Okay! I apologize for leaving you hanging this week, Mounties. But @Catherine came through and put together this amazing post for you all, which I have the honor of bringing you tonight.
The theme this week is, “A Storm is Brewing.”
A chapter recap: Deirdre lifts her father’s protective spell and makes contact with the Mountaineers for the first time. She follows the clues in his journal that have now revealed themselves around the world, following the path of wool. Marty visits Kemetic Solutions and takes photos, setting off a chain of clues that end in a bizarre promotional video, and the introduction of Constance. After ensuring the Mounties have properly set up the Joradian safeguard, Constance relays all she knows about the disappearance of her friend Aether, who she believes was kidnapped for his powers. Aether makes contact with the Mounties through an unsettling broadcast, where he communicates that he and two other prisoners, one a Mountaineer, are being held captive in KS but have plans to escape. He warns of an impending storm that has treacherous consequences.
Questions!
1. This is the first time Deirdre is able to see everything the Mountaineers have been doing, and it (understandably) freaks her out. She even goes so far as to say that she doesn’t like to go on the Forum because it’s too weird to have people talking about her like she’s a character. Yet instead of deciding to remain uninvolved and hiding out in the brownstone forever which she easily could have done, she chooses to follow the path laid out by her father’s journals around the world. What do you think was the strongest motivating factor for her in overcoming the shock of it all and deciding to dive into the madness of The Monarch Papers headfirst? Do you think she ever really had a choice at all?
2. In one of my favorite lines of the book, Marty describes the Kemetic Solutions propaganda video as “if Bill Gates and Steve Jobs invited L. Ron Hubbard to a mescaline party and woke to find “Kemetic Solutions scrawled on a roll of toilet paper in the guest bathroom.” What exactly about the video do you think was so unsettling? What is it that made their use of the words “safe and free” in particular feel like such a red flag for Marty and everyone else?
3. Marty has a particularly emotional reaction to the information revealed by Constance’s messages to the Mountaineers and Aether’s unnerving broadcast. What kind of parallels can you draw between Aether and Brandon Lachmann? And how do you think Marty’s past experience will affect how he works with the Mountaineers moving forward, now that the pieces are starting to fall into place?
Creative prompt:
Chapter 3 opens with the poem Deirdre writes to lift the protective spell her father had placed on her to shield her from magic. If you had been in her position, which medium would you choose to cast the figuration and tell the story of a new life you seek for yourself? With that medium in mind, choose a personal goal or an element of change in your life that you aspire to, and create a figuration to set good intentions toward achieving it.
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.
