Episode 12 - Homes

## Homes

A white drawing on a black background of house, inside the house is an oversized red drawing of a piano. The image has a white border.

### Author

William A. Wellman

Walt scouts out a dangerous job, Riot makes new friends and enemies, and Danielle's dreams are interrupted. The theme of tonight’s episode is Homes.

***Content Warnings:** Static, body horror, death + injury, kidnapping + abduction, electrocution, strangulation, violence, blood, abuse*

## Intro - Almost Home

Nikignik speaks about being "almost home," a place where you have lived for years but don't feel truly at home because you can't be yourself. One day you are separated from your almost-home and your almost-family under terrible circumstances. You are alone, but at least now you are yourself. Eventually, other people join your life. Unlike your almost-family, they are people you have chosen, and who have chosen you. Together, you build your true home in the north.

Nikignik is currently broadcasting from a tunnel of trees. It is dark, but there is light at the end. Standing in the tunnel is a man with a clipboard. He knows whose house he has come to, but still approaches.

## Story One - Being Watched?

Walt is examining a tunnel made of trees. The trees in this area seem more alive than the others; their branches and roots pull in small creatures and travelers that they feel threatened by. However, he has never seen the trees grow so densely before, as if trying to destroy something they despise. As Walt walks through the tunnel, he checks boxes on his clipboard, including "Being Watched?," "Dangerous Environment," and "Potential Traps." He notes that despite the immense effort of the trees, they cannot seem to penetrate the clearing they have surrounded. Walt doesn't try to be stealthy. This is his job, after all, and most creatures in the woods respect his work.

In the clearing is an old-fashioned mansion on a neatly trimmed lawn. A rusty red truck is parked outside. Standing on the lawn are motionless figures dressed in what looks to be red band uniforms. As Walt moves closer, they all look at him simultaneously. He looks down to note something on his clipboard and when he looks up again, they have surrounded him.

The creatures seem oddly familiar to Walt. They have milky white eyes and patchwork skin that has been sewn together like a quilt. One of the revenants steps forward to ask Walt who he is, but then the two recognize each other. This is Leyland, one of Ms. Mend's revenants. Leyland says that they have all changed since Walt last saw them.

Walt asks if the Instrumentalist lives here, and Leyland says that the house belongs to Mr. Reed, who takes care of them now that Ms. Mend is gone. Walt notes this name down in his file on the Instrumentalist. Leyland warns Walt that he should leave. Walt sees movement behind the blinds of the house and goes as quickly as he can.

Once he is through the tunnel of tress, Walt makes his final notes. He writes that there are guards (who also seem to be hostages) and that the situation is very delicate. Finally, he checks the box "Confirmed for Removal."

### Interlude One - Real Estate

Nikignik advertises beautiful homes in the Hallowoods that need new people to take care of them. Mend Mansion has been partially consumed by a bog but is full of antique sewing supplies. The Duckworth house may need a temporary housesitter, as the future survival of the surviving Duckworths is unknown. If you are a ghost interested in ghost houses, the Alder House was recently burned down along with the grand piano inside.

## Story Two - The Storm and The Shadow

Riot is in the Scoutpost, homesick for her mom and their bunker, and missing Clara. She's so upset that she wishes she could break something. She can't even listen to her mother's music to help calm herself, since that just makes her think of BotCo kidnapping her. For years, Riot had doubted that anyone still cared about her mom's music, and didn't understand why they had to stay in hiding in the bunker. Perhaps that was why it was so easy for her to talk with Clara over the radio every night, and why it was so easy for Riot to rush off and save Clara that night in the RV. If only she had understood, Riot thought, her mom might have been there in the bunker still.

Riot angrily tries to convince herself that it wasn't her fault that her mom had made BotCo her enemy years ago, and that it wasn't her fault Clara didn't wait for her in the RV. She tried her best, but they are both still gone.

Snatching up her baseball bat to do something she might regret later, Riot hears loud thunder outside. There is a flash of lightning and the power goes out. Riot runs outside to see what is happening. The courtyard is covered in thick fog. It is nearly impossible to see anything. She pauses for a moment, listening for the sounds of the Instrumentalist's orchestra, but charges down the stairs when she hears no instruments. People run through the fog around her, but no one stops to explain what is happening.

Lightning strikes Riot, burning her eyes and her mind with afterimages of Clara's face, and she stumbles through the fog into the eye of the storm. Someone in a blue cloak is standing there, surrounded by wind and lightning. He says something to Riot, who still can't see or hear clearly. She introduces herself and asks what's going on. Suddenly, the eye of the storm collapses around Riot. The wind grows in intensity until she can no longer stand and is pulled up into the air, her bat falling to the ground.

### Marketing - Think Twice

Lady Ethel Mallory makes a special announcement directly to Nikignik. She says that whenever she broadcasts to dreamers, she finds their frequency. She has heard everything Nikignik broadcasts. She says it's very convenient that her business brings her to the Hallowoods, where Nikignik has been "advertising." She tells them to stop broadcasting or she will kill them herself.

### Story Two, Continued - Warm Hearts, Wet Jackets

Nikignik mocks Lady Ethel's broadcast breaking up. Besides, they were here first.

Riot spins wildly in the air a hundred feet above the Hallowoods. She occasionally catches glimpses of the stranger who is kidnapping her, gracefully leaning into the wind as if flying. Riot reaches up and grabs his blue cloak, causing him to lose his control over the air around her. She begins to fall towards the forest. Although the wind slows her fall slightly, she hits the ground hard. She struggles to her feet and begins to run away after seeing the stranger float down to the forest floor. Riot finds a large branch and decides to fight a little dirty. She lays down on the ground and begins to call weakly for help.

The stranger quickly finds her. She says that her leg is hurt and he leans down to examine her. Riot hits him in the face with the branch, and then again in the stomach. He falls to his knees and Riot is about to kick him when suddenly electricity begins coursing through her and she falls down. The stranger rises to hit her, but his fist is caught but someone behind him. The newcomer shatters the bones in his hand. A flash of white pulsing light sends him careening into the forest. By the time Riot sits up, he's gone.

She finally looks at her rescuer, who is wearing a spiked leather jacket and has milky white eyes and stitches running across their face. They introduce themself as Diggory Graves and asks if she knows where the Scoutpost is. She agrees to show them the way as she walks back. Despite worrying how Violet and Bern will react, Riot feels relieved. She feels like she is returning home.

### Interlude Two - Comforts of Home

Nikignik explains that everyone misses home at some point. You will be uncertain that you made the right choices to lead you to where you are now. In the morning, though, you will see your new home in a different light and recognize it as your own, despite its flaws. Nikignik feels at home on this world, even with all its flaws.

## Story Three - Stop

Danielle, a resident of the Dreaming Boxes, can hear screaming. She is eating dinner with her family in a reconstructed memory of an old kitchen that she has never seen, as she was born in Box Andromeda. The details are blurry, and the home only seems real if she doesn't look closely. Her father always appears in black and white, her two brothers (with whom she is a triplet) always have identical faces, and her mother looks almost wasp-like, despite trying to look like a 50's movie star. She tells the world to stop, and everything around her freezes. Danielle has never met anyone with the ability to manipulate the dreamscape the way she can. Curious about the screaming, Danielle looks through the static fragments of hundreds of dreams, to no avail. The screams are coming from a place below these dreams, a dark place she has never explored before.

Danielle descends into the darkness and meets a barrier that doesn't let her pass. However, she simply imagines a door being present, and it is there for her to open and look through. Inside, Danielle sees something that scares her more than all the nightmares she's watched people have. In the room is a woman strapped to a hospital gurney. Flies cover her body and burrow into her. Despite the woman's horrific state, Danielle realizes that this is Valerie Maidstone.

Danielle closes the door, wills it away, and leaves in terror.

## Outro - Homes

Nikignik closes the broadcast by speaking about the different shapes that homes can take, whether it be a bus station, a terrifying forest, or a beautiful dreamscape. Having no home is more common than people think, and they are often temporary. Nikignik advises that if you're in need of a home, the Hallowoods will always welcome you.