Episode 92 - Omens

## Omens

A black background with a white border made of squiggly lines. Within the border two birds can be seen facing each other and sitting amongst a tangle of branches, with a nest. The bird closer to the nest is depicted in white, and the one further is depicted in red. bellow the image but still within the boarder the words "92 . OMENS" are written in white

### Guests

Daisy Guevara - Melanie Flores
Mark Adams - Anderson Faust

Jonah discusses with his future, the Omen comes home, and Elena makes an unlikely sale. The theme of tonight's episode is Omens.

> ***Content warnings**:* *Self-harm, Ableism, Animal death (birds, rats and forest creatures, implied), Violence, Kidnapping and abduction, Death + Injury, Birds, Emotional Manipulation, Bugs, Body horror*
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## Intro - End Of The Lane

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of someone who, newly moved to a neighbourhood, finds that one of the resident kids keeps staring at them. They expect his attention to waver, but every time they look outside he stands and looks at them. One day his mother gets involved and tells them that he was just shy, and introduces him as August (see August Palls).

Nikignik sits near Lurch Lake with a sleeping Frogsticker, observing Hector Mendoza and Jonah Duckworth as they sit in a boat fishing.

## Story 1 - The Heart Quickens

Jonah Duckworth watches as Hector Mendoza whittles his newly acquired arm (see Episode 86 - Royalties), warning him against this, however Hector mostly ignores him and continues whittling, asking Jonah to complete one of the carvings of a heart with Hector's initials in it, telling him [Jonah] that it was missing his. Jonah makes sure that him doing this to himself wasn't hurting him, which Hector reassures him it wasn't, that what the heart represented - his ties to Jonah and a need to ignore his wanderlust - hurt him more. Jonah tells him that he was more sentimental than he'd first expected, and Hector tells him about how Lolgmololg was still out there, so the Froglins may attack again. Jonah tells him that he was sure they wouldn't, as he'd told Grug what would happen if they came back to Scoutpost Two (see Episode 85 - Roots), and he seemed to have taken it to heart. He tells him about The Rat King (see Episode 75 - Loyalties), as well as that Jonah felt the next time he died he wasn't going to be coming back as quickly.

Big Mikey makes himself known wallowing in the water over the side of the boat. He tells them to be careful, the water was the only place he could hide from the Frogsticker. Jonah looks to the distant shoreline and notices the giant bird laying down, seemingly sleeping. He tells Mikey that the Frogsticker had calmed down, so Mikey could go, and Mikey tells him that swimming wasn't as bad as he'd thought (see Episode 17 - Bogs), before looking down in horror as Democracy starts to climb up him, screaming for them to sleep while they could. That there were mounting ecological factors, Inescapable crisis, the district votes lay uncounted, the heart of death quickened, the end drawer near. He tells them to sleep while they could, or die screaming.

### Interlude 1 - Darker In The Glass

Nikignik tells the Dreams that he was sure they had noticed that there was something in the water (see black water), and if they hadn't, he congratulated them on their life free of troubles. They had started in the ocean, gathering around icecaps before evaporating and raining down on the land. The first rains had been the most potent (see the night of black rains). It would be easier to avoid if it were not absolute, clearly not for consumption yet impossible to avoid. in diluted quantities the effects were not instant, rather built over time. It was not a question of if they had been exposed, but how much, and how long they had before they started to notice the changes.

## Story 2 - A New Unkindness

The Omen returns to Downing Hill Public library repeating the checklist C. S. Blackletter had given them in Episode 57 - Edges. They had extended their invitation to Al Buckley (see Episode 77 - Rebels) and retrieved Walter 'Walt' Pensive's collection - Ricou Chapman having not been home when they came to tell him about Nolan Thair (see Episode 90 - Tests), but the last item on the checklist, Polly's manual, was lost forever (see Episode 82 - Failures). They hoped that the two they had managed to complete would be enough as thy arrive in Blackletter's office, who immediately asks them where they had been, as they should have returned days ago. They tell her it had taken alot of effort to complete her tasks, that Al would be asking Zelda Duckworth permission to attend Downing hill. Blackletter tells them that she had instructed them to collect Al's drum, it was to be used as an artifact not a student and proceeds to scold The Omen for not thinking. But if Al arrived, she supposed it didn't matter if he was kept on a shelf or in a classroom. Omen hands over Walt's collection, but Blackletter immediately notices something was missing. Omen initially attempts to lie, but their resolve doesn't last, and they confess to being unable to retrieve Polly's manual.

She tells them to look again, as well as assigning them the new task of finding Friday Rescher (see Episode 82 - Failures) and bringing her back to Downing Hill. They tell her they would not fail her, and she tells them that if they did, she would make a better Demon. The Omen leaves, taking a brief detour to check up on the remining Summer campers, who glare at them as they pass. They understand their loathing of them, leaving Downing Hill into the skies of the Hallowoods.

### Marketing - Self-Promotion

Melanie Flores greets the listeners, announcing that she was having in interview with Anderson Faust before introducing him to the listeners. Andeson speaks up and thanks her for inviting him to her broadcast, mentioning how he'd helped invent the technology she was using for it. Anderson proceeds to recount a supposed series of events in which Lady Ethel Mallory had approached him and told him about her plans to sabotage one of the Dreaming Boxes (see the awakening of Dreaming Box Aries), that if he didn't give her the access codes she needed she'd have him fired. The two of them proceed to bad mouth Ethel, calling her violent and manipulative. He proceeds to claim that Ethel had confessed to him that she was working for the Stonemaids, and he feared she'd repeat the same sabotage again.

### Story 2, Continued - A New Unkindness

The Omen finds themself unable to find Friday, however using Polly's advise given to them in Episode 82 - Failures in finding things that are invisible in following the trail left behind, they are able to follow the path Friday would have taken in breadcrumbs of bad luck (see Friday Rescher). In this they are able to find her hiding place in the Blackwood Coven, where they come to a roost in a great tree in the centre, where they are joined by other, regular ravens.

Siting amongst the roots of this tree, they find Friday. She sat between two other woman who weaving trinkets into her hair as Edgar 'The Spider' Rescher nestled into her hands. Omen realises that Friday was happy, having runaway and found in the process a home. They find themself unable to bring themself to take her away from this, and - in realisation - they realise that they did not have to return to Dowing Hill and face the consequences for this. Friday was missing, Omen could go missing with her. A raven bellow them calls out to them "*Hey hey!*", a call which they repeat in return. The raven greets them by calling "*no stealing*", which they respond to by saying "*no thieving*" and asks if they could stay. The Raven tells them that they could and welcomes them home.

### Interlude 2 - Messages In The Stars

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that there were messages written in the stars, though none for them. No one with enough power to alter the cosmos care about humans. He tells them that he enjoyed hearing them, though most of them were out of date of rather dull, reading "*this star is protected by Tolshotol, Who Guards A Thousand Suns. Attempt to move it and be destroyed by the Light Of All Days*", but some, quieter ones, sang things like "Xyzikxyz and Nikignik were here", one that said "please come home" who t was for he did not know. He liked the poems, ones that Marolmar had made for him, though he visited them rarely nowadays.

## Story 3 - Another Happy Customer

Elena Alder sets up her father's shop at the Dry Market perfunctorily, being surprised by Oswald Biggs Botulus who'd silently approached behind her, screaming at him that she had a knife (see Episode 59 - Friends). He apologises for having frightened her and telling her that she had something that she needed (see Episode 87 - Boxes). She tells him that the market didn't open until 8 o'clock, but he tells her that he'd come a long way and was in a bit of a hurry, a third hand reaching out from his jacket holding out a bar of sterling and telling her that he'd be willing to pay extra. She tells him she'd do business with him, and he tells her that she'd taken something from the house of Solomon Reed (see Episode 59 - Friends), that whatever she found in it he'd buy it all, but he was specifically after the cabinet. She tells him that it wouldn't come cheap. He asks her if he struck her as someone who was cheap, she tells him she didn't know what he struck her as but he seemed like just a classy collector. Oswald picks up the cabinet and set it down again so he could see it better, and Elena hands him the key with the waring not to sleep with it as it'd give him strange dreams. He tells her he was used to strange dreams.

She asks him how he was going to pay, and he asks what it was people used as currency nowadays. She tells him that they accepted paper money, precious metals, basically everything that wasn't scoutcoin. He pays happily, giving her several bundles of money, more silver, and a silver cartridge Elana recognises as Botcoin Credit. She asks him who he was, and he tells her that he was just a happy customer as he tucked the cabinet like a brief case under one of his arms. He tells her that a new dawn was coming, and he hopes she'd be able to thank him for it, before leaving. Elena retreats back into her van, already fed up with the day.

## Outro - Omens

Nikignik waxes poetics about Omens. Telling the Dreamers four ravens flew overhead from their left, a black cat crossed their path, the trees ahead of them were dark, and a red sun rose over the spruce and pine and tamarack. These were not signs that something ill was bound for them, rather indicators that they were walking into the forest. And the forest knew them, for it was always watching— though concerned with far longer spans of life than theirs. It thought of growth, nourishment, frost, fire and fountain. When they crossed beneath its branches, it wished them no unkindness, and its omens were of coming home.