Chainmail Precedent
on 01/19/2015
at 12:11 am
Is Sonya just a smart girl preparing for the worst or are her preparations a sign that she might have some slight social anxiety? The fact that she walks around in a chainmail bikini 24/7, even when there is no comic convention to be found, shows a bold attitude on her part. But that could only be her refusing to live in the real world and not caving in to societal norms. I’m all for people dressing how they please and living life on their own terms. Wearing your hair or dressing the way society or media demands that you do, is pedestrian and frankly, boring. Strike out on your own; be bold, be unique and never apologize for being yourself. You make the world a better place!
I think what Sonya is after is that by presenting any potential roomies with a situation outside of their normal experience, she will gain a better understanding of who that person is. Whether they react by being shocked and appalled, confused and uncomfortable, excited and intrigued, letcherous, or take it all in stride and don’t really react at all, you gain a better understanding of that person by catching them by surprise.
Incidentally, is there a line for interviews I can join? Or do I have to make an appointment? 😉
I imagine Sonya is beyond caring what anyone thinks about her or the way she dresses. That ship sailed long ago when she was fired from her job for wearing her Crimson Sonya garb to the office.
And I’ll make sure to put a good word in for you balthazar, though I can’t guarantee anything 😉
Hi Jim,great strip again! is this the new font? looks great either way!!
jason
Thanks Jason!! It’s great to see you over here at Oddly Aroused central. For anyone who doesn’t know, Jason is artist and writer of Barwench Tales over at Legend of Bill – http://legendofbill.com/2015/01/16/its-that-time-of-year/ He does great work and I’m proud to know him.
Jason, that is the font that I came up with at myscriptfont.com. I had downloaded a font from Blambot, but I decided to go with my own for the strip. It just seemed to make more sense than using someone else’s font. I love how webcomics are an ever-changing and growing medium. I’m having a lot of fun!
Suede. The answer is: suede lining on the inside of the chainmail. Not only offers enough friction to help keep it from riding, it’s well soft enough to be much less pinchy on vulnerable body bits. Girlfriend of mine who hated her chainmail bra brought that to me attention once and we worked out a detachable suede lining that she fell in love with. Easier to keep clean that way, too.
As far as gearing up for roomie interviews … might as well let them know what they’re in for from the first meeting. I’ve been through enough said interviews, both as the prospective roomie and as the prospective landlord to have earned that wisdom the hard way.
Back in the day, I would have loved to have had Sonya as a roomie. We would have had a lot of common interests, and I also used to shoot & develop & print a lot of black and white film. Damn, but to have had a roomie to model for me like that … I’d be famous by now. And so would she.
I normally would advise anyone against going the roommate route. Unless it’s someone that you sleep with (as in significant other, partner, lover, whatever), it never usually ends well and has been known to ruin friendships. Of course if I’m wrong, I would be interested in hearing any success stories here on the forum (or disaster stories for that matter)
I’ve had a number of room mates over the years. Several of them are still some of my best friends. A couple were folks I knew before we roomed, others I met through random newspaper ads. It takes a bit of work and, as I commented, you really have to interview properly so everyone knows (for the most part) what they’re honestly getting into. Making sure music interests are compatible always seems to be a good litmus for overall personality co-existence. I guess I’ve always had a fairly decent eye for a bad situation and declined out of it before it ever really got bad.
Not to say there haven’t been a couple of nightmare-level mistakes. The two in particular that I’m thinking of were the result of being desperate and taking on a roomie that I had misgivings about from the beginning. Just a bad vibe from day one and it went downhill from there. One a drug addict, like a true addict into hard stuff, and both were thieves and liars and generally pretty scummy. Fortunately, I was in a landlord position in those instances and they had signed lease agreements with me that I had composed & modified from all the “best” parts of all the leases I had ever signed over the years. Getting rid of them was tough, but they were checkmated by those agreements when I brought the law to bear. In all good fortune, my losses were minimal considering how bad it could have been.
Lots of really good memories with pretty much all the rest, though. Very few hard rules, like keep the place food clean & pest free (not allowed to go to bed without doing your own dishes, every night), no smoking (ever), friends sleeping over has a maximum limit of three nights a week (you can spend three or four nights a week at their place, see how that works out 😉 ) and bathroom & kitchen fully cleaned once a week. Period. Not really much else. Don’t be a dick, I guess. I think the fact that I like to cook, and cook well, helped a lot. During the summer, pretty much every Friday night after work was grill night with a Saturday option. That went a long way toward good memories.
I’ve driven a hundred miles to help a roomie out. In fact, a couple times quite a bit more than that. That’s the kind of courtesy that gets remembered and returned.
It sounds like you’d be a decent roommate, 3X. I think you really have to make an effort to be a decent, considerate person if you want to take on a roommate. I imagine priority in the interview process would be to establish that the person be employed, clean and considerate. Most people can get along, I think, if they are mature, hard working individuals who understand they have to contribute to the upkeep of the home.
As 3Xp4t says, a soft leather lining inside the mail (as an aside, is that actually ringmail or is it scale mail? I’m asking because scale is normally attached to leather anyway.) will look after most pinching issues. Historic factoid – real ringmail was normally worn over lightly padded leather in period.
The new font does everything I ask for, mostly letting me read the dialogue easily!
Thanks paws4thot! I’m glad you’re on board with the new font. When I think of all the time that I have used the old font, going back to my Barwench Tales days, I shudder. It wasn’t awful, but comparing it to the new font, the old one does not stand up well. I’ll chalk it up to experience and move forward 😉
BTW, as with the “real” Sonja, I imagine it would be scale or an amalgamation of both somehow. There are some imaginative cosplayers out there who come up with some creative solutions.
I can’t say that I know many cosplayers who’ve worn mail (and any females who did were playing Red Sonja), but I do know re-enactors of both sexes who’ve worn actual (well modern repro anyway) ring or scale hauberks. They’d no pinching issues, but the ring was worn over a padded leather jerkin, and the scales are sewn onto one.