Episode 136 - Faults

## Faults

A black background with a white order on the vertical lines, the blank space outside it filled with white lines resembling claw marks. Within the border a white ornate mirror is depicted as shattered, the spaces where the glass is missing filled with drawing of red eyes. Below this image but still within the border the words "136.FAULTS" are depicted in white

### Guests

 Harlan Guthrie as Dashiell Spade
 Daisy Guevara as Melanie Flores

Danielle goes back to bed, Mort loses a new friend, and Diggory goes on air. The theme of tonight's episode is Faults

> ***Content warnings**: Animal death (Bert, Beast the Bear), Suicide, Violence, Death + Injury, Character Death, Blood, Needles, Gun Mention, Emotional Manipulation, Drowning, Body horror, Consumption of Inedible Materials (Cindy Lockheart, Depth Charges)*
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## Intro - Something's Changed

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of someone who is waking up to the ground shaking. They get out of bed as the warning bells outside begin to ring, finding the air outside to be filled with smoke. The ground continues to shake in regular intervals, two beats like that of a waking heart.

Nikignik stands over Scoutpost Two.

## Story 1 - Someone Who Can See

Danielle O'Hara wakes to shouting outside, sliding out of bed and waking Clementine Maidstone by throwing a boot at her. Clementine asks if the expedition North had returned (see Episode 106 - Departures) while she helped Danielle get into her wheelchair. Daniele tells her she didn't think it was, and Clementine wheels her out, suggesting that it might be Froglins or Fort Freedom (see Episode 85 - Roots). They find Scoutpost two in a state of disarray, and the earth around them shaking. Clementine tells her that she was going to try and find Violet Keene and see if she knew what was happening, leaving for Violet and Bern's cabin while Danielle joined the crowed to see if she could get answers. Instead, she only overhears people asking questions, Brooklyn Williams suggesting that the rumbling could be coming from the Botulus Corporation.

She stops besides Russell McGowan, noticing that he looked pale she asks if she was okay, and he gives her a nod before Volet calls to the crowed to get their attention. She tells them that they didn't know what was causing the tremor but asks them to remember that they were a unit and to act calmly and appropriately. Bern speaks up, telling them that Cindy Lockheart had mentioned their mission may cause some quakes. Danielle tells Russell to push her back to her room as she needed a hand getting back into bed. He acknowledges it as strange that she was going to sleep in a time like this, but she tells him she had nothing better to do. He wheels her back to her room, and she asks him again if he was okay. He tells her that there was smoke in the air, and it was coming from the direction of Downing Hill Public Library (see Episode 135 - Flames), that he was worried about Al Buckley. She attempts to comfort him by telling him that he had no control over the decisions others made, only his own, before she realises that he advice was not helping and instead tells him that she was sure Al was fine and telling him to scram. He leaves and she turns to go back to sleep, thinking that she didn't know what was happening, but she knew someone who would.

### Interlude 1 - The Heart of the Forest

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that if they dreamt in the northern Hallowoods, they should be aware that when they woke it was to a trembling earth. In the far north the Heart of Marolmar beat beneath the ocean, and it was growing louder. It was close now, they were in the winter, and the spring was deciding whether to come. If the heart is not stopped in its rhythm soon their world would explode with life as a second Cambrian age. The ground was ready; the trees bore the melody, and the world waited to see if a very few people now would be able to preserve any hope for their future before it was lost forever.

## Story 2 - I Remember You

Mort and Cindy Lockheart continue to walk across the frozen waists for the Heart of Marolmar carrying the explosives they planned on using to destroy it. They notice the quakes begin, and Mort asks if they were there yet. Cindy tells him that he'd know they were they when she stopped walking. He tells her that she'd stopped walking several times, and she tells him that she was going her best, they were almost there but they had to make good time, because the Heart was beginning to reach 'critical mass', and the Blizard had stopped (see Episode 129 - Cats) meaning that Creep would be coming to attack them.

Cindy notices Creep coming to attack them, and she and Mort start to run. The ice head of them cracks and Creep leaks through to the surface, taking on a form that resembled Mort. It greets them and Mort tells it that he remembered it (see Bartholomew 'Barty' Chum). Creep tells him and Cindy he that it remembered them both fondly, before telling them that they should pick up where they'd left off. Creep uses the mass portion of its still submerged body to lift up the ice around Cindy and Mort in an attempt to crush them.

### Marketing - Terms and Conditions, Page 768

Nikignik's broadcast is cut off by the continuation of the conversation between Melanie Flores and Dashiell Spade (see Episode 133 - Liberties). Melanie reads out the clause written on page 768 of the Botulus Corporation terms and conditions, to Dashiell's horror. He comments that it was convenient for Botco that the emergency hadn't ended in twenty years, but she tells him it wasn't convenient it was just true, there was nowhere safe outside from the blackwater and to let anyone out would be a neglect of their commitment to their safety. Dashiell explains to her that the Stonemaids had people on the outside who lived in fear of Botco hunting them down, but Melanie tells him this was because those people were in danger, it wasn't a good life they had outside. He tells her that they should get to decide how they were going to die, he wanted the real world back, those who wanted to leave should have the right to. Melanie tells him that they had signed a deal when they'd joined Botco, but Dashiell tells her that he had a witness, asking to be brought Ralph Campbell.

### Story 2, Continued - I Remember You

Mort digs his claw into one of the walls of ice to keep himself from falling into the hungry mass of Creep below, feeling as it continued to try and crush him. He tells Cindy that he felt he was breaking, but she tells him to keep them up, climbing over his dome for the charges on his back (see Episode 125 - Recollections). He asks her not to go, but she tells him that they couldn't complete the mission if Creep was still around as she pulled half the charges from his back. She tells him that he'd only had a bit of time after she want, and he'd have to get as far away as he could and take shelter. She tells Mort that he was a good friend, before letting herself fall off him and into Creep.

Mort quickly climbed up as high as he could, getting wedged between two sheets of ice before the charges set off and a massive explosion erupts beneath him. He feels the pressure of the ice around him ease off and he grabs onto tone of them and rides it as it fell into a horizontal position in the water. Mort takes a moment to think that he Mort and Yaretzi and the Grand Crossroads Hotel, before standing up again and continuing to walk, preparing himself for death.

### Interlude 2 - Creation, A Mirror

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that if creation was a mirror for the gods that fashioned it, then it was a shattered one. Life indescribable, for all they had to show for they existence were desperate to leave something behind, to show the universe that they had not ended as quietly as they began. He was no different, he had interfered (see Episode 103 - Crossroads). And Mort was closer than he realizes now to the heart. He would be the first to reach it, I think. And if harm befell him, Nikignik would look in the mirror and find the face of the god responsible for it.

## Story 3 - The Third and Final Visitation of the Phantom Station

Diggory Graves walks through the frozen waste lamenting their situation, when The Phantom Station makes its presence known and approaches them. It announces to its audience that they had a return caller (see Episode 88 - Broomsticks), asking Diggory how they were. Diggory tells it that they had nothing to say to it, but The Station tells them that the first step to solving a problem was admitting they had one, and they were in an impossible situation. Diggory tells it that if they continued to walk north as they had it would lead to their death, but a safe world for all those who they loved. And they could not live with themself is they went back, if they abandoned their mission. Diggory Graves was made to die, if they were to go back Irene Mend would never let them rest (see Episode 120 - Wilds). The Station reminds Diggory that last, they'd spoken it had been about them struggling with the pressure and expectations of others, and it asks if they could feel themselves beginning to break. Diggory confesses that they could, and The Station once again offers for them to join its audience. Diggory accepts the invitation, reaching for The Station and telling it that all they'd ever wated was to not be alone anymore.

They are cut off by the sudden appearance of Grug who punches them in the face, causing the Station to leave. Diggory turns to Grug, asking him who he was. Grug doesn't answer, and Diggory grows angry with him, finding themself unable to once again locate the Station. They ask Grug who he was again, and Grug tells them his name. Diggory asks Grug if he'd followed them, if he was trying to stop them, if he knew where they were going, if Rothogroth had sent him (see Episode 100 - Centuries) or if he was there of his own accord. Grug doesn't answer, so Diggory tells him to go home, and live a good life. Grug hugs Diggory before bounding away, leaving them to continue walking North.

## Outro - Faults

Nikignik waxes poetics about faults. He tells the Dreamers that he would like to think what happened in the universe was nobody’s fault. But they live in a universe that was full of worlds, and each one was shaped by their choices. The end arrived because it was not forestalled, doom bough on by their own negligence, and the only way to stop it would have been a long time ago. He asks what could have been done to stop him (see Episode 103 - Crossroads). If he did nothing, would it have been his fault? Was it his fault now if it still failed?

### Until Next Time, Dreamers

*Until next time, dreamers, when you skip across parking lots and sidewalks, don’t step on a crack. You might break your mother’s heart. But there are cracks everywhere, whether you can see them or not. And she’s getting used to it by now.*