MAG 99: Dust to Dust

Statement of Robert E. Geiger regarding a dust storm in Boise City, Oklahoma, and the death of Stefan Brotchen.
==Statement==
Robert E. Geiger is a journalist and has been looking into dust bowls in Oklahoma. The dust storms would sweep across the great plains, wiping out farmlands. Stefan Brotchen was one such farmer with intense eyes.
Robert had gone to Boise City to investigate a series of dust storms which had blown as far as Washington. The city had been founded on fraud in the 1800s when con-men sold the deeds to land they did not own, and the conned people stayed and set up shop. One such person was Stefan's father.
Harry Eisenhard, Robert's photographer, had heard of Stefan's situation: his farm decimated by the constant dust storms. The two reporters went to investigate and found Stefan's farm submerged in dust. Although Harry and Robert held handkerchiefs to their face to prevent dust pneumonia, when they met Stefan he did not use one.
Stefan was friendly and explained his situation. When they had gathered all they needed, Robert shook his hand, finding it extremely hot. Stefan keeled over, coughing up clods of pulpy brown sludge onto the floor. Harry hurried Robert out of the building, where they saw a huge dust storm to the west, coming at them at great speed.
Robert returned to Stefan, planning to ask if he has somewhere they could wait out the storm, but he found the farmer on the floor with a thin trickle of dirt flowing from his mouth and nose.
The two reporters carried Stefan out and placed him in their car. They quickly drove back towards town, but the dust storm caught up with them. The engine clogged up and died and the two men resolved to wait out the storm.
Robert believes Stefan died, as he spoke to them through lungs full of dust. He made promises that when the sky fell and became an eternity of mud, he would carve out a part of the Forever Buried for them.
Robert heard Harry fighting something, the sound of flesh hitting soil before the door opened. When the storm settled, Harry was nowhere to be found, although Stefan's body was recovered.
== Final Comments ==
Based on the deceptive origins of Boise City, Gertrude suspected the city to be connected to The Spiral. The location at the centre of Dust Bowl territory, however, led her to believe another power is at work.
She claims that the prophecies from Stefan were from the dust itself and she has been examining fault lines and seismic data.
Gertrude is interrupted by Michael, saying he has found the translation for Mr. Vargas's statement. The Archives is having a climate-controlled storage installed over the weekend and Michael plans to help.
Gertrude believes that North America is going to be the focus for The Buried. She is going to try and tie down the location for some ritual and has a plan forming which involves Jan Kilbride. Although she does almost feel some guilt over Jan's involvement, she notes it will be 10 more years before she can afford to develop a conscience. 
== Post-Statement ==
Jonathan says that Michael must have been one of Gertrude's assistants, but he's now transformed thanks to Gertrude, and Jonathan wonders whose side she was on.
Jonathan notes that people on the path to being an avatar lead people around them to destruction.
Georgie comes in, in response to Jonathan's scream. He says he is leaving and feels terrible about everything that has happened to her and does not want to put her in danger anymore, but she tells him that he is being unreasonable and if he is afraid of losing his humanity what he really needs is people to anchor him. 
Later, Jonathan is assaulted by Breekon & Hope, who say Nikola Orsinov has changed her mind and would like to see him. They kidnap him in their van.
==Continuity==
*Related Entity: Primarily The Buried with The Stranger in the post-statement.
* At the end of MAG 97, a year after this recording, Jackson Ellis sees Gertrude Robinson with Jan Kilbride looking at a pit of The Buried in North America. Gertrude ultimately kills Jan and throws his Vast-touched body into the pit to disrupt The Buried's ritual (MAG 129).
*In his statement in MAG 101, Michael explains how part of him once was Michael Shelley, Gertrude's assistant who she sacrificed to stop the Spiral's ritual by making him merge with The Distortion to create the being he is now.
* While listing people near Gertrude who had ended up dead, John includes Gerard Keay, despite having no way of having known at the time that he had worked with her. When he lets this knowledge slip again while talking to Elias Bouchard in MAG 102, Elias tells him that this is another one of his burgeoning powers as the Archivist.
* Robert mentions that there is no equivalent of The Magnus Institute in America at the time of his statement, but by present-day one exists as The Usher Foundation.
==Trivia==
* Robert E. Geiger was the Associated Press reporter whose account of the "Black Sunday" dust storm on 14th April 1935, which he witnessed along with photographer Harry G. Eisenhard, led (as rewritten by a news editor) to the coining of the term "Dust Bowl".
* "Stefan Brotchen" is basically German for Steve Bread, which is the twitter handle used by a friend of writer Jonny Sims. Steve also submitted several questions that were answered in the Q&A episodes for season 2 and 3.
Category:The Magnus Archives Episodes