Irresistible #1

[history79]

"Allen Keeg was your average middle age heart broken sap who just went through the worst break up in his life. That was a year ago. Since then Allen's been having trouble getting back into the swing of things. But all that's about to change. When Allen saves an old woman from being mugged he will be given an amazing supernatural ability that will change his whole life. But is the gift of being irresistible to every woman he meets a gift or a dreadful curse."

- Zenescope press release




8 pages of 24

Comments

[arilou_skiff]

I think this is the first time I've seen/heard the entire "If wishes were horses..." thing. People usually just cut it off at if wishes were horses....

[mizerous]

Thought blonde was Emma Frost.

[icon_uk]

Judging by her comments, that was deliberate.

[cainofdreaming]

So, his wish was to become a walking, talking, date rape drug? I wish I could say I was surprised.

[gnarll]

He wished to be wanted. I don't think the exact for the wish fulfillment takes is his decision. What he does with it will be though.

[cainofdreaming]

He wished that every woman who crossed his path wanted him. The wording there kind of goes a bit further than simply wanting to be wanted.

[gnarll]

As far as he knew it was just a random conversation though. I don't think he is obliged to constantly guard his every word in case some passing elemental or spirit decides to manifest them as real.

At this point, I'd say ethically he is in the position of a child playing cops and robbers who does not know that their toy gun has been switched for a real and loaded one. The responsibility rests entirely on the person who decided to load him with something he is not aware of and which is capable of causing harm.

Of course, it would not be any kind of story if the next issue is "so he decided to be responsible with it, the end".

[goattoucher]

I hope against hope that this is a horror story. Everyone here is a victim.

This isn't a case of a man making a genie wish that he could have any woman he wanted, indicating his lack of respect for women and creepy need for gratification. This is a lonely guy who had a night that emphasized that loneliness. A guy who helped somebody in trouble, and when offered a reward, said "No thanks... unless (clearly poorly thought out and not genuine offhand comment)".

Now he will have sex with tons of women... Yay! (until he realizes what is happening, and that he got the magic whammy put on him that made him a walking rape-drug without him knowing). Then the guilt and horror will set in, and things will get dark, fast.

[deh_tommy]

Eh, that's not his fault the person he was venting to happened to be able to actually grant his vague wish that he clearly came up with on the fly without much actual thought.

[donnblake]

Well, no, his wish was for every woman to want him. He never said anything about messing with their impulse control or removing their ability to give or withhold consent. Being attractive to someone is not, in fact, the same thing as raping them.

What he actually gets might be another matter entirely, of course.

[icon_uk]

If the only reason they want to be with him is the spell that makes every woman want him, then it's not them acting on their own impulse, that's them acting under the effect of the spell.

He might not have intended it that way, and they might not be aware of the spell, but it's there and it removes the possibility of informed consent.

[donnblake]

First, I want to reiterate that what I take issue to here is specifically the idea that his desire to be wanted is equivalent to a date-rape drug, and not the criticism of the effect as it actually plays out.

I would disagree, because this suggests that attraction is an informed choice to start with. If I dress in a way that makes me attractive to someone who might otherwise be less attracted to me, am I removing their ability to consent? What if I wear a cologne that makes me smell better, or work out and develop a lean musculature?

All of these are things that might make people attracted to me, without in any way interfering in their ability to make informed decisions to act on that attraction. If you're going to equate something to rape, I would suggest that you need to demonstrate that it (in this case, again, his desire to be 'wanted', and not the actual effect displayed) rises above the level of anything else that might make you attractive.

[jlbarnett]

that is something I have a major problem with in regards to.... I don't even have the appropriate words, but I'll try to phrase it as inoffensively as possible.

In social justice circles, it frequently seems like men who want a woman or women to desire them is somehow inherently wrong or immoral, like it is somehow infringing on her choices

[donnblake]

I'll be honest, being unfair to men is not my biggest problem here. What I really take issue with is the idea that being attracted to someone somehow in itself obligates you to act on that attraction- that there's no distance between attraction and pursuing that attraction. That can lead to some really unfortunate stuff where people justify all sorts of actions based on other's peoples appearance, mode of dress, etc.

[icon_uk]

The desire is fine, it's how one acts on it that makes the difference and that has to be viewed through the filters of the society you're operating within.

If you desire someone and they make it clear that they are not interested in you, then the only decent thing to do is back off like a gentleperson should, and don't mention it again unless their opinion and/or circumstances change.

People are also not required to be nice, or gentle, towards you if they don't share your feelings.

Of course, if this was genuinely what happened, then just about every romcom would go the way of the dodo (Whether this would be a bad thing or not I leave to individual assessments) because we are repeatedly shown that "dogged persistence in the face of rebuttal until the target changes their mind" is what true romance is all about.

[jlbarnett]

I've seen plenty of rom coms where the man who's attracted to someone gives up, but is thought of as bad for retaining the feelings. Any story where the woman is getting married and the man is not the fiancee. Most of them the guy doesn't try to actively undermine the relationship

[gnarll]

I suppose the issue here is not the attraction but the amount of it. "nice abs" or "thats a good body" or just got "it" attraction is fine. "Cannot control myself" level of attraction is not.

The Aberrant rpg used to have some quite good fan-discussions on how superhuman levels of social attributes and aptitudes broke the social contract.

[deh_tommy]

I remember this one! This was really sad, if I'm not mistaken, especially with how the wish (and the wish-lady) comes to ruin his life.

[alicemacher]

There was a story with a similar premise in Flinch #14. A man wishes for his life to be "more like a porn flick" and the wish comes horribly true. Horribly for him, that is. As one hot woman after another accosts him for sex, wherever he goes, on the same day, his pleasure quickly turns to weariness, then to horror, and eventually complete catatonia... and even in the psychiatric hospital, women patients and nurses alike continue to molest him.

[tcampbell1000]

(Reads nothing but the press release)

It's the curse one, right? I'm pretty sure it's the curse one.

[remial]

how does this tie into the ones with Plutonian and Max Damage?

[ap0cryphal]

why this wasn't officially sponsored by axe body spray i'll never know

[deh_tommy]

Now your life can be a walking hell where you get raped repeatedly day after day, people kill each other (and themselves) over you, and the only way to stop all this is to kill the person you genuinely love and who genuinely loves you (unless you didn't love them, in which case the curse stands) with AXE BODY SPRAY.

I can sort of see why.

[ap0cryphal]

idk friend i find tepid manpain chronicles pretty boring to start with.

[cyberghostface]

Getting raped = manpain?

[ap0cryphal]

a zenoscope title isnt really where anyone ought to go looking for nuanced explorations of consent.

but hey, you do you.

[cyberghostface]

That has nothing to do with you referring to him getting raped repeatedly as an example of manpain.