Episode 126 - Recoveries

A black background with white, corner bound borders made of leaves that fade into dots. Within the border a male presenting figure depicted in white with no face stands with their arms behind their back. They are naked with the exception of a long strip of fabric (depicted in white) that is wrapped around their waist and seems to float at either side of them, being somewhat reminiscent of wings. The figure has a halo of sorts behind their head depicted in red, and in several places are skewered by red lines. Below this image but within the border the words "126.RECOVERIES" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Rick meets his match, Diggory deals with loneliness, and Ray catches up with a friend. The theme of tonight's episode is Recoveries

> ***Content warning**:* *Abuse, Ableism, Animal death (Tulip as usual), Violence, Death + Injury, Blood, Birds, Gun Mention, Emotional Manipulation, Drowning, Body horror, Alcohol Use, Smoking, getting shot many times with a modified nail gun, religious themes, paralysis, surgery, needles, knives*
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## Intro - Locked In

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of Mx. Morrell, continuing on from the intro of Episode 45 - Tombs. They feel themselves decay in a state of paralysis, but after the anxious dread came silence, and they found that silence was not bad. Perhaps they'd needed the peace and quiet, the time to reflect. They were not alone, feeling their skin be knitted back together with fungus, and Rothogroth whispered into their head his first command.

Nikignik sits in the same sunken chapel as they did in Episode 112 - Watchers overlooking G.C. Crane/Tulip and Rick Rounds.

## Story 1 - Mercy's Due

Rick Rounds signs to G.C. Crane/Tulip to the best of his capabilities, asking if the work of cleaning the tombstones (see Episode 119 - Winters) would ever end. Crane don't answer him, but he understood that they did the work for the sake of having a reason to keep waking up each morning. He lays his head back on Tulip's ribs, waxes poetics to God about the world being abandoned by him, having gone through twenty years of tribulations. He tells God about how he'd met the devil, and been told to 'get lost', asking what they were supposed to do now. Crane asks him if he believed in God, but he tells them that he didn't know, that he thought it was just devils like him and them. They hear the sound of intruding vehicles in the distance and get up to go out into the graveyard and investigate. They find the surrounding forest on fire, before Frank Bosco gets Rick's attention, reminding him of how he'd said he'd be back to make him regret (see Episode 119 - Winters). Rick goes to rebuke this but is shot in the chest before he can finish his sentence. Crane runs off, presumably to fight unnamed lackies, and Rick hears Bosco loading an industrial nail gun, and begins discharging into him.

Boco tells Rick that no one crossed Liberty City, and more importantly no one crossed Frank Bosco, but Rick tells him that he didn't give a damn about who he was, but he shouldn't have set the forest on fire as Crane would have his head for it. Bosco continues to fire nails into him to the point of temporary incapacitation. Rick realises that Frank was preparing to execute him, but hears the sound of Tulip approaching, and distracts him by telling him that he should have coated the nails in silver so that they might actually kill him (see Revenants). Crane hits Bosco on the back of the head with a tree branch, Rick removing one of the nails and stabbing Bosco in the chest. Rick gets up, grabs the nail gun, and looks down to see Bosco at his feet begging for mercy. He recounts to Bosco how Polly had taken mercy on him (see Episode 89 - Terminations), that the two of them were alot alike, before he fires a nail into Bosco's skull, killing him and confessing to his corpse that the devil was a better man than he was. Crane comes up behind him, and he tells them that he was sorry about the forest as he'd known that it meant alot to them, but if it helped, he knew another one that they might like (see The Hallowoods).

### Interlude 1 - Twenty Years

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that it had been twenty years since the black rains fell on their earth, and the end of their age began. The Heart had been thawing before then, and in that time, what drastic changes they had seen, but if the Heart is destroyed, what would happen to it all? Would they feel it die, for if they drank of the earth, they had partaken in the heart. Would they know the moment that it beat for the last time? Would its effects ever disappear, or would they continue to grow of their own volition? He tells them that there was only one way to find out.

## Story 2 - All My Splintered Selves

Diggory Graves, following the events of Episode 122 - Creeps, finds that through friction they had managed to melt some wriggle space around them. In the 24hrs since Percy Reed left them, he had not returned, and they regret having not pleaded with him to stay. Creep had not returned either, which they were glad for because they knew that when it did it meant all their friends were dead. Able to see themselves in the reflection of the black ice surrounding them, they summon Granny Mend (see Episode 7 - Nightmares).

She appears to them the cracks of the ice and begins to sing for them the same lullaby she did in Episode 29 - Strangers. They ask her if she could recognise them, if she could help them. But they understand that she could not, because the individual singing to them was not the same Irene Mend who made the, rather a remnant, a repetition, a memory of her. She finishes the lullaby as she did before, telling Diggory that they were going to be very special before leaning to give them a mockery of a kiss on the head. Diggory weeps, and at her touch, falls asleep.

### Marketing - Without Concentrate

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her 'marketing' segment. She tells them Dreamers that she'd woken up that morning and thought, '*I wonder if any birds have flown into my trap in the night*', she tells them that this was a huge achievement for her because every other morning she'd woken up and wondered where her concentrate was (see Episode 105 - Dependencies). That wasn't to say she was off the black water entirely, even though they might judge her as it was obvious that it made her worse. She tells the that she knew it is. But it was a part of her, going without the water felt like dying, and she knew that she'd never be considered beautiful again. At that point she was trying to learn how to live with her damage and do it well.

### Story 2, Continued - All My Splintered Selves

Diggory dreams themself to once again be on the shore of bone (see Episode 118 - Nevermore), this time joined by Rizwana Mirza. They ask her if she'd known what Irene had made them for (see Episode 120 - Wilds), and if she had it was cruel of her to have told them what she had in Episode 26 - Needles. She tells them that she'd wanted to believe it, and she'd wanted them to believe it, so that they might not follow the life another had written for them. They remind her that if they did not follow that pre-written life, all of their friends would die, and humankind would go extinct. They ask her why she had not told them of their real mission, and she tells them that she had no steak, no one left to lose. This baffles and angers Diggory, who reminds her of Cindy Lockheart, Valerie Maidstone, and Riot Maidstone, that there were still people who she'd once wished to build a world for. Despite this, she tells them that the world was already over.

Evelyn Fry approaches them and sits beside Diggory. She tells Diggory that they were all sorry, that they'd wanted better for them [Diggory], that if they decided to destroy the heart or not, they'd understand. Ruth Esther Barnes also joins them, telling Diggory that whatever they chose to do, it would make a difference, in stopping the heart they would allow for future generations to live on. August Palls tells them that the others were quick to talk about the future, but none of them had ever seen it. He apologises to Diggory for having given them his gift - though they'd never predict what was going to happen, they could make decisions they knew they wouldn't regret later. He tells them to do what felt right in the moment and the future would follow. Chance Ward, the last of the Crew made Diggory, joins them. He tells Diggory that he wished he had some smart words to tell them, but all he had was that it wasn't easy. and it was never going to be. But everything Rizwana had said the first time (see Episode 26 - Needles) she had meant. It was Diggory's choice to make, and whatever it was, they were behind them. The group embrace Diggory.

### Interlude 2 - Consequence of Dream

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that last time he'd spoke to them he'd gotten carried away (see Episode 125 - Recollections), that he'd try not to do this again as the Dreamers had to remembered that they were not the only ones listening. Great Destroyers, the residences of the Dream-City of Distant Kazanth, the Illik-Mar in their desolate monasteries, the Ascended Scientists in their research laboratories, Rothogroth, Zazzlezazz, Syrensyr, and more minds than he could count. The words he spoke had consequence, wondering how long until Syrensyr saw fit to try and silence him, even if at current his broadcast was insignificant to the Industry.

## Story 3 - Ray Marley: Ghost Hunter

Charlie talks to Ray Marley about him wanting to start a TV show called "*Ray Marley: Ghost Hunter for Hire*", where he'd prove the existence of the paranormal, to Charlie's scepticism. The two sit drinking at an establishment on the beach, Ray tells Chalie to lighten up, as if Charlie really didn't believe in the supernatural, they wouldn't' be in business together. Charlies explains to him that he did believe, and he believed that it was a bad idea to put something on TV to charge old ladies 'big bucks' to clear the ghosts of their cats of out of their garages. Ray comments that all of the artefacts that Charlie sold were not authentically haunted either, that 90% of the time there was no ghost, but the 10% was what would keep people chasing magic. Charlie tells him not to chase it too hard, or else it might catch up to him one day, and Ray goes to answer, but finds that his flashback had begun to disorientate.

Ray wakes up (see Episode 82 - Failures) to find himself in The Spidle's workshop, having been suspended up and stripped back and repaired from the spare parts of other automobiles laying around him. The Spindle makes their presence known, welcoming Ray back to 'the land of the living'. Ray immediately asks if Moth Scarberry was alright, but the Spindle tells him to worry about himself first, as they were not done assembling him yet. They continue to tend to him, telling him that for a while they'd though t he was irreparably damaged. Ray tells them that he wished he could say it was nice to see them, but this is a lie. Ray silently swears to Moth that wherever moth was, once he was fixed and free, he was coming for moth.

## Outro - Recoveries

Nikignik waxes poetics about recoveries telling then that if only it was clear to know when they had reached the end of healing, that surely there must be such a point, for what was the purpose of the painful improvement otherwise? If it was all for nothing, then getting better sounded like an eternity of work. But then again, what would eternity be without it? He tells the Dreamers that perhaps, even if the years to come were painful, and it grieved him to let his wounds scar over, he needed it. He needed to find himself, better with each revolution of the sun, a little further from the darkness he had come from, a little closer to the darkness ahead.