Saint James Infirmary #923: “Obedience”

[Daphne]

Script: Daphne • Inks: Plutonian Knight • Colors and Lettering: Octavia Moon

[lifmcs]

I’m not sure why Zenon thought that Adrian asserting his authoritay was going to end well for him. Maybe Mallorybot’s abilities are their own force to be reckoned with.

[grimtidings]

He had no choice.

The villain twirls his mustache (really his intestines because he's been exploded) and cackles (in tremendous pain), "You'll see, I'll get you next time!" He then vanishes in a poof of pink clouds.

Status Quo is God. Much like The Ice Pirates (a movie I very much and camply enjoyed), if you don't exit the warp at the exact position you were when you entered... you are trapped forever. The story stays on-course.

[laguna85]

yes master

[lifmcs]

To clarify, I didn’t mean it was or should have been a foregone conclusion that Adrian’s control would win out, though it being otherwise may have spoken poorly of Jakob and Dani’s engineering abilities. Rather the sudden resolution of Erin’s internal conflict immediately following Adrian’s gambit should have warranted at least a little concern from a more careful and astute villain.

[GodWilling]

It wasn't a foregone conclusion that Adrian's control would win, if Zenon did what he said he was doing. Zenon's control was simply Adrian's control modified in some way. Obviously it's not at all clear why that modification would leave Erin conflicted when Adrian re-appeared, but Zenon's plan was predicated on Adrian not re-appearing.

It seems as though, when your Watch Master dies, you can choose another one. (As Zenon himself pointed out, this makes exactly what has gone on with Dani somewhat interesting. And perhaps that's the point of this whole interlude.) Maybe what Zenon did was to use the watch patterns simply to make Erin choose him - who knows?

Anyway, Zenon's plans were fundamentally flawed. He didn't even know that he was dead. He had Vik kill Adrian, presumably not knowing that that wouldn't work. If it had worked then Erin was his.

His game was up as soon as Adrian got up again. Erin was already his only defence against Cherry. He couldn't use the tendrils himself to silence Adrian. His only hope was that his control of Erin would withstand Adrian's reappearance. He told Erin to attack Adrian and he tried using Vik to kill him again, because what else could he do? Inevitably that turned out to be a case of drat and double drat.

[lifmcs]

Oh I think Adrian was right and properly dead. It worked, but there are clearly forces in this universe beyond Zenon's comprehension. No plan survives first contact with a god of death, or something like that.

I hadn't considered (or more properly didn't remember the relevant text) that killing Adrian was maybe what allowed Zenon to do a little variable reassignment in Erin and Mallory's heads. I'm not sure he's as helpless on his own in this realm as you posit, but yeah, two witches and a pissed off not-dead-guy probably spell his doom.

[jmundt29]

I think it's just one pissed off witch right now.  But if she's back in full control, that's WAY more than enough.

[laguna85]

Oh I think Adrian was right and properly dead. It worked, but there are clearly forces in this universe beyond Zenon's comprehension. No plan survives first contact with a god of death, or something like that.

for the comic story let use Baron Le Croix death priest he always say  Today I'm not take you sole