Saint James Infirmary #866: “The Power of Mesmerism”

Thinking Aloud, Volume 135. Expect no conclusions...

As this page represents an extension of Sue's blip fantasy in 793, it makes it more likely that that moment does indeed belong with the other moments occurring in 850 to 852.

So Sue is fantasising about being Adrian's hypnotised slave. And Rachel and Anya are fantasising about at the very least doing anything Adrian commands.

But Amaltheia is fantasising about being Miriam's slave (or perhaps a little mermaid trapped in Miriam's fishbowl). And it seems to me that 852 shows Jacqui fantasising about having sex with Miriam, and Miriam possibly taking delight in having triggered that. (While Jacqui seems less at ease with all this than Miriam, it does seem as though she invited herself onto Adrian's date tonight with Miriam and Heidi in 760.)

So what connects these strong fantasies that these women are having? Is this affecting a particular set of women?

For all that Miriam is controlling Heidi, her intention appears to have been to gift her to Adrian. Perhaps the same applies to her seduction of Amaltheia. (Or does Miriam's decision to take Amaltheia away and apparently enslave her have something to do with Amaltheia's line of questioning in 782?) Adrian appears to be more than happy to accept Heidi. And it does seem as though he brought this about anyway by his use of the crystal on Miriam during the Tits And Holes interlude.

So it could be that all of these women and all of their fantasies relate ultimately to Adrian. But as far as we know, neither Amaltheia nor Jacqui is a former patient of Zenon, and neither has been reprogrammed by Dani. And Adrian has other slaves who do not appear to be experiencing the fantasies.

On a side note, both Caitlyn and Laura are former patients of Zenon and both have suddenly decided to have dates (possibly both tonight) with their female Professors. And both of these relationships have been initiated under the auspices of either Pink Clouds or the antidote.

On the other hand, both Caitlyn and Laura have been exposed to Pink Clouds too, so maybe Zenon isn't the link there. Might Pink Clouds and/or the antidote be addictive? Laura, Caitlyn, Amy, Hayley, and Kanti were all exposed to Pink Clouds and they all appear to have a bit of a hankering to make further use in one way or another. Is that why Vik made sure Laura tried Sample 49? Did this guarantee that she would end up over-using the antidote as a recreational drug? Is it more significant than it seemed that Dani avoided getting a dose of the stuff from Alex and Katie in 243?

As I mentioned yesterday, the idea for Dani to reprogram Zenon's patients seems to have come via Caitlyn from Astrid (694). That plan seems to have been implemented entirely by Caitlyn, Amy, and Dani - all themselves former Zenon patients.

But of course Zenon in The Cloud could be a red herring anyway; it may not really be he. Zenon seems to have been an ally of Claudia, and therefore an opponent of Jakob. So he's on the good side, right? Or perhaps he was merely using Claudia? Obviously, I dunno...