Saint James Infirmary 309: Don't Rush Off.

[Daphne]

Coming Tuesday, July 8th!

[Haight]

I have to say, I like Astrid's style.

[GodWilling]

So that's:

Miel and Patrick.
Réka and Weston.
Astrid and Coates.

And I suppose Adrian and Erin. And perhaps Mallory and Marliese?

And maybe John and Polly: "Dispense your charms widely." (140)

[jmundt29]

I have serious reservations about Reka and Weston.

Maybe if we see more explanation, I might let up on Coates.  However, I still say he should go out and start randomly buying lottery tickets.  He'd probably win Powerball in 15 minutes.

ETA--Also, something about the way Coates has conducted himself smells sour.  I mean, maybe...maybe he took up with Imani with Astrid's blessing on the understanding that they get to share her when Astrid gets back from her research (which was where?).  But, shouldn't the pitch have been "Imani and I have been seeing each other for months...my wife loves to play" not "Imani's my girlfriend, my wife is away on a research trip?"  Unless Astrid's reaction would have been Helen's from Sliding Doors absent the activation of the belltower?

ETA--Astrid's style?  You mean her interpersonal style?  Yeah, she seems to fit right in around here.  Her look?  Honestly, I'm on the fence so far.

[Haight]

I was talking more about her way of comporting herself:  Just flew in, don't stress about things, let's fuck.  Obviously she's dressed for day-to-day and not to impress at the moment.

My take on all this is that, from a metatextual standpoint, Daphne is clearly extremely ok with the poly/swinger lifestyle, so I just take what people say about non-standard relationship arrangements at face value. 

[jmundt29]

Again, I don't have a problem with the concept of open relationships in this storyline, but it seems that Weston and Coates woo for themselves; their own amusement and have a hard time remembering they have partners.  This sort of attitude strikes me as Derek behavior (or worse).  I...remain unconvinced.

[mns_95125]

See, I don't get that.  Weston and Reka both got a shot at Pearl, and Astrid is seducing Hitomi right now.  Both open relationships look like partnerships to me.  What we aren't seeing is Reka or Astrid sleeping with other guys, but I chalk that up to SJI being an md/mf/ff comic.

[jmundt29]

As I said, I remain unconvinced, but I'm willing to be convinced.

1. When we met Weston the first time, he was pursuing Erin on his own (apparently for himself because Reka though there didn't factor in at all) with almost complete self-assurance.  Plus, he has stank of Destiny Dice Roll #1 on him:  dystopian soul-crushing future.  It'll take a counterbalance that.

With regard to Pearl, yes it seems like a partnership, but I'm still confused as to why he was even at practice for that scene.

As for Coates--again, if this is legit and he's looking for play partners with his wife, his entire approach should have been different.  Imani self-identifies as his girlfriend and the note about his wife is that she won't care, not that she'll be a part of their play.  That's Alec Baldwin "Marrying Man" cowflop.  Or Howard Prescott in The Secret of My Success telling his subordinate that "My wife and I have an understanding."  It's just indefensible, arrogant, selfish stupidity.  And if he really is looking for playmates for his wife to share--it's still unbelievably moronic, because he could be much more open, honest, and inclusive.  And, in the context of Kearsage, being honest about the situation is probably even sexier.  He's choosing the worst possible approach because....why?

[GodWilling]

Again, I don't have a problem with the concept of open relationships in this storyline, but it seems that Weston and Coates woo for themselves; their own amusement and have a hard time remembering they have partners.

It doesn't appear that Astrid minds in the least that her husband is in bed with two women. And she only needs to be introduced to Hitomi; the naked Imani casually greets her by name. "She always gets an earlier flight, and he's always surprised." This seems like their game to me. If you're assuming Astrid spent her field trip repeating to herself the mantra "I have a partner" then... why?

Weston enjoyed a longer kiss with Erin at rehearsal than the play demanded. Maybe she should have let him pull away sooner, what with Réka not being there and all but, then, neither was Adrian there, and maybe Erin was enjoying it too much to care. I mean, she's tongued a twat or two before and enjoyed it. The next night Erin encouraged Réka to kiss her too - but that was OK because Weston was there. Although, again, Adrian wasn't. And Weston was there when Réka invited Miriam back to their place, so I guess that amounts to teamwork.

It's all a matter of perspective, but we don't actually know that Erin is a less faithful partner than Weston or Coates. For all we know she's told Adrian about both Réka and Weston. And maybe she's intending to bring Weston back to share him with Adrian, which, obviously, would make it OK. (Christ it was a struggle to type that last bit.)

[mns_95125]

It may also be worth noting that the gender ratio in Kearsage is heavily skewed: 70/30 female-to-male.  In other words, there are more than two women per man.  In real life, colleges with gender ratios less unbalanced than that have major hookup cultures.  Insistence on monogamy is a poor mating strategy in that kind of environment, and that's without putting mind control into the mix.

Have we actually seen a single monogamous relationship in this comic at any point?  If not, then it seems bizarre to single out Weston and Coates as particularly bad.  Vik, for one, strikes me as obviously worse and he doesn't get a fraction of the hate.

[GodWilling]

Have we actually seen a single monogamous relationship in this comic at any point?

I think every time we've assumed we were looking at one it has turned out we weren't. Raven obviously knows she's sharing Erin with Adrian. I wonder if she'd contemplate being "unfaithful" - whatever that means at this point. By the by, there wasn't much time for Astrid and Imani to have got so acquainted after Erin did whatever she did to the bell tower equipment.

That old idea of Adrian's dad directing him towards Kearsarge after his break-up with Echo seems more credible right now. Or at least it would do if we didn't suspect that Adrian was led here by Rain leaving a trail of magical things - or possibly condoms - for him to follow.

EDIT:

Vik, for one, strikes me as obviously worse and he doesn't get a fraction of the hate.

Ah, but we knew Vik when he was likeable. I mean, yes, he's blotted his copybook recently. But first impressions count for an awful lot. It seems.

[Haight]

On the other hand, we still don't know what happened in that one crucial conversation with Rain and Adrian.  So for all we know Adrian went to Kearsarge because it was a good place to pick up the trail as far as mind control goes, and he's been playing dumb this whole time. 

[GodWilling]

he's been playing dumb this whole time. 

He does do that one thing really, really well though.

His girlfriend Echo (echo) and her room-mate Claudia were both taken into Jakob's harem. So of course he comes to Kearsarge and moves in with Dani. It's entirely possible he's playing dumb.

[Haight]

\He does do that one thing really, really well though.

His girlfriend Echo (echo) and her room-mate Claudia were both taken into Jakob's harem. So of course he comes to Kearsarge and moves in with Dani. It's entirely possible he's playing dumb.

On the other hand, the world of SJI certainly allows for 'destiny,' so maybe that's part of it and it isn't Adrian doing something specifically. 

[GodWilling]

I'm going to overlook the difficulty of reconciling destiny with the at least three outcomes and modify my assertion:

It's entirely possible he's playing dumb. Or he isn't.