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I would consider the 'artful' part as being lying - taking the truth and verbally painting it in a way that better benefits the one telling the story. And Angel isn't doing that. She's being completely honest about everything - including her part in it - and even supplied a witness to it all (Ruby) to verify her story.

But that's not what "artful" means. It's clever, cunning, subtle; exactly what Angel is being. Likewise, "manipulative" means manipulating things to one's own advantage - which again is what Angel is doing. The fact that she does it using openness and truth just shows that she's very ... artful. And that Dillon handed her the advantage on a silver platter, of course.

I guess that the problem here is that "manipulative" is usually taken as a pejorative. People don't like the idea of being manipulated by other people. But, in the end, that's what people do. The fact that Angel does it, and well, but does so using fairly "ethical" methods, makes her an interestingly ambiguous character.

(The fact that she's persistently chasing Jerzy after he told her to back off, on the other hand, makes her worryingly nuts. Though romantic stalking does seem to be a fairly widespread hobby in the Ma3 universe.)

The suffering... Such sweet suffering...

Seriously, Dillon, is that all you have to offer?? No "I won't bug you for a month" or something like that?

I love the fact that nothing dealing with male sex seems to attract Ruby at all.

No Dillon, no! Not the precious yaoi collection!

It'd be carefully looked after, I'm sure.

Don Alexander wrote:Seriously, Dillon, is that all you have to offer?? No "I won't bug you for a month" or something like that?

It probably wouldn't occur to Dillon that anyone might not want to be involved in his wonderful life. Though as I said, if Ruby had really been taking advantage of this opportunity, as opposed to just enjoying herself, she could have suggested that.

It's a good thing that Dillon didn't finish his last sentence and Ruby wasn't paying attention, though. She'd have needed the brain bleach otherwise. But honestly, does Dillon really not have anything in his life that isn't all about sex?

sure he does; he has ruby.

But honestly, does Dillon really not have anything in his life that isn't all about sex?

I guess the same's scathing comment Ruby did to Amber ("Oh, it's ever all about sex with you, isn't it ?", or something approaching) applies to him to. Sex and romance, I precise. Dillon loves his romance/seduction/flirting. Which is not that bad in itself after all. The problem is his mindset.

Actually, to be fair, Dillon does have an interest outside of sex; he really does seem to care about theatre - or at least his theatrical career. It'd be interesting to determine whether he has a shelf of books about the history of the subject, scripts, DVDs of classic performances, and so on, or whether it really is just all about him and his drama. He didn't offer any such thing to Ruby there, but that could just be comedy - or him not thinking that anyone outside the field would be interested.

That left me wondering how many Ma3 characters actually have some hinterland. Zii has music, Gary has his geeky obsessions, DiDi I guess has cookery and Dance Dance Revolution, Kiley is probably a bit committed to her studies; we've never seen anything with Matt, but I find it hard to believe that he doesn't at least read a bit or something; Likewise for Peggy, though her job is really really full-time; Sandra and Sonya, I feel, each really need something to stretch their brains a little more.

Don't see how Sandra or Sonya aren't 'stretching their brains' any less than anyone else.

Sandra is currently educating herself/broadening her horizons after becoming an overnight sensation as a girl gamer. She now has to educate herself in regards to geek culture, is re-familiarizing herself with video games as a whole and is currently doing mo-cap for a video game she's modeling for.

Sonya herself has her waitressing job, as well as her budding music career.

I'm mainly thinking of interests outside work, especially where the work in question isn't, shall we say, the most intellectually demanding. Yes, Sandra is probably getting somewhere with the Geek Studies curriculum - and learning the basics of modelling may be stretching her a bit more than waitressing (literally, as of the latest strip). And yes, Sonya has the music now, which is part of her being a different person to how she was when she first met Zii. We don't know how seriously she took the music back then, but she evidently wasn't in a band... Actually, a lot of the longer plot strands in these comics are about people being jolted out of the ruts they'd fallen into, really.

And I forgot about Yuki, who seems to be all incidental interests and no actual job, from what we've seen. And Amber, the target of that "it's all about sex with you" jab, who's basically trying to make that less true, but who seems to be getting distracted by her quest for a reliable boyfriend at present.

Spidrift wrote:It probably wouldn't occur to Dillon that anyone might not want to be involved in his wonderful life.

WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT?

By the way, if Ruby thinks fast enough to be really smart, she could always say "Actually, I'll take the yaoi. But also, you never say a word about me taking it, to me or anybody else, ever. If you do, I go straight to Jerzy..."

That gets her the comics, and she gets the bonus of torturing Dillon. Because he'd have a secret he couldn't gossip about to anyone. He'd be in agony.

Ruby isn't David -freaking- Xanatos, you know. ;) Such a ploy belongs to an entirely different person than she is (and thank god for that).

a person like Rudy, perhaps?