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New SDB on Ma3 http://www.ma3comic.com/strips-ma3/sdb-an-arrangement/

Fun bit of banter, I guess. It seems to be progressing Ruby's character development, so it isn't purely waffling.

Angel, Zii, and Dillon are the worst - not genuinely, just allow this bit of hyperbole to put across the point that they are terrible people. Yet, with Angel giving helpful advice shows that even the worst can be helpful, even if this feels like a case of a "broken clock is right twice a day" as well as "do as I say, not as I do."

Angel strikes me as a smart, thoughtful person with some huge, horrible blind spots -- which, let's face it, is incredibly common with smart people in reality. In Angel's case, the blind spots are (a) Jerzy, and (b) the raging jealousy triggered by past events involving Jerzy.

Okay, Angel is also terribly vain. But that's just a routine personality flaw.

Anyhow, this strip reminds me yet again why I like Ruby. She may not be the most emotionally subtle of people, but darn it, sometimes a pragmatic directness is what you need to get shit done. And I don't even think that she's being that unsexy here; I doubt that many straight men would be that turned off by having Ruby say that she'd like to arrange intercourse with them. Plain speaking has its own charms.

However, we note that Ruby has reverted to assuming that Andy must be asexual, after Amber quite rightly pointed out to her that he may just be shy, or, as the comic has implied in the past, quite simply dumb as a rock. One can understand that, after trying that LBD on him, she may still think that no one can be that dumb, but one wonders how well she really knows Andy by now. Oh well, not her fault that she doesn't know she's dealing with a comedy comic-strip character.

And now we can look forward to next week and finding out just how obtuse Andy can be. Or perhaps he's got some excuse for his dimness.

Who was it that thought Angel might have something intelligent to share on the subject?

Somehow, "Unsexy ways..." sounds like the meeting will devolve into a string of euphemisms about sex.

Sure, I can believe Angel's words of wisdom. Relationships are all about compromise and vulnerability. I just think that Ruby, in typical Ruby fashion, is just trying too hard to have sex while not admitting to herself that she might actually enjoy the prospect of it. Her sister's past career certainly isn't helping her preconceptions about it.

Have they (Ruby's friends) brought up masturbation? I figure the stigma and her prudishness mean she doesn't. However she has to realize the effects her fantasies have on her body, more so than blushing. You know, in her erogenous zones.

Jackie Treehorn: "People forget, that the brain is the biggest erogenous zone--"
The Dude: "Hmmm. Well, I still jerk off manually."

Thanks Dude.

Weird thing about the Ma3 universe; masturbation is, it seems, almost the great unmentionable. More so than sex. I mean, we’ve had a few references — people do it — but one could almost get the impression that they’d rather talk about their last BDSM foursome than admit to a simple hand job. Of course, they’re all so busy having sex, being good at getting it, and working on being great lovers, that admitting to the odd duet for one must feel like an admission of total failure.

One does wonder where Ruby stands on the subject, though. I mean, she’s clearly been turned on like crazy by the yaoi, and having decided to have sex with Andy, I’ll bet she’s done some reading, and that sort of reading usually says “get to know your own body”... But she is rather fastidious, so she may at most have treated it as a mechanical process to be finished ASAP.

did you hear crickets

well, for the M word Spindrift, Gary did 'do' it for so many years to Amber Amber

Oh yeah, and we’ve had plenty of vibrator jokes involving virtually all the female cast. It does happen. But people actually seem to be, if anything, less up front about it than they are about intercourse.

Also don't forget too - Matt encouraged self-release before the foursome so that Gary didn't pop off early like a high schooler (if my memory serves correctly). Masturbation has its uses, but the Ma3-verse definitely encourages having two (or more) to tango.

I suppose it makes sense. Despite some fans maybe wanting a week's worth of strips of Didi (or Ruby, or Tracy, or Peggy, or Amber) wearing sexy lingerie pleasuring herself while us readers get to vicariously creeper-in on her, a masturbation montage doesn't really progress the storyline as much as it would be fanwank. Such a montage sounds more like a commision request for Giz.

I'll be in my bunk.

Now to wait and see if Ruby actually gets laid before the comic wraps up. I'm still betting that she won't.

By the way — what we have here is someone suggesting that two people should TALK about their mutual issues, and one of them agreeing and resolving to do so in a clear and unambiguous fashion.

So of course it’s un-sexy. It’s totally un-Ma3.