devil pop up in the very near future.

[Spidrift]

Well, I've rarely been so happy to be proved wrong about what the next strip would be about. And "mongoosing your trouser snake" - a nice new euphemism... It's also nice to see that these two (a) have talked to other people about past plot events (the Sonya saliva incident), but (b) are plausibly behind the times on some current plot developments (i.e. the status of Sonya x Yuki, or for that matter the extent of Yuki's recovery).

Also, Gary is apparently too embarrassed to mention goinking Yuki (or, for that matter, to refer to his own goinking Sonya quite recently) - though it could be that his memories of that whole incident feel uncertain and patchy, given the concussion.*

Okay, Gary's being awfully smooth here. Is this just accidental, or is he finally, truly coming into his own?

I think it's mostly comedy accident, but not entirely.

Gary has become confident and comfortable enough to chat fluently with Zii, including concerning sex. (He was never stupid, and I'm sure that he could always chat fairly fluently with, say, fellow geeks about comics.) The thing is, though, that with Zii's current frame of mind, practically anything he says, especially regarding sex, is likely to fluster her - making him look smooth by comparison.


*Talking of which, I keep meaning to suggest to the creators that "Sonya's booty call to Gary", the thing that set up the breakup threesome and Yuki's hetero-deflowering, would be a plausible topic for a bonus strip in the next print volume. Throw in some more scenes from the threesome itself for extra sex-and-violence fanservice.

[Mōtāsaikurisuto]

Hmm. As noted by others, there's lipstick, no ponytail, and Zii hasn't been this unsure of her feelings around Gary since, what, flashing him and Didi circa #40? ;)
...this is starting to be fun!

[Quinlan1973]

Do my eyes deceive me or is Gary (gasp) flirting?

[Motorcycle]

I love the subtle touch of Zii biting her lip...

[Spidrift]

Do my eyes deceive me or is Gary (gasp) flirting?

Chatting comfortably with someone to whom he's become fairly close. That's quite hard to distinguish from flirting sometimes, but I don't believe that it's deliberate.

[Badman!]

Holy romance batman ! It looks more and more like the beginning of a relationship upgrade !

[TJgalon]

I am unsure how I feel about this atm. I guess I will wait and see what devolpes.

[samtheman]

Some people keep thinking that someone or something is going to kill the moment. I think it will be Gary himself that kills the moment because he's Gary. And even if Gary and Zii do bang at some point they will not be a final pairing. The writers want to keep us guessing on what the final pairings will be until the very end of the comic.