Episode 122 - Creeps

## Creeps

A black background with four white clusters of shards of glass in the corners. In the centre of the image two feminine figures in Lolita style clothing stand side by side. The one on the left is depicted in red and holds a red box that contains the silhouette of a bird. The one on the right is depicted in white and holds a parasol. Below the two figures the words "112.CREEPS" are depicted in white.

### Author

William A. Wellman

Al speaks up, Diggory falls, and Mr. Raven makes a mistake. The theme of tonight's episode is Creeps

> ***Content warnings**:* *Abuse, Animal cruelty (Omen is in a box), Violence, Kidnapping and abduction, Death + Injury, Blood, Birds, Gun Mention, Strangulation/suffocation, Emotional Manipulation, Drowning, Body horror, claustrophobia, face wounds, stabbing through shoulder, industrial ectoplasmic ray gun explosions*
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## Intro - The Nameless Dark

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of someone facing the threat of violence, feeling as if he risk was closer now than it had been before, as though it had followed them from club to alley to lamplit sidewalk in the early morning, matching its walking pace to theirs. It knew what they were, and it did not welcome them. If it killed them, there would be no national fanfare, the posts of their obituary would fill with commentary that they were better off dead. They could hear the laboured breath of the stranger on the sidewalk behind them, when he was interrupted by the beginning of the night of black rains.

Nikignik sharpens their nails on a chalkboard in one of the classrooms of Downing Hill Public Library, looking over a group of people consisting of Henry O'Connor, C. S. Blackletter, Zelda Duckworth, Virgil Kane, Russell McGowan, Harrow Blackletter, Arnold Eggers, and Al Buckley. They had not yet realised that Johannah Wicker was no longer with the group.

## Story 1 - Model Classroom

C. S. Blackletter shows Al Buckley (who is maintaining invisibility to avoid Zelda), Zelda Duckworth, Virgil Kane and Russell McGowan on of the classrooms at Downing Hill Public Library (the same classroom that Al found in Episode 116 - Forecasts), turning to Henry O'Conner and asking him to explain to the group what he taught at the school. O'Connor explains that he mostly taught maths, but for more advanced students he taught economics and history. Zelda tells them that she didn't understand why they were wasting their time giving them the tour, as she was taking Al and going home. Virgil states a similar opinion, that he may not be Russell's father, but he was sure Tara McGowan would rather he continue his education at Scoutpost Two. Blackletter tells him that she had no interest in taking on Russell as a student, explaining that Downing Hill was made to help students with peculiarities that may challenge them in the outside world, that their students would be the ones who would shape the world in the decades to come and keep humanity alive. Zelda tells Blackletter that Downing Hill turned people into monsters and ruined anyone they touched, using Dexter Duckworth as an example.

Blackletter asks Zelda to not make the situation about her personal vendettas, as they were there for Al. That she would mention the 'unfortunate circumstances' for Dexter's disappearance, but it would not be relevant (see Dexter Duckworth). Zelda accuses Blackletter of lying, but Al, feeling as if he may cry, makes himself visible to those in the room, and asks Zelda if they could talk. Zelda takes Al to one of the windows, telling Al that they needed to get out of Downing Hill and go home. Al tells her that he didn't think the Scoutpost was his home, but she explains to him that it was because she was there, and she was supposed to take care of him. She tells him that Downing Hill wasn't safe, calling it a death trap, but Al reminds her that he was already dead, that he had been trying to pretend he wasn't so that he would fit in, but he didn't want too anymore. Blackletter speak sup, telling Zelda that she needed a decision, and Zelda begins to cry. Russell speaks up, asking is anyone had seen Johannah Wicker.

### Interlude 1 - Sorry to Intrude

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that it was a normal reaction to feel uneasy when they were confronted by that which they could not comprehend. Asking if the strangeness of the world frightened them or made them feel uncomfortable. He tells them that they should, he was older than their entire kind of being (see Indescribables), and he was one of those incomprehensible things. He tells them that he was sorry to intrude, was sorry that he had to, but there was a forest (see the Hallowoods), and beyond it, an ocean of ice and shadow (see Episode 120 - Wilds), and things that they really should see.

## Story 2 - Beautiful Things

Following the events of Episode 120 - Wilds, Diggory Graves watches as the ice beneath them shatters all the way to the horizon, and the group ahead of them run away and split up in panic, Riot Maidstone with Olivier Song, and Mort with Cindy Lockheart. Diggory picks up Percy Reed, Percy telling them that they needed to catch up with the group and leaps up onto a rising wall of ice, only to find that from their new vantage point the others had already escaped their line of sight. They call out to them, but Percy tells them to keep moving, looking down to find that the wall was collapsing into tunnels and gorges beneath the ice. When they go to jump to safety, a sheet of ice collides with them from above and causes them to fall down, and all goes dark.

When they become aware again, they find that they had been buried completely beneath the ice. Percy speaks to them, expressing extreme panic of claustrophobia and of being trapped again (see Episode 1 - Keys). Diggory attempts to tell him to remain calm, but Percy asks them how they were going to be alright, pointing out that they were lost, their friends could be dead, blaming this on Diggory for navigating them into it, that they should have stayed at the Scoutpost. Diggory tells him that if they didn't stop the heart there would be no Scoutpost, but Percy says that the two of them would have been fine. Diggory reminds Percy about him saying that he might break his spectral tether (see Ghosts) (see Episode 108 - Apprehensions), if this was something that he might still want to do. Percy tells them that he wasn't going to do that as he couldn't handle being untethered and didn't want to leave Diggory alone, that if he was untethered e might just fade away someday. Percy tells Diggory that they didn't care about how he was feeling because they were on a journey of self-discovery and didn't care about how many people they hurt, before breaking his tether and leaving Diggory alone in the darkness.

### Marketing - Exploraganza

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her 'marketing' segment. She rattles off a list of different names that she'd considered renaming her broadcast, but it was difficult coming up with new branding. When she was the chief marketing officer at the Botulus Corporation, she'd known her audience. Those with a Dreaming Box subscription, sorted for her by denomination and demographic and a few stragglers from the rest of the world. This was what they got for letting Botco buy their government. But she didn't know whoever was listening, as the ones in the Dreaming Boxes couldn't hear her, to them, she might be a little interference, like Nikignik had been to her. The people listening to her now where those who were beyond the Dreaming boxes. She asks who they were, what kind of freak didn’t take the safe way out of the end of the world?

### Story 2, Continued - Beautiful Things

Diggory attempts to get Percy's attention despite him no longer being with the, however instead of Percy, Creep answers them. Diggory introduces themself, and Creep does the same, picking the name Creep for itself in the process (see Episode 109 - Windows). They ask what it wanted to speak to them about, and Creep tells them that it had been curious about them, as they were like it in that they were made of many parts. Diggory rebukes this, pointing out that Creep had killed Rizwana Mirza and the rest of the crew of the Ruth Esther Barnes, as well as Diggory's friends, but Creep points out that it was made of Rizwana and the others, before seemingly out of the blue stating "Mango". It asks Diggory if they too could remember the taste of mango despite having never eating it as it did. Diggory tells it that they only remembered sometimes, asking that if Creep remembered Rizwana so clearly, why was it trying to kill them now as they were there to complete her mission.

Creep asks if Diggory couldn't hear the song of the Heart and what it was telling them, and Diggory tells it that they did not. Creep offers to help Diggory, reaching out to touch them (see Episode 109 - Windows) and then recoiling at contact, screaming about how they burned, that it was the runes under their skin (see Episode 120 - Wilds) and they burned. Diggory tells it that they were made by someone who wanted it staying out of her work (see Irene Mend). Creep tells them that it was going to leave to kill their friends, and when it returned maybe Diggory would be inclined of telling it how to undo the runes.

### Interlude 2 - Fear Issues

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that there was not much that frightened him. He was in all places at once, and he saw all the horrors that the universe had to offer each day. But he did fear a few things. He feared the Outsiders, for they were incomprehensible and vast, beyond his sphere of vision, peering in at him the same way that he peered in at the Dreamers. He feared Noptilnopt, having never heard a whisper from him and they worried he could be around anywhere, watching them. He feared Urnundurn, because in it he saw nothing at all. And he had been told that he feared intimacy and commitment, but he had solved this by being intimate or committed with no one.

## Story 3 - Two Ravens

Following the events of Episode 118 - Nevermores, Mr. Raven and Mr. Writingdesk carry The Omen with them to where they had detected the Blackwood Coven to be. Omen screams ta them to let them out, but Writingdesk tells them to not hurt themselves in the cage, that they'd let them go soon enough assuming that Friday Rescher and Penny Rescher would be open to diplomacy. Mr. Raven considers this, that once they had Penny back (see Episode 103 - Crossroads) there was nothing stopping them from capturing more covenants and taking them back to the Complex, yet there was doubt within him at what the point of continuing to do their job was He vanishes this thought as Writingdesk notices that they were on the border of the boundary surrounding the coven. He announces this, Raven examines the equipment he'd been carrying and tells him that they were within Penny's 'field of probability' so luck was on their side in re-capturing her. Writingdesk calls out, addressing Penny and telling her that it was time to come back, Raven adds to this in calling to Penny's 'captors' that if they didn't return her, they'd kill Omen. Omen calls out that they would die a happy bird (see Episode 92 - Omens), that Penny should keep her freedom. Raven begins to count down from 10, but at 7 the equipment he'd been using to track Penny falls from the clip on is belt.

When he turns to look at it, also distracting Writingdesk, and when he picks it back up and attempts to untangle its wires from the one that powered neutralising-cannon he'd also been carrying, the cannon fires, hitting a large tree and causing it to fall. The resulting rumble disturbs a nearby giant start-nosed mole, which pushes Writingdesk to the ground and causing him to drop Omen. Raven yells at the mole to gets its attention off Writingdesk, aiming his cannon at it, but the Mole bites down on it, causing it to explode. Raven gets horribly injured through this, his cloths ruined and shrapnel through his hands, but he was blocked from the bulk of the blast by Mr. Writingdesk who is also horribly injured with a spike of metal run through his shoulder. The mole leaves, and Raven asks Writingdesk what had happened, as they were supposed to be lucky. Penny and Friday make their presence known, Friday - having picked up the cage containing Omen- tells them that they were lucky as they were still alive before she releases them [Omen].

## Outro - Creeps

Nikignik waxes poetics about creeps, telling the Dreamers that when they walked through the forest in the silent afternoon, and they knew within their animal heart that there were eyes watching them from afar, it was just him. He tells them to not be afraid, as it was more considerate than the alternative, for if they knew what watched, they would beg to back to ignorance. It was better for a rush in the wind, an uncomfortable silence to mask their footsteps. To walk unseen and follow their trail without notice. When the feeling passed, he would still be watching, but he did not watch because he meant them harm, he watched because he was curious where they thought their steps would take them, and to the distances that they would go.