Episode 21 - Mornings

## Mornings

A black and white image of a broken sword. The sword has an intricate handle and a sun with closed eyes in the center of the blade's cross-guard. Wrapped around the sword's handle is a long red necklace with a heart shaped locket at the end. There is a plain white line bordering the image, with a different sun at each corner.

### Guest

Mark Adams as Anderson

Diggory makes a promise, Clara begins her education at Downing Hill, and David waits for dawn. The theme of tonight's episode is Mornings.

***Content Warnings:** Static, animal death, violence, death + injury, blood, mental illness, strangulation/suffocation, emotional manipulation, drowning, body horror*

## Intro - Fishing, Gone

Nikignik speaks of someone going out on a lake in a motorboat early in the morning. It is a peaceful ritual you have done many times before. The sun seems to glare at you as it rises, casting a red light over the lake. You cast out your fishing line when you are out in the middle of the lake, and feel at peace. Suddenly enormous jaws rise through the water and bite your boat in two. Black tentacles pull it apart, and a terrible shriek shakes the water.

Nikignik sits on a log shaped like a dragon beside a lake, between Riot and Diggory. They are both staring at a skeleton rising from the lake.

## Story One - Memories are Scattered Things

Diggory stares at the skeleton, and feels self-conscious as they realize that people must look at them the same way.

The skeleton asks where Walt is. Riot's hand goes to her bat, but Diggory points toward the Scoutpost. The skeleton begins moving that way and Diggory offers to help them, taking their arm to support them as they walk away unsteadily. Riot follows at a distance. Diggory introduces themselves, and asks the skeleton's name. Democracy, the skeleton replies, and says that all systems of government are destructive. We are not made to walk alone. The end was always foreseen, and people dream to forget. Diggory tells Percy they hope never to lose him, but he does not reply.

When they arrive at the Scoutpost, the residents are apprehensive as they watch Diggory and Democracy walk throough. Walt recognizes them and calls them Dylan, and the skeleton reaches for Walt. Riot tells them to back off, to which Walt replies that it's okay. Democracy then tells Walt that the heart is north, but that he will not be there to stop it. Walt asks Democracy to elaborate, but they simply repeat, "North. True North," and say that they're tired. Walt agrees, and asks for Diggory's help in getting the skeleton to bed. Diggory carries Democracy back to Lurch Lake and lays him in the water like a bed, while Walt and Riot look on.

Walt says that he's known Democracy since he started coming to the Scoutpost, but he has no idea what they were talking about. Diggory has a vague idea, as they had a dream about something in the north, but they aren't sure why. Walt's hands shake as he asks Diggory to let him know if they remember, and he heads back towards the Scoutpost. Riot asks Diggory to promise to protect him when the fight begins. She has lost her mother and girlfriend, and she doesn't want to lose him too. They offer a very formal promise, and Riot leaves, satisfied.

Alone, Diggory looks at the green lights in the lake and wonders if one day they too will sleep in the water.

### Interlude One - 6:48 AM

Nikignik describes someone waking up, then struggling to get out of bed and start the day for hours. Once you can move, it is already evening. Your parents don't speak to you, and think they are lazy. They don't know how much they struggle, and attempts to communicate with them have been unsuccessful. At the end of the day you must go to sleep, and restart the battle all over again.

## Story Two - A Kind of Grand Ecosystem

Clara sits in a basement classroom, feeling trapped. This feels like a test to her, and she knows everything in Downing Hill is a test. Dogsmell lays nearby, keeping watch. The other students can smell them, but cannot identify the source of the smell.

The man she met at breakfast steps into the room and introduces himself as Professor Henry O’Connor. She notices now that he walks with a cane and a silver prosthetic leg. He announces to the class that they have a new student, and welcomes her to his cosmic economics class. She is focused on her goal, however, and hopes that the darkness she senses in the library will help her in this task. He also says that the new student will not affect the test they are having today. Clara asks what the test is on, and knows immediately that it is a mistake.

The professor explains that our universe has no beginning, that it was simply born of energy and transformation. It has always existed, and will exist long after humanity is gone. He goes on to say that the universe has never been empty, and that there are beings far greater than we can comprehend with destructive powers so great that they can destroy entire worlds without noticing. These indescribable beings, or indies, have influenced us throughout history, and are present in many of our greatest monuments of the past. All of Downing Hill's artifacts and rituals can be traced back to them, and each student's ancestors have crossed paths with them. He starts to explain today's assignment, explaining that the beings feed on life and recycle the energy they consume. Humans are part of a greater economy, and so are not completely ignored. Normally when a human dies, the soul dissipates quickly as the energy is taken. However, ghosts have not been leaving quickly recently. Normally they will decay and lose all humanity if they are left on Earth too long, or unless they are grounded to something. A grounded spirit can be used to face something far stronger than a human. It is important that Downing Hill figures out how to use this power so they can save humankind.

Professor O'Connor then abruptly tells the students that they have sixty seconds to survive a ghost. Clara sees the ghost of a woman with a wet hood over her head and burned feet glowing in the darkness. The ghost begins to attack in confusion, and the students realize the door is locked. The class quickly becomes a panicked mob, screaming and running around in the darkness. Clara is knocked to the ground and loses her glasses, then looks up to see the ghost in front of her. Clara asks her to stop, and the ghost does. Clara asks what the ghost wants, then notices her clothes are surprisingly normal. She reaches through the ghost's clothing, but manages to grab a heart-shaped locket around the ghost's neck. There is a picture inside of a woman holding a small girl. Clara asks if it is the ghost's baby, and the ghost suddenly looks over at a girl with braids in the corner of the room before disappearing.

Professor O'Connor congratulates the class. Most of them survived.

### Marketing - Botco Morning Hour

Lady Ethel Mallory and Anderson Faust discuss the recent Stonemaiden attack on Dreaming Box Aries, for which Anderson offers the dreamers' families his condolences. He describes the physical affects of waking up from the Dreaming Box, which are very different than getting out of bed and making coffee, as people did daily before the Dreaming Boxes. Side effects of waking from the Prime Dream can be painful and damaging, including brain damage, powerful radiation exposure, and inexperience moving one's own body. The mind could be trapped forever in a halfway state, or dispersed throughout the Prime Dream. They end by asking anyone with information on the Stonemaidens to come forward, and to report anyone suspected of being a Stonemaiden.

### Story Two, Continued - A Kind of Grand Ecosystem

Nikignik wishes those in the Dreaming Boxes were able to hear them and wake up. They will never be able to live if they remain asleep.

Clara lies awake in bed, and suddenly realizes her door is slightly more open than normal. A hand grips her throat, and the girl holding her asks what she did to Olivier. When Clara asks who Olivier is, the girl squeezes her throat tighter. Dogsmell then leaps onto the girl with a burst of crackling white light, pushing her away. Clara asks if the girl is in her class, as she recognizes her pale face and braids. There is no answer, but the girl jumps up to the ceiling and runs across it before leaping down and stabbing the pillow with a knife just as Clara rolls out of bed. Dogsmell grabs the girl's arm and tears into her, making her fall off the other side of the bed.

Clara calls Dogsmell down, and asks if the girl is okay. Noticing that the wounds the girl has are knitting back together, she asks how she's doing that. The girl says Clara can't be as stupid as she sounds, and asks Clara if she knows why she is here. Clara says she doesn't know, and the girl replies that she's here to become a witch. Witchcraft is the domain of well-read women, so a library is the perfect place to learn it.

Clara says that she doesn't know anyone named Olivier, which the girl finds hard to believe since she arrived right after they left. What did she offer the Director? Clara says that someone with a blue cape and blue hair gave her a card, which led Clara to the library. When the girl asks if Olivier chose her, Clara says that she doesn't know. Clara asks if they were close, but the girl says that it's none of her business and finally puts her knife away.

Leaving, the girl introduces herself as Friday and says she won't kill Clara tonight. Clara does not go back to sleep, but continues to watch the wallpaper until the sun rises.

### Interlude Two - Get Worse

Nikignik assures the reader that things will get worse. If you think you've hit rock bottom, you can always go deeper. But it will always get better, too. It may take years, but things will get better. Life is a continuous cycle of dark and light, up and down. Everything is temporary. We all must wait for the dawn.

## Story Three - Hunter's Moon

*Written by Callum Pearce*

David waits for dawn. He listens to the screams outside and holds a silver sword in his hands. His partner gave him the sword, knowing it will protect him from the creature outside that roams the forest on the night of each full moon. It means for him to be its last meal, but he is prepared. He imagines it devouring unsuspecting victims. It is far too strong for a human to fight without silver. Just the presence of the sword keeps it from breaking into the house and eating him. David sometimes imagines throwing away the sword and opening the door, just to put an end to the constant terror he lives through every month. He listens as the creature flies down and lands outside the door, sniffing at the cabin and scratching on the door. He wants to run, but all he can do is endure the horror until morning.

When the sun rises, David will go bring his partner back inside and clean off the blood until his partner is human again, as he does every month. Until he met Leo, he had never seen anyone who transformed like this. He is used to watching the transformation now, and knows when he needs to get the sword out. Leo saw transforming into a creature as a birth defect, but David saw it as a door opening to more terrible things in the process of evolution, things that should never be allowed to walk the Earth.

David just wants Leo to hold him and make him feel safe, but Leo is still sniffing and scratching outside, hungry for blood. As the sun rises, he hears Leo's pained screams as he transforms back into a human. Leo does not remember his monstrous nights, and David wishes he could forget so easily. He just wants to be held, to face the horrors of the night together. He finally puts the sword away and goes outside to face the day.

## Outro - Mornings

Nikignik says that there are fewer mornings left than you would think. The light on humanity is vanishing, and soon you will be left to rest in darkness. They recommend that you make the most of your mornings, and chase the things that make you happy. Only you can know your real purpose in life, and you should pursue it relentlessly. Anything you haven't done when your mornings run out will never be done, so don't wait.