Episode 94 - Milestones

## Milestones

A black background with a simple white border that has totted markers at regular intervals around it. Within the border a cube with markings that resemble closed eyes and a framed photograph resembling a family portrait are both depicted in white. One woman in the portrait is seen wearing heart shaped glasses. Infront of both these images a pair of heart shaped glasses are in the foreground. Bellow theses images but still within the border the words "91.MILESTONES" are written in white

### Author

William A Wellman

Al has an important dinner, the Countess thirsts for vengeance, and Lady Ethel talks promotions. The theme of tonight's episode is Milestones

> ***Content warning**:* *Animal death (Bert as usual), Violence, Death + Injury, Blood, Birds, Strangulation/suffocation, Emotional Manipulation, Body horror, Alcohol Use, Smoking, Life Support, Brain Death/Coma*
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## Intro - Indomitable Slopes

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers the Crackler as they attempt to scale the shuddering peaks for a research expedition via commission by an unnamed library. They had been told that locals had already begun to move up them. Then suddenly, their instruments were screaming, and the mountain curled upwards to encompass the sky, unlike anything they'd ever seen before, as all came to a howling end. But it never truly ended, they were still caught by the peaks, whispering into a radio for anyone who may be able to hear.

Nikignik sits in the corner of a room in a rocking chair at Scoutpost Two, watching as Zelda Duckworth and Al Buckley eat dinner

## Story 1 - Cold Spaghetti

Al Buckley sits across the dining room table from Zelda Duckworth eating a dinner of pasta. Al tells Zelda that there was something he'd wanted to ask her, and tells her that someone had come to see him during the battle at the Scoutpost (see Episode 77 - Rebels), someone kind of spooky, a bunch of birds (see The Omen). Zelda asks if they were flamingos, not taking Al seriously, and Al tells her that they were ravens, and they'd invited him to go to a new school. She asks him what school it was and asks if he was still being bullied (see Episode 53 - Rivers) and he tells her he wasn't, but he still felt isolated and ostracized. He tells her that The Omen had left a card with the name of the school on it, and Zelda retrieves it. The card reads Downing Hill Public Library, and Al asks Zelda if she'd ever heard of it. Zelda tells Al about Dexter Duckworth, that Downing Hill made monsters of people, and she wasn't going to let that happen to Al. He tells her that it might be where he belonged, but she shuts it down and tells him that he would be attending school at the Scoutpost. Al gets angry and shoves the contents of the table to the floor, before realising what he'd done and becoming invisible.

Al retreats to the communications tower where he finds Russell McGowan, who notices Al despite him still being invisible. Al asks him how, and he tells him that they'd hung out a bit, he'd learned that the room felt different when Al was in it. Al asks him what he was listening to, and hells him that he didn't know. Al tells him that Zelda had said no. Russell expresses his condolences, but also tell him that if the card gave Al directions, there was nothing stopping them from taking a look as Downing Hill. The radio then picks up the voice of Cindy Lockheart (see Episode 93 - Mirrors), before the signal drops out again. Russel picks up, and this time the voice of Riot Maidstone tells him to wash the sheets and toss the salads, because they were coming home and had brought company.

### Interlude 1 - Tourist Attractions

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that if asked which sights in the Hallowoods were worth seeing on a brief visit, they would be told that visits were rarely brief, and everything was worth seeing. In the Northmost Woods there were colours that no one had yet seen, beyond human sight by beautiful none the less, the creatures that wondered them remembered the early days. The Spirit Sky Observatory reflected all the cosmos, and sheltered the Ascended Scientists with their unfathomable instruments. The Museum of Broken Promises rolled through the forest like a steam train on a mission and carried with it the least remembered tokens of a bygone age. The Downing Hill Public Library, with its great stone lions, kept watch over a forest that crowded it more every year. And until recently (see Episode 83 - Hopes), the Resting Place Hotel would have been the best lodging for one to stay in while they visited all these sights, but it is no more.

## Story 2 - A Place To Rest

The Countess, having found new residence in a church tower after the death of Barb in Episode 83 - Hopes, mourns him. She picks up on the scent of Yaretzi from miles away, and immediately the Countess takes to the sky as a colony of bats, crossing the distance in a matter of moments. She finds Yaretzi, Polly and Mort dismounting Barb's stolen car (see Episode 69 - Angles), having used it to return to the Hallowoods, Yaretzi in her human form, vulnerable. She sweeps her up in an instant, and the two fight, only dropping her when she returns to her wolf form, becoming too heavy to carry. They role of the moormire, biting and scratching at each other, and the Countess realises that Yaretzi wasn't going for the kill, rather to restrain her. The Countess reminds Yaretzi of how she'd asked her not to kill Barb, Yaretzi tells her that she was sorry, but the Countess don't accept, telling her that Barb had been her only friend for centuries, and had wanted nothing to do with their war. Yaretzi tells her that she'd left that war as well, it was not why she'd killed him. Polly and Mort call out, asking if Yaretzi was okay. She calls back, telling them that she was okay, but to give them a moment.

The Countess asks why she'd killed him, and Yaretzi explains (see Episode 83 - Hopes). The Countess denies that Barb would every do something so selfless, telling Yaretzi that she sounded ludicrous, but Yaretzi tells her that Barb had a heart, ill-used maybe, but not entirely rotten. The Countess begins to cry and tucks her face into Yaretzi's neck to hide away from the world. Yaretzi allows this. The Countess asks when why she'd come back, and she tells her that they were there to apologise, and to honour Barb's legacy. Polly once again interrupts them, and tells that if they were finished, they could get down to business. Polly lifts the umbrella her collected in Episode 89 - Terminations, and summons a new hotel into existence.

### Marketing - Pull The Plug

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her marketing segment. She tells someone away from her microphone that she didn't need a script, before progressing to ask the listeners if her last address had not been enough (see Episode 93 - Mirrors), because it was as if none of them had listened. Her office was getting bombarded with messages, and there was movements cropping up that were likely secretly funded by Melanie Flores. She asks Melanie who she thought she was, as she'd worked her life to be an understudy in a department Ethel had practically founded. The Botulus Corporation and Oswald Biggs Botulus would be worth nothing without Ethel. All she asked for now was control over what she'd built. She asks Melanie if she thought she had what it took to be a marketer for a company the size of a nation. She'd have to be able to make hard decisions, terrible decisions, there had to be conflict to market off, and if that meant disabling a Dreaming box for a few minutes (see The Awakening of Dreaming Box Aries), then pull the plug.

### Story 2, Continued - A Place To Rest

The Countess reflects on what the Resting Place Hotel had been in the past, before Barb had moved from Vegas to the then yet called The Hallowoods. She'd been a part of its community for neigh on 100 years, and nothing could replace it in her hears. Even so, she thinks that Barb would have like the Grand Crossroads Hotel (see the Grand Crossroads Hotel). She stands amounts the now returned patrons of the Resting Place as they enjoy the grand opening party, watching as Polly steps onto a lobby desk and calls attention to himself. He gives a speech, a eulogy for Barb, saying that the party was for him, and the hotel was for them. However they found themselves there, they were welcome to the Grand Crossroads. Polly hops down off the desk to the cheers of the crowed and disappears in a whirlwind of fire. She finds him standing by her elbow muttering that he didn't think the carpets wer going to last the night.

She tells him that he was burning alot of fire, and no matter how much he horded it wouldn't last forever, so he would be careful. He tells her that he was as he tapped his umbrella on the floor to make it a more dignified black. He tells her that with had he had, he could afford a little while. She tells him that the hotel was beautiful, looking over at Mort and Yaretzi as they danced, asking Polly if he was going to join them. He tells her that he didn't have the sense for rhythm but asking if she wanted to join him on the roof, she accepts. On the roof, Polly tells her he didn't know how similar to Barb he wanted to be as he smoked, handing a cigarette to The Countess so she could join him. He tells her that he didn't know what the future was going to look like, but the Resting Place patrons were welcome to stay as long as they liked. She tells him that she'd stay, but not forever. Eventually the Hallowoods would consume everything, crawl across the landscape until it met Botco, and in time it would win. The world wasn't forever. Polly tells her that it was for now, and he'd enjoy it a long as it lasted. She agrees with this.

### Interlude 2 - Move On

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that it was common advice to move on. In theory, life was every evolving and they must keep pace with it, he understood the logic. But Nikignik did not feel it. They had done everything, they felt, one could do. They had wallowed in their grief, looking back this had not helped. To reflect on their past, they found only rage and anguish and regret. They remembered what it was to be destroyed and it sickened them. They had tried to be quiet, contain their grief politely and shuffle on as if nothing had ever happened. This was exhaustive. He tells the Dreamers that he didn't know what to do, he was beginning to suspect there was no beautiful way to leave behind what he'd lost. He was still very far from the end, he still mourned.

## Story 3 - Humble Origins

Lady Ethel Mallory sits in her chambers and examines how the rains had changed her before she falls asleep and enters the Prime Dream, making towards the board room at the top of the Botulus building. But, to her surprise, instead of finding herself at a stone conference table, she is sitting at a kitchen counter in her childhood home. Oswald Biggs Botulus leans on the counter besides her. She tells him that this hadn't been the venue she'd been expecting, and he tells her that it was healthy to revisit their origins and reflect how much they'd been given. She begins to try and explain how Riot and Valerie Maidstone had escaped again (see Episode 93 - Mirrors), but he tells her he didn't care about how they'd gotten free; it was the breaches in security that were shaking him. He tells her about his involvement with their escape, and she tries to explain to him why the Maidstone's were important, that if they didn't return to the Prime Dream it would tell everyone that getting free was an option. He tells her that it was a crisis she'd been nurturing, she was only panicking now because the pawns were out of her control again.

She tells him that of he'd approved her for higher management, none of this would have been necessary, that the population of people using Dreaming Boxes were diminishing, some people were having babies but most of them weren't so their only major income of users was through her external marketing, which he would have noticed had he not been caught up on his 'pet project' (see Episode 87 - Boxes). He tells her that Operation Willson was about getting a human soul to stably reside in the Prime Dream. If they could pull that off, all of a sudden death isn't a factor. He tells her that their space launches had been a success, they could reside for the centuries that it may take to find a new planet that wasn't infected. He asks her if she'd been thinking about the customers happiness when she and Anderson Faust had gotten together to wake up Box Aries, and she tells him that she had. It had been necessary, tough she wasn't aware that they had changed, and she admits that it had been a mistake. She tells him that she was devoted in a way that none of the other heads of departments were. Oswald fires her.

## Outro - Milestones

Nikignik waxes poetics about Milestones. He tells the Dreamers that he found it easy to forget how far he'd come, it was easy to get lost in the narratives he beheld. Perhaps he spent too much time in the nothingness of audience. And yet, when in retrospect, he had come so far. He had played in the stellar nurseries in the orchard at the centre of the universe, clung to worlds in the making and ran in fields of young stars, sat by the gates and watched for danger in the heavens, lain in meadows and valleys of the cosmos yet unseen by their telescopes. He had been whole, broken, loved deeply and lost deeply. He was always unmaking himself, and always piecing himself back together, finding in the process the strange aeons of memory that made him who he was.