Saint James Infirmary 184: Unpaid Time Off.

[Daphne]

Coming Tuesday, April 30th!

[jmundt29]

Pop-up lyrics from where?  I mean I get the Messianic reference of course, but what song is this from?

More importantly--When exactly is this Rain flashback from?  Is this their long conversation on their walk around the block, the afternoon before the date with Amy?

And as always with Rain--why and how does she know so much?

[Werdna]

This episode is really important, I think.  We finally get to see the outcomes of the programming that took place on the night of the watch, as well as some of the reasons for Laura's actions.  Being controlled to think "We are not programmed.  We feel this way naturally." (ep 76) really must be producing some detectable cognitive dissonance within Laura.  I wonder if Danielle's nightmares/hallucinations are being caused by the same issue, and also whether Caitlyn or Amy are experiencing anything like that as well.  It probably would have been better for the programming to have been along the lines of "You are controlled to think this way; you like being controlled to think this way; you will keep this control a secret."

One of my favourite elements of mc storytelling involves the exploration of what's going on in the minds of the controlled, and this issue brings it in spades.  A lot to think about.

Lastly, Laura's expression in panel 3, matched with the words she speaks, is an excellent fusion of art and dialogue that is really expressive.

[Haight]

Besides more hot mind control-induced sex involving the gorgeous girls of SJI, I'd love to see more explorations of how the girls feel about their controlled status as they become more aware of it.

[jmundt29]

Laura seems to be the one most processing this out loud, though why that might be hasn't been explained yet.  There hasn't been a serious discussion among the first cohort (that we've heard), but Amy, Jacqui, and Laura first broached the subject on the night of Jacqui's tutelage in the art of oral pleasure.

[mns_95125]

Based on clothing the flashback is to the conversation between Rain and Adrian in #120-121 -- and yes, that's the walk around the block.

This does look like an interesting development.  It could be our first look into the second cohort's view of the world.  (I wonder if Adrian has ever asked anyone in the first cohort exactly how they programmed the second?)  The conversation in #78 suggests that both cohorts could know about the existence of the watch, which implies an interesting mental blind spot.  "There's a watch that turns people into sex slaves, it was used on me, I'm a sex slave, but the watch had nothing to do with it."

I suppose it's also possible that, since she's programmed to believe her feelings are natural, that Laura might actually reject Adrian's explanation.  That would be funny, in a Keystone Kops kind of way.

[GodWilling]

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[mns_95125]

For the Doc's patients to have new triggers, wouldn't they have had to return to him for another session?  Do we have any evidence that this has happened?  That seems like it would have been significant enough to have been shown for at least one patient.

[jmundt29]

Not necessarily.  We don't know the mechanics of Zenon's search or his sessions.  We know that he was supposed to open a door for Derek the Moron, but we don't know what his explicit instructions were, how he interpreted them, or how many triggers he might choose to leave in a single session (or even if the most recent session was his only session with Caitlyn).  The only member of the second cohort who we know was in for her first session is Laura (I think, I could be misremembering the very early issues).  The paucity of her imprint could explain why she is the one most actively questioning what has happened so far.

It appears that Jacqui had three sessions with the Watch.

#1. Private session upstairs with Dani at the computer (interrupted by Adrian's questions about the situation)  This left her horny, uncontrollably nude, and susceptible to direct commands (from Adrian only, it looked like) but still mostly conscious of herself and her surroundings. (Correct)

#2. End result of the first Lustpile (the most magnificent of the early splash pages).  Mallory, Marliese, and Erin teamed up to program her thoroughly.  This second programming completed conditioning to make her almost a member of the first cohort and she was allowed to put clothes on again and given a glassy expression, and a somewhat stilted speech pattern.  Mostly correct, but it appears to be Mallory and Erin who combine for this.

#3. She was reprogrammed (with Dani) by Marliese at Mallory's direction as part of the second cohort.  It would seem she might be the most thoroughly programmed of the second cohort and this could reflect her possible status as a resistor to basic programming, but most of that is speculation.  Except, strangely, not.  Jacqui is in her own subset.  Her programming was finished by Erin and Mallory (with a possible assist from Marliese).  She was present during the programming of the Second Cohort, but wasn't treated.

Dani has been imprinted so many times, it's tough to tell where she ends and the commands begin.

[mns_95125]

I think Jacqui only had two sessions with the watch: the initial programmus-interruptus by Danielle and the follow-up by Erin/Mallory/Marliese in #72.  I don't know where you got the idea that she was reprogrammed a third time as part of the second cohort.  As far as I can tell the second cohort consists of Danielle, Caitlyn, Amy and Laura -- the four we see being programmed in #75-76.

[GodWilling]

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