Episode 64 - Stations

## Stations

A black background with a white border of radio waves. Within the border is a white radio tower with red lights running along the upper half. The tower emits a red radio signal. Beneath the image, still within the border are the words "64.STATIONS" written in white.

### Guests

Andrea Hilborn as Valerie Maidstone
Libby Wellman as Clementine Maidstone

Al makes a new friend, Diggory goes on the air, and Yaretzi stands her ground. The theme of tonight’s episode is Stations.

***Content Warnings:** Animal death (Bert as usual), Violence, Death + Injury, Blood, Birds, Emotional Manipulation, Body horror, Smoking*

## Intro - Mr. Riddle

Nikignik narrates Mr. Riddle to the Dreamers as he wakes up. Long had he dreamt, images of a world on fire and silver boxes in a row (see The night of Black Rains). He climbs from his bed, a single thought running through his mind, that he was late for work. The trails are familiar to him, and he finds the door in the hill side as if it were his home. "Hello" he says at the door, and a voice responds (see Mr. Raven and Mr. Writingdesk) asking who he was, and he tells them. 'You don't work here anymore' they tell him, and he hadn't for 20 years, and that it could not be him. He wants to tell them that this was impossible, that he'd only slept for a moment, but a different voice speaks out, telling him that today was his day off, and why didn't he have a nice long sleep. He realises that he is tired, so he returns to his bed, and sinks beneath the silt, returning to dream.

Nikignik in the corner of a garden at the Scoutpost, home to a bench and a trellis, the bushes that hem it helping to conceal it from the outside world. It was known by its transitory residents as 'the Quiet Thinking Corner', and today a small toy drum (see Al) sits on the bench.

## Story 1 - Quiet Thinking Corner

Al sits in the 'quiet corner' at the Scoutpost with mild complaining despite there being no one around to hear, though he is quickly joined by Russel McGowan, who enters the quiet corner being lead and scolded by Miss Blum, pressing a bloodies rag to his face. She tells him to "Think about how [he] could have resolved that situation differently" and sits him next to Al's drum before leaving. Russel looks around in confusion, understanding that someone else was there but unable to see Al (see Ghosts), and Al takes the opportunity to scare him. Russel falls back, before calling Al "cool" and asking how he was able to fly. Al tells him that he just kinda, did, telling him that he couldn't feel the ground, and Russel picks up a stick and waves it around through Al, asking if he was able to feel that. This offends Al, so he disappears again. Russel asks him what he'd done to end up in the quiet corner, and Al tells him that he'd picked a fight with Cole Kane. Russel agrees that Cole was a jerk, and they go quiet again before Al asks if Russel liked Baseball. Russel tells him that he did, asking if Al played, but Al tells him that he hadn't quite figured out how to hold a bat yet. Russel tells him that he'd be a great hitter as no one would be able to catch him, but Al tells him that he was also unable to touch the base. Russel tells him that at least he had hide-and-seek covered. Russel asks Al if he wanted to leave, telling him that they could go at any time, and he had something he wanted to show Al. After hesitating Al agrees, telling Russel that he'd need him to carry his drum.

The two boys leave the quiet corner, Russel taking him to a form of communications room full of radios high up in the Scoutpost, calling it "the radio room". Russel reaps over and begins to adjust the switches, filling the room with static. Al asks if they were allowed to be there, and Russel simply tells him they weren't so he should keep an eye on the door, which Al does until Russel finds the frequency he was looking for. Al hovers back to the radio, listening in to hear a voice to quiet that he can barely hear it, saying "No, you can't do that, it's not fair. Russel asks Al if he knew who it was and Al tells him that he had no idea, so Russel's dismay. Russel tells him that people called the voice "The Crackler", but he'd though that it might be a ghost like Al. Al tells him that it may be a ghost, and Russel asks him if he could go into the radio. Al tells him he'd never tried, and phases his hand through the radio, causing the dials to ebb and flash and the lights to flicker brighter. Al whispers "Hello", and the Crackler responds asking who was there, saying "X-ray Charlie Charlie Foxtrot", telling Al that "I see you", and Russel switches off the radio. Al exclaims that that had given him the creeps, but Russel says it was cool, asking Al if they wanted to be friends. Al tells him that he'd like that plenty.

### Interlude 1 - Warm Light in the Wasteland

Nikignik asks the Dreamers what they were doing when the world had come falling down around them, asking it if mattered to them as much as it did before. He tells them that the world as they knew it had not disappeared overnight, but nerveless many were standard in its transformation, those who moved into their local Dreaming Boxes were gone form the world, cities stripped away one soul at a time. Some still continued to make their ways. In Southern Ohio, Monty Lee bakes for the sparse travellers who pass on the highway, a single warm light in a grey wasteland. In the Gulf of Mexico, locals say that they sometimes see light on the horizon from the derelict oil rigs, stations half-submerged by a rising ocean. They say the spirits of the old divers still haunt those rusting towers, never told that their work was done. In Syracuse, New York, America’s largest shopping complex houses a new host of buyers and sellers, and they deal in far more than cheesecake and high-end apparel. What coin they can make there, they can also spend, and postpone the memory of the world outside a little longer. Some small towns in Nevada, they say, never heard that the world ended at all, and remain lost to time in the sea of sand, going about their lives cheerfully in a landscape where the rain does not fall. In forgotten basements of municipal buildings, scurrilous employees still continue their decades-long projects, and have time enough at last to get things done. Then again, that is exactly what Nikignik themself was going, he tells the Dreamers doing, though he recorded in nightmare instead of magnetic tape.

## Story 2 - The Real Diggory Graves

Diggory Graves drives the RV into the night, the member of the RV Gang capable of sleep doing so (see Episode 63 - Signals). Percy Reed stays up with them, talking to them about their parts (see Diggory Graves and the Crew of the Ruth Esther Barnes), and Diggory tells him that they had talked to their parts when Walter 'Walt' Pensive had been putting them back together (see Episode 26 - Needels), and since they had not been as loud in their thoughts. Percy tells them that his head was too filled with thoughts of his own, so Diggory asks him if there was anything he wanted to talk about, but Percy tells them that it wasn't anything he hadn't already said. Diggory tells him that they'd still like to hear what he had so say, so Percy vents to them about how he felt excluded from the others on account of him not being able to take up any physical space or hold a presence, that he wished he was alive, able to experience friendship before death. He tells Diggory that he needed some space before fading away (see Ghosts) and leading them alone.

Diggory goes back to sitting in silence, when they begin hearing static in their ears that they find themselves unable to turn off. A voice speaks through the static, the voice of The Phantom Station, saying that they had time for one more caller that night, and asking Diggory for their name, telling them that they were on air. Diggory attempts to turn the radio off again, and the Station once again asks them for their name. Diggory asks if it was speaking to them, and it tells them that it was, telling them to introduce themself to the audience, which they do, also asking who the Station was. The station tells Diggory that the show was "The Late-Late show courtesy of the Phantom Station" and asks Diggory what it was they wanted. Diggory looks around to find their surroundings darker than they'd expect and tell the station that they wanted to make Percy happy, they tell it they wanted to help rescue Riot's mother, but they also wanted to go north (see Episode 49 - Rescues and Diggory Graves). The Station tells them that those were not things that Diggory wanted for themself. Diggory tells it of how they used to be lonely, but that had lessened when they met Percy (see Episode 1 - Keys). The station asks if it had lessened or changed, and they tell it that they supposed that it had changed, but they'd hoped that when the time came that people cared about them, that they'd know who they [Diggory] were. They tell the Station that they wanted to accept themself, to know if they were broken, of if everyone spent their life the same as they did, and simply did not complain. The Station tells them that it was possible to have the acceptance that they were looking for, that all Diggory had to do was join its program.

### Marketing - A Little Band Called Stonemaiden

Valerie Maidstone interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with a scripted announcement from Botco, telling the listeners that when she was younger, she had been in a band called Stonemaided, and at the time she had said somethings that had been irresponsible. Other Riot (will be referred to as 'Riot' for simplicity) speaks up, and asks Valerie what things she was talking about, but Valerie tells her that it was nothing she should be repeating, but she had come to realise how important family was to her, and had she known how secure the Prime Dream was, she would have never been concerned. She says that she condemned the actions of the Stonemaids, and recommends that the listeners partake in Botco's "Check Me Out" program, and she couldn't wait for them to move forward together. 'Riot' goes off script and announces that families were supposed to be honest with each other and tell each other the truth, that if anyone was out there listening, it wasn't over. That there were so many lies, and she didn't know where to start. But they were going to figure it out. She tells the listeners that they could trust her, and she thought that they could trust Lady Ethel Mallory.

### Story 2, Continued - The Real Diggory Graves

Diggory asks the Station what it meant by join its program, becoming aware of the blinking lights of a radio station in their rear-view mirror, yet they were unable to see Ray out in front of them of hear the others in the back sleeping. The Station tells Diggory that all they had to do was say yes, that its audience could put Diggory to peace with their complexities, that they [Diggory] could do so much good. Diggory tells it that their friends needed them, but the Station tells them that if they were really their friends then they would want to see them happy. Diggory tells it that they were sure they wanted them to be happy, but they [Diggory] wanted to help them too. The Station tells Diggory that they said that they wanted to feel like a person, like themself, then the first step to doing that was pursuing the things that they wanted to do. It tells Diggory that it was offering them a once in a lifetime opportunity, that it didn't extend invitations often, but Diggory was special and deserved recognition. Diggory starts to call of for their friends, being met with no response. The Station tells them that it understood that decisions like the one it was asking them to make were difficult, but it was better to make one uncomfortable leap than to spend a lifetime in misery.

Diggory tells the Station that they had known misery, and it did not love in them now, that they had chosen their friends, they [Diggory's friends] made them [Diggory] happy, and no one had given them that, they had found them all on their own. They did not yet know how all their pieces fit together, but it was their life, and they were the real Diggory Graves. They tell the Station that they would not be joining its program, although they thanked it got its offer. They hear a sound like a screeching microphone, and slam their foot down on the breaks, almost running into a highway divider. the Members of The RV Gang all jolt awake at the sudden stop, asking what had happened, but Diggory is distracted by the very visible form of The Phantom Station in the rear-view mirror (see The Phantom Station). Riot Maidstone tells Diggory that she was going to drive, and they tank her, shifting over to the passenger seat before telling her that they were glad to be there. She tells them that this was good to know. Percy tells them that he'd thought they were done seeing other people's memories, and Diggory tells him that they thought that they all belonged to them.

### Interlude 2 - Out Of Time

Nikignik tells the Dreamers to not be deceived by their telescopes, because when they looked up into the heavens, they did not look upon emptiness, they just saw very little. It was empty if one could not see the life that blankets countless worlds under strange stars, the places folded away from linear space, and the cities upon asteroids and scattered islands that linger in the void. There was also the weight of time, which must seem quite impassable to them, contained as they are within the gravity of a single world. Yet even one of their timepieces, runs slower in orbit than on the surface of the earth. Imagine how it is for him, then, in all places in this universe at once. There were many grander places, and still his attention lingered with them, and hi perception of time with it. Were he to travel too far and for too long, he might become lost, and return to find their people gone entirely. He watched the Dreamer carefully, because he thought their last moments were important, for all they were worth, and they would not go unseen as a flicker in time but broadcast across this universe in the thoughts of all who dream. Somewhere, a being that is soon to invent fire and carry their kind into their stone age closes their eyes and dreams of distant pines and desolate highways in an unknowable, impossible world.

## Story 3 - Old Destiny

Yaretzi arrives at Destiny Mall, New York, with Mort and Polly. The group quickly decides that looking as they did, they would be chased out, Yaretzi protesting to this, saying that they did not hide themselves for the comfort of others, but Polly is able to quickly convince her otherwise, stating that it would be safer for them. Polly manages to allow Mort to follow them by reading a spell form his manual that allows Mort to see through Bert's eyes. The group steps inside the mall, the interior of which amazed Yaretzi, and Polly asks her what it was she wanted to see first, she tells him that she didn't know where to begin, finding her way to some railing to look down at the floors beneath and above. Polly asks her if she'd spent alot of time around humans, to which she bluntly reminds him that she is human, but it seemed that she'd missed alot while she'd slept (see Yaretzi). Polly reassures her that it'd been less then she thought, a few wars, a few buildings, but people hadn't changed. Yaretzi asks if Polly was there when her home was destroyed, and he tells her he wasn't, but he was sorry for it having happened. Yaretzi confides in Polly that she'd been young when she'd made her covenant, having done it to keep her life but in the process losing all that made it preciouses. Polly asks her if she liked any of the other Starwolves, and she tells her that she did, but they tended not to stay around long, either leaving or dying.

Polly changes the subject and asks Yaretzi if she'd ever been to a movie, which she tells him that she had not, and he points out a sign for a cinema, telling her to follow him as he believed going to the movies to be one of the grander human experiences, and she does. Polly picks out a movie, described as a monster movie that is in black and white and depicts a werewolf, which Yaretzi takes offence to, asking if this depiction was what humans thought she was, but Polly reassures her that the depiction was all humans knew by that point, so she shouldn't take it personally and that she should see what they had done to Demons. They continue to watch when Yaretzi catches the scent of fresh blood and immediately alerts Polly to something being wrong, only a second later The Count drawing attention to himself, commenting that just when he'd thought he'd saw everything, there was a Demon and a Starwolf 'running in the same circle', assuming correctly that they were runaways. Polly attempts to deescalate the situation, and The Count introduces himself telling them that they were in his Kingdome and thus their business was his business. In a strange twist on Polly and Yaretzi's usual dynamic, Polly prepares for a fight, and Yaretzi plays the diplomat, telling The Count that they would leave rather than fight him, but she also tells him that she understood that Vampires dealt in secrets, asking him where they could find a carnival at (see Episode 51 - Maps).

## Outro - Stations

Nikignik waxes poetics about stations, telling the Dreamers that it was a false hope to ask for safety, rarely would there be days where every need was met, that one could strive a toil and move on but there would always be a little more road ahead of them. If they were to have peace in their brief lifetime, it would not be found in any great expanse, no field of tranquillity where woes can trouble them no more. Peace was in quiet moments between days of travel, and if they look for them along their journey, they may capture them more often. One could not rush forward in a martyr’s blaze, burning their flesh for salvation, for it would not come, and they will only be rendered more swiftly to ash and dust. He tells the Dreamers to enjoy what steps they have to take. They will not always lead through pleasant places, but their journey would never be solely comprised of misery. He tells them that he thought it is still worth the length of existence for three or four happy days in the middle. Certainly, they and he have nothing better to do with their time except to live.