Episode 42 - Walls

## Walls

A black background with a white geometric border. Within the border a white brick wall is depicted, the middle of which has collapsed outwards, displaying a large red atomically accurate heart levitating in the hole. The space on the wall that are still hole depict white vines creeping along them. Below this image but still within the border the words "42.WALLS" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Elena says goodbye, Violet takes shelter, and Hector goes on a date. The theme of tonight’s episode is Walls.

***Content Warnings:** Animal death (Heidi as usual), gun mention, static (including sfx), and emotional manipulation.*

## Intro - Grasping Root

Nikignik narrates to the Dreamers the Hallowoods. No one who challenged it walked away, as it would punish them with its roots and its branches, it's strange life that lived within it. None of them had angered it as much as Solomon Reed, so every day its roots squeezed tighter around this barrier, it grew higher to try and take away his sunlight. It would show him the error of his ways, it would crush his house, destroy his instruments, feed on his bones.

Nikignik is sitting in a rocking chair on a balcony overlooking the Scoutpost, but has to move to beside it due to Zelda Duckworth sitting down in it, next to Elena Alder.

## Story One - What You Can Get

Elena Alder sits next to Zelda Duckworth and Winona Carline and thinks about the nature of her relationship with Zelda Duckworth. That in her life you took what you could get, and that seeing as she didn't have a mother, she's taken on Zelda as her mother figure, her only really being a particularly friendly customer. Zelda asks Elena if her house was 'gone', and Elena confirms for her that it was almost completely underwater, but they might still be able to recover some of her possessions. Elena states that she'd saved Zelda some stuff herself, and pulls out a few collectible spoons, a little silver watch, a pair of wedding rings, a ceramic flamingo taken from the mantel, and a number of polaroid photographs all wrapped in a piece of burlap cloth. Zelda quips about Elena just wanting to sell her things, but immediately starts thanking her once she sees the photos, which she starts thumbing through and describing the contents of each to Elena, a picture of them on their way up to the house when they first moved in (them being Zelda and Dexter Duckworth, it is unspecified if Jonah Duckworth was with them), them repairing the house, and a picture of Dexter, which reminds Zelda to ask if they'd recovered her shotgun. Winona speaks up, telling Zelda that Jonah probably had it, but she should be taking it easy, as she could barely walk (see Episode 7 - Nightmares, Episode 10 - Songs, Episode 16 - Crowns, Episode 23 - Sunsets, and Episode 27 - Spirits) and she didn't need to be scaring the residence of the Scoutpost with her gun and attitude yet. Zelda sarcastically says that she doesn't have an attitude, before grabbing both Winona and Elena by their hands and thanks them both for not having given up on her, that she thought she was going to die.

Winona reminds Zelda that she had Hector Mendoza to thank for finding her as he'd done all the tracking. Jonah steps up onto the railing and adds that Hector was thankful to her too to the conversation, and Zelda tells him to come give his mother a hug, which he obliges. Elena thinks to herself that she was happy they'd managed to find Zelda, as she'd had people disappear on her before. She asks Winona when they were going to be leaving, and Winona tells her that it would be soon, latter on that morning as it was a long drive back to the dry market, and Elena's father was probably worried about her, which she retorts that he was more likely worried about his wears. She states that Zelda probably wouldn't be visiting the Dry Market as much, and Zelda confirms, they say their goodbyes, and Winona tells Zelda that she wouldn't have to worry about the Instrumentalist for much longer (see Episode 40 - Graves). Zelda asks if they were going to say goodbye to the others, and they say so, but they they were probably going to be at Solomon Reed's house when the time came to storm it. Elena and Winona leave the Scoutpost

Elena asks Winona if she was going to help Riot Maidstone with storming Solomon's house, and Winona answers inconclusively. She [Elena] then asks if she had known how their first attempt (see Episode 36 - Swords) was going to go, and Winona tells her that she'd seen bits of it, but she'd hoped that they would have wound up being part of a much happier picture then what wound up happening. Elena says that she supposed that they would have to tell "the others" that Friends of Zelda's was done, and Winona says that they didn't have to disperse, as there were other women who would need someone looking out for them, and that Elena was fun to have around.

### Interlude 1 - Watchful Things

Nikignik says to the dreamers, that before the black rains it was a common through that when the apocalypse happened, that it would be best to go north. And when the apocalypse did happen, many did, unknown what they would find up there, of evolved new life, the dead who refused to stay buried, and land vanishing to rising water and growing forests. He goes on to talk about The Hallowoods, how their trees where watchful things who were easy to anger, and could be very violent when they felt threatened. He warns travellers not to view the woods as simple lumber, should their corpses serve as its fertiliser.

## Story Two - The Diplomat's Dilemma

Violet Keene wakes up to find Bern Keene still in bed, which she immediately asks her about, as she'd normally be awake by then, only to get silence as her answer, which was all she needed to understand what was happening. She says that she was unable to believe it either, that she kept expecting to wake up and find that the events of the past few days had all been a bad dream, which Bern grunts to in agreement. They continue to lay together, during which Violet falls asleep again, and wakes to up find Bern gone, which she takes as her sign to also get out of bed. She steps outside to find the sun already well in the sky and that daily activities had already begun, though all noticeably hushed, to no surprise after the death of Walt Pensive (see Episode 36 - Swords), and the fear of the Instrumentalists pending attack. She is wished a good morning by Zelda, Hector, and Jonah, who she looks up to find sitting on the balcony. She asks Hector how his head was (see Episode 26 - Needles) and he tells her that it had been better, but he'd be able to go back out onto the field when the time came. Violet questions what he meant by this, and he tells her that he was going to be helping Riot when she attacked Solomon. Violet says that there had been alot of high-strung emotions when she'd made her speech (see Episode 40 - Graves), and Hector asks her if she thought she was going to be able to stop her. Zelda states that she was sure Solomon was still out there, watching and waiting, but Jonah tells her that he she wasn't going to have to worry about him [Solomon] for much longer.

Violet continues walking, cursing all the things Solomon had done to them in her internal monolog. That after a lifetime of bringing people together, she was watching it all crash and burn because of one old man who felt entitled to their lives. She assess the state of the Scoutpost: The McGowan's were still shaken after Russel had almost gotten eaten by Mr. Friendly, the gardens had been growing well, but she could swear the plans growing were not the ones she'd planted, the 'Wildlife of the Hallowoods’ seminar had gone well, a new baby had been born, one of the water filters had broken, and fuel was low, but it was always low.

A few hours after this, when she's done with her check ups, she spots Riot in Walt's hearse. She approaches to find Riot going through all of Walt's things, and Diggory Graves stinting with Walt's Almanac on on their lap. They greet each other, though Riot's is noticeably lacklustre. She asks if they were soring through Walt's possessions, and Riot tells her they were, that Walt had had a place for everything, but hadn't labelled anything. She tells them she was sure he would have liken them going through and organising his things, but Riot tells her she was relay just looking for anything she might be able to use when she went to kill Solomon. Violet tells her that she'd actually been meaning to talk to Riot about her plan, and comments on the speech she'd given the night before (see Episode 40 - Graves), and Riot tells her that she hadn't really planned to give it, and that it'd been improvised. She says that se new it'd been improvised, she if she'd said anything she didn't actually mean or hadn't though through, but Riot cuts her off saying that she'd meant every word of what she'd said, and that she did plan on killing Solomon. Violet says that she admired her confidence, but they all knew Solomon was a dangerous and what he could do to people, and that she didn't want Riot to get hurt. Riot tells Bern that she was already hurt, and that she was tired of hurting. Violet tells her that she had no responsibility to deal with Solomon, and that they weren't going to let her fight Solomon.

### Marketing - Screening Process

Lady Ethel Mallory cuts Nikignik off with her marketing segment. She announces that after the arrival of Bill Scarberry, many people had been asking Botco about the efficiency of their screening process, on if they were letting dangerous individua's into the Prime Dream. She states that firstly she was happy to see everyone looking out for their communities, and that it was this vigilance what as going to help them stop future terrorist, and that secondly there were no Stonemaids outside of the dreaming boxes (see Episode 75 - Loyalties, Episode 81 - Fears, and Episode 89 - Terminations), and that their were apprised for several factors, including personal history, occupation experience, credit history, physical health, respect for authority, work ethic, personality type, and their proclivity towards rebellion.

### Story Two, Continued

Riot look at Violet confused, and she [Violet] restates that they couldn't lose Riot to Solomon, and that someone else was going to take care of it. Riot asked Violet if she actually though they were safe at the Scoutpost, which, Violet didn't, but she says that they built the walls of The Scoutpost to keep things like Solomon out, that they were going to heighten security. Riot reminds Violet of what she'd told her when she first came to The Scoutpost (see Episode 3 - Books), that Solomon wasn't going to stop, and that he was either going to pick them off slowly of show up one day with a thunderstorm (see Olivier Song) and an army of ghosts and kill them all in one go. That they [The Scoutpost] probably did wish they could just shut themselves off from the awfulness that was the world, but it had to be Riot who killed Solomon. Violet tells her once again that they weren't letting her go, but Riot tells her that, no offence, but she wasn't her Mum, and she didn't work for her. Violet understands that there was no negotiating with Riot, so she decides on an alternative. She tells Riot that they were coming with her, and by then she meant all of The Scoutpost. Solomon had made it well and clear that he wasn't looking for diplomacy. Even if none of Walt's 'friends' showed up (see Episode 40 - Graves), they would still have numbers on their side. Riot responds with surprise, stating that she'd intended to show up and have a one-on-one face off with Solomon, but Violet tells her that that was nonsense, that she'd have The Scoutpost to back her when they all went to burn his house down. Violet wishes her good luck with her sorting and leaves the hearse to plan for their upcoming attack.

### Interlude 2 - Never Safe

Nikignik says that there were walls in the universe, but they were not as heavy as the walls in humans' hearts. It was true that people were destroyed by calamities, a bursting star, a wayward asteroid, but it was more often than not they were destroyed by the barriers they have built for themselves. He says that he thinks it's a part of human instinct, to fear the unknown and separate the world into a 'us' and a 'them'. These walls were more difficult to dismantle than any made of stone or iron, to be able to wield understanding and comprehension in the place of tools and a sledgehammer, to change from thinking that danger came from siblings in life and understand that it came from the endless sky above all of our heads. The universe had no respect for the walls we put up, and if we shut out the world we will wither alone.

## Story 3 - Beauty

Hector walks side by side with Jonah and thinks to himself that beauty wasn't something he thought of very often, nor was it something with any quantity of meaning to him. But, looking at Jonah it was something that was suddenly on his mind. Jonah asks him what he's thinking about, and Hector lies telling him that he was thinking about how much ground they'd covered over the past few weeks, as they'd done alot of walking. Jonah tells him that when it came to that Hector would know more than he did, as his travel time was all messed up (see Jonah Duckworth). Hector thinks to himself how Jonah had changed since they'd first met, about how he was much calmer, and seemed to be at peace. Jonah thanks Hector for coming after him, that he understood Zelda had asked him to, but he didn't have to. He asks him why he did it, and Hector tells him that he'd been expecting to find a body, which he supposed he had, but he didn't have very many friends and Zelda had been heartbroken when Jonah left (see Episode 1 - Keys and Episode 2 - Dogs), he couldn't have just left her like that. Jonah asks him if he would have gone looking for him again if he'd known all the crazy stuff he was going to get pulled into, and Hector tells him that he would, that he'd learned how to manage thing alot bigger and meaner then they had any right to be; but the Faceless King, The cabinets, the harp, were definitely alot to take in. Jonah agrees and begins laying out a picnic blanket and basket.

Jonah says that Zelda was getting her strength back, half joking that soon the whole Scoutpost was going to regret inviting her. Hector tells Jonah that he'd brought him out to talk to him, and Jonah tells him that he also wanted to tell him something. Hector awkwardly tells Jonah that he should go first, but Jonah insists. Hector tells Jonah that he'd been alone for a very long time, and in the time, he'd only ever been focused on the current. But he'd met Jonah, and he'd started thinking of the future and what it might hold for him if Jonah was in it. He asks Jonah if he wanted to stay with him. Jonah tells Hector that he [Jonah] should have gone first, that he needed to know something. He tells Hector that he'd changed, that he was different, and even though he didn't know if it was bad, he couldn't fix it. It'd stated when he'd fallen into the cabinet (see Episode 1 - Keys), and it was getting worse. He wanted to show Hector what he was talking about, and his eyes begin to glow. Hector recognises this immediately as the pull that the northmost Hallowoods have, but instead of pulling him north, he is being pulled towards Jonah. He tells Jonah that he'd learned things in the sky, that Hector had told him it'd only been a few weeks but for Jonah it felt like it'd been centuries, that he'd seen things he had no idea how to even begin describing. He points up to the sky, where the stars are burning and spinning around them. He tells Hector that he was somehow part of something bigger, and that he was sorry, because Hector had gone so far for him, at which point he starts crying, his tears landing on the ground and causing little sprouting vines to grow instantaneously. Hector thinks that he would describe this as beauty.

Hector asks if that was all, and Jonah acts surprised, reiteration that he didn't think he was even entirely human anymore, and Hector just says "Okay", that it must be frightening for him, but they'd figure it out. Jonah starts spiralling, asking if Hector had heard what he'd said, and Hector moves to sit beside him with notable struggle, and asks if Jonah still loved him. Jonah says yes, but that wasn't what he was trying to say, but is cut off by Hector telling him that was all he cared about and leaning in to kiss him. They stay embraced until the effect Jonah was having on the world around them stopped, at which point Hector states grinning. Jonah asks him why, and he simply answers that it was funny how things changed.

## Outro - Walls

Nikignik once again monologs about walls and how they tie to the hearts and souls of humans. He says that we are all the personal architects of the citadel of our souls. Warding off invaders but sometimes shutting out those who bring life and joy. But then again, this is from experience of past battles, and though it would be wise to be weary of those who we let in, this should not stop us from sharing our gardens with the world.