Saint James Infirmary #1354: “Oral Character”

[Daphne]

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

[Sharque]

So, we got the first stages of these programming fantasies back in November by this point. Miriam has been at Jacqui’s with the three souls of Reka, Erin, and Jacqui inside of her for some time now. I wonder how much longer it will take for her to accomplish whatever goal she has with the process and return the souls to their bodies (assuming she is uninterrupted ofc).I’d think that’s her long term goal, given it doesn’t do all that much good to make Erin a housewife, Reka a slave girl, or Jacqui a cum dumpster while keeping them just spirits.

Of course, if she is interrupted by Adrian and Co, there is always the possibility she has to return the souls before that time comes. She could also finish her work before her brother arrives as well and could theoretically explain everything away (she would have some serious explaining to do regarding what happened at the Infirmary with Dani, since that’s what set off Adrian’s alarm bells), but absent compulsion by the Watch she could likely leave the girls fully programmed with whatever new material this process is set to introduce.

I’ll add as well that I’d be dissatisfied if this issue was resolved pretty much immediately after Adrian arrives. We’ve spent longer on this extended portion of mind control than any other in the story: the OG night of the watch was about 70-80 issues; Pink Clouds has always been sporadic, never one cohesive chunk; the theatre trap was roughly 30-40 issues give or take, Coates and Astrid haven’t had much onscreen action, always having their control implied by what other characters are saying and doing aside the brief programming of Caitlyn; even the extended time inside the fantasy world in the hospital was a little over 100 issues total, and not all of that was even directly MC related (if you only count the instances between Cherry, Aiken, and Erin along with those involving Vik and his women and Zenon, it is significantly less than that.

The BE plot has been consistently gong on since 1164, with active control and programming throughout by the likes of Miriam, Caitlyn, and the twins and Laura. We’re nearing 200 issues of it in roughly five weeks worth of posts; it’ll mark 2 years come May if it lasts that long. For a plot that drawn out and intriguing to be settled merely by the use of the Watch, even admitting that it is the be-all-end-all of MC in this universe, would be deeply unsatisfying

[lancehunter]

Well, I imagine that even if things are resolved "immediately" when Adrian arrives, that resolution will take many weeks (maybe months) of real time to play out. Though it would be a hilarious piece of intentional audience fuckery if we had a page end with Adrian, watch in-hand, breaking open the door to Miriam's and the next page immediately cuts to the next day where everyone is back to normal.

I was a bit unsure if the fantasy/conditioning Erin is experiencing was happening to her soul inside Miriam or to her mind inside her zombified body. Aiken seems to be experiencing his own fantasy/conditioning (involving an entirely fictional version of Erin), but I guess that must also be happening to his soul (since we can see the very end of Miriam consuming it in the first panel of 1344).

[mns_95125]

What I see here is Erin being programmed to serve one person while secretly being under the deeper control of another.  I can understand how that would translate to the real world in a way Miriam would want.

[GodWilling]

I was a bit unsure if the fantasy/conditioning Erin is experiencing was happening to her soul inside Miriam or to her mind inside her zombified body.

I still think the latter.

Aiken seems to be experiencing his own fantasy/conditioning (involving an entirely fictional version of Erin), but I guess that must also be happening to his soul (since we can see the very end of Miriam consuming it in the first panel of 1344).

Aiken apparently had a sexual relationship with this younger Erin, e.g. in 256. I'm figuring (I mean, who knows, right?) that in the absence of a soul, memories and ideas or fantasies floating around in the mind are able to take hold. It's possibly interesting to note that we first saw that Amaltheia was suddenly fantasizing about Miriam (863) just as Zenon was grabbing Erin's attention in The Cloud. Whether Erin's doctor scene somehow ties back to her brief spell under Zenon's control I can't say, but maybe it's possible.

The victims have all been taken under Miriam's control, so ideas that she implanted are also present in their minds. Jacqui's role in her scene strongly echoes things Miriam said to her this evening. So maybe it's more the case that memories and ideas or fantasies floating around in these minds are being used to produce dreamlike illustrations of Miriam's instructions.

What I see here is Erin being programmed to serve one person while secretly being under the deeper control of another.  I can understand how that would translate to the real world in a way Miriam would want.

Precisely.

[Sharque]

I was a bit unsure if the fantasy/conditioning Erin is experiencing was happening to her soul inside Miriam or to her mind inside her zombified body.

I still think the latter.

Aiken seems to be experiencing his own fantasy/conditioning (involving an entirely fictional version of Erin), but I guess that must also be happening to his soul (since we can see the very end of Miriam consuming it in the first panel of 1344).

Aiken apparently had a sexual relationship with this younger Erin, e.g. in 256. I'm figuring (I mean, who knows, right?) that in the absence of a soul, memories and ideas or fantasies floating around in the mind are able to take hold. It's possibly interesting to note that we first saw that Amaltheia was suddenly fantasizing about Miriam (863) just as Zenon was grabbing Erin's attention in The Cloud. Whether Erin's doctor scene somehow ties back to her brief spell under Zenon's control I can't say, but maybe it's possible.

The victims have all been taken under Miriam's control, so ideas that she implanted are also present in their minds. Jacqui's role in her scene strongly echoes things Miriam said to her this evening. So maybe it's more the case that memories and ideas or fantasies floating around in these minds are being used to produce dreamlike illustrations of Miriam's instructions.

What I see here is Erin being programmed to serve one person while secretly being under the deeper control of another.  I can understand how that would translate to the real world in a way Miriam would want.

Precisely.

See, what holds me up on thinking it is the latter is how Miriam herself describes the process to Reka back when the soul sucking was about to begin in issue 1309:

“I’m sliding into your mind. Then I’m going to envelop it, and dissolve it and consume it. And then once you’re empty, I’ll pour my own will into you.”

That to me seems to suggest that Miriam’s programming is happening directly to the souls rather than to the minds in soulless bodies. Miriam specifically says that she is removing and consuming a part of the girls, leaving them empty, then plans to pour her own will back into them. Seems to fit more with a “soul washing” happening within Miriam which will culminate in her returning the altered souls to their respective bodies than simply holding the souls in stasis while the real work is done in the docile bodies via suggestion or some other influence.

[GodWilling]

Miriam also tells Réka (perhaps pointlessly), "I'll keep your soul very safe. You won't be needing it."

That doesn't sound to me like, "I'll give it back to you when I've finished with it."

Ultimately I suppose I'm going with what makes sense to me from a storytelling point of view. Miriam the soul washing machine seems an unnecessarily complicated mechanism, when we already have Miriam's magic fingers that could simply have massively gained in power if she, you know, fingered a witch's quim in a particular shade of moonlight, or something.

I think that Miriam does have their souls for safekeeping. Perhaps they're hostages; perhaps she really is protecting them (again, why pull Réka into this?). I'm figuring the zombies are going through the mental process we're seeing and will emerge as something less zombified - something that can maybe pass for their old selves, but is still under Miriam's control. That just makes more sense to me than Miriam doing this weird thing that possibly no one will ever know she did. But who knows?