Episode 99 - Sentries

## Sentries

A black background with a white border and small drawing of birds in each of the corners, all depicted in white. Within the border a large grinning dog depicted in red sits in front of an ajar white door with a picture of a cartoon duck handing from it. Bellow these images but still within the border the words "99.SENTRIES" is depicted in white

### Author

William A Wellman

Hector navigates rocky waters, Percy goes too far, and Mort takes the night shift. The theme of tonight's episode is Sentries

> ***Content warning**:* *Eating a dead bird, Abuse, Animal death (lots of birds, Heidi and Bert as usual), Violence, Kidnapping and abduction, Death + Injury, Blood, Birds, Gun Mention Strangulation/suffocation, Emotional Manipulation, Drowning, Bugs (Beetle Baby, Ethel’s pets), Body horror, Character Death*
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## Intro - By The Gates

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of themself, back when they still sat at the gates of the council of Heavens. They feel the beaconing of their youth, in the the orchard at the centre of the universe, but still they sat. When the other Indescribables entered the gates, they ignored Nikignik. It was no wonder that when they dreamed, they dreamed of faraway places.

Nikignik sits on the floor with Heidi on the floor in Zelda Duckworth's cabin at Scoutpost Two.

## Story 1 - A Smooth River Rock

Hector Mendoza and Jonah Duckworth sit in Zelda Duckworth's cabin, having the conversation Riot Maidstone was not privy to in Episode 98 - Harvests. They discuss the expedition (see Episode 96 - Horizons), Jonah referencing their earlier conversation in Episode 92 - Omens, telling Hector that he couldn't follow him. Hector tells him that when he'd said that he was talking about the temple of the end, not a hike north. Jonah reminds Hector that he knew how deadly the north was, that Jonah had a feeling they hadn't even gotten that far (see Episode 13 - Stars). Hector asks if Jonah would be able to navigate the northern Hallowoods, that he was sure he could get them out now. Jonah reiterates that Hector wasn't going with them. Jonah would be fine if he died, Hector wouldn't. Hector tells him that they didn't know for sure that Jonah would continue to do so, he might lose his ability. Jonah tells him that he was asking him to trust him, but when Hector goes to respond Zelda makes her presence known.

Zelda tells them to explain to her what was happening, but neither want to explain to her, Hector attempting to throw Jonah under the bus. Zelda concludes that they were having a 'couple's spat'. She tells them about how the best of couples got into them, her and Dexter Duckworth had all the time, and Dexter had '*made himself lost to [her]*' by closing himself off in his study. She couldn't try to make anything right or apologise. So whatever they were going through, they shouldn't run from it, they should talk about it. Unless it came out that Hector had been hurting Jonah, because if that was the case, she would shoot him. Jonah reassures her it was nothing like that, and thanks her for her advice. Jonah agrees to let Hector come.

### Interlude 1 - A Deadly Moat

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that if they had a treasure, they would go through great extremes to prevent it from being damaged or stolen. They'd build walls around it, a moat to drown those who cannot swim, fill it with hungry beasts. The northern expanse of the Hallowoods were a very effective moat indeed (see the heart of Marolmar).

## Story 2 - A Collection Of Tragedies

Picking up from their confrontation in Episode 98 - Harvests, Percy Reed tells Mx. Morell that if they hurt Diggory Graves he'd burn down the museum of broken promises with them [Mx. Morell] in it. Mx Morell clarifies that although they'd been sent to kill Diggory, they had no intent on doing so. Their employer (see Rothogroth), however had been quite vocal about his wish to see them dismantled. Percy asks Diggory what they were talking about, and Diggory tells Percy that they [Diggory] belonged at the Museum (see Episode 39 - Promises). Percy is confused by this, so Morell offers clarification over tea, but Percy bluntly refuses this, telling them that whatever business they had with them was done. Morell attempt to approach them again, and Percy explodes them in white fire, leaving them mangled and quite dead.

Percy turns to Diggory and begins to tell them that he wasn't trying to kill them, only to be interrupted when Morell's form starts to reconstruct itself, until they are standing once again as if nothing had happened. Percy apologises, and Morell tells him that it was okay, that “*[He] will find it difficult to kill [them] in any significant fashion*...", and that if he was done, they should get some tea and sort things out. The three enter the museum.

### Marketing - A Feast

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik with her 'marketing' section. She attempts to start her monolog as normal, only to become distracted by the line of dead birds surrounding Box Cassiopia (see Dreaming Boxes). She thinks that if she stayed outside of the security zone, one of her old employees would see her and power down the defences, let her back in (see Episode 96 - Horizons). But no one was going to come and help her. She comments that the birds smelled sweet, and Anderson and Oswald didn't seem to mind. She clarifies that Anerson and Oswald were what she'd named her flies (see Episode 13 - Stars) before picking up one of the birds and eating it.

### Story 2, Continued - A Collection Of Tragedies

Mx Morell pours tea for Percy and Diggory, while Percy watches Baby stumble along in a far doorway. He mentions that the museum didn't feel right, and Morell tells him that it could be off putting, asking if anyone wanted a biscuit. Percy asks why they bothered, but he and Diggory were dead, and from the looks of it, Morell was too. But Morell tells them that they [Morell] were actually alive. Diggory asks what they were, and Morell explains to them their backstory (see Mx Morell), that they were once a man who fancied himself an archaeologist but had gotten infected by spores of Rothogroth. One of Rothogroth's bodies grew on earth, and it spoke in their head and had recently asked that harm come to Diggory. They ask if Diggory had done anything to anger him as of late, though they tell them of the planned expedition north (see Episode 96 - Horizons). Morell asks them if they actually thought the heart could be stilled, doing so would upset the hierarchy of things and they had assumed it was too late for the saving the world business. Percy tells them that Cindy Lockheart thought it could be stopped.

Morell tells them that it would surely be easier to just accept the change that had happened, but Percy points out that although it may be too late for the three of them, they had friends who lived regular lives, and if they stopped the heart, they got to stay that way. Diggory tells them that Rizwana Mirza believed it could be stopped, and she had spoken to Rothogroth about it (see Episode 16 - Crowns). Diggory tells them that they wished to seek an audience with Rothogroth. Morell advises against this, that Diggory was not Rizwana and owed her memory nothing, but Diggory stand firm that this was what they wanted, and once again asks for Morell to take them to Rothogroth.

### Interlude 2 - Evolutions Of Self

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that he didn't know if he regrated leaving his post at the gates of heaven. Maybe it would have been enough just to watch. He questions why he had not been content, why he left, why he wondered, why had he fallen in love with Marolmar? He would have saved himself more than a little heartache had he stayed, he'd become a different being by knowing Marolmar, by losing him, and again when he'd found companionship again, even if short lived (see Amaryllis Ward), and again when he'd started the broadcast. The garden of the end may not have transformed the universe, but it had changed him.

## Story 3 - Second Skin

Bartholomew 'Barty' Chum tells Ruth Esther Barnes and Rizwana Mirza that the suit (see Mort) was in good shape. Ruth expresses concern that the suit had not been tested at the depths it was going to go yet, but he tells her not to worry, he'd be the one down there not her. Riz tells hm that she could go, but he tells her he had the diving experience, and she was too important. Riz tells him that he was as important as anyone else there, and to play it safe before opening her mouth and screaming, turning into Bert as Mort wakes up from his dream to the seagull screeching like an alarm clock. Mort gets out of bed, ready to act like a grown up and help with the work (see Episode 94 - Milestones), the night shift at the Grand Crossroads Hotel.

Polly calls a good morning to him as he walks bast him office door, and Mort stops and tells Polly that it wasn't morning, rather sunset from the doorway. Polly tells him that he'd lost track of time as he'd been trying to reconstruct Barb's billing model and had come to the conclusion that The Countess had never paid a dime for her stay at the Resting Place Hotel. Although he wasn't going to start charging her as she and Yaretzi were now in a relationship. Mort expresses that he did not understand that Yaretzi and The Countess were in a relationship, and Polly tells him to visit Yaretzi and tell her he'd said hi. Mort does, telling Polly that he loved him, which Polly reciprocates. Mort goes to Yaretzi's office and knocks, to the sound of sudden moment and whispers from inside, and Yaretzi opens the door sloppily dressed as what is assumed to be the Countess shadow walks away in the background. Mort asks if there was anything happening at the Hotel that night, and Yaretzi tells him not much, a couple were booked into the spa (see Nolan Thair and Ricou Chapman) and a card tournament was to be held. She tells him to man the front desk. Mort obliges and leaves, finding himself strangely worried.

## Outro - Sentries

Nikignik waxes poetics about Sentries. He tells the Dreamers that wherever a door existed, there would be one who was tempted to guard it. To check each that entered and repel those they decided did not belong. The sentinel made these judgements, but the door was always open. And if they wondered whether they fit, whether they might belong, whether they qualified for good company, to know there was never a criteria to enter. The doors had long been pried off their hinges, and they were open to them, if they meant no harm, if ever hey chose to join those on the other side.