Episode 112 - Watchers

## Watchers

A black background with a loosely sketched white border. Within the border an image of a collection of think white tress (presumably Quaking Aspens) covered in eyes or eye markings. They are depicted in red. Bellow this image but still within the border the words "112.WATCHERS" is depicted in white.

### Author

William A. Wellman

Rick dreams of rain, Jonah speaks with a king, and Zelda stows away. The theme of tonight’s episode is Watchers.

***Content warning**: Ableism, Animal death (Tulip and Heidi as usual, Beast the Bear), Violence, Kidnapping and abduction, Death + Injury, Blood, Gun Mention, Emotional Manipulation, Body horror, Rapture Panic*

## Intro - One Day At The End Of Time

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of Zazzlezazz, of how at the end of time he would wake, and all would end. But he must not wake before then, so he slept, the first Dreamer, dreaming of all that was, and could not have. Dream was his power, his domain, and he had shared it only once, with Nikignik.

Nikignik sits in a small broken and overgrown stone chapel watching Rick Rounds as G.C. Crane/Tulip also observe him (see Episode 106 - Departures).

## Story 1 - Tribulation Years

A child version of Rick Rounds wakes up on the Night of Black rains to a voice calling for him to "Follow me". He looks outside his bedroom window and sees the to-be-sleepers marching to their final resting place, mistaking them for the rapture he goes to follow, but has a moment of doubt that it may be the Devil and not God calling him. He immediately regrets this, believing that he'd forfeited being taken. He screams out for his mother, thinking that she may have already left, but she responds. He asks if she could hear it, and she enters his room, appearing in his memory as a corpse (see Rick Rounds) telling him that she couldn't hear anything. She tucks him back in and tells him to go back to sleep, what he was hearing was just the rain.

Rick opens his eyes, no longer in his flash back, and finds himself laying in a rundown chapel. He remembers the events of Episode 106 - Departures, and calls out into the darkness. G.C. Crane makes their presence known, and Rick calls out to them. Assuming that he was in Hell he asks to see Polly, before saying that if they were going to hurt him to get started. Crane approaches him, grabbing his hands and moving them to the ASL sign for water. Rick pushes them off, casing himself to fall over in the process, and Crane grabs him by his hair to pull his face under a trickle of water falling into the room from the broken ceiling. Crane lets go, ignoring Rick when he asks what the sign meant and walks back into the darkness.

### Interlude 1 - A Little Of Me

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that the Watching Trees were few in the Hallowoods (see Episode 88 - Broomsticks), but they would know they'd discovered one when they came across a trunk filled with red knots that blinked like eyes. These trees would mean them no ill intent, if anything they might be curious in where the Dreamers paths may lead. They learned the most from corpses, pulled them in with their roots, pry through their faded memories. He tells them to be weary if they spoke to one, as they would not warn them if their journey would end in failure. Nikignik wonders if the Watching Trees were a result of Marolmar thinking about them.

## Story 2 - Twice Unlucky

Johan Duckworth says goodby to Hector Mendoza in preparation for him to go and speak to the Faceless King (see Episode 110 - Walks). Hector requests that Jonah let him handle things with the King instead, remind him that last time they'd faced it (see Episode 13 - Stars) it'd killed him, and it'd been weeks before they saw each other again. Jonah stands firm in his decision, that he'd learned alot since the last time. Hector wishes him good luck, reassuring him that he knew what he was doing, but Jonah knows this to be a lie. Cindy Lockheart makes per presence known, expressing confusion around her electrical compas not working. Hector reminds her that they'd told her about this (see Episode 110 - Walks). Cindy turns to Jonah and asks if he was comfortable being the one who confronted the King, but Jonah tells her that he had to do this.

Jonah passes through their camp, wishing the other expedition members good luck. Riot Maidstone asks if he had to bring anything, and Diggory Graves tells him to come back quickly f the meeting turned out to be unpleasant. Jonah walks into the woods, taking Heidi with him. The two eventual find a clearing with two great pine trees in the middle, and Jonah summons the Faceless King, requesting for it to come forth so that he could know it better. The Faceless kind responds, placing itself between the two trees, and greets him by name, telling him that it'd been looking forward to 'this'.

### Marketing - Drone

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her 'marketing' segment. She tells the Dreamers that today was her lucky day, reflecting that the day before was not (see Episode 111 - Winds). She explains that she'd caught a Botco Drone (see Episode 60 - Flies) and having given it her location was planning on sitting and waiting for a Cluster drone to come and collect her. She was sure that if she could even get close to a Dreaming Box again it would make a difference.

### Story 2, Continued - Twice Unlucky

The Faceless King notices that Jonah seemed shocked but it's ability to speak (and manner of speaking). It tells him that he had grown since they'd last met. The Faceless King tells Jonah that he was welcome for it sending him to the Temple of the End (calling it 'The Workshop') (see Episode 13 - Stars), that it'd done this so he could learn. Jonah asks why it called it the workshop, and it tells him that it had been the workshop of Marolmar, their master, where he made the heart. The King notices Heidi, and tells Jonah that it'd speared Hector's life last they'd mat because she'd asked it to, and that it was scared that Jonah seemed to not understand the way things were. Jonah tells it that he'd come to ask it to let them through the north most Hallowoods. The King ignores him, telling him that it was concern that he was seeking to destroy the heart. Jonah tries to explain to it all the harm the heart and black water was doing, that the only way to fix things was to destroy the heart, but he'd wanted to talk to it before they did so.

The King stands tells Jonah that he did not understand that they (see The Heralds of the End) were there to protect the heart and the new age that it brought, that if Jonah did not understand that then perhaps, he needed more time in the workshop. It tells him that Jonah was not given his crown, he'd fallen into a cabinet (see Episode 1 - Keys) and collided with affairs he knew nothing about. The King tells him that it was going to kill him and his friends, ignoring Jonah when he tries to tell it stand up for himself, and summons Beast. It tells Best to hunt (presumably the other members of the expedition), and it starts t run, ignoring Jonah and instead chasing Heidi into the forest. Jonah attempts to plead with the King to let them go, that f it did so they wouldn't bother it again, but it calls him out for lying, and kills him.

### Interlude 2 - Inside Or Out

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that the power of dream was one that was shed with him by Zazzlezazz, but his being all seeing was one he was born with. It had taken him some time to collect himself, realise that he was aware, that he supposed that before that he must have been dreaming, for his existence was like a dream. He was not without guidance, many new Indescribables had whispers of help from the Outsiders, just as strange to them as the Indies were to humans, and just as Indies would outlive the human's sun, the Outsiders would outlive them. This might be a sad existence, to be born inside the universe instead of outside it, but Nikignik tells them that he was sure the Outsiders felt the same about whatever was outside the outside.

## Story 3 - First Place To Look

Virgil Kane discovers Zelda Duckworth after she snuck into the back of his truck in Episode 107 - Absences, and chastises her for doing so. She sits in his passenger seat, and he tells her that he was going to have to turn around and take her back to Scoutpost Two, but she tells him that she wasn't fooling around, and to not write her off so easily. He tells her that he didn't want her coming along in case Al Buckley and Russell McGowan were dead, as he didn't want her to have to see them in that state. She points out that Al didn't have any skin and had been dead for years, that she had a tough stomach weather they found them dead or alive.

Virgil stands that she was going back to the Scoutpost, but Zelda tells him that she knew where they were going (see Episode 94 - Milestones), that if he brought her along, she could show him. She tells him that if they weren't there then they'd have checked the most likely place, if they were then he'd be happy she'd helped. She tells him that they were at Downing Hill Public Library, and Virgil tells her that he was familiar with the place through Walter 'Walt' Pensive. This convinces Virgil to let her come, and get ready to set off, but she tells him that she would be the one driving.

## Outro - Watchers

Nikignik waxes poetics about watchers. He asks the Dreamers if they ever felt like something was watching them. He apologises for this, telling them that he tried not to make anyone uncomfortable. He tells them not to worry, as he could care less about their lives and the way they lived them. And if they ever felt completely alone, by the same token, they should know that they were not. He I watched because it was his nature to be spread thin across this universe, and he could not help it. He confesses that if he could trade all his sight for the powers of ither Indies, he would not. He saw so much of the starlit cosmos, and he was in love with it all.