Episode 115 - Fishes

## Fishes

A black background with a white border resembling lines of small bubbles. Within the border two image are seen, one a half-decayed seagull depicted in white. The other a fish depicted in red reminiscent of those from European medieval art, laying on its side with a cross through its visible eye in the place of a pupil. The fish has a flowing line coming from it's gills, part of which eh seagull holds in its mouth. Bellow these images but still within the border the words "115.FISHES" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Clara makes a compact, Mort dreams of the sea floor, and Bert bites back. The theme of tonight’s episode is Fishes.

> ***Content warning**:* *Animal death (Beast as usual, Bert not as usual), Suicidal Thoughts, Violence, Death + Injury, Blood, Birds, Emotional Manipulation, Body horror*
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## Intro - The One Wondering

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of Jonah Duckworth during his days as a fisherman. They tell them that he found the long voyages at sea awkward because he was the one wondering. Wondering if the other fisherman might ever consider him as a viable option for a lover. He stirs into the water to avoid staring at them. In the water he sees a shape, hundred times larger than the fish he'd have been netting, and it stared back at him, an abyssal thing with a thousand green lights like distant stars pulsing in its surface, lights that beckoned him down into the water.

Nikignik resides inside of Fishbone's eye as it is carried by Clara Martin.

## Story 1 - Into The Compact

Clara Martin explores the contents of a book, having been transported inside of it (see Episode 100 - Centuries), which she calls "the Compact". She tells her companion, a large fish named Fishbone, that he'd better be correct when he'd told her that time passed quicker in the Compact then it did in the outside world, as she'd spent years in the place by then (in intervals) and didn't want to be returning to find herself all wrinkly. Fishbone asks if he would lie to her, and she tells her that yes, he would, as he lied to her all the time, calling him a bad friend. He tells her that he wasn't her friend, that he didn't owe her anything, asking why she carried him around. She tells him that she wasn't sure, maybe it was so she could have someone to talk to. Fishbone tells her that if she was alone on the outside as well, she could summon him, but she sarcastically tells him that he would like that. He tells her that she was not the first to attempt the journey, some wound up wondering forever, and those who found what they were looking for rarely seemed to get what they wanted. She asks if those people were Syrensyr Covenants like her, as they were trying to steal something, she was just taking what belonged to her.

Fishbone asks what she wanted with the power of the Industry anyway, and she tells him that she was there for he parents (see Episode 2 - Dogs). He tells her that he didn't have parents, but he couldn't imagine having spent so much time fixated on them. He tells her that she would stay in the Compact with him. Clara finds her destination of a large chamber lined with stairs like an amphitheatre, at the bottom of which was a large stone table, stamped with several glyphs in the corner and a long line. Fishbone congratulates her for making it to the end of the Compact, and she puts him down and staps toward the table, it lighting on fire as she did so. He asks her what she'd do if none of what she'd done was worth it, if it was all the greatest waist of her life. She wishes him goodbye, sticking her hand in the fire and feeling it consume her. Clara wakes up back at Downing Hill public Library, the book on her lap and no external signs of her journey. She heads to class.

### Interlude 1 - From The Sky

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that they'd spent their whole lives in the comfortable avenues of what they knew. He asks them to imagine that one day they sought out rations to feed themself and look up all too late to realize that the sky has been split in two by a dark disturbance, and they could not escape, were seized by life of an unfathomable scale and pulled upwards into the heavens. They would not enjoy it, and yet they continued to fish in the Hallowoods. The lakes grew over with more ice each day. He tells the Dreamers to go home, to their families, friends, to wherever they thought a comfortable place to spend the winter. To stay inside until spring came, and the water warmed again. Give the fish some rest and pray that nothing peeled open their sky to swallow them.

## Story 2 - More Than The Fishes

Mort sits with Riot Maidstone in a clearing after the events of Episode 114 - Organs. Mort asks if Beast might want to be friend with them, but Riot tells him that it was just an animal, and animals couldn't be friends. Mort goes to point out that Heidi was their friend, but they hadn't seen her or Hector Mendoza since they'd fled, so instead her tells her that Bert was his fiend, despite him [Bert] trying to kill him [Mort] at first (see Episode 9 - Birds). She tells him that Nimbus was friendly as well, but Beast had not seemed friendly. Mort asks what Riot was doing, and she tells him that she was making an entry into Walt's Almanac. He tells her that the drawings were good, that he wished he could draw, and she hands him a pencil and the book flipped to an empty page and tells him to give it a try. She tells him that she remembered him from Episode 46 - Teeth, and he tells her that he hadn't known Walter 'Walt' Pensive, but he was helping Polly and Yaretzi. Riot asks if they were the wolf man and demon lady, and Mort tells her that it was the other way around bus yes, telling her that they were nice to him but weren't families always?

Riot tells him that they were supposed to be, but not always telling Mort about how Valerie Maidstone hadn't even said goodbye to her (see Episode 106 - Departures). Mort tells her that he hadn't said goodbye either (see Episode 103 - Crossroads). The two vent to each other, concluding that neither of their respective family members would be able to understand why they'd needed to go on the expedition. Mort gives her back the book, having drawn a picture from the perspective of someone at the bottom of the ocean looking up at the fish (see Episode 3 - Books), and Riot tells him that it was good, abstract. Cindy Lockheart calls to Olivier Song as he landed, having been flying around looking for Hector. She asks him if he'd found Hector, but Olivier tells her that he hadn't and that they needed to get moving again. Right as he says this Beast pushes its way into the clearing.

### Marketing - Middle Of Nowhere

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her 'marketing' segment. She tells the Dreamers that she was in the middle of nowhere, that she hadn't thought places like it still existed, void of any signs of humans. She says that even without the Billboards, she could still see her reflection in the water, thought it wasn't really Lady Ethel Mallory. Lady Ethel Mallory was a beautiful woman, a symbol, famous - and people loved famous people. She had gorgeous fashion and amazing sunglasses and all the riches of the world at her feet. The reflection was her twisted and malformed, her having experienced everything that Ethel had up till that point. She didn't even know what she was hanging on for. She was someone who she'd ignored for twenty years, someone she barely even knew.

### Story 2, Continued - More Than The Fishes

Beast runs towards the group, but Mort stands his ground. Diggory Graves calls for him to flee, and he tells them he will, but they had to run first. Beast stands on its hind legs, and Mort greats it, asking if it wanted to be his friend.

Beast only roars at him and goes to attack him, Mort deciding that it was decidedly not friendly. The two fight, Mort's silver suite burning Beast to the touch, but Beast surprises Mort and slams its paw down on his dome like a hammer. Nikignik breaks to tell the Dreamers that Mort was alright as he was built to withstand more than Beast, but still it was concerning (see Episode 103 - Crossroads).

### Interlude 2 - Responsibility

Nikignik continues from Story 2 - More Than The Fishes, asking the Dreamers to imagine if Mort had died. Asking if they [Nikignik] would be responsible for that. The broadcast was already so different to how he'd thought it would be. He tells the Dreamers that the problem with trying to do anything was that one would never be sure they did it right until after. Any missteps now could cost so many lives, and he felt that if fell on his shoulders. Mort was alright, but lost in thought, remembering being Bartholomew 'Barty' Chum. And then he was back, with his friends, and a giant bear loomed ahead of him and bore down again with its claws.

## Story 3 - The Brightest Bird

Bert reflects of what had led her to become a part of the Colony (see Episode 9 - Birds), and from there lead to her traveling with Mort. She wonders why she liked him, maybe it was that he was shiny, or that he'd taken apart the Colony and smelled like them ever since, or that he was dead like her. But if she hat to pick a reason why she'd decided to follow Mort instead of staying with the rest of the Colony, it would be because he was as welcoming to her as any nest or tree or gentle place.

And now, as Beast tried to rep Mort apart, she calls out for the Colony a second time (see Episode 36 - Swords). Once finished with her summoning, she attacks Beast, flying at its skull and gnawing at its eyes. It pulls away from Mort to swing at her, but she dodges, looking to the sky in wait for the Colony. She realises that they weren't coming, that she was alone, but just as quickly decides that Mort was her colony and all she needed. She continues to attack Best, until it catches her in the wing and slams her to the ground, flattening her into one long mass. It only occurs to Bert that she was hungry, and about to die, and like the shiny red of Mort's paint. She watches as Mort runs into the trees as Best begins to eat her, and then in death she thinks of nothing else.

## Outro - Fishes

Nikignik waxes poetics about fishes, saying they were abhorrent creatures for the most part. He tells the Dreamers that Lolgmololg had long laid claim to the life that churns about in the mud and thought not of the future in any way. He wonders now if he had been too hasty in my judgment. Did he mock her because she enjoyed relaxation and solitude? Must everything that he did be a testament to his ability and value? He had eschewed the Council of Heavens, but he knew they still listened to echoes of his broadcast. Maybe he should be like a fish - sleep somewhere, or drift wherever the sunlight and the current led, and think not of anyone. Just exist, a living thing for the sake of being alive and nothing more. A disappointment, really, but only in that there was an absence of expectation entirely. But he could not sleep yet.