Episode 127 - Hooks

## Hooks

A black background with a white border, the side lines of which resemble two long strings with hooks on their ends, the top resembles a collection of smaller, similar white strings and hooks. The bottom of the image is without border. Within the border two images are depicted, on the right, a writingdesk depicted in white is skewered on a white hook and hung from a white string. On the left, a drawing that resembles a mangled bird is depicted in red and is sewered on a red hook and hung from a red string. Below these images but still within the border the words "127.HOOKS" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Mrs. Wicker calls a family meeting, Mr. Raven hatches a plan, and Riot finds a place to rest. The theme of tonight's episode is Hooks.

> ***Content warning**:* *Ableism, Animal death (birds, fish, gods?), Violence, Kidnapping and abduction, Death + Injury, Blood, Birds, Gun Mention, Strangulation/suffocation, Emotional Manipulation, Body horror, Freezing to death, eaten alive by Jackalopes, Many metaphors about hooks in skin and eyeballs and so forth*
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## Intro - The Outside Calls

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of someone in a box. They had through they could leave, though that being in the box was wat they wanted, from the outside it had looked better within, but now they were in they missed the outside, and felt trapped. Nothing had changed, only now they imagined the sky, picture themself walking the earth, fanaticized about the taste of air and it destroyed them. The box had not changed, but they had changed within it, and the outside word had its hooks in them.

Nikignik sits in the Wicker household.

## Story 1 - Family Meeting

Mrs. Wicker calls a family meeting, to little yield from her children who instead play and tump around, Johannah Wicker using Indrid Buckley's Sandles of Steady Footing. Jocelyn Wicker speaks up, getting everyone's attention and instructing them to all sit at the family dining table, which they comply to. Johannah is the last to sit, and Mrs. Wicker tells her to give her the sandals as they didn't belong to her and asks Joel and Jedediah Wicker how their schoolwork had been. They admit that they could have been better, but they'd been too worried about Johannah to concentrate (see Episode 107 - Abences), this angers Mrs. Wicker, but she decides against beating them as it was meant to be a happy occasion, instead telling them that over the coming weeks they'd be sent to Mrs. Crenshaw's house to join in on her classes. She moves on to asking if Johannah was alright, and Jocelyn tells her that Johannah had been having nightmares. Johannah tells her that they were about Downing Hill Public Library (see Episode 113 - Forecasts) and Russell McGowan, and Al Buckley, that she was worried they weren't okay.

Mrs. Wicker tells her to trust that God was lead them to the right places. She asks Joshua and Jacob Wicker how Fort Freedom had been in her absence, and they tell her that nobody was happy or well fed, but they were doing okay, things had stepped up since she had been gone. Mrs, Wicker refutes this, saying that she hadn't been gone she'd been getting Johannah back, her children go quiet before Jocelyn speaks up, telling her that she had been gone, if not physically then emotionally, and all the work and pressure had gone to them to keep Fort Freedom running. Mrs. Wicker asks if they'd prefer that she leave Johannah to die, but Johannah tells her that she'd been absent since before she'd left as well, that she'd rather be with the Church of the Hallowed Name then them. Mrs. Wicker tells them that The Vicar had invited them personally to attend a service at the Church.

### Interlude 1 - Dangerous Homes

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that they may think that surely there was treasure all around them in the abandoned world waiting to be found. He tells them that yes, there was a world of opportunity for someone with a creative mind and a crowbar, but to be wary if they spotted a house that appeared pristine, as too many had crept up those front porch stairs to find the door unlocked. The second mistake was stepping inside, by then it was already too late. There were houses that had been booby-trapped, and he tells the Dreamers to never open a door they were uncertain of, lest they join the trove of failed thieves beneath the floors.

## Story 2 - The Life You Stole

Mr. Raven, following the events of Episode 122 - Creeps, hangs from a hook with his arms tied behind his back in one of the tents at the Blackwood Coven.He speaks up, asking Mr. Writingdesk if he was awake, and Writingdesk tells him that he was, though his speech was slurred and the position in which he had been tied up evidently gave him trouble breathing. Raven asks if he was in pain, stating that the Coven had cauterised their wounds shut, and Writingdesk tells him that it did. Raven begins to reassure him that things would be okay, accidentally calling him "my dear" and briefly panicking that he may have heard so, but Writingdesk's state made him not coherent enough to have been paying attention.

Despite this, Raven still attempts to explain to him the escape plan he'd concocted, but Writingdesk tells him that if he got out, to go home and take care of the captives in the Complex, to start with his own safety. This frustrates Mr. Raven, who curses and tells Writingdesk that he was going to be fine, that he'd been though worse, and he forbade him from retiring and leaving him alone. They hear someone at the door, and Raven prepares to set his plan in motion, the door opening and setting off a domino rection around the room that ended with a knife being flung at Raven, but instead of doing as he'd hoped it own, it landed between his feet very nearly stabbing him. He looks up to see the person who's entered the room was Penny Rescher, who tells him to be quiet as she was going to set them both free.

### Marketing - The Hook

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her marketing segment. She explains to the Dreamers how to pitch a hook, using the example of "you’re never going to believe what happened today!". She continues to tell them how to retain interest, and then it was time to delivers one's message, when they couldn't drag it out any longer, but instead of just telling them what had happened to her, she announces her pitch, that they should continue to regularly listen to her for more stories like what she did that day. She then tells them that nothing had happened to her that day and that she was tired of walking.

### Story 2, Continued - The Life You Stole

Penny cuts Raven and Writingdesk free with the knife, and Raven asks if this was a trap. She tells them that no, the events of Episode 122 - Creeps had been Friday Rescher's idea, who wanted to kill the two of them because she loved Penny, and that the coven wanted them dead because they were the type of mean they hated most. But she supposed it was their lucky day (see Penny Rescher). Raven asks if this meant that Penny had decided she wanted to return with them to the institute, but she tells them she wasn't, and neither was anyone or anything else, and in exchange for her hiving them their lives they were going to release everything locked up in the Complex.

He tells her that the entities they kept were dangerous, so she'd have to understand why they couldn't just send them back into the world. Penny stands her ground, making it clear that Raven's options were either her deal or death, and he agrees, swearing to her that he would do so. Raven helps Writingdesk to his feet, she tells them that her luck would help them escape, but they didn't have long and after that they were on their own, wishing them goodbye by their first names to Raven's confusion as by his account she should not have known them. The two leave, Raven already beginning to plan his return to get vengence on the Coven.

### Interlude 2 - Hungry Gods

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that their kind was bold to sit in their island of ignorance amidst of black seas of infinity and contemplate a voyage. These warnings were because in any ocean, there was unknowable and forgotten life, and this ocean was very, very large. He tells them that he saw it all, that young gods in their infancy vanished instantly, only ripples to tell where they had gone because some gods, ancient and hungry, were not afraid to cannibalize their own. He tells the Dreamers to not dangle their hook in the heavens, unless they were prepared to drag home whatever they had tempted with a mere morsel. And yet, the Botulus Corporation even now wound up and prepared to cast (see Episode 94 - Milestones).

## Story 3 - A Quiet Place to Rest

Riot Maidstone finds herself somewhere dark and warm and comfortable and lets herself rest. She hears Danielle O'Hara calling her name in confusion. Riot greets her and asks if there was something she needed. Danielle ignores the question and asks Riot what was wrong, but Riot tells her that nothing had been wrong, not until Danielle had bothered her. Danielle once again ignores her, telling her that she was asleep, but she wasn't dreaming, that this was wrong for Riot because she was always dreaming. Riot tells her that she could fix that if she let her rest, but Danielle prevents her from doing so by poking her and urgently telling her that she needed to wake up, asking her what had happed to Beast. Riot recounts to her in a state of hypnagonia the events of Episode 120 - Wilds and how Creep had killed Beast, and how Olivier Song had '*gone full storm mode*' in Episode 124 - Educations.

Danielle starts to panic, shaking Riot and repeatedly telling her to wake up while Riot continues to explain to her how she'd gotten lost in the storm. Danielle starts to scream at her, managing to shove her so hard that it causes Riot to regain consciousness, finding herself back in the blizzard ravaged tundra. She discovers that while she was asleep a dozen jackalopes had found her and were in the process of eating her alive, but they run as soon as she wakes up. She gets up, begining to stumble forward telling herself that she had to stay awake and keep walking. It occurs to her that she was never going to make it home.

## Outro - Hooks

Nikignik waxes poetics about hooks, telling the Dreamers that the early bird got snared on the string, and reeled in, plucked from the line, and fed to the bird-catchers' cats. Thus, there was no pressure to be an early bird. He tells them to be late, to take care of the fragile form that they had been placed in by the cosmos, while they had it. He tells them that there was no hurry, and never had been. Galaxies bloomed in million-year spans, and planets required a billion years to so much as change their face. In a universe so vast, no one would notice if they took a day to themselves.