Spread some of the themes from "Mentoring" here.
References:
Midsommar (2019), Lord of the Flies, Holy Hell and Wild Wild Country (both documentaries), The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious (Jung)
Plays: I am having trouble choosing. This scene is so important. The mood, the finality, the danger. Clarissa "succeeds" only to find out that the cult is real and the initiation is no sham ceremony. Doctor Faustus by Marlowe, MacBeth, and The Bacchae by Euripides all deal with this crossing of a threshold. Clarissa sacrifices herself for the Census Office, partaking of this raw element, which is forbidden, in order to infiltrate the cult. In the next scene, the Census Office throws away this principle and starts along the same path as the cult.
For draft 2: consider the exchange of information when two minds touch, like when Pippin held the Palantir and saw the mind of the Sauron. Clarissa senses an alien landscape of swirling currents and bottomless pure Water and is instantly swept away. She also senses some vague hate or pain, but it is directionless and impossible to pin down.
Have Clarissa feel fear when she looks into the Pool based on her experience: contact with raw elements was very dangerous and usually harmful. She is about to have her head dunked it what appeared to be pure Water element. It is a point of no return. She has to decide to sacrifice her physical health for the Census Office or back out.
Oh my God- model the leader off Stonewall Jackson. Old Blue Light. The lemons. Study Jackson's mannerisms and habits and modify them to fit the Leader. Also Saruman. The Leader's voice is how he connects with others. Ha, he could have been a great politcal leader or singer, but that path did not open before him.
I just realized that this initation is like The Matrix. Not everyone is ready to be unplugged. Tanya and the other sponsors are publically commeneded for their ability to recruit those who make it this far. What is really happened during it? I think the Pool is assessing the individual's element makeup and beginning the process of making them more hospitable to itself, i.e. adding Water. In the process of this "elemental" assessment, the person's psyche is laid bare before them. This influx of pure Water allows them to connect with themselves in a very stark and unnatural way which breaks some minds and leaves none unchanged. It is unclear whether the Pool knows about this side effect.
The Pool rearranges element makeups like the Discordant music tries to, but is much more aggressive. It is the same feeling.
How far is she allowed to go with the cult? This friction with her mission and her public responsibility is interesting. It will also not matter in the end. Perhaps she fears reprisal from the Census Office when she gets out, but decides to submit to her fate. She discovers that her transgressions are nothing next to what is really going on: a 180 degree turn from
Dark version of Logan's eventual initiation. She feels violated, but does not speak with the Water Elemental. It does not speak to new initiates. It assesses their malleability and element makeup. Clarissa is deemed useful, but requires more "sessions" to be made pure (into pure Water, or close to it). The Pool tricks the cultists into thinking there is actually an end point where they are enlightened, when in fact it is just brainwashing them with pure Water element- creating its own Infusion and addiction to the Water element.
During this initiation, the elemental learns of Clarissa's missions and allows her to continue. It sees her as an easy means to get Davoust to her. Remember to have Clarissa notice that she can breathe even though she is underwater. Can she? I don't know about this.
Make sure Tanya is honored and proud of Clarissa. As someone who sponsored another who became a full member, she has gained prestige within the cult and greater respect and station.
Giving in or not is a major choice here that helps determine Clarissa's fate. Can this first time be overturned? If so, how? And why does it matter if she gives in? There is the physical reason of a mental backdoor that the Pool inserts, but there is a moral reason as well. Think about Donnie Brasco. You can't go all the way with the mob. You can do a lot, but you cannot start committing crimes like it's nothing. Make sure during "Mentoring" there is dialogue about letting the Pool in.
I need to have at least one dog here who sleeps by the Pool (or drinking from it when they come in). The Pool also has control of rats. Anything that tried to drink from the water was ensnared. Think about lab rats and their addictions- the animals are addicted to the Pool and have element imbalance just like the humans. The Pool is brutal. I think I could show that well by having dead rats around every once in awhile. Maybe that is a job for new cultists, to clean that shit up. The Pool just kills them for sport when it has enough spies. It might even get some of its brutality from the animals.