Episode 137 - Snares

## Snares

A black background with a white border resembling string tiend in knots at the corners. Within the border a snare trap is depicted in white. Within the loop a butterfly is depicted in red and the bottom left of the snare cable is covered in an unknown red substance. Below this image but still within the border the words "127.SNARES"

### Guest

 Emily Kellogg as Emma the Ghost

Yaretzi catches her prey, Diggory's journey ends, and Oswald builds a box. The theme of tonight's episode is Snares.

> ***Content warning**: Ableism, Suicide attempt mention, Violence, Death + Injury, Blood, Needles, Static (including sfx), Emotional Manipulation, Drowning, Bugs, Body horror, Life Support, Brain Death/Coma, Character Death*
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## Intro - Contained

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of someone trapped in a box, which he relates and gives them that advice that although he felt their worry that they might be there forever, unseen and forgotten, that had not been. He had not forgotten them, and the Dreamers had not forgotten them. It may take them a while to escape, but he hoped they would remember once they were freed they would remember him.

Nikignik resides above the frozen ocean of the North overlooking Yaretzi as she ran to reunite with Mort (see Episode 133 - Liberties).

## Story 1 - And Still The Flames

Yaretzi, having manged to track down Mort, narrowly avoids tackle hugging him. She tells him that she was happy she'd found him, had been beginning to worry that she never would. Mort tells her that he was happy to see her too, asking if Polly had also come, and she explains to him that he ad, but was back a little while (see Episode 133 - Liberties) and asks what had happened to Mort's companions. Mort tells her that they'd gotten lost, and some had died (see Episode 136 - Faults), but he was dead too, so it wasn't that different. She tells him that she knew this that death was not the end of his friends, just a change in purpose. He thanks her, and she goes to leave, telling him that they were going home now.

He tells her that he couldn't, thanking her for coming to find him and telling her that he loved her and Polly, but he had a job to do that he was going to finish. She offers to help him, so they could go home quicker, but he explains to her that this wasn't an option. She assumes that this was because Mort was being proud, but he tells her it was because he could swim really good and didn't want them there when the bomb he was carrying went off. That this was what he wanted to do, and he'd be back soon. She resists this, but untimely relents, telling him she was going to find Polly and if Mort took too long, she would hunt him down again, that her and Polly would be waiting at the Crossroads for him. He tells her that he loved her, a sentiment that she returns before running away again.

### Interlude 1 - Second Thoughts

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that if they called the Hallowoods home, then two thoughts have already occurred to them. The first was likely that if you went north, they could avoid the danger of other survivors that came from population centres, live their life in the wilderness and forget that there was no world to return to. The second was that they had gone north enough, and so chose to call the Hallowoods home. He tells them that if they were lost, they should think of home and if they were lucky, they may retrace their steps. But to be careful as there were many things that would kill them.

## Story 2 - The Forever North

The Crew of the Ruth Esther Barnes all express their opinion on the unfolding events from within Diggory Graves. August Palls understanding that the end was near. Chancellor 'Chance' Ward that they were experiencing a nightmare, with which he was familiar with. Ruth Esther Barnes understanding that since there was ice in the artic the planet was healing quicker from climate change then had been predicted. Evelyn Fry hoping that Riot Maidstone was still alive to appreciate the world after they were done (see Episode 132 - Crossings).

Rizwana Mirza thinking that they had failed once and if they were to fail again, they would not get a second chance. Irene Mend (see Epsiode 120 - Wilds) knew that she had made a good body. Diggory was all of them and none of them simultaneously, reflecting on their life thus far as they arrive above the heart, joining Mort who had made it ahead of them.

### Marketing - Emma the Ghost

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her 'marketing' segment. She tells the Dreamers that she was in a Toronto apartment, commenting about how it was filled with all the meaningless junk of the person who'd lived there's life. A ghost named Emma makes her presence known, telling Ethel to leave. Ethel asks her what it was like being dead, and Emma explains to her how she'd died, and that she didn't worry anymore, she just existed and watched the seasons pass. Emma asks Ethel what it was like to live, and Ethel tells her that it was like waiting to die. Emma tells her that she missed choice, that while Ethel was alive she still got to start new things. She once again tells her to get out of her apartment before leaving.

### Story 2, Continued - The Forever North

Diggory and Mort greet each other, Mort asking if Diggory was okay, and they tell him that they were as well as they could. Mort tells them that he'd hoped more people would have made it, informing them of Cindy Lockheart's death and self-sacrifice (see Episode 136 - Faults). Diggory collapses, openly weeping before, Mort asking if Percy Reed was with them (see Episode 122 - Creeps).

Diggory tells him that the two of them was all there was, the ones who had first begun things (see the Crew of the Ruth Esther Barnes). Mort asks if Diggory thought it would be worth it, they tell him probably not, the people they were saving would never know them or what they'd given up. Nikignik tells the Dreamers that they would, they would be known, whoever in the universe dreamt of them would remember and what they had done.

### Interlude 2 - Doomed in the Watching

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that not all who heard his voice were the same. For example, there were few in America who were not in Dreaming Boxes and thus able to hear him. There were some who he did not allow to hear him, people react differently when watched, and it was not a story about Nikignik, he was there to observe and nothing more. And yet he had interfered (see Episode 103 - Crossroads), so for better or worse what happened was his decision too.

## Story 3 - Operation Ghostbox

Oswald Biggs Botulus sat in his conference room in the Prime Dream, having a meeting with Melanie Flores. She tells him of her conversations with Dashiell Spade on the matter of the Stonemaids (see Episode 136 - Faults), but he scolds her for still being preoccupied with the Stonemaids when as a company they were moving forward into a new ear. He asks her what she needed to get things over and done with, assuming she planned on killing them. This surprises her, but he ends the meeting before she can give a response.

Oswald leaves the Prime Dream and goes from his physical office to the laboratory floor where the Cabinet he'd bought in Episode 92 - Omens. The laboratory also contains Harold Botulus (see Episode 87 - Boxes) and a robotical replica of him (see Episode 93 - Mirrors). Anderson Faust makes his presence known and asks Oswald why he hadn't simply allowed him to clone Harold, but Oswald tells him that had that been that case it wouldn't have been his son. Oswald announces to the room that "operation Ghostbox" was a go, that if they could pull it off the human race would live (see Episode 94 - Milestones).

## Outro - Snares

Nikignik waxes poetics about snares. What is existence if not a trap. Telling the Dreamers of how they would find themselves suddenly alive, with no escaping it, only able to wait it out. It was heavy, and painful at times, to wait, to continue to breathe, to survive. But what else could they do? One day, the vessels would break, and they would run free, leaving only a little blood upon the teeth of the metal clamp, a loose spool of wire that once held their necks, and they would be only a dream of the hunter.

### Until Next Time, Dreamers

*Until next time, dreamers, if you wake up and find yourself chained to a bathtub, please don’t saw your own leg off in order to escape. That kind of solution only works twice.*