Episode 41 - Waters

## Waters

A black background with a white border drawn in such a way that it resembles an overflowing container. Within the border three images are depicted, to the right a white pocket watch with red hands, to the left an egg with a red eyed tadpole within. In the middle a martini glass is depicted in white half fill with a red liquid. Below these images but still within the border the words "41.WATERS" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Grug gets a promotion, Mort decides what to do next, and Nolan gets a late-night visitor. The theme of tonight’s episode is Waters.

***Content Warnings:** Violence, death + injury, blood, birds, static (including sfx), emotional manipulation, drowning, body horror, and alcohol use.*

## Intro - Fury of the Deep

Nikignik narrates Lolgmololg to the Dreamers. He talks about how she was once the size of a tidal wave and as wrathful as a hurricane, but she was now confined to her form as a mire luckier, small and insignificant. But she didn't mind this new form and role, she had less to worry about, and could send her days lazily swimming around. She enabled the Froglins in exchange for being kept well fed. But that had changed, as her last meal had been interrupted (see Episode 6 - Frogs) , making her suddenly aware of how low she had truly fallen. For this she was angry, and with this anger she decides to take action against The ScoutPost.

Nikignik is sitting in a hole in the mud in the Froglin village, of which he takes great joy in talking about how it was a disgusting place, just as everything else that Lolgmololg comes into contact with.

## Story One - Grug Goes To Work

Grug expresses fear of Lolgmololg eating him, and she had been on a foul mood ever since Jonah Duckworth and Hector Mendoza had escaped (see Episode 6 - Frogs). He steps out and begins the Froglin chant of "Lolgmololg", while he takes note of the number of sacrifices and unfortunate Froglin who'd stepped to close to the water lined the shore. The ritual begins, and Grug almost immediately attempts to run away, thinking that they could find another Drowned Priest to end up as Lolgmololg's lunch. He is shortly after brought back kicking and squirming and pushed towards the shoreline. Lolgmololg makes her presence known, and Grug suddenly finds himself no longer standing in the Froglin village, but instead floating above the Hallowoods.

He realises that Lolgmololg was behind him, no longer looking like a catfish, but standing on a thick trail of tentacles that writhed under her. She smiles at him with a mouth full of needlepoint teeth, causing Grug to scream. She reaches out, and he briefly believes she is going to kill him, but she instead points down at the woodland below. Grug looks down to find that all the villages they were standing above were populated by Froglins, before finding himself suddenly back in the Froglin camp. He finds Lolgmololg inches away from him, a giant fish against the side of the shore, looking at him. He whispers her name, and she immediately twists and dives back under the water. He finds that the Froglin's had also crept closer to him in fear and curiosity. He lets out a hunting cry, knowing that Lolgmololg's favour would return to them once they began to spread.

### Interlude - Rising Oceans

Nikignik announces that water levels were expected to rise again that year, to he surprise of no one. He tells the dreamers that they'd had a choice, that they could have fixed the problem, or get paid to ignore it, asking if they were enjoying their money now. He states that it was probably for the best that humans had never gotten around to meeting other words, seeing as they'd only had advanced technology for 200 years had found a way to use it to make themselves go extinct. He says that this was probably due to our inability to plan for the future, that we struggle to look 5 years ahead let alone 500.

## Story Two - Vacancy in the Family

Mort is talking to the Ghost in the Jukebox, and asking it to be his friend, which it seemingly agrees to (see Episode 39 - Promises). Yaretzi asks him if he was okay, he tells her that the Resting Place was loud (see Episode 39 - Promises). Yaretzi leads him to a booth away from the crowed, and he tells her that he missed Polly (see Episode 36 - Swords), Yaretzi agrees, going into a short monolog about how she would have said it was her duty to kill Polly, and must have become lost at some point because she now thought of Mort and Polly as Family. Mort states that maybe if he made more friends he wouldn't miss him as much, and Yaretzi tells him that she didn't think it worked that way. Barb suddenly cuts in, sitting next to Mort and telling him they you made friends, and you lost friends. He [Barb] once again gives his condolences to Mort and Yaretzi, that he hoped Polly was happy back in the Industry. The Countess then speaks up, suddenly sitting next to Yaretzi, telling Mort not to listen to Barb, that losing a friend was a horrible thing to go through, and indirectly scolds Barb for not going to Walt's Funeral (see Episode 40 - Graves), which Barb defends himself by saying that he'd never even met Walt.

Yaretzi asks Barb why he ran the Resting place, and he explains to her that it'd made more sense in Vegas. Yaretzi points out that she'd thought Syrensyr was the one who did business in souls, and Barb tells her that he no longer worked for Syrensyr. The Countess asks about Yaretzi, and how it was that The Carnival gang were all friendly with each other. Yaretzi explains to her what their situation was (see Yaretzi, Polly, and Mort), Mort gives a simplified recount of their first meeting (see Episode 11 - Hearts), and Barb shows and interest in the aperient of Mort's strength, saying that seeing as he'd recently lost an Employee (see Episode 15 - Cards), he might have a job to give Mort. Mort says that he wanted to keep looking at the fish and he wanted to stay with Yaretzi. Barb tells Mort that he [Barb] could do stuff for him [Mort], like giving him a home, and a new "family". Mort asks what Yaretzi would do, and Barb says that she would be welcome to join then, which Yaretzi flatly refuses. Barb summons a contract, and Mort begins to state his answer.

### Marketing - No Face to Claim

Lady Ethel Mallory cuts off Nikignik's Broadcast with her marketing segment. She announces that the Stonemaids "threat" was about to be over, with the recovery of Valerie and Riot Maidstone, who were being prepped to join the Prime Dream. she addresses the Stonemaids directly, saying that they no longer had a face of revolution, that it was time for them to grow up and deal with their problems with more humanity, and that the new rumours that they had been spreading (see Episode 75 - Loyalties) where juvenile and that the Dreaming boxes were safe places.

### Story Two, Continued

Polly appears in the Resting place in a tornado of fire standing in the centre of the poker table (see Episode 39 - Promises). Yaretzi rushes to hug him, shoving The Countess over in the process. Polly laughs at this, jokingly telling her to let him go, as she was "ruining [his] grand entrance". Polly gets off of the table, and grabs a chair to join Yaretzi, Mort, Barb, and The Countess at the table, before explaining that he'd gone back to the Industry and talked to his supervisors. Yaretzi asks him what the results of this talk had been, and he lies, telling her that he was still on his assigned job. He turns to Barb and thanks him for taking care of Mort and Yaretzi before asking them how they'd manages to escape the Church of the Hallowed Name, Mort tells him that Bert had saved them. Barb stands up and tells Polly that they were going to have to catch up at some point, but as it was he had a hotel to run, and he tells Dimes to get Polly a drink.

The Countess tells Polly that his return was surprising, and remarks that his work must've been very valuable, that she believed Xyzikxyz to grow bored easily, but she didn't mind as she was content doing her own thing, throwing out a comment direct to Yaretzi of "*Kissing girls, killing wolves, vice versa*" before she leaves. Polly teases Yaretzi on The Countess's obvious interest in her. Mort asks what they were going to now, Yaretzi telling Polly that she'd be sorry to see him o when his mission was complete. Polly states that they should worry about him leaving when they got there, but for now they should drink, enjoy each other's company, and just be happy to be alive, and in the morning, they would go and kill Solomon Reed. Mort decides that he would rather be with Polly and Yaretzi then watching the fishes.

### Interlude - Monolith in the Brine

Nikignik talks about lost monoliths and kingdoms under the ocean. He states that for the amount of temples carved in deep-sea trenches and little statues with lots of tentacle detail, that one may mistakenly believe that earth had a pantheon of horrifying fish deities. But, for the most part, it was just Lolgmololg. He chastises Lolgmololg for not being able to stay focused on any particular project for extended periods of time, pointing to himself as an example, that he did not yet know his purpose, and that doing his broadcast was no small thing. He suggest that she stay tuned, that doing so might teach her something.

## Story Three - Two Good People

Ricou Chapman laughs at a story Nolan Thair had just told him, but their conversation is disturbed by a noise from outside. They both prepare for an attack, quickly making a plan of Nolan opening the door and Ricou killing whatever was on the other side. Once opening however, they find The Omen, who immediately flies into the cabin. They shout at Ricou not to strike them (ignorant to Nolan's presence) and Ricou immediately asks them why there were there, correctly assuming that they were there to collect something, and accuses them of being a thief. The Omen says that Downing Hill public Library would pay for Walt's books, but Ricou says that they were not his to sell, they were Walt's.

The Omen informs Ricou of Walt's death (see Episode 36 - Swords), which comes as a shock to Ricou, who asks how he died. The Omen tells him that he was murdered by Solomon Reed, and of Riot Maidstone's plan to storm his [Solomon's] house (see Episode 40 - Graves). Ricou once again refuses to sell The Omen the books, stating that he didn't think Walt would want him to. The Omen tells him that it would be unwise to be on Downing Hill's bad side, but Ricou tells them not to challenge him, taking on a threating posture that causes the Omen to leave. Ricou calls out after them to never come back. Nolan closes the door and asks Ricou if he was alright. Ricou confines in him that, other than Nolan, Walt was the only person he might have grown to call friend. Nolan tells him that with him and Walt, that made two people that had really mattered to Ricou, but Ricou tells him that there was "one less 'good people' tonight".

## Outro - Waters

Nikignik talks about how water was the foundation of leaser life. That it could be found everywhere in the cosmos, and it was nice when it combined with other things to make "life", as it made things much more interesting. He supposed that water was the birth place of human, as such maybe Lolgmololg was onto something. That human had a complicated relationship with water, that from he water they came and it was the water that had risen up to reclaim them and destroy their known world. Nikignik says that despite the floods and rising tides, he would wait with the dreamers until their last rain.