When we last left our heroes...

[macavity]

Adrian moves to Kearsarge to attend Wilmot College, renting a room at a house, the inhabitants of which call Saint James Infirmary (still no idea why, although Mallory said it would be obvious... still waiting, 10+ years later).

The most plausible explanation I've managed so far is that it alludes to the St James Infirmary Clinic in San Francisco:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._James_Infirmary_Clinic

[SDPunk]

Having just read the entire run for the third time, I am feeling the need to recap to get a few things straight in my head, so here goes.

1. There are multiple types of mind control in play.

1.1 the crystal, which is some sort of printed circuit based on the original red crystal used to make the scallop

1.2 the red crystal, which may or may not be naturally occurring, but can be reshaped, resulting in the scallop

1.3 the watch, which based on Dani’s information alters neurobiology by repatterining neurons, which is freaky stuff and would seem to account for mind control by the watch being both more durable and making those altered by the watch more resistant to other forms of mind control (see Caitlyn and the crystal; Laura, one of the twins, and #49; but weirdly not Dani and Derek)

1.4 Pink Clouds, which is, at least to the smell test, identical to Laura’s #49. Short acting, requires reinforcement.

1.5 The Clock Tower (which something in the back of my head says is now missing all of the scallops used to power it, when Dani, Erin, and Adrian go to clock tower control, there is a panel when they leave showing the slots, which previously had four scallops in five slots with no scallops in five slots, suggesting changes afoot with the Mantis Effect) which exercised a low level of mind control on all Wilmot students and gave the students a reputation for general sluttery. Also since it is the basis for the technology which drives the watch we can likely conclude it is repatterining the neurons of everyone in its radius of effect. This suggests the “Mantis Effect” of growing bigger tits is caused by very subtle manipulation of the endocrine system through changing parts of the autonomic systems in the brain.

This also suggests whoever built the Clock Tower built a surgically precise, subtle, and multifaceted device which Jakob ripped apart and used the pieces to build a hammer. Which is totally on brand for Jakob.

1.6 Astrid’s what ever it is. It is at least artifact looking enough for Caitlyn to think, that on first glance, it was something Astrid dug up at some archeological site.

1.7 Paul Cavanaugh, this guy, who is either acting as a lens for the clock tower effect, or the effect of the clock tower on (some) men is to give them some level of innate mind control, or Paul represents a fourth, unique type of mind control ala Professor X, something that is natural and originates from him. I lean towards the third explanation b/c he seems to use it on Meil the first time they meet and is still using it after he leaves Wilmot. 

This presents an interesting and alternate reading for the hypnocock phenomenon. Adrian has his dad’s hoodoo and this was the first time he actively tried to use it.

1.8 Erin does some sort of witchcraft and while it requires underlying ability, can be learned by anyone with the potential. If this ability, whatever it is called, exists and doesn’t have some kind of mind control attached to it, I’d be shocked.

1.9 Mallory is in communion with the Loa of the Crossroads and may be an avatar of some sort. The entire tradition has some level mind control (zombies) built into it. As it exists in the real world it is a blunt instrument. In the world of SJI it would make sense for an entity Mallory could contact to be able to give her control of people’s minds.

This represents six unique types of mind control. I read somewhere else in the forum that Daphne said something about mind control being common enough in the world of SJI that most people were not surprised when mind control is used on them. It isn’t everywhere. The government hasn’t weaponized it. You may go your entire life and never be mind controlled. But odds are good either someone you know is mind controlled or someone you used to know disappeared due to being mind controlled. 

Johannes Kuppler doesn’t seem to actively object to what Jakob does, only the things Jakob does when he’s doing it. This suggests that Ezra’s comment about rich men and rock stars having harems may have more to do with access to mind control than anything else.

Now for an interesting “What If...?” Beyond Rubies uses a red crystal with some sort of circuitry printed into it, iirc, to control minds and change neurobiology enough to cause extreme biological changes, as well as mind control. It’s consistent with both the “Mantis Effect” and Jakob’s use of the watch. The main antagonist of BR is one of the Kupplers.

[mns_95125]

As I recall, if you look carefully there are Easter eggs implying that SJI, The Hidden Knowledge and Beyond Rubies all take place in the same world.

[SDPunk]

Assuming that is the case Hidden Knowledge would represent some sort of neurolinguistic programming which borders on sorcery, or actual sorcery, and would be a seventh unique type of mind control.

[Daphne]

This is all quite wonderful.

[Haight]

This represents six unique types of mind control. I read somewhere else in the forum that Daphne said something about mind control being common enough in the world of SJI that most people were not surprised when mind control is used on them. It isn’t everywhere. The government hasn’t weaponized it. You may go your entire life and never be mind controlled. But odds are good either someone you know is mind controlled or someone you used to know disappeared due to being mind controlled. 

I dunno, the reaction of Pearl/Miriam to how she was being groomed/MCed implies that mind control isn't something that's commonly talked about or understood. A world where that was fairly casual would be neat... but I don't think SJI is it. Mind control is something that's treated as a mystery, law enforcement doesn't use "mind control" as an explanation for weird behavior, etc. And the main characters don't really talk about it much as a casual thing.

As far as the watch being able to affect bodies as well as minds, though, that's neat, and I seem to remember from early on there was talk of the watch having other knobs. I'd love to see one of the long-running characters have her breasts permanently, significantly enlarged and have her react to that... would be fun considering how well-developed the characters are in this story.

[SDPunk]

I dunno, the reaction of Pearl/Miriam to how she was being groomed/MCed implies that mind control isn't something that's commonly talked about or understood. A world where that was fairly casual would be neat... but I don't think SJI is it. Mind control is something that's treated as a mystery, law enforcement doesn't use "mind control" as an explanation for weird behavior, etc. And the main characters don't really talk about it much as a casual thing.

I don’t think Miriam/Pearl’s reaction is necessarily from a place of ignorance, but rather from a place of her father knew it was happening and didn’t do anything about it. If anything her expectation that her father knew what was going on suggests broader knowledge of mind control in the SJI world, not narrower.

Just because mind control is known to exist doesn’t mean people are blasé about it. Part of the mind control kink is about the control. Part of it is the most intimate possible violation, taking things that are normally safe from outside tampering and rearranging them to suit the controller’s whims.

Pearl would be justifiably furious with her father for allowing a client to dig around inside her head and change whatever he wanted just because he was a good client and billed a lot of hours.

[Haight]

I don’t think Miriam/Pearl’s reaction is necessarily from a place of ignorance, but rather from a place of her father knew it was happening and didn’t do anything about it. If anything her expectation that her father knew what was going on suggests broader knowledge of mind control in the SJI world, not narrower.

Just because mind control is known to exist doesn’t mean people are blasé about it. Part of the mind control kink is about the control. Part of it is the most intimate possible violation, taking things that are normally safe from outside tampering and rearranging them to suit the controller’s whims.

Pearl would be justifiably furious with her father for allowing a client to dig around inside her head and change whatever he wanted just because he was a good client and billed a lot of hours.

Maybe. I figured she would have gone to the cops if mind control was openly known about.

[GodWilling]

I don't think there's a suggestion that Ezra knew that Jakob was using mind control. Indeed 358 suggests that Miriam believes he didn't know anything bad was going on and, indeed, that he didn't. Miriam's later burst of anger with him relates (I think) to his discussing Jakob with Johannes as essentially a business problem to be ironed out. She's pointing out that it's that kind of thinking that led to Ezra putting her in harm's way and failing to see what was happening.

Jakob's use of mind control was a sufficiently embarrassing problem for him to fake his own death. I think the SJI attitude to mind control is more that taken by its victims, for whom it is commonplace and whose opinions have inevitably been coloured by its use.

[SDPunk]

Why do I keep rereading this story? Exceptional characters, I’m going with that.

So above referenced points

1.8 #674 Erin demonstrates mind control over Raven by “turn[ing] down [her] gag reflex” and says she can do lots of things. Adding #701 to this entry, Erin clearly has some hoodoo that includes mind and body control. Might be related to her breasts always being bigger than everyone else’s and having a somewhat variable size.

1.7 #675 as is the norm in SJI there is circumstantial evidence, but there is a lot of it culminating in #675 when Pearl/Miriam completely runs over her boss’s resistance to anything and everything, and just knew (“intuition?”) in #667 she was into being tied up.

I’m dropping a marker, Patrick Adrian Cavanaugh is a telepath or mind controller, of some innate ability, and so are both his kids.
 

[SDPunk]

Getting something straight in my head again. Which means another huge wall of text incoming.

Either the Cavanaugh brand of mind control is more durable than the red crystal effect based on #1043, or Jakob has such an incomplete understanding of how the red crystal works, he isn’t able to effectively employ it yet. I’m going with the former because “hypnocock” and Miel’s general reaction to the red crystal. The red crystal is a technology, and so can’t be made more powerful by the will driving it.

So a hierarchy of mind control begins to form

1. Cavanaugh, which makes sense assuming the John Wilmot/Poly connection the Cavanaugh’s seem to have. It makes them descendants of a Greek god and/or titan, potentially Zeus himself, which would explain Zeus’s success at general sluttery
2. The Wilmot Clock Tower, which as I said above has a different purpose than the Watch and is more subtle and precise.
3. The Watch which is a localized version of the clock tower with fewer options. (Potentially, still a lot we don’t know about the settings, which Danielle does know now, something which suggests Adrian is capable of undoing what the watch does. If Jakob used the watch to make Danielle forget how to set it, and Adrien made her able to remember/learn again it adds more evidence #1 above.
4. The refined crystal. Because it is a simplified, imperfect version of the watch.
5. The red crystal shards, because they work, just not as well as anything else.

Other things, which we do not yet know.

I consider it a safe assumption that Erin’s witchcraft can undo the effects of the refined crystal. She’s done it more than once now. It is also possible that Erin’s witchcraft combined with the Cavanaugh hoodoo is what is really cracking the watch’s control. Check out Miriam/Pearl’s eyes when Adrian fucks her, which is after Erin’s ritual. This makes Tamara Jakob’s worst nightmare with the powers of both her parents.

Mallory is such a wild card at this point, Cherry and the German were terrified of her, willing to kill a random person on the chance she might be Mallory b/c they considered her so dangerous. Additionally as Wilmot’s new head librarian and the books we know are in the restricted section, (considering that is only a single shelf and it’s better than what’s in the Arkham library and there is likely more) she has become orders of magnitude more powerful. Speaking as a long time Lovecraft nerd and general fan of weird fiction and horror, that shelf is frankly terrifying. Also, whoever is responsible for the book list on that shelf, we may have been separated at birth.

Astrid, still not enough on the board to make a determination. My guess based on length of exposure and Caitlyn’s reaction is that it is either less invasive and/or less powerful than the refined crystal. It can’t overpower the watch, but it can bend it a little.

Which suggests Caitlyn in is real trouble based on Danielle’s statement that every time you bend the mind into a new shape it is a little weaker than it was before. Caitlyn is one of the few who has been controlled by everything, Adrian, Watch, Refined Crystal, Astrid’s whatsit, and pink clouds/#49. She may need an intervention from Adrian and Erin soon, or go completely insane. We should be afraid of and for an insane Caitlyn. This may also make Raven the most stable instance of mind control in the story. Her primary mind control is a combination of Erin, Adrian, and the refined crystal. It’s possible nothing else can touch her.

Pink Clouds/#49 is capable of overpowering everything, for short periods of time. It’s possible the pink clouds antidote makes you immune to future dosing. I may be leaning that way now.

Beyond Rubies? The Hidden Knowledge? Who knows, no data points to compare.

[GodWilling]

It makes them descendants of a Greek god and/or titan, potentially Zeus himself, which would explain Zeus’s success at general sluttery

All I'd offer up regarding that is Jakob's gift to Rain in 236, with the note "My regards to your father." On the assumption that the punishment of Atlas was not intended to be a happy thought for Rain, I've been inclined to think that that places her on the losing side of the Titanomachy, while Zeus was very much on the other. Jakob had a company called Titanomachy Property Management. The gift and 449 suggest he is well aware of who Rain's father is.

The idea of Rain as one of the muses does make a lot of sense. For what it's worth, though, if her father was Atlas himself (which might put him in a position to look down from the sky), his offspring included the Hyades (the bringers of rain). One of those was called Polyxo. (And another, I notice for the first time, Coronis, or crow).

[SDPunk]

Ugh, too many ways of reading that. Atlas is trapped at the end of the world and imprisoned by his duties. Supposedly the only break he has gotten in all of history is when Heracles subbed for a bit.

Rain could be a daughter of Zeus, who is a sky god, who is the one who sentenced Atlas to his servitude. So the Atlas clock could be a middle finger to the daughter of Zeus, either “look what your dad did to you” or “you tried to do this to me, but I used the watch to set myself free.”

And as I made dinner the following occurred to me:

Rain could be Athena as well, the patron goddess of strategy, knowledge, crafts, etc. the atlas clock would then be a dig at her, “your dad did the same thing to you he did to Atlas.”

Also Athena was pretty much the only person in the Odyssey who has anything nice to say about Odysseus. Everyone else hated that narcissistic little sociopath. It was her comment about Odysseus that sent me down the Athena path.

Additionally, Rain heavily hints that she arranged for The Night of the Watch to happen. To be honest the hint is so heavy handed I’m tempted to call it a confession. Whether that reveals anything beyond her frankly ridiculous morality (Hey, Imma wreck your life, which I need to do because I made a stupid mistake, but here’s some T&A to make it better), is up for debate, but it suggests she is treating Adrian like Zeus. Which reinforces the Athena/daughter of Zeus narrative.

This whole thing, no matter who Rain’s father is, shows Jakob to be legendarily stupid. He threatened to send a daughter of Atlas or Zeus out to turn tricks for him. Pretty sure that wouldn’t end well for him.

[SDPunk]

On an entirely different topic.

Erin died Erin Cavanaugh in 2015 and Adrien was injured enough that he was walking with a cane. What is the current date in SJI? When the issue was published, it was 4 years or so in the future, now almost six years in the past

Also Erin is still alive when Tamara is a student at Wilmot, which should be somewhere in the late 2020s or 2030s, and Adrian doesn’t have a cane.

[Daphne]

What is the current date in SJI?

In the main sequence, 2011.