Episode 107 - Absences

## Absences

A black background with a white border. Within the border at the bottom of the image the words "107.ABSENCES" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Russell asks for directions, Mort meets Big Mikey, and Zelda makes arrangements. The theme of tonight’s episode is Absences.

***Content Warnings:** Animal death (Heidi, Bert as usual), Birds, Gun Mention, Static (including sfx), Emotional Manipulation, Drowning, Body horror*

## Intro - Final Girl

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of some of having their loved ones killed one by one. The first one had been a shock, but as they continued to lose, the learned to steel their eyes and their jaw, find a weapon to carry, bandage their wounds. They had made a decision to survive, no matter the cost. And when the next one of their friend or family diapered, they did not hate them, but the shadow that had taken them from them.

Nikignik hovers over the forest floor of the Hallowoods, watching Russell McGowan and Al Buckley as they travel (See Episode 101 - Disciplines).

## Story 1 - Two Explorers

Russell McGown finds himself lost in the Hallowoods, having not planned a way back to Scoutpost Two as he hadn't anticipated the journey being so long (see Episode 101 - Disciplines), and the sun was beginning to grow low. Al Buckley hovered ahead of him and breaks the silence to ask if he was excited. Russell tells him that he might be, if they weren't lost, but Al tells him that they weren't lost, they were explorers and Russell had the map to the treasure. Russell tells him that there was no treasure only a library, but Al tells him it was a library full of treasure, urging him onward. But Russell puts his foot down, telling Al that he'd though it would only have been a short trip, and it was going to be dark soon and he didn't want to be out when things that could kill them were around. Al tells him that he could handle them if, but Russell reminds him that he was the one who was still alive they wouldn't care about Al.

Al goes quiet, before telling Russell he'd fly up to see if he could see the Scoutpost. Al goes above the canopy, Russell lifting up his drum above his head so Al could go as high as possible, going so far as to climb onto a nearby bolder. He pauses when he hears a close by rustling, as looks over to see a girl around his age hiding in the foliage. He asks her what she was doing, and she asks the same. He tells her that he was trying to figure out where he was, asking what her name was. She tells him her name was Johannah, and he answers in turn, getting down from the bolder, looking around for Al, and then finding that Johannah had pulled a gun on him. She tells him to give her his backpack and coat as she'd need them to get back to Fort Freedom.

### Interlude 1 - Common Destinations

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that the years had not been kind but asks if they had ever. Few had made it through the Hallowoods without losing someone, during the years when they travelled to the sanctuary of the north, and the years after, finding that it was not a Sancturary but rather the heart of the rot. Most could tell of a loved one lost, and wondered if they may still be out there. More times than not they weren't. But the forest had brought more than just loss, some had found friends, community, family, that were all in their own way worth the journey.

## Story 2 - After The Angry

Mort, not needing to eat, and thus no knowing what to do when the expedition group goes on their lunch break (see Episode 106 - Departures), so finds himself drawn towards Percy Reed and Diggory Graves. Percy asks how he was holding up, and he tells them that there were alot of people and he didn't know any of their names, sitting down with the duo. Digory points out each of the other members of teh expedition and gives Mort their names and a brief introduction. A rumbling in the distance ends their conversation, and Big Mikey makes himself known. Mort asks who he was, and Diggory tells him that he was Big Mikey and that he was also a friend. Diggory moves towards Cindy Lockheart (see Episode 106 - Departures), Mikey yelling at her that he didn't like being yelled at, but she yells back that she didn't like being attacked by undead ogres. Diggory attempts to calmly take Cindy's gun off her, telling her that Mikey was not a threat, but she tells them that she'd be the judge of that.

Mort greets Mikey, asking if he wanted to be his friend. Miket greets him back, telling him that he didn't have as many friends as he'd like. Jonah Duckworth calls to Mikey asking why he'd come to see them. Mikey tells them that he'd been heading back to his place, and he'd seen then and been interested in what they were doing, and then Cindy had started to scream at him (see Episode 106 - Departures). Mort tells him that they were going on a walk north, asking if Mikey wanted to come with them for a while. Cindy glares at Mort, but Mikey agrees, telling him that it sounded nice, and he was excited to make a new friend.

### Marketing - New Journey

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcasting segment with her 'marketing' section. She begins to tell the Dreamers a thought she'd had, only to forget it, asking herself what she was doing with her life, calling herself a national disgrace. She reminds herself to think positive, that she was on a new journey (see Episode 106 - Departures), and once she was there, she'd figure out what she'd do. She tells them that she was in a house, it had been occupied before she'd found it but her flies (see Episode 13 - Stars) were eating him. She remembers what her thought was, lamenting that it was curious how something you be a part of you for so long and then be taken way. She'd had to stop being Lady Ethel Mallory when she'd lost her job at the Botulus Corporation (see Episode 94 - Milestones), because now she was just a survivor. She asks if she'd changed, or if she'd always been this person. Had she even really known herself?

### Story 2, Continued - After The Angry

Mort and Mikey walk long side each other, Mikey talking about his books. Mikey asks Mort if he was reading anything, and Mort tells him he wasn't that he didn't know how to read and that he didn't own any. Mikey tells him that the Scoutpost owned books that they traded him for dogs sometimes, so maybe they'd let Mort take some when he got back. Mort tells Mikey about how he'd left his family to go on the trip (see Episode 103 - Crossroads), that he might be doing a bad thing. Mikey asks why Mort had come, and Mort tells him it was because he wated to help, but he'd also run away which was a bad thing. Mikey tells him in books, people weren't good or bad, they were middle. Like Olivier Song, and Riot Maidstone who'd hated him but now they were friends and she read hm stories. Mikey mentions the time he had been taking care of Rick Rounds (see Episode 62 - Provisions) but is cut off when this causes Mort to go on a rant (see Episode 73 - Retributions), talking about how Rick was awful and very bad.

Mikey tells him that he knew this, that Rick had been the one to drown him in the swamp (see Episode 17 - Bogs). He tells him that Rick was what he was talking about, that he'd hated hm for years and years, but when he'd seen him again in Episode 53 - Rivers, he'd just been so pathetic. And maybe he was the same person he'd always been, but Mikey was better. Mort tells him that he hoped he never saw Rick again, because if he did, he would kill him. Mikey tells him that it was good to be angry, but he wouldn't stay angry forever, and when that anger was gone, he'd have to figure out what to do with himself, which was the hard part. Mort tells him that he guessed he still had a long way to go, and Mikey tells him that that was okay, before continuing to tell him about what he'd been reading.

### Interlude 2 - Not As Loud

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that the silence was not as loud as it'd used to be. When he'd first begin it was all he could think about, the deafening quietness in Marolmar's absence. He'd try to down it out with anything he could, hadn't had many friends at the time, their voices did little to distract him, so he abandoned them entirely, but it was no more manageable on his own. In time he's sought out the Dreamers, and among them he'd dwelt for a while now. Now he could go days on end without thinking about the silence, as caught up in the cross-crossing web of stories as he was. He asks the Dreamers if his broadcast too their nightmares away, telling them that it did his.

## Story 3 - One More Ride

Zelda Duckworth sits in a meeting at Scoutpost two as they discuss Russell McGowan and Al Buckley's disappearance (see Episode 101 - Disciplines). Violet Keene reassures her that they understood when Zelda demands that they go out and start looking for them, but that they needed any information she could give them. Tara McGown states that she didn't understand why Russell would just leave like he did, as he understood how dangerous the woods were. Bern Keene mutters that maybe Al had taken him off somewhere, but when Zelda takes offence to this both Buck Silver and Virgil Kane point out that Al wouldn't be in the same danger as Russell was, as Al was physically only a toy drum.

Violet asks if there was anything Zelda could tell them, and reluctantly she tells them about Downing Hill Public Library (see Episode 94 - Milestones), about how Al had gotten it into his head that he'd be happier there then he was the Scoutpost. She states that she was going to get him back, but Virgil states that the Scoutpost had people better suited. Zelda asks if he was calling her old or inexperienced. Violet tells her that it was neither of those things, and she asks who they'd be sending, as none of them knew where the library was. Virgil volunteers, and everyone at the table save Zelda is satisfied with this. She stands up in her chairs and heads to the door, telling them to have it their way and with as much sincerity as she could muster in that moment tells Virgil to bing Al back home safe. She hopes that this little gesture would get her enough time to grab her shotgun and hide under the tarp in the back of Virgil's truck.

## Outro - Absences

Nikignik waxes poetics about absences, calling on the saying absence makes the heart grow fonder. He tells the Dreamers that he thought they assumed, when this was said, that there would be an end to the absence. Sometimes absence made them whether they were thinking clearly then, when they would have risked all they were for a mote of their affection. Whether they are thinking clearly now, with the distance of time between them. The absence had lasted a long time, indeed, and he was filled up with fondness. But he wondered if he should be looking back on him so fondly. Whether missing anyone that much was good. And someday, he hoped that the fondness that accumulated endlessly in his heart found some other purpose, some new place to belong.