Comics Collection Melissa N. Collection [2024-10-16] [Melissa N.]

[Alicia Mae]

The girls dropping the act feels in character to me. They’re keeping that up at home because they fear they’re under surveillance. But here, they feel open to discuss things freely.

They’re also trying to gauge Andrew’s genuine interest in staying Elena and marrying Nikos for real. That’s hard to do if you don’t drop Elena’s fabricated past. I agree, one of them is likely working with Seferi, while the other is naive.

What’s interesting to me is having Elena know about Jolene. I suspect the plan is to involve Elena in Jolene’s feminine comportment and training. I’m hoping some time teaching her how to act like a proper lady will be some nice maternal time for Elena. She’s had to be the wife often, but I’ve been dying for her to have to play mommy more lol.

Seferi did mention they wanted to get into the Samaras family. Maybe the plan is to make Joel into their 3rd daughter that lived overseas or something.

 

[Thalantyr]

What I'm leaning towards (with two variations):

I don't see how it could possibly be scenario #1. That would mean the entire motivation for feminizing and gaslighting Andrew was simply to engineer a wedding so Toska would return to Greece? There have got to be a million less convoluted schemes they could have come up with to entice Toska to come to Greece. And they're going to go to all that trouble just assuming Toska has to attend some wedding just because he has a business contract with some guy he just met recently? I don't understand why Sofia thinks that either. Plus, this would also require someone who's in on the plan to know about Andrew's method acting condition, because otherwise why would Elena say yes to Nikos' proposal?

Finished the chapter. I think the doctor being the "old friend" is the safest bet. It's weird for Elena to call him that, even sarcastically. Or rather, the thought process feels a bit awkward that leads to that sentence. But regardless, I think it's a 90% chance it's the doctor, a 9% chance it's Seferi (Elena might be assuming that he's around since she's just learned he's Joel's uncle), with a 1% chance it's Joanna (I'm thinking there was an off screen discussion between Joanna and Elena about another round of cosmetic surgeries or something).

I keep thinking about this, and it doesn't make any sense to me why Elena would call the doctor an "old friend" unless she had some sort of existing relationship with him that the readers aren't privy to. She usually just refers to him as "the doctor" or once as "Dr. Gianakos", so why change now?

I'm thinking this is related to the trauma that Andrew experienced that caused him to lose his memory in between Marina visiting him in the hospital and arriving back home later that day. Perhaps Andrew overheard the doctor talking about how the vaginoplasty is real. Or maybe it was someone else responsible for the feminization talking about the plan. Or maybe he saw Joanna working there and started connecting the dots. The first time he met Joanna, she talks about surgeons and offers to introduce Elena to some:


Maybe she's more connected to the clinic than she was letting on. Maybe she's the blurred woman.

It also occurred to me that we didn't get to see the end of the Orlov dream, or how it affected Elena when she woke up. The last dream caused her to regain most of her memories, and I'm thinking the Orlov dream restored the rest of them, including the original trauma. Given that the dream was about Orlov, it would make sense for the trauma to be Orlov-related. Perhaps the "old friend" is even Orlov himself. Maybe he's dying in hospice care in Greece for some reason, and just seeing him caused Andrew to relive his bad experience of method acting in the past and he spiraled out of control.

The one thing that sticks out to me is that it's really weird to blur out the woman last part, only to have the sisters revealed in this part. This makes me think the blurred woman in the last part is Marina and that's supposed to be a twist.

I agree, it is odd. It's either concealing a twist and it's Marina or Joanna, or, maybe we're overthinking it and it really is Eva and the blur was just Melissa's way of baiting the audience at the end of a chapter. Who is that mystery woman? Find out next week in the next exciting installment of Aphrodite's Mirror!

What’s interesting to me is having Elena know about Jolene. I suspect the plan is to involve Elena in Jolene’s feminine comportment and training. I’m hoping some time teaching her how to act like a proper lady will be some nice maternal time for Elena. She’s had to be the wife often, but I’ve been dying for her to have to play mommy more lol.

Why would Elena be an expert in feminine comportment, having just learned herself very recently?

Seferi did mention they wanted to get into the Samaras family. Maybe the plan is to make Joel into their 3rd daughter that lived overseas or something.

This is perhaps just wishful thinking on my part, but I keep going back to a theory I had a long time ago that Eva (and maybe Sofia too) was originally a man who was feminized to become a bride for Sefanos, and Nikos/Seferi/Joanna are actually running a much larger feminization racket for profit. As I said before, I welcome more transformations in my feminization stories. Turning Joel into daughter #3 would fit this theory.

 

[rebirth095]

There have got to be a million less convoluted schemes they could have come up with to entice Toska to come to Greece.

That holds true for how this story kicked off anyway. Of all the possible scenarios, they thought it made more sense for Andrew to pretend to be Nikos' wife to meet Toska? Hell, with their makeup skills, you're telling me they couldn't have just made Marina look older and have her play the part? She already knows how to act like a woman, speaks Greek better... you don't need to be an actor to pull off what Andrew did that night.

The reason I give any credibility to this convoluted scheme is because Melissa herself through Sofia gives it credibility. In fact, this insane scheme is proposed as the "more reasonable" alternative to Elena's offerings of going to the police. Maybe this is an incorrect assumption, but based on how I'm reading it, the author thinks this is a reasonable enough justification, so I'm suspending my disbelief and following that logic. At least temporarily

Plus, this would also require someone who's in on the plan to know about Andrew's method acting condition, because otherwise why would Elena say yes to Nikos' proposal?

It doesn't require Andrew's condition to be known. Elena doesn't have to say yes to the proposal. Put simply, if Elena hadn't accepted, then all that needs to be done is for Sofia/Nikos to present this "capture Toska plan" as a cover for Elena to say yes.

She usually just refers to him as "the doctor" or once as "Dr. Gianakos", so why change now?

This is where I have to be a bit more unforgiving in my critique of the writing: Time after time, a part or chapter ends with a ridiculously vague way of saying something just to drum up speculation and make it a cliffhanger. Usually the answers are far more mundane and have at times not even lined up well with the previous cliffhanger.

This is perhaps just wishful thinking on my part, but I keep going back to a theory I had a long time ago that Eva (and maybe Sofia too) was originally a man who was feminized to become a bride for Sefanos, and Nikos/Seferi/Joanna are actually running a much larger feminization racket for profit. As I said before, I welcome more transformations in my feminization stories. Turning Joel into daughter #3 would fit this theory.

100%. A story I liked and is now lost to time was about an organization that feminized and trained/brainwashed men to be sold off for different functions. Given how Eva and Sofia seem to have all these prosthetics ready to go, I always felt there was an undercurrent where such a story could be possible. Sofia in particular, in the back of my mind my head canon was that she was feminized but had a strong will and ended up not just enjoying her feminization but found a sadistic side of herself in wanting to help feminize others. Maybe Eva was her brother that had a weaker will and made for a good "servant". So Nikos "adopted" these two. If Sofia and Eva aren't Nikos and Elena's biological children, there's even the possibility that Guiseppe was "Elena".

Now, I still don't get the point of feminizing Andrew. Seems like there's targets less likely to draw attention compared to YOUR NIECE'S HUSBAND. But whatever. Most feminiztion stories are "solutions in search of problems" where the solution is always feminization. Sometimes the narrative comes up with a reasonable problem where feminization is the solution. Unfortunately, most stories do not

 

[Stevedore100]

I don't see how it could possibly be scenario #1. That would mean the entire motivation for feminizing and gaslighting Andrew was simply to engineer a wedding so Toska would return to Greece? There have got to be a million less convoluted schemes they could have come up with to entice Toska to come to Greece. And they're going to go to all that trouble just assuming Toska has to attend some wedding just because he has a business contract with some guy he just met recently? I don't understand why Sofia thinks that either. Plus, this would also require someone who's in on the plan to know about Andrew's method acting condition, because otherwise why would Elena say yes to Nikos' proposal?


I keep thinking about this, and it doesn't make any sense to me why Elena would call the doctor an "old friend" unless she had some sort of existing relationship with him that the readers aren't privy to. She usually just refers to him as "the doctor" or once as "Dr. Gianakos", so why change now?

I'm thinking this is related to the trauma that Andrew experienced that caused him to lose his memory in between Marina visiting him in the hospital and arriving back home later that day. Perhaps Andrew overheard the doctor talking about how the vaginoplasty is real. Or maybe it was someone else responsible for the feminization talking about the plan. Or maybe he saw Joanna working there and started connecting the dots. The first time he met Joanna, she talks about surgeons and offers to introduce Elena to some:
View attachment 4105813

Maybe she's more connected to the clinic than she was letting on. Maybe she's the blurred woman.

It also occurred to me that we didn't get to see the end of the Orlov dream, or how it affected Elena when she woke up. The last dream caused her to regain most of her memories, and I'm thinking the Orlov dream restored the rest of them, including the original trauma. Given that the dream was about Orlov, it would make sense for the trauma to be Orlov-related. Perhaps the "old friend" is even Orlov himself. Maybe he's dying in hospice care in Greece for some reason, and just seeing him caused Andrew to relive his bad experience of method acting in the past and he spiraled out of control.


I agree, it is odd. It's either concealing a twist and it's Marina or Joanna, or, maybe we're overthinking it and it really is Eva and the blur was just Melissa's way of baiting the audience at the end of a chapter. Who is that mystery woman? Find out next week in the next exciting installment of Aphrodite's Mirror!


Why would Elena be an expert in feminine comportment, having just learned herself very recently?


This is perhaps just wishful thinking on my part, but I keep going back to a theory I had a long time ago that Eva (and maybe Sofia too) was originally a man who was feminized to become a bride for Sefanos, and Nikos/Seferi/Joanna are actually running a much larger feminization racket for profit. As I said before, I welcome more transformations in my feminization stories. Turning Joel into daughter #3 would fit this theory.

My line of reasoning on the blurring: original

I don't see how it could possibly be scenario #1. That would mean the entire motivation for feminizing and gaslighting Andrew was simply to engineer a wedding so Toska would return to Greece? There have got to be a million less convoluted schemes they could have come up with to entice Toska to come to Greece. And they're going to go to all that trouble just assuming Toska has to attend some wedding just because he has a business contract with some guy he just met recently? I don't understand why Sofia thinks that either. Plus, this would also require someone who's in on the plan to know about Andrew's method acting condition, because otherwise why would Elena say yes to Nikos' proposal?


I keep thinking about this, and it doesn't make any sense to me why Elena would call the doctor an "old friend" unless she had some sort of existing relationship with him that the readers aren't privy to. She usually just refers to him as "the doctor" or once as "Dr. Gianakos", so why change now?

I'm thinking this is related to the trauma that Andrew experienced that caused him to lose his memory in between Marina visiting him in the hospital and arriving back home later that day. Perhaps Andrew overheard the doctor talking about how the vaginoplasty is real. Or maybe it was someone else responsible for the feminization talking about the plan. Or maybe he saw Joanna working there and started connecting the dots. The first time he met Joanna, she talks about surgeons and offers to introduce Elena to some:
View attachment 4105813

Maybe she's more connected to the clinic than she was letting on. Maybe she's the blurred woman.

It also occurred to me that we didn't get to see the end of the Orlov dream, or how it affected Elena when she woke up. The last dream caused her to regain most of her memories, and I'm thinking the Orlov dream restored the rest of them, including the original trauma. Given that the dream was about Orlov, it would make sense for the trauma to be Orlov-related. Perhaps the "old friend" is even Orlov himself. Maybe he's dying in hospice care in Greece for some reason, and just seeing him caused Andrew to relive his bad experience of method acting in the past and he spiraled out of control.


I agree, it is odd. It's either concealing a twist and it's Marina or Joanna, or, maybe we're overthinking it and it really is Eva and the blur was just Melissa's way of baiting the audience at the end of a chapter. Who is that mystery woman? Find out next week in the next exciting installment of Aphrodite's Mirror!


Why would Elena be an expert in feminine comportment, having just learned herself very recently?


This is perhaps just wishful thinking on my part, but I keep going back to a theory I had a long time ago that Eva (and maybe Sofia too) was originally a man who was feminized to become a bride for Sefanos, and Nikos/Seferi/Joanna are actually running a much larger feminization racket for profit. As I said before, I welcome more transformations in my feminization stories. Turning Joel into daughter #3 would fit this theory.

This is my reasoning on the blurring: originally it did t make much sense to blur if it was one of the sisters- it dies even with blutlrring look like one of them and they tell Elena that they met with Seferi at the hospital. But, Melissa puts them both in clothing the next day that makes it so either of them still could be the blurred image. Is that intentional, or just random?

I did agree that Elena referring to an old friend goes against it being the doctor, who seemed more just a prop brought in to explain what happened (mostly) to Andrew. I was going to suggest Orlov, but it seemed pretty farfetched. But there does seem unfinished business with Orlov - the part that Andre was promised. Maybe it involved Greece, and Ironic knew Marina had Greek family and got Andre to propose so that he and Marina would go to Greece (and Orlov too). This explains the unwanted marriage, explains better why Andrew learned Greek and gives Orlov a plausible reason for being there (why the hospital I have no idea, he did look kinda old and gross)

 

[LadyBoyJay]

This is perhaps just wishful thinking on my part, but I keep going back to a theory I had a long time ago that Eva (and maybe Sofia too) was originally a man who was feminized to become a bride for Sefanos, and Nikos/Seferi/Joanna are actually running a much larger feminization racket for profit.

100%. A story I liked and is now lost to time was about an organization that feminized and trained/brainwashed men to be sold off for different functions. Given how Eva and Sofia seem to have all these prosthetics ready to go, I always felt there was an undercurrent where such a story could be possible. Sofia in particular, in the back of my mind my head canon was that she was feminized but had a strong will and ended up not just enjoying her feminization but found a sadistic side of herself in wanting to help feminize others. Maybe Eva was her brother that had a weaker will and made for a good "servant". So Nikos "adopted" these two. If Sofia and Eva aren't Nikos and Elena's biological children, there's even the possibility that Guiseppe was "Elena".

Ooh! New theories for me to think about! How about this...

Mr. Orlov is the "finder". He uses his job to scout for men who can easily be conditioned into a new role.

Marina is the "honeypot". She lures the men into a relationship so that she can eventually get them overseas to the feminization team.

Nikos is the "moneyman". He is the connection between the perspective buyers, traffickers, and the feminization team.

Eva and Sofia are the "artists". They evaluate the men and come up with the designs for their final transformations.

Seferi is the "psychologist". He comes up with the mental conditioning methods to get the transformed victims to behave as desired.

Joel was an "observer". His job was supposed to be about monitoring the transformed victims. He apparently wasn't doing a very good job though.

Gjoka and Joanna are the "fixers". They try to take care of any problems.

Toska is a "trafficker". Maybe he handles exporting the transformed victims into other countries for perspective buyers.

Dr. Gianakos is the "sculptor". He receives the final design plans from Eva and Sofia.

So, Mr. Orlov found Andrew as a new target and reported the news to the rest of the team. Marina was brought in to lure Andrew into the trap. Maybe Elena was designed with a specific customer in mind, but Nikos got high on his own supply.


For some reason, Joel is being scapegoated for what Nikos has done. Maybe Joel is blamed for not doing a good enough job of observing the situation between Nikos and Elena. Joel is being made into a replacement to fill the important order that Elena was supposed to be. Andrew/Elena was supposed to have been fully conditioned and exported out of the country, but since Nikos fell in love with her, they need to introduce her to the "business". It's up to Seferi to convince Elena that she isn't a victim and what they are doing isn't as bad as it looks. Maybe Eva and Sofia have a similar backstory of being transformed victims who were convinced to join the team. Marina could be upset for two reasons. One, she feels like she will have to watch her back with Andrew/Elena becoming part of the team. Two, maybe she liked Nikos for herself (assuming that none of these people are family).

I'm just having some fun theorizing. I don't think any of this is true. These were just some ideas that popped into my imagination and I wanted to share them for the entertainment value.

 

[rebirth095]

These were just some ideas that popped into my imagination and I wanted to share them for the entertainment value.

So in part from that old story I mentioned, and also from JesscaTG's themes, I've also brainstormed/thought about what a "feminization organization" might look like.

In Jessca's works, a few of the themes I like are that there's usually a fair degree of customization. Whether you want your doll to still have her boi bits, what kind of chastity they're in. Whether your sissy doll has real breasts, or having more obviously fake but irremovable prosthetics. And of course, the varying degrees of mental conditioning/brainwashing.

In that old story, it kicked off where the original purpose of the organization didn't include feminization. They brainwashed and trained men and women, but there was a higher demand for female slaves than male ones. So the start of the story was the idea of whether they could apply their techniques to feminize men to meet demand.

I've been wanting to rewrite that story into a series, going through the development of that organization. The first subject is to 1) test their techniques. And 2) Create a loyal honeytrap for future victims. Also, the first test subject would be someone already into feminization fiction with some submissive tendencies to be exploited. That way, the conditioning/training is playing into their fetishes and strengthening their want to participate and do this to others.

In the back of my mind, I keep hoping that Sofia is kind of like this archetype. In a different story, I think it could be really thrilling for the "Marina" character to get tempted by all this and be swayed into "joining the family business" so to speak.

 

[Thalantyr]

Ooh! New theories for me to think about! How about this...

In the back of my mind, I keep hoping that Sofia is kind of like this archetype. In a different story, I think it could be really thrilling for the "Marina" character to get tempted by all this and be swayed into "joining the family business" so to speak.

Love all that. I don't think it's what Melissa is going for, but it would make a great story nonetheless. To make it fit AM, I think the biggest hurdle would be explaining why Marina is angry at Andrew. If he's just the mark (or rather, the "product"), then she should be angry at Nikos for screwing up the plan, not Andrew.

So, Mr. Orlov found Andrew as a new target and reported the news to the rest of the team. Marina was brought in to lure Andrew into the trap.

One thing that makes this theory semi-feasible is that Aphrodite comments on how Andrew was "forced" into an unhappy marriage. If Orlov and Marina were con artists working together to make Andrew indebted to and dependent on Marina, that would help explain that.

 

[rebirth095]

Love all that. I don't think it's what Melissa is going for, but it would make a great story nonetheless. To make it fit AM, I think the biggest hurdle would be explaining why Marina is angry at Andrew. If he's just the mark (or rather, the "product"), then she should be angry at Nikos for screwing up the plan, not Andrew.

So theoretically, if I was to do my own take on Aphrodite's Mirror, I would have done a few things differently:

1) Even keeping in the age progression, I wouldn't have Andrew impersonating Nikos' deceased wife Elena. Instead, "Elena" would be some minor celebrity that Toska is enamored with.

2) I'd have played up Andrew's arrogance a lot more. He doesn't have to be abusive, but show that he's being selfish while also giving him a bit of deniability. For example, make it clear that this "job" can be a lot of money, while also showing that internally, Andrew is really doing it for his own ego.

3) I'd introduce Orlov as a coach and "induce" something equivalent to the "method acting" situation in the story itself.

4) I'd make Marina a POV character as well. That way we can see the feminization from two points of view, and also show how Andrew is being feminized beyond what he himself notices sometimes.

5) We can still have this conspiracy mystery going on, but Marina starts picking up on how weird people are behaving, and how some of the story bits don't line up. Meanwhile, Andrew gets more and more stubborn and insists that this is a "role of the lifetime".

6) Ultimately, we culminate with discovering everyone's motivations. Marina discovers the truth while also coming to terms with who Andrew "really" is.

That way, everyone can get increasingly suspicious in a very organic way. Rather than Nikos coming off super strong early on, if "Andrew" starts getting more into character and flirting with older men including Nikos, then it's more ambiguous. Was this done on Nikos' instructions to Orlov? Orlov's working by himself? Or perhaps it really is Andrew getting too deep in his role?

I think playing with that could have been extremely compelling. Plus, who the "real" Elena is can be brought in as a forefront of the mystery.

 

[misseva88]

A Sweet Change part 7 has been uploaded and can be found in the OP and

You must be registered to see the links

. It looks like the story is taking a fantastical turn.

 

[Thalantyr]

FYI, Melissa says there's a new part coming tomorrow:


Looks like she's back in full swing.

Also, this appears to be the same office where Elena met the doctor before, so perhaps he really is the "old friend":

 

[Stevedore100]

FYI, Melissa says there's a new part coming tomorrow:
View attachment 4133943

Looks like she's back in full swing.

Also, this appears to be the same office where Elena met the doctor before, so perhaps he really is the "old friend":
View attachment 4133947

Looks that way. It would seem for Elena the burning question for him is " how did I end up with a vagina" after you specifically told me I didn't?" I highly doubt he was lying originally.

 

[Alicia Mae]

I love to see Elena in red. Very much her color!

 

[Jackjons]

I love to see Elena in red. Very much her color!

I guess, here , colour ALSO represent the mental condition! Red and pink represent different aspects!
And if it is Melissa, she definitely not use dress colours for show! It has hidden meaning also , atleast I think so

 

[misseva88]

The new update is included in the OP and can also be found

You must be registered to see the links

.

 

[rebirth095]

Another part, another cliffhanger

Honestly, this part kind of pisses me off.



We're going to be hand wavy over the fact that the person being OPERATED ON didn't give consent. But having a family member know about it? Oh yeah, that's super important and the good Doctor would NEVER be so unethical as to not do that!

Goodness, that's absurd. Elena can somehow internally justify why the Doctor didn't talk to her about the procedures and thus doesn't bring it up to the Doctor and just glosses over it? Bringing it up isn't even something that would out of line!



This was AFTER the surgery. So unless we're missing a timeskip, which our previous discussions show is impossible and that there's basically no time between Elena leaving the hospital and Elena waking up with memory loss, the Doctor is blatantly lying.

Lying BOTH times in fact. He's lying in the past about what procedure was done on Elena (which should be evidence that he's not just some bystander with loose morals but someone that's in on perpetuating a plot), AND he's lying currently because he's claiming that Elena knew what procedures she'd receive. Which not only does Elena not remember, but even if she did, she can't have consented to both procedures simultaneously!

So of course, I don't trust the Doctor. Add to that the usual "cliffhanger misdirection", I don't see why I'd believe the Doctor to be entirely correct here when he says he spoke with Marina.

Notice, he says he "called" Marina, not spoke to her face to face.



Elena is going to work herself into a frenzy, Marina is going to get more upset that Elena doesn't trust her, and we're going to get a twist that it was someone impersonating Marina's voice.

Otherwise, the alternative is that we're setting up that this was all Marina somehow. And that just doesn't make sense at all. From a foundational level, you can't feminize your husband to be the trophy wife of your uncle, and then get mad if they fuck. Like, imagine if Not So Temporary Roommate, Sara is seething that Destiny is fucking her brother. It just wouldn't make sense. Not to mention all the other facts that don't support a solo or primarily complicit Marina twist.

Really, the biggest unanswered question to me here is:



He's referring to "after the first surgeries". Now assuming everyone (the readers and author) hasn't made a mistake regarding the timeline, "first surgeries" has to mean that the surgeries they did first during the single hospital stay. So I guess they started with the face, chest, or any of the non-genital surgeries. And then did the reassignment surgery last or close to last.

So why did he lie about what surgeries she had done on page 752?

As an aside, this isn't a real "plot hole" necessarily, but I think that hammering home that all of this is irreversible is a little odd when all of these surgeries and the rapid recovery were possible to begin with. I think it would have been better to emphasize that while there are obviously procedures that can make Elena pass as a man, magically looking exactly like Andrew again is off the books. At least for me, that would give the thrill of all this being "permanent" without requiring nearly as much suspension of disbelief.

 

[misseva88]

I initially thought the doctor was lied to about Marinas identity, but she did show up in the hospital during the flashbacks. So there is an escape for Melissa to say Marina was seen by the doctor, but not heard at the same time so he could have been fooled, but that's a bit of a leap for me.
Especially if we consider who could have pretended to be Marina over the phone, it would have to be either of the twins. And they also showed up at the hospital, so the same logic would apply there.

It's a weird thing indeed.

 

[rebirth095]

it would have to be either of the twins.

Or Joanna. Joanna did show up right before the surgery and drug Elena. That's what kicked off the escalation of the surgeries. Elena was drugged, Marina was pulled out by a call from the hotel.

Since the numerous surgeries would have taken place over multiple days... There's something even weirder about what the Doctor is claiming.

Elena was out for all her surgeries, right? So there's physically no way for her to have consented to a change in reassignment surgery. His dialogue is trying to imply that he got permission from Elena, and then informed Marina.

But that's just not possible, unless the Doctor woke up Elena and decided to ask her if she wanted to switch surgeries while she was drugged up and confused. Like, I remember on the old forums how people were ripping into that one SixPackSite story that had the same plot point and just how much that broke people's suspension of disbelief by trying to have the story treat that like an "honest mistake".

So I have to conclude that he's in on this conspiracy and he's lying about a TON of stuff.

If the Doctor isn't lying about thinking that he talked to Marina over the phone, and the twist is that the "Marina" over the phone wasn't the real Marina, then for that to happen you need one of two things. Either the hospital has the wrong contact info for Marina (Joanna switched it perhaps?). That... might actually help explain a few things to be honest. Like why Marina seems out of the loop up until she shows up and Elena's all healed up already. If the hospital thought they were calling Marina, but weren't that would help explain that.

The Second is that her phone was stolen during the call. This would be tough because you'd have to time it and know in advance that the hospital was calling during that window. Seems unlikely...

Actually, one other weird thing I just realized. Why the hell would the contact person for the hospital be Marina, Elena's niece? Not Nikos, Elena's Husband?

That's super weird, right? That makes me feel even more like he's lying. Even if it were about keeping up appearances, Elena and Marina would have had Nikos as a contact person, wouldn't they? Otherwise, if they're actually worried about optics, Toska surely would take issue over a husband not seeing his wife after a horrible car accident? Doesn't exactly project "happily married couple".

 

[MyraTSF]

I'm more surprised Elena could just walk into the doctors office without an apointment

 

[Thalantyr]

This was AFTER the surgery. So unless we're missing a timeskip, which our previous discussions show is impossible and that there's basically no time between Elena leaving the hospital and Elena waking up with memory loss, the Doctor is blatantly lying.

Lying BOTH times in fact. He's lying in the past about what procedure was done on Elena (which should be evidence that he's not just some bystander with loose morals but someone that's in on perpetuating a plot), AND he's lying currently because he's claiming that Elena knew what procedures she'd receive. Which not only does Elena not remember, but even if she did, she can't have consented to both procedures simultaneously!

You are missing a timeskip. The flashback where the doctor explains all the procedures that were performed on Elena occurs 2 weeks after said surgeries. Elena then faints in her hospital bed. Then Seferi and Marina visit her in the hospital 2 weeks after she fainted. Take a look at my timeline if you need an explanation of how I worked that out. I had previously discounted this second 2-week period as being way too short to recover from a vaginoplasty, but in this update the doctor is now talking about a new procedure with a much faster recovery, so that's almost certainly intended to fit inside this window. We don't otherwise know anything that happened during this period before we see Seferi show up.

So of course, I don't trust the Doctor. Add to that the usual "cliffhanger misdirection", I don't see why I'd believe the Doctor to be entirely correct here when he says he spoke with Marina.

Notice, he says he "called" Marina, not spoke to her face to face.



Elena is going to work herself into a frenzy, Marina is going to get more upset that Elena doesn't trust her, and we're going to get a twist that it was someone impersonating Marina's voice.

We already know that Marina knows about the vaginoplasty, so this all seems moot, doesn't it? In case you forget:


Or are you thinking that Marina was not informed until after it was too late?

Otherwise, the alternative is that we're setting up that this was all Marina somehow. And that just doesn't make sense at all. From a foundational level, you can't feminize your husband to be the trophy wife of your uncle, and then get mad if they fuck. Like, imagine if Not So Temporary Roommate, Sara is seething that Destiny is fucking her brother. It just wouldn't make sense. Not to mention all the other facts that don't support a solo or primarily complicit Marina twist.

Yeah this part still makes no sense to me. If Marina is behind this, why is she angry? This line in particular:


It hardly seems like cheating if she orchestrated everything that's happened so far.

Elena was out for all her surgeries, right? So there's physically no way for her to have consented to a change in reassignment surgery. His dialogue is trying to imply that he got permission from Elena, and then informed Marina.

But that's just not possible, unless the Doctor woke up Elena and decided to ask her if she wanted to switch surgeries while she was drugged up and confused. Like, I remember on the old forums how people were ripping into that one SixPackSite story that had the same plot point and just how much that broke people's suspension of disbelief by trying to have the story treat that like an "honest mistake".

I can see two possible explanations:

1. Elena woke up some time after we saw her faint in the flashback where the doctor explained the surgeries and, for some reason, consented to a vaginoplasty. We haven't witnessed anything that happened in the 2 weeks between her fainting and Seferi visiting, so it's possible something like this happened. It also seems unlikely that she remained unconscious for that entire 2 weeks unless the fainting was due to a medical problem.
2. The doctor inferred that he had consent due to the fact that they had already discussed long-term goals and only decided against the vaginoplasty because Elena said she didn't want to be incapacitated for that long. But with this new procedure, recovery time is drastically reduced, so this problem is solved. This of course would never fly in the real world, but it seems at least somewhat plausible in the world of forced feminization fantasy where a doctor already performed a host of radical and unethical surgeries on a woman who consented while obviously dazed and confused.

 

[misseva88]

Or Joanna. Joanna did show up right before the surgery and drug Elena. That's what kicked off the escalation of the surgeries. Elena was drugged, Marina was pulled out by a call from the hotel.

Since the numerous surgeries would have taken place over multiple days... There's something even weirder about what the Doctor is claiming.

Elena was out for all her surgeries, right? So there's physically no way for her to have consented to a change in reassignment surgery. His dialogue is trying to imply that he got permission from Elena, and then informed Marina.

I went with family members as the Doctor says he phoned Marina. He could have flat-out lied about that, but since it should be easily verifyable for Elena, I do think he actually phoned Marinas number. Who picked up the phone is up for debate, but I don't see Joanna having access to her phone at any stage.

Though to rule it out we'd first have to discuss when the doctor exactly made that phone call. This was around the time Marina could have been in Crete, but she also could have been back with her family. Going by the conversation we see in chapter 13 (starting at p. 420) I think it's more likely the doctor's phone call happened after she got back. Who were in Marinas surroundings at the time? The twins. The twins were also the ones to push for the procedure (alongside Marina, p. 452) in the first place.
So I don't think Joanna fits. But who knows, maybe Marina was compromised and Joanna somehow played a role in that.

So I have to conclude that he's in on this conspiracy and he's lying about a TON of stuff.

I think Melissa talks to us via the doctor to get everyone on the same page again. I don't really see a reason for him to lie, but some of the things he says are weird.

Actually, one other weird thing I just realized. Why the hell would the contact person for the hospital be Marina, Elena's niece? Not Nikos, Elena's Husband?

That's super weird, right? That makes me feel even more like he's lying. Even if it were about keeping up appearances, Elena and Marina would have had Nikos as a contact person, wouldn't they? Otherwise, if they're actually worried about optics, Toska surely would take issue over a husband not seeing his wife after a horrible car accident? Doesn't exactly project "happily married couple".

I don't know, not necessarily? If it was Marina who took Elena to the hospital both times I don't think it's unreasonable for her to be a contact for the hospital. When my grandmother wasn't well and my mum drove her and my grandfather to the hospital for her checks my mum was their contact.
In this story the doctor claims he only wanted some extra peace of mind on top of Elena's signature, her real-life test and an official diagnosis (that they apparently never shared with him as it was not true), so that's why he called a member of the family. The mere fact he needed an extra confirmation that the surgery was to be performed is weirder than the idea he called the person who accompanied the patient to the appointment(s).