Beyond Rubies #17

[crazydorian]

Thanks HMB!  I appreciate you going through all the cameos.  I hadn't even noticed Daffyd and Tari in there, and it was nice to get a rundown of all the bots in the line.

I had guessed it was Alice next to Miri, but I can see it as Helena now that you point it out.

Regarding sympathy for Andrea:

I do kind of get the idea that she was having an affair with Nick, but it is far from the worst thing people were doing in this series.  That's why I don't really have any qualms about Monsonis' fate.  But Nick's just as guilty there, as definitely got off light - good job, good relationship with Julie, 2 slaves, Charlotte as his admin, and it looks like continued relations with a number of the other ladies. 

We don't really see how Nick hatched the plan to steal 5 rubies and build a harem.  It could have been entirely him when he was already having an affair with Andrea, but I could also see him having mentioned it to Andrea, and hatching the plan together.  The first thing they do though, is recruit Julie as well, and from there on, Andrea and Julie were working in tandem.   If they have the ability to fix Andrea at the end, it would seem weird to me that Julie keep her as a maid, when she seems to have forgiven Nick.

I think I'm still leaning towards Gabby not having found a way to fix the women that have been essentially turned into sex-bots.  Even if Andrea was intentionally left that way, I don't see any reason they'd have left Shanti for example, or most of the ladies on page 12.

That said...those last few pages with the wait staff commenting on the rich being able to buy anything,  and then Jorge's modified ruby at the end...makes me wonder if that will be the setup for the next book.  Monsonis' plan seems to have failed, but it still looks like a lot of the rich and powerful folks who took advantage of the Rubies are still in power.  Nick, Julie, and some of the other Quine folks have joined them clearly (and don't seem malevolent about it), but even though Monsonis and some of his cronies got their comeuppance...we still only see a few categories of people using the Rubies: the rich, the staff at Quine who were already affected, the mind-wiped women...but then there's also the performers at the ballet, who probably also fall into the category of 'serving the rich'.  Beverley and Janice discussing Quine's profits does make me thing the Ruby launch went ahead in some form, as they've kept the company afloat despite a world domination plan basically being thwarted.

I do hope Daphne continues this one with a sequel series, as it will be interesting to see how the impact of the Rubies continues to impact the world.

[gromit]

If you remember, Gabby already had 3-4 different partners before (she'd had a 3-some with them) and offered to call a couple of them over while she and Elaine were having their marathon session in issue 8.
Apparently they were all quite smitten with each other.

I just assumed this was the influence the Rubies had over them. In Issue one, Julie was shocked when she caught Nick in bed with Andrea, I don't think joining in would be a normal reaction for her without the influence of the Rubies. Even if free will has been restored for some of the women, the Rubies changed there attitude about sex. Coffee and a blow job are not a normal business working environment in the pre-rubies world. 

[crazydorian]

If you remember, Gabby already had 3-4 different partners before (she'd had a 3-some with them) and offered to call a couple of them over while she and Elaine were having their marathon session in issue 8.
Apparently they were all quite smitten with each other.

I just assumed this was the influence the Rubies had over them. In Issue one, Julie was shocked when she caught Nick in bed with Andrea, I don't think joining in would be a normal reaction for her without the influence of the Rubies. Even if free will has been restored for some of the women, the Rubies changed there attitude about sex. Coffee and a blow job are not a normal business working environment in the pre-rubies world. 

That's a fair point.  This is actually a trope I like in this kind of story, where the person gets their free will back, but with a lot of their psychological changes intact and just decides that they're happier with their new outlook.

[gromit]

But Nick's just as guilty there, as definitely got off light - good job, good relationship with Julie, 2 slaves, Charlotte as his admin, and it looks like continued relations with a number of the other ladies.  

I have a feeling Nick would be perfect happy with his slave harem if he wasn't forced to share his toys with Monsonis. It was only when Monsonis was banging his wife that he agreed with much convincing to help Gabby and Elaine.

... we still only see a few categories of people using the Rubies

See Page 1, Sales are though the roof. Quine under the control of the new CEO Beverly. Do you think any sane woman would be perfectly fine with the mass enslaving of other women. Rubies changed there perceptions of normal, free will or not.

What about the Daughters of the Head of the Serious crime unit, do you think the Daughters accept this arrangement if it wasn't for the influence of the Rubies, and after they were "freed".

As for Nick and Andrea, your assuming they were already having an affair before she gave the Rubies to her. As shown with Beverly and her assistant, once they put it on, it doesn't take long before they are unwilling slaves that will do anything they are told. Andrea I purchased necklace this for my wife but I'm not sure if it will fit her, can you try it on for sizing....  
        

[crazydorian]

I'm not actually disagreeing all that much Gromit.  I'm just saying we're bit unclear as to the scope of the actual Ruby sales.  Before that first shipment was supposed to go out, it looked like the Rubies were limited to Quine staff, and various influential people among which Monsonis had spread them.  What we see afterwards...doesn't necessarily conflict with that yet.  We have Quine staff, the rich and influential, those attached to the rich and influential (which I'd argue the ballet dancers would be among), and a small number of mindless-enslaved like the waitresses and Andrea/Shanti who would have previously been among the other categories.  The only non-Rubied people we see are Tari as a cameo from The Hidden Knowledge, and the serving staff manager.

Page 1 doesn't necessarily state that Quine's profits are due to the Rubies still rolling out, but that definitely seemed to be the implication.  Similarly, Gabby mentioning group marriages being legalized either suggests popular support, or that those in power (who would be more likely to have a harem) wanted it. 

(It kind of makes me wonder if The Hidden Knowledge will have to deal with any of this.  Since there was a 2 year delay between issues 16 and 17 of Beyond Rubies, might have been to allow for some more issues of THK to come out to allow a time jump without spoiling how Beyond Rubies turned out.  I've liked the cameos between series, but I'd love to see some more direct crossover )

Regarding Nick and Andrea having an affair pre-Rubies, HMB mentioned that in his reply earlier in the thread and it has been brought up in previous threads in the forum (both by Daphne and HMB).  I would say I'm fairly sure it had been implied rather than stated definitively on-page within the comic though.  I was just referring to that when talking about Andrea.

Surprised to see people feeling bad for Andrea, considering she started the series being an adulteress with her best friend's husband.

I'd have to go hunting for the references from other threads though.

[gromit]

Page 1 doesn't necessarily state that Quine's profits are due to the Rubies still rolling out, but that definitely seemed to be the implication.  

While Technically true, it was stated several times the huge cost of the Rubies project.  It be pretty difficult for Quine's to not to take a loss the next quarter, let alone turn any profit if the Rubies were pulled from market. Think of it this way, say the Rubies was the first Apple Iphone, think of the R&D cost that went into the development of that. Then Apple produces a couple million of them, has them shipped to Apple stores, advertises there new product line, then on the eve of world wide release date pulls them from market. A huge company like Apple or Amazon probably could take this kind of hit without profits suffering too much, but most of businesses operate on credit, they simply do not have the capital on hand to invest a lot of money into a new product line without financing.  

... and a small number of mindless-enslaved like the waitresses and Andrea/Shanti who would have previously been among the other categories.  

Anyone who would utilize the women turned into mindless sex slaves in public without a radical shift in public policy would do as at considerable risk. The first human rights group that got wind of this would be demanding the government to step in and help these poor women. They might still be mindless, but they wouldn't still be wearing the Rubies, topless, going around with short commando skirts. Everything I see tells me Rubies spells the downfall of the women's right movement. Women will be turned into nothing more than sex objects for men, looks like a brighter future for men. Where can I get a few for my girlfriend and her twenty something daughters.
              

[jwik01]

Well, A, it's not really in public, it's a closed event with some staff who have maybe signed an NDA or something and whose interactions with the mindless women would be fairly brief. I've never tried but I assume it's possible with enough money to hire a dozen women to prance around a banquet topless and act like dumb sex-pets.  And B, human rights groups have failed to eradicate child slavery in the cocoa production chain, off the top of my head. Particularly in the face of a high-budget PR campaign... and I can easily imagine rubied women aggressively defending the rubies, declaring that they definitely aren't mind controlled, they feel great, etc.

That said, the rubies are probably still getting distributed because the rubied women now making the decisions that result in the rubies getting distributed have had their opinions altered by the rubies.  Even if Gabby tried her best to put everybody back the way they were, it might be like trying to straighten a bent wire hanger. There's always a little kink you can't quite eliminate.  My best guess, for purposes of Beyond Rubies fanfiction or headcanon or whatever, is that the rubies are all locked down the same way George locked down his own ruby, and that they have all the positive effects (more energy, heightened libido, clearer skin, elevated mood, and of course gigantic tits) without any of the personality-erasing, mind-controlling stuff.  Maybe an implanted belief that the rubies are great and all women should wear them, but none of the degrading, self-abnegating stuff.

Of course, the Internet of Things is notoriously packed with security holes and data breaches, so it's probably only a matter of time until either Quine's servers get hacked and all women everywhere start chanting "tits and holes, tits and holes" or whatever, or else some nebbish figures out how to connect to his platonic friend's ruby and starts implanting suggestions and intrusive fantasies and so on in her, ala the first couple issues of the series.

[jwik01]

I have expanded my annotations to cover the entire series.

[awesomexdude]

Goodness gracious what a hell of a run.

I have a terribly poor memory and bad facial recognition, so by the end it was nigh-impossible for me to keep track of the characters when the cast kept growing and changing looks as well. But it was a bevy of hot women either way. Though on Page 10, who is the redhead in the middle panel that Nick recognized? That one really eluded me.

I like how even at the end of this, nobody went back to normal body-wise. That was the hottest end it could have, personally, still saying massive fuck-toys. Shame some of them lost some breast mass along the way!

[HarryManBack]

Goodness gracious what a hell of a run.

I have a terribly poor memory and bad facial recognition, so by the end it was nigh-impossible for me to keep track of the characters when the cast kept growing and changing looks as well. But it was a bevy of hot women either way. Though on Page 10, who is the redhead in the middle panel that Nick recognized? That one really eluded me.

I like how even at the end of this, nobody went back to normal body-wise. That was the hottest end it could have, personally, still saying massive fuck-toys. Shame some of them lost some breast mass along the way!

Yeeeeah...I tried to keep it as consistent as I could but whatcanyado?

The lady on page 10 is from issue 15.  She's the wife of the Minister of the Interior (older redhead on page 4.)
She's one of the influential people Monsonis is looking to control so he can amass power and run the country/world. She and Catherine run in the same social circles, hence her catty remark to Nick about her.

[awesomexdude]

Ah makes sense considering the daughters were right above her.

[telsis]

That was a fantastic story with great art and colouring.

To round things off (no pun intended  ) it would be really good if there could be a character sheet showing before and after images of all the primary characters if possible. I think this would really help reference the characters through the story.