Episode 40 - Graves

## Graves

A black background with a white border resembling four signs. In the top left corner of these signs the words "Thank you for protecting our home", "Thanks for saving me", "I should have gone with you", and "I'll miss ya bud" are written in white. Within the border a chair is depicted in white with a white cap hanging from the back and framed photo sitting on the Squab along with flowers, and a sword depicted in red. Below these images but still within the border the words "40.GRAVES" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Leyland Blooms calls a family meeting, Riot says goodbye, and Abigail puts on a record. The theme of tonight’s episode is Graves.

***Content Warnings:** Funerals, eulogies, grief, abuse, suicide, violence, abduction, death + injury, mental illness, transphobia, homophobia, gunshots (including sfx), mis-gendering, static (including SFX), emotional manipulation, bees (NOT THE BEES), and body horror.*

## Intro - Grey Stone

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers, telling them that they open their eyes to darkness, and it was a comfort. That they were buried and felt no pressure from it. They would go back to sleep, but they were curious, so they reach up into the soil above them, a dig their way into the free air and pull themself out of the earth. They find no one around, only a tomb stone and empty fields. They decide that going for a little walk before going back to sleep, and they turn to read the stone, finding that the engraved writing had been desecrated, and over it "Hello form the Hallowoods" had been spray-painted.

Nikignik is standing in a field of sunflowers outside of Solomon Reed's house, in a ring that the Mendies have formed also standing in the field.

## Story One - Bound to the Bell

Leyland Blooms stands with their siblings (save Diggory Graves) in an incomplete circle amidst a field of sunflowers. Cookery Potts compliments Leyland on their job in cleaning the Driveway, that one would scarcely thing that someone had died on it the day before (see Episode 36 - Swords), which Leyland accepts, but states it would have been better had Walter Pensive not been killed at all. Floris Scrubbs asks if Leyland was questioning Solomon, but Leyland reminds them that Solomon was not the one who'd made them, only stole them from Irene Mend. Huntinton Waits points out that there were not bound to Irene, they were bound to the Bell, and that they didn't know what would happen if they disobeyed Solomon. Leyland questions the group of how much more they'd allow Solomon to get away with, that Solomon had ruined so many lives. Diggory would come back, and Solomon would kill them [Diggory]. Huntington identifies that Diggory might end up being also controlled by the Bell, and then they'd [the Mendies] be complete again. Leyland tells Huntington that Diggory wouldn't want to work for Solomon, if Diggory was able to be free, why couldn't they [The Mendies].

Solomon shouts out, and the group immediately disperse, With Leyland approaching the porch of Solomon's house and responds to the call. Solomon states that he heard talking and asks what they were discussing, to which Leyland lies and answer's 'security', and Solomon says that was good, and that if anyone else came onto his property without his invite to dispatch of them, or he might take them [The Mendies] apart (talking about dismembering), before turning and going back inside. Leyland resolves that they other Mendies would take time to be convinced, but they [the Mendies] would not call Solomon 'master' for much longer.

### Interlude - What To Do With Bodies

Nikignik asks the Dreamers what people were meant to do with bodies once the person who once resided in them was gone. For those living in the Hallowoods, the question of what to do with a body was a slightly different matter. That some may choose to let go of their mortal coil and walk into the black water to become a sleeper, or the water may seep into a corpse and bring the person back as a revenant, that may cause general havoc amongst the still living population. Once when this happened, it was advised that you call Walter Pensive, but now residence of the Hallowoods had to deal with such occasions by themselves.

## Story Two - Sleep Well, Walt

Riot Maidstone wakes up in her campervan, and stares at the celling and wishes to kill Solomon Reed. Bern Keene knocks on the door and tells Riot that it's time to get up, offering her coffee, saying that they needed to talk. Riot follows Bern to her beehives, and Bern tells her she could stay there for a while if she wanted, and that the bees wouldn't bother her if she didn't bother them. Riot watches as Bern smokes out the bees and checks the honey, before she sits down next to Riot. Riot asks her what she wanted to talk about, and Bern tells her that Walt's funeral service would be later that day, and that there were going to be alot of people, many of which would be either old customers or friends of Walt's. She asks Riot if Walt has said anything to her before he left, and Riot tells her he'd made her his assistant and given her the keys to his hearse. Bern tells her that they were hers to keep, as Walt had never mentioned any relatives and she was sure he'd want her to have the rights to his things.

Riot confesses that she'd taken Walt's death out on Diggory (see Episode 36 - Swords), and she was still blaming them for it. Bern defends Diggory, stating that everyone had gotten separated, and tells Riot of how Diggory had saved her, but Riot retorts that they should have done the same for Walt. Bern wishes the same, she also wishes she'd been able to see Walt at the time, and that she'd at least been close when it happened, or gotten a change to stab Solomon on the way out, or that Olivier would find something to do other than terrorising them. But it hadn't happened that way, and no matter what she did she couldn't change it. Riot tells Bern that she was already missing Walt, asking Bern to not give her the "time heals all wounds" speech because she really didn't want to hear it. Bern tells her she wasn't going to, that she'd seen alot of people die, and that the world was always a little emptier without them. But those people were gone, and the sun was going to keep coming up every morning whether they liked it or not. The two sit in silence for a long while, until the sound of a commotion is heard in Scoutpost main (assumed to be the start of the funeral), and they get up to join everyone else.

### Marketing - Day of Remembrance

Lady Ethel Mallory cuts off the broadcast with her marketing segment. She announces that it was Botco's annual day for remembering those who had died in the black rains, compares the clouds to foreign tanks and talks about how the initial effects of the water had been simple madness, driving those effecting into "strange obsession and insanity", recalling the march of the sleepers. But despite this she says that it'd been those left alive who had the cross to bear, having been the survivors and thus having to fear both the phycological and physical effects of the rain. She boldly claims that there was no where safe anymore except for the dreaming boxes, going on to claim that Botco was a messiah for the world in its time of greatest need.

### Story 2, Continued - Sleep Well, Walt

Riot approaches the top of the hill that they'd set up for Walt's funeral, finding that Walt had been laid out on a funeral pyre, whoever had dressed him having placed an eyepatch over his wounded eye, and he wore a Stonemaid pin in one of his lapels. Riot begins to say her final goodbyes, telling Walt that it had been nice knowing him, and wherever he was now she hoped he was happy. She tells him that she was was going to get Solomon out of the Hallowoods. Violet steps towards the pyre as the last of the crowed finishes gathering (noted: Jonah Duckworth, Hector Mendoza, The McGowan family, Winona Carline, Elena Alder, Big Mikey, The Countess, Democracy, and Alice). Both Violet Keene and Bern deliver their eulogies, concluding with Violet putting out a verbal invitation for anyone else who wanted to say something. Riot walks up and asks why everyone was there that day, because they were wishing well for Walt's spirit instead of helping the actual spirit's stuck in Solomon's basement. Riot tells the crowed that Solomon was still out there, and what they should be doing to "honour Walt" was marching up to Solomon's house, all of them, and burring it down. Riot notices Diggory amongst the crowed with Mx. Morrell (see Episode 39 - Promises).

Riot steps away from the front to approach Diggory. She exclaims to them about having come back, and Diggory immediately apologises to her and agree with her plans to kill Solomon. Morrell introduces themself, apologising for being late and explaining that they and Walt had never actually met, but they were a big fan of the work he did and trusted that Riot would be taking over his role. Violet approaches the pyre in preparation to light it, announcing one last speech. Riot clings to Diggory as she watches the pyre burn before picking up her swords and run to the burning pyre, lifting it into the sky and telling the congregation that in three days she was going back to Solomon's house and avenging Walt, and if he'd ever done anything for them of meant anything to them, they'd join her on the third day.

### Interlude - Imagine a Jellyfish

Nikignik expresses to the Dreamers those funeral traditions interested them. He says that for humans, if it was a plant it was eaten, if it was an animal it was eaten, if it was a human then they spent several day gathering flowers and standing around. He tells them that if an Indescribable died, there were complexities. He drew in the comparison of a Jellyfish, that even when it died and broke into pieces, it would still sting. The bones of gods were deadly in much the same way, as such Marolmar was buried in The Temple of The End, but his blood still boiled on Earth, and his heart still sung to doom song of the human age. Their deaths were not the same.

## Story Three - Stuck on the Needle

Abigail Reed tries to remember her life. She thinks that everything started well, remembering the preachers boy (Solomon Reed). remembering that she'd always been good at taking things apart, it was little wonder when she'd became interested in medical school. She'd found Solomon less annoying than the other boys, when he wasn't practicing his instruments, he was reading and quiet, and she like quiet. She remembers her and Solomon's wedding day, it was a mistake in retrospect, and that was when it all started to go downhill. Percy Reed was born kicking and screaming, and he never stopped kicking and screaming. She thinks that Percy was a problem, seeming to have only inherited his mother's cunning and his father's temper. Abigail acknowledges Percy as not being mechanical, finding that he didn't work properly, she describes him as being out of control. So, she sew his mouth shut, making the house finally quiet, she liked the quiet. But then the rains fell, and Abigail was one of those driven to madness, but she did not march with the sleepers, instead becoming all too aware of the rain's effects on her physically.

Abigail remembers being stuck in a sliver of bone kept in Solomon's pocket, and that that was where she was now. Sometimes she saw Percy, just as helpless as she was. She remembers that Solomon had very rarely let her out of the bone, but one day she was, and Solomon was ranting about bandit's having stolen Percy, and that he wanted Abigail to go into their house and kill them all. She had gone into their house, but instead finds a child Elena with her family, and a crying Percy sitting on his piano, invisible to the living. Abigail let them go. She expresses regret to how she'd reacted when Percy had come out, that she might have convinced Solomon to accept him, or she might have left him [Solomon]. It was a laps in Mechanical thinking that had brought her to free Riot (see Episode 25 - Spiders). Abigail sneaks out to talk to Percy while Solomon was busy inside the Church of the Hallowed Name. He [Percy] acknowledges her, and addresses her as "Mom", breaking down crying as they embrace. Abigail felt as if her time imprisoned by Solomon would be coming to an end soon.

## Outro - Graves

Nikignik continues to lament about mortality. saying that it was with great sorrow that we must say goodbye to our loved ones someday. That having to say goodbye so many times was one of the curses of being so long lived, that the people he missed today had been dead for eons. One day he would join them in this, being dead, and he wonders if his death would cause beauty of creation, or if he'd be rendered to atoms by the other Indies, all remaining of him a broken heart. But there was no fear of the end, as narratives couldn't exist without them. That the Dreamer would go first, and then he with them, as their eye to watch and their hand to hold as the plummeted into eternal darkness.