Saint James Infirmary #1334: “Household Management”

[Daphne]

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

[GodWilling]

Probably the wrong track but this is making me think of Yves and his business that possibly supplies beauties.

[Sharque]

Hmm… a busty redhead being turned into an obedient housewife. Where have I seen this before from MCC?

In all seriousness, this does throw me for a bit of a loop. Up until now, I could believe Miriam’s subconscious programming was wanting to prepare the women she’s collected for Jakob, but now I’m not so sure. As has been established, Jakob is more a fan of the ‘personality removal’ style of MC, not the ‘housewife reprogramming.’ It makes me wonder along my original idea for what was happening, that either as a facet of Jakob’s programming or independent of that, that Miriam is doing all this as some twisted gift to Adrian. Remember, she convinced Erin to leave the infirmary when he called by saying that “he’ll love it!” And of the harem, Erin is technically his prospective wife; it would make sense to do this to her from the angle. Doesn’t explain her sinister nature towards the other girls, which makes me wonder if there’s still an aspect of Jakob involved; remember, despite having been programmed by the crystal, the watch was never used on her, so she shouldn’t theoretically have that bit of Jakob in her that the other girls do which convinced Adrian to rebuild the watch.

Questions, questions. Very hot stuff, regardless of the confusion. Come quickly, Tuesday!

[GodWilling]

When I saw the title and thumbnail I thought maybe we were going back to Kanti and Q. I'm glad we weren't (yet). But I'm still vaguely inclined to think that that thread is linked with this one. And my first thought here was of a brainwashed housewife Erin being sold off somewhere. And as I said, that makes me think of Yves, essentially because I've always figured he has a sideline in something like that.

Unless Q is simply using Kanti to serve himself, the only people I think we know who are not apparently dead and who might have an interest in setting him up would be Miriam, maybe, but more likely Yves and/or Sawyer. But is it conceivable that Miriam could be working with Yves and/or Sawyer? I mean, it's been more than 11 years since Adrian and Rain had their 121, and I'm still waiting to find out what kind of antiquarian books are of interest to Sawyer and Hans.

On balance, Miriam possibly wanting to tame Erin for her own amusement seems less far-fetched. Although in a story where the Titanomachy is apparently unfinished business, is anything far-fetched?

[mns_95125]

I could see Sawyer setting Q up as a fall guy to cover for his own use of Pink Clouds at his strip clubs, but I don't see much to suggest a connection between that plot thread and current events.

[lancehunter]

Well, someone used Pink Clouds on Kanti, and immediately after that Kanti texted Laura (issue 1145). I think we are meant to infer that Laura being distracted by Kanti caused the lab accident which appears to have resulted in the creation of the BE perfume. So it could all tie back to one particular actor playing some intense 5th-dimensional chess. Then again, that could have just been a coincidence and a convenient way to move from one plotline to another.

[GodWilling]

Well, Vik apparently managed to devise and successfully implement a five-dimensional chess plan (also involving blue gloves, funnily enough) at the drop of a hat, so I don't think that's necessarily a block. And as I say, there appear to be actual gods in the story, so not much is off-limits. I've pointed out what's odd about the Kanti/Laura conversation several times before, so I won't do it again - it's probably just a mistake. But if it isn't, it leaves the door open for the perfume origin story being a false one. And that door would always be open anyway in a mind control story. The fact is we saw Kanti being supplied with a load of vials of perfume that looked suspiciously like the ones that Laura delivered to the SJI. And we didn't see Kanti use Pink Clouds on Giselle, but we've every reason to believe that Sawyer already had. So perhaps she didn't have to.

Who is on Kanti's shopping list? Laura, Erin, Dani, Giselle, Caitlyn, Katie, and Miriam. Erin feels odd there, although Q did encounter her at the pool hall. He does know Laura, and he knows of Adrian and his harem, but I'm not sure he has ever met Dani or Caitlyn "on screen". It seems he has a liking for Giselle, and it appears to be canon now that he has some history with Katie. (And it does seem that Annie really did become Katie - 269 - so we may like to ponder how that happened, given what we're watching at the moment.) Would Q know Erin worked at the record store though? After all, he has been warned to stay away from Jacqui (and Miriam, come to that).

It could be Q's own list. (And this is the only context in which you'll find me talking about 5D chess and how clever someone called Q is.) But if it isn't, it has four members of Adrian's harem on it, and those four members have all encountered the new perfume this evening, and in the sequence they appeared on Kanti's list. Which is quite a coincidence, though admittedly not too much of one for SJI. But it's reason enough for me to think the two threads might be connected, until we know they aren't.