Chapter 5: Page 10

Land of Confusion: Page 10

NOTES FROM JASON

Welcome to August, and page ten. Wow. Page ten. We’re flying through this chapter, or so it seems to me. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got plenty more to go still. And it seems like we’ll be done before I know it.

Anyway, we seem to be wrapping up business here at Fortescue Manor. Plans are being made, and we get some more interesting reveals. First off, we learn more about that mysterious Derek, the man who pulled the trigger that ended the lives of Penny’s parents. Seems his surname is Carnelius, and his profession is hunting and killing lamsters. With several lamsters running amok now, one of whom is eager to schedule a meeting with him, it seems inevitable that the hunter will resurface at some point down the line.

We also go back to the revelation learned at the end of last chapter, that Virgil placed the jacket in that store for Colton to find way back in Chapter 1. And Colton asks the question that I’m sure many would also ask. Wasn’t there a better, easier way to get him his jacket? Perhaps, but not for Virgil. He’s a man with a plan, a very intricately detailed plan that requires people and events to unfold in a very specific way. That implies a meticulous amount of planning and calculating, plus intimate knowledge of the people involved in his scheme. How else would he know what Colton would do that day in the store? And that that was the start of a chain reaction which would ultimately lead here. Virgil’s been playing the long game, and so far, it’s been panning out well for him. Not so much for everyone else, at least so far.

Also on this page we get a re-introduction to the mysterious key in the jacket’s pocket. We saw Colton discover this key back in Chapter 2, and naturally, his assumption is that it belongs to Virgil. But Virgil has denied any knowledge of the key. So it seems that this mystery will have to return to the backburner for now. But hopefully there’s a payoff for this, and these creators didn’t just throw it in there haphazardly. That’d be pretty stupid. Time will tell, but for now, we can consider this a reminder of the key’s existence, and that our creators and characters both have not forgotten about it.

Before I go, I’d like to mention something that actually involves yesterday’s page. Back in Chapter 4, I said that certain dialogue was removed from that chapter and instead put into this one. The dialogue in question was Colton’s resolve to help Virgil in his mission, and his offer to Avery to go back and stay out of things, an offer that Avery rejected. Originally this happened in the manor, before Virgil showed up, but after the Penny fight. Upon further review, this character moment didn’t really fit in this scene. They needed a little more to push them in that direction, and the corpse pit was just the thing.

We’ll be back next week with a new scene. I won’t say what it is, but it is something that’s been hinted at already in this chapter.