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Ok, I have another theory: it's an echo of Zenon.

We have evidence that the Watch is capable of implanting personality fragments or echos into the minds of those it is used on.  In #878, Zenon says "The Watch's patterns are a part of me now", before he uses them on Erin to try to take control of her.  Suppose this implanted an echo of Zenon into Erin's mind, and that it's still there even after her liberation from his direct control in #924.  The final panel of #928 strongly implies that something is still wrong with Erin, although we haven't seen any obvious effects since then.  But there may be an echo of Zenon inside Erin, perhaps suppressed or too weak to control her directly, biding its time.

Then Miriam comes along, sucks Erin's soul into herself and sets up a dream sequence empowered to brainwash her.  If these sequences are partially generated by the subconscious of the victim, as the mermaid theme of Amaltheia's sequence suggests, that would give the Zenon echo a chance to influence the nature of Erin's sequence.  The echo inserted itself into the dream in the role of "the doctor" and leveraged Miriam's power to take control of Erin.  Now it is leveraging that power to pull Miriam herself into the dream in an attempt to take control of her as well.

That… actually makes quite a lot of sense, especially in tandem with something else I noticed earlier in this mess.

One thing I like about Mallory’s reprogramming is that it seems to be a direct inverse of what happens to her when she and Erin get caught by Zenon. Zenon, likely echoing Jakob in whatever strange way he is, is the one who turns Mallory into the wind-up fuckdoll, the “tits and holes.” Yes, Zenon gets defeated, but the Watch programming doesn’t just vanish. You can even see hints of this in 995 “Something Lingers” with Kanti, who seemed to have some residual effects from her time in the cloud.

Smash cut to Mallory immediately post-Zenon:

Adrian: are you okay?

Mallory: that is a more complex question than I can answer right now.

And later on, in 937:

Adrian: you’re sure you’re okay for now?

Mallory: yes, please help Dani.

It’s clear that Mallory has lingering trauma from what happened to her in the cloud, that whatever adjustments Zenon made to her Watch programming have aftershocks. Thus, when Jakob in her mind leans into the “tits and holes” talk and belittling her intelligence (Zenon: you’re only good for one thing… and you don’t need a brain for that), it follows that the new Watch is being used to purge the lingering effects of Zenon as well as Jakob.

The problem is, Erin has yet to be exposed to the new Watch. Everything in her mind, all the way back from the original Night of the Watch, is still there, and is now being tweaked by Miriam. Thus, whereas before her soul and her mind may have been able to suppress the influence Zenon left on her, now that they are divorced and Miriam is forcefully dunking her head under the water, Erin may be instinctively grabbing out to drag Miriam down with her.

Gosh, thinking about this, it seems so plausible and follows so well that now I’ll almost be upset if this doesn’t end up being the case.

Edit: Adding this as an unrelated(?) note, but the hypertext for 928 reads ‘you’re the one who’s crazy’

Ok, I have another theory: it's an echo of Zenon.

We have evidence that the Watch is capable of implanting personality fragments or echos into the minds of those it is used on.  In #878, Zenon says "The Watch's patterns are a part of me now", before he uses them on Erin to try to take control of her.  Suppose this implanted an echo of Zenon into Erin's mind, and that it's still there even after her liberation from his direct control in #924.  The final panel of #928 strongly implies that something is still wrong with Erin, although we haven't seen any obvious effects since then.  But there may be an echo of Zenon inside Erin, perhaps suppressed or too weak to control her directly, biding its time.

Then Miriam comes along, sucks Erin's soul into herself and sets up a dream sequence empowered to brainwash her.  If these sequences are partially generated by the subconscious of the victim, as the mermaid theme of Amaltheia's sequence suggests, that would give the Zenon echo a chance to influence the nature of Erin's sequence.  The echo inserted itself into the dream in the role of "the doctor" and leveraged Miriam's power to take control of Erin.  Now it is leveraging that power to pull Miriam herself into the dream in an attempt to take control of her as well.

Perhaps she's watching the final episode of Lost.

Script: Daphne • Art and Lettering: OneDollarBilly

Art and Lettering: Sadie Bella

I feel as though this issue's title is speaking directly to those of us on the forum.

Hopefully this will clear things up.

Script: Daphne • Line Art: Plutonian Knight • Colors and Lettering: Octavia Moon

I don't think this is Erin resisting, laying a trap or taking some other kind of conscious action.  Rather, I'm speculating that there is something about Erin - perhaps her ability to do magic - that makes her soul different, and that this difference led to Miriam's being pulled into her own brainwashing scenario.  So Erin is the cause, but not the agent.

I suppose that would be a better scenario for me but... I don't know. I want someone's plan to come properly to fruition, you know?

In any case I'm still inclined to think that this is what was always meant to happen. I think we probably know now that Miriam is not the doctor. I've a feeling that when she talked approvingly of Erin being "under the good doctor's mental domination", she was not just peeking into Erin's dream and making an observation; I think Miriam has already been under the doctor, so to speak. She's just being pulled back under again now, now that she has served her purpose.

I wonder if Miriam has a soul.

I do think it's interesting that the control scenario Miriam finds herself in is being gassed...

It might not be the only reason, but the use of gas did make the previous page work very well. For what it's worth, I still think Kanti's programming is part of the same plan. And I think some of the samples that were left with Kanti were the ones Laura delivered to the SJI. It's pure speculation (what isn't?) but I think that Laura only thinks that she created the perfume. And after all, why wouldn't she decide to take those particular samples immediately to the SJI, with no other reason for going?

Another fun one! 

I think compared to some of the other series Sturkwurk illustrates for MCC, Prompts benefits from the smaller cast. We get to go a bit more in depth with Diana and now Liz's transformations from issue to issue. I'm sure the cast/harem will grow, as they tend to, but I'm enjoying the more intimate size for now.

One minor thing I would mention is that as the series goes on, the initial idea of Jason of tricking an AI writing/chat tool into creating a working hypnosis scenario for him is getting a bit lost.  The font changes to indicate that Jason's still following the prompts, as opposed to his thoughts, or the spoken dialogue, still works really well, but I would like to see that control mechanism feature a bit more into the story as it goes on. Not intended as a complaint, but something I've noticed.

Diana remains one of my favourite Strukwurk designs. I apparently have a thing for busty, dark-haired ladies with dark eye makeup, as that list also includes Francesca from By the Book, and Sara from Roll Playing. (Though I do very much miss Sara's 'busty, but still recognizable' version from Roll Playing Volume 1 Issues 4-7 or so before she started looking more like her character. Peak Sara design, and I hope she makes a comeback  )

Anyway, overall still really enjoying Prompts. Keep up the good work, Daphne and Strukwurk!