Week Eleven Chapters 6-9: Hope, Illumination, and Despair

[Deyavi]

Hello and welcome to a late, great new week of book club, my friends. I got a bit swamped, but I’m back in it to win it! I hope you are too! The theme of this week is “Hope, Illumination, and Despair” which is, as you know, a throwback to one of my absolutely favorite, most thrilling TMP moments. To give a brief reminder, this is where we:

• Send Deirdre off to Israel.

• Meet Teddy Fallon in the emotionally-charged, tense live stream of Aether’s escape from Kemetic Solutions.

• Experience the creepy knocking for the first time.

• Have tea with Augernon and get our first introduction to The Storm.

• Encounter a semi-sentient magiqal scroll and get hints as to the future that awaits us.

• Link up with a whistleblower looking to blow Kemetic Solutions wide open… or so it seems.

Thank you for following along and contributing so many thoughts and ideas! Here are some discussion points from this week’s reading, chapters 6-9.

1. Teddy Fallon is a man of great moral conflict. There are few individuals encountered by the Mountaineers that cause as much divide of opinion. Do you believe that he is, at heart, a good person doing what he believes to be right? Do you believe that what he has done is unforgiveable? Is sacrifice for the sake of knowledge acceptable, as he believes?

2. During Marty’s meeting with Augernon, he learns the name of the great evil that has hunted the Mountaineers and any others who seek the light of magiq in the world. But he also gained a new perspective: Trust the flow of magiq. What do you feel is more powerful a motivator, a driving force for the heroes of the story? Fear, or faith?

3. There were many emotional and intense moments in these chapters. From our introduction to the antagonist, Teddy, to the teatime with Augernon, to Deirdre’s connection with Cole, we run the gamut of the human emotional spectrum. What was the most powerful event for you?

As always, Mountaineers, if you can pick out any themes or Easter Eggs from this week, please feel free to share! Your original thoughts, related ideas, or favorite lines from the book are always welcome in our discussion. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to @ me or another Guild Leader for guidance.

Creative Prompt: Tell a brief story or create a visual representation of something that granted you two of three emotional states: Hope, Illumination, or Despair.

[Sellalellen]

The tea spell. That brings me back. That was my first spell and also when my family first asked me if I’d joined a cult. No joke. I sat out on the front lawn with a small table and a teapot, and passerby thought I was selling lemonade.

[Ashburn]

[spoiler]For the creative prompt I think I’ll just point in the general direction of those cryptic letters that were in that box months ago… [/spoiler]
[spoiler]Which reminds me, did All Ebgorad and Watchers get lost in the mail? I don’t recall them ever popping up on the forum.[/spoiler]

[Augustus_Octavian]

This was precisely when I joined the Mountaineers, so these chapters have an incredible amount of resonance for me personally, as this is when I discovered the world of magiq (that many of you had been living in for months prior!).

I remember a fierce immersed debate on the forums regarding the nature of Teddy Fallon, and whether we should have warned KS about what we new about the storm. Teddy remains one of the characters I have the most emotionally valent reaction to, in a negative way. This is amplified after we learn in later chapters how he used his own son.

I personally don’t think, in the greater context, that what he did was forgivable, regardless of the end he pursued, as no matter how he couches it, in the end he was working towards the end of his masters in the path of Silver which (from what we know) is the pursuit of power.

As for the Oracular Eye, I’m glad we ended up choosing Hope and Illumination. We’re not “despair” kinds of people.

[Ginger]

First off I would just like to say: AUGIE!!!

Oh man so much happened here.
Personally, I would like to believe that having faith is what made the difference. It doesn’t mean we - Mountaineers, Marty, Deeds, any of us - weren’t scared. We all were to some degree, but that our faith and trust in the flow of magiq outweighed our fear is what lead us to succeeding. I like to believe that it separates us. From who? I don’t know. KS? Teddy? The Silver? I’m not sure, but fear as a motivator can lead you down some truly dark paths, and as Augo said I’m proud that we didn’t choose Despair when given the option, despite the information we might have gained.

The most powerful moment for me? Probably teatime with Augernon. (Big shocker I know)
Not only did one of my most favourite favourite characters get introduced and interacted with, (let’s be real they’re all my favourite) but so much happened around that. The first big spell for so many of us, the first time we learned of the storm, and just meeting someone who so selflessly sacrificed the life he could’ve had to keep his family - both blood and Mounty alike - safe, out of harms way, to give everyone a chance to beat this. Learning of Augernon gave me both pride - of being a part of something bigger than any one person, in believing, in being part of my guild, of being a Mountaineer - and immense sadness. It added another personal reason to beat the Storm, because yes terrible things were happening to innocent people, but Augie had been one of us. So I guess that just struck a lot closer to home, made everything that much more real and personal.

[CJB]

That was one of my favorite moments, too, teatime with Augernon. It also revealed a major twist that I hadn’t initially outlined or planned. That The Book of Briars had visited other groups of Mountaineers in the past.

I always knew that time travel would be involved in Phase 4, but didn’t at launch of TMP know you’d be helping the 94’s. But it occurred to me that if the Book had existed in multiple iterations, well… that meant I could destroy yours. I could really make you all feel the weight of the story, and I needed there to be real stakes, not just life and death for the characters, because I couldn’t reasonably kill any of you, so I had to find another way. Itsuki, and The Book of Briars. That for all your planning, and winning, there was someone who had been planning longer, and was willing to do far darker things than you were.

As a matter of fact, I initially toyed with making each Book look different as well as have different “complications.” I just went digging and found this:

I didn’t get far into the redesign before I decided that getting that old familiar green book back at the end of The Day of Change would be more impactful that my weird bit of book cover lore.

And to drive home the tragedy of Augernon and the loop of “trust the flow of magiq” I made you really get to know him in Phase 4.