# 90 Ida Know What You Mean?
Mar23
Hey kids, the team is feeling better, and once more the comics are a flowin’!
You can feel better too, by voting for The Melvin Chronicles!
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Sincerely,
BACH-MANN & Shhadow
Oh, you thinks I lost some stuff. Go figure that?
This is going to cause some problems, as first Red was a boy, then a busty girl, and not a flat girl. Don’t know how people avoided the mess over the first when the second happened, but I expect there will oddly be more made of the third happening.
The magic involved must be cloaking Red’s awareness of what happened to her.
Now that it’s been called to her attention (incidentally, by someone who has almost certainly seen that she’s not artificially stuffed), she’s going to be faced with the fact that her stuffing is a large part of her new life.
Will she want Mel to restuff her?
[forgot to say:]
What we’re about to see is that Mel’s inadvertent spell has not imposed a cost-free, sit-com style “fix”, as some were concerned about. Instead, Red is going to get a good lesson in unintended consequences.
No, it’s proving the opposite. Melvin’s inadvertent spell is creating a boring sitcom style story that is only not providing a cost-free solution because, like most sitcoms, the characters just act like idiots. This way, it’s just a plot hole that will forever plague the strip, all for a cheap ‘girl Red has a crush on thinks she’s been padding her bra’ joke.
They are teenagers. Of course they act like idiots.
That doesn’t make it better. I still just have to roll my eyes during any appearance related problems that ever arise now(including the current one, and likely every Red story arc that ever happens). It’s like watching a three stooges skit. You know they’re just going to be bumbling idiots incapable of accomplishing some simple task that even the stupidest of us could do. It might entertain you, if you like slapstick, but it won’t invest you emotionally. Thing is, I was invested emotionally in this story, but now I can’t be. That’s why this sucks.
Just look at Youtube
@Light: I think I see what you mean, and I find myself in reluctant agreement.
Unless we see that appearance changes carry some significant cost, Red’s appearance can be changed at will to alleviate the discomforts of being female–even if the underlying fact of her femininity cannot be changed.
And that does indeed make that aspect of the story far less compelling, unless it is very carefully handled.
Drat.
I don’t see the the bumbling idiots aspects yet; that’s something that is yet to play out. But the casual magic fix for ANYTHING, not just for Red’s appearance, that’s a problem.
“50srefygee”, sheesh, can’t even spell my own nick right.
So far, they’ve had to be bumbling enough that Red completely ignores a clearly very shocked and concerned Melvin to just walk away. Red is somehow also unaware that her chest is just gone which is absurd(might be because of the magic, though, on this one). That’s just the two strips since this happened. It will also have to get progressively worse from here on, because eventually ‘Melvin doesn’t know what he’s doing’ won’t be an excuse anymore. I’d argue it shouldn’t be an excuse already, as this is his third wish with immediate and noticeable results, but I suppose, that’s just part of the bumbling that this requires.
As for appearance changing costs, at least in Jeannie’s strip there is never shown to be one. The main guy goes back and forth to womanhood as if it were like changing clothes. Because of that, any cost that is added will seem arbitrary and tacked on. I feel like the best answer really was, don’t let magic other than Jeannie’s change Red’s appearance. That was established in universe as reasonable, but the ship has probably already sailed on that.
Hands off, Ida!
[innocent look]
Hands off what, exactly?
[innocent reply]
Hands off whatever happens to be under Red’s T-shirt.
Yeah, but is there in fact anything under that sassy tee?
Well, now maybe she’s almost as flat-chested as if she were a boy…
Yes, exactly: “Hands off what?”
At least for the modeling job, Red can hide the boob reduction with appropriate padding for shots that don’t require visible cleavage…
What’s the fun in that!
Yes, what’s the fun in NOT getting fired from her job?
Welp, Red, how are you going to explain yourself out of this one? It isn’t exactly a common occurrence for your chest to instantly become as flat as a board from magic – Ida may not buy the whole “magical -breasts-be-gone” concept, or magic in general. Not that Red was even aware of what Melvin did just moments before – now she needs to think of what to say on the spot.
Ida will just have to restuff Red. This should be funny.
Perhaps Red’s mother will insist upon implants. After all, can’t lose that modelling gig.
where’s the next page?
It says at the top that its updated on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Not sure of the time zone. Hope to see it in a few hours.