Episode 75 - Loyalties

## Loyalties

A black background with a white border, the four corners of which depict a collection of eyeballs (top right), a rat (bottom right), a collection of squares (top left), and what looks to be a group of skulls (bottom left). Within the border is a front facing human skull, levitating above that is a jagged crown depicted in red. Bellow this image but still within the border are the words "75.LOYALTIES" written in white.

### Author

William A. Wellman

Grug has a bad day at work, Brooklyn attends a meeting, and Jonah takes a trip. The theme of tonight’s episode is Loyalties.

***Content Warnings:** Animal death (a dragonfly), Violence, Kidnapping and abduction, Death + Injury, Blood, Mental illness, Birds, Gun Mention (lots this episode), Strangulation/suffocation, Emotional Manipulation, Drowning, Body horror, Smoking*

## Intro - Destiny, Catlike

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of Winona Carline. That she owed so much to others, to her parents and the gods of her parents, to her teachers and their teachers. Her younger self would have wept if she knew how she had let so much of what she held as important fall away. Perhaps it had been her who's altered her fate, perhaps it was always changed. When she kneeled to pray, she remembered her father; when she covered her hair, she thought of her mother. With her cards and knuckles and tea she pried secrets from the future’s grasp, carried a burning eye upon her hip. Although she had learned much, there was a final question for which she must find an answer, to finally know the point of her memories and fragments and rituals, her life with its blades and cats and stalking beasts.

Nikignik sits on a large rock with a flat surface in Froglin Town. It's singular denizen (see Grug) who tried to unwind from the burdens of leadership and priesthood alike. Unfortunately, there was no rest for the gainfully employed.

## Story 1 - Old Queens, New Queens

Grug the Drowned priest of Lolgmololg sits on his sunbathing rock and thinks about change. He'd had less time to sneak away and play cards at the resting place hotel (see Episode 15 - Cards) since he'd been promoted to the position of Drowned priest (see Episode 41 - Waters), but he had not been eaten by Lolgmololg, their sacralises to her were plentiful, and he suspected that the time for their final attack on the Scoutpost (see Episode 59 - Friends) would be soon. He rises from the spot he'd been lazing suddenly, heading a sound from over the treelines, the waugheea-waugheea of the Froglin Queen. Grug takes off into the forest, seeing others doing the same in response to their mother's call. They get to the shore of Watching Lake, where Lolgmololg had been having them keep their mother, to find her being dragged into the forest, scrambling to return to her lake but fighting a losing battle. She lets out another croak, telling them "Help me, I am being inconvenienced" (see Episode 69 - Angles), and Grug goes forward to help her, seeing Hector Mendoza with Heidi, as well as Huntington Waites, pulling the queen away. The others go forwards to help, but Hector hold a knife to the Queen, and although Grug couldn't understand what he was saying he understood the threat. Grug croaks a command to the Froglins, telling them to stop trying to help the Queen, they would hurt her if they continued.

Grug realises that they did not intend to kill the queen, instead interpreting this as revenge. Lolgmololg speaks a message into Grug's mind, telling him to return to her. Grug is faced with the two options of going after the Queen and disobeying Lolmololg, or returning to Froglin Town and losing the mother. Lolmololg calls for his return again, that their attack on the Scoutpost could not wait, and Grug returns to Froglin town, abandoning his mother. He finds Froglins standing on the shore of Lolgmololg's lake, waiting for him to speak and help them understand what was happening. Grug falls to his knees by the shore, telling Lolgmololg that he hoped it to be worth it, that they would get the Queen back, he knew she'd always hated her, but she was their mother, his mother. Lolgmololg responds, telling him that she was their god, and she could give them more. She tells him to rally the war parties, it was time.

### Interlude 1 - Have You Seen My Hat?

Nikignik describes to the Dreamers an encounter which the pov individual did not think much of on its first occurrence, the man they met was tall but not the tallest they'd ever seen, and while he wore strange cloths and carried a lantern to them half of Gettysburg seemed to live permanently in costume. He raised his free hand to them and asks if they'd seen his hat, they had not. They pass him again, and again, until the night comes when they realise that the back of his head was missing. They bring a hat for him on the last night, as baseball cap. When he tries to take it from them his hands find no purchase in its physical form, but he doesn't seem to notice, and he smiles at them, and thanks them before disappearing. They leave the had on the pavement and begin to walk again. There was only one ghost in Gettysburg now, and it was them.

## Story 2 - Four Horsemen

Oswald Biggs Botulus sits at his conference table in the Prime Dream and yells at Anderson Faust, Melanie Flores, Velma Burfield, and Lady Ethel Mallory, telling them that somewhere along the line, he'd apparently made some bad hiring decisions, because disaster tails the four of them (see Episode 72 - Errors), sarcastically asking if they were the four horsemen of his personal apocalypse. Brooklyn Williams thinks to herself that of they were the four horse men, then Velma was probably Plague, Anderson was Death, Melanie Famine, and Brooklyn supposed she worked for War. Ethel asks Oswald to explain why he'd called them there, and he tells her that it was because the four of their individual failures were attached to each other, starting with Velma, blaming her for the drinking water at Dreaming Box Aries becoming corrupted by black rain (see the awakening of Dreaming Box Aries). Velma tells him that it might not have happened had they had a better filtration system, but Anderson tells her that they'd only have known to improve his system if she'd kept better track of their customers health. This is news to Brookly, who was previously only aware of the Stonemaid terrorist attack narrative in regard to Box Aries (see Episode 11 - Hearts).

Oswald tells them that he was blaming both of them, but people also wouldn't be waking up had they not also had a marketing problem, turning to Ethel and reminding her that public relations was in her job description. She tells him that no business saw constant growth upward, and that slow periods allowed for new development and innovation. Melanie agrees with her, telling Oswald that they'd be able to make things better, but Ethel comments that they wouldn't be able to with Melanie's faulty leadership. Oswald turns to Anderson, telling him that he'd given him the Other Riot project because he needed another Riot Maidstone, but now he didn't have a Riot (see Episode 72 - Errors), so he was considering the project a failure. Anderson tells him that he'd [Anderson] been successful, the issue had been with Other Riot's cage. Oswald turns to Melanie, asking her how she'd messed everything up so spectacularly. Melanie tries to turn the blame to Ethel, telling him that she'd [Ethel] known this would happen. Oswald tells her that was a heck of an allegation, bringing up security footage of The RV Gang's rescue from Episode 72 - Errors, asking Ethel if she'd known any of it was going to happen. She tells him she hadn't (see Episode 60 - Flies), that she'd been asleep at the time. The images change to Melanie leading Riot to Valerie Maidstone's chambers (see Episode 72 - Errors), and Ethel asks Melanie if she'd know anything about all the doors of Box Andromeda opening right before the heist (see Episode 72 - Errors and Danielle O'Hara). Oswald tells them he'd heard enough, demoting Melanie, wanting to know how many people had been affected by the black water, and telling them that he wanted Riot back. He leaves.

### Marketing - Such Activism

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her marketing segment. She tells the listeners that she had concerning announcements from the Botulus Corporation. She tells the Listeners that after several weeks of being strong enough to join the Prime Dream both Riot and Valerie Maidstone had suffered sudden health complications storm decades of exposure to the outside world and had both been placed in emergency treatment. She tells them that this was a good time to ask, why had a relatively unknown band leader [Valerie] become the figurehead for such activism? She tells them that as a close acquaintance of hers, she could say with certainty that the Stonemaid brand was never supposed to be about destruction, but rather, a celebration of differences.

### Story 2, Continued - Four Horsemen

Brooklyn sits curled on the ground on a Balcony off the side of Box Cassiopia, a blind spot with no camera's, with Marco Torres. She tells him that they shouldn't be up there as it was suspicious, but he tells her that them being suspicious was the least of Botco's worries at the moment and asks her what was wrong. She tells him that she'd overheard some things she wasn't supposed to. He asks her if she was in trouble, but she tells him she wasn't. He tells her that if she didn't want to tell him what was upsetting her specifically, then she could tell him how she was feeling. She tells him that the whole time she'd thought they had been doing something good, saving people and helping them survive. Now she wasn't sure. She tells him that she had a cousin at Box Aries, and that the official story of what had happened to the members of Box Aries (see Episode 11 - Heats) wasn't true. They hadn't been disconnected form the Prime Dream because they'd woken up, it was because their drinking water had been contaminated by the back rain, and when they woke up, people realized what was happening to their bodies. Botco would never put them back because they could tell other people. And it wasn't just Box Aries, there could be others and Botco didn't know what to do.

She tells him that this hadn't been the point, that they were bombarding people not in Dreaming Boxes with advertisements so that they could stop drinking the water from out there and come drink it from inside a Dreaming Box. Marco tries to tell her that it wasn't her fault, but she tells him it wasn't his fault, because he was in the security department, but she was part of the marketing department, so the blood was on her hands too. Marco tells her that they'd both been doing what they'd had to do, but she tells him that she could have been doing something else, worked on another project. He tells her that he had news too, but if he told her it, his life would literally be in her hands. She asks him what it was, and he tells her that he'd received a message from the Stonemaids, that if they provided it to them, then they might be able to help them escape Botco.

### Interlude 2 - A Cosmic Twist

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that there were many forms of life that dwelled in their cold expanse of a universe, products of evolution and gardening, blooming like flowers, withered like rose petals. And above them, Indescribable life, great titans and lurking presences, timeless worms and chitinous horrors, serene lovers and impossible destroyers, the engines and the scientists of the cosmos, those that congregate in the Council of Heavens. But there are others, he tells the Dreamers, that their kind would also call Indescribable. Great Destroyers, when they had grown large, and soul-eating parasites, and the ghouls that haunt the back alleys of their dimension. More of these than they would expect had turned their attention to earth, now that it was so beautifully corrupted and free of the Industry’s grasp. There are lastly the agents of Indescribables, some created of the fire of souls, but more often a little twist of the cosmic in their mortal bones, a transformation into something new and deadly and devoted.

## Story 3 - You And I Should Talk

Zelda Duckworth talks to Jonah Duckworth about the arrival of the Fort Freedom members, the episode segment picking up immediately after Episode 73 - Retributions. Jonah notices that alot of the Fort Freedom members were heavily armed, finding this strange as part of their deal with the Scoutpost had been about them being short on weapons (see Episode 59 - Friends). Zelda comments on them not looking very friendly, offering to tell them to 'get a move on', but Jonah tells her that Violet Keene was in her office talking to them about that and sorting it out. He asks Zelda if she was doing okay, but she tells him that she was alright, she could get around just fine. Al was a handful, and he reminded her of Jonah. He asks her if she'd seen Hector Mendoza around, that he'd said goodnight to him the day before (see Episode 69 - Angles) but hadn't seen his recently. Zelda tells him that she didn't know, but didn't think so, asking if everything was okay between Jonah and Hector. Jonah reassures her that they were happy but tells her they were still trying to figure things out, what life was going to look like for them, that Hector was a bit of a lone wolf, and Jonah had been feeling strange (see Episode 42 - Walls), but she tells him that he'd always been strange, and life looked like whatever they wanted it to look like.

Jackie rises her head from beside Jonah's feet and starts growling at Buck Silver who was crouching in the doorway. Jonah greets him, but Buck tells him that he wasn't supposed to be there, that the Scoutpost shouldn't have let Fort Freedom in as they didn't mean them any good, that he didn't know entirely what they were planning, but Mrs. Wicker was big on survival, taking what they needed, and he was pretty sure she was going to take their stuff. Zelda tells Jonah she'd told him so and switches off the safety on her shotgun. He tells them that he was there because Ihe didn't want to be a part of Fort Freedom, and he wanted to stay at the Scoutpost, if they'd have him. Zelda accuses him of being a spy. Jonah asks Buck how much time they had, just in time for Big Mikey to crawl out from his post beside Lurch Lake Gate to ask for a new book. The Fort Freedom members unload their guns in Mikey's general direction, and then the Frogsticker that they'd been keeping under the tarp on the flatbed gets loose, and in the distant treeline the Froglin war party arrives. The Scoutpost's population comes out in arms. Zelda shoots at the Frogsticker as it passed by, getting its attention. It impales Jonah, killing him. He wakes up in the temple of the end, and rather than being alone as he usualy is (see Jonah Duckworth) he is met by the rat king, who tells him that they needed to talk. He tells them that he'd be back later, but he had to go and rescue his mother.

## Outro - Loyalties

Nikignik waxes poetics about loyalties, telling the Dreamers that they only owed allegiances to those they chose, their responsibility was to care for their body and this life of theirs as long as they were here to steward them. He tells them to be gentle with their head and heart and hands, for they were not designed to carry much weight. He asks them what gave them peace, brought them happiness? Where in life did they find sanctuary, and the small joys that made it an experience worth having? Telling them that to these things they should cling, as they would make it easier to weather what was to come.