Episode 87 - Boxes

## Boxes

A black background with a clean thin white border. Within the border a cube depicted in red is positioned amongst a strawberry bush, depicted in white. The face of the cube most visible has a single red eye in its centre. Ballow this image but still within the boarder are the words "87.BOXES" depicted in white

### Author

William A Wellman

Moth goes through onboarding, Other Riot meets her family, and Percy finds himself in a dim room. The theme of tonight's episode is Boxes.

> ***Content warning**: Suicide attempt mention, Kidnapping and abduction, Death + Injury, Blood, Mental illness, Emotional Manipulation, Bugs, Body horror*
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## Intro - Cardboard Fort

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of someone who's sibling has a fascination with boxes, filling their home. Their conversations were equally packed, and they wonder if there was some necessary truth laying underneath, in need of being cut out and dressed. They return to their house one day and find the door locked, no one answering when they call. They find a way in and discover that they are able to see the floor for the first time in years, wayward junk cleared, and in the living room the boxes piled into a fort, something present in the gaping darkness of its entrance.

Nikignik stands on top of a Dreaming Box that reflected the sky. Beneath him were a monolith of coffins, and one more had just been added to the collection (see Episode 82 - Failures).

## Story 1 - Hey Boxy

Moth Scarberry is awoken by a Boxy, who gives moth a good morning from the Botulus Corporation and welcomes moth to Dreaming Box Venus. It takes moth some time to decern what was real and what moth had dreamed (see Episode 82 - Failures). Moth immediately asks where Ray was, what they'd done to him, but Boxy simply tells moth that they'd finish moth's onboarding before moth could speak to moth's loved ones. Moth suddenly finds mothself in what is implied to be moth's backyard from Vegas. Moth is joined by Boxy, who tells moth that if moth wanted anything all Moth had to say was "hey Boxy". Moth tells Boxy that moth wanted to leave. Boxy misinterprets this and tells moth that moth has to finish onboarding before exploring the Prime Dream. Moth specified what moth meant, reaching out to touch the gravel and finding that once moth looked away moth's hand was indistinct. Boxy tells moth that moth couldn't leave due to environmental factors. They couldn't find a 'Ray' in moth's dreaming family and offers to put out a find a friend on him, which moth firmly refuses. Boxy asks moth if they were to continue moth's onboarding, and moth starts to panic, imagining mothself within a Dreaming pod. Boxy tells moth that moth was feeling anxiety, offering to work through it with moth, but moth tells Boxy to please stop talking.

Boxy tells moth that they were going to continue onboarding and plays moth a pre-recorded video of Lady Ethel Mallory welcoming moth to the Prime Dream. Moth at first mistakes this as Ethel speaking to moth in real time, but quickly realises moth's mistake when moth attempts to ask her for help and receives no acknowledgment. Moth asks if moth's father was alive (see Bill Scarberry), to still no response from Ethel, but one the recoding ends Boxy asks Moth if the person moth wanted to see was Bill Scarberry, and moth confirms this. Moth then realises that in the prime Dream moth could have any appearance moth wanted and gives mothself a pair of mothwings. Bill is then standing in the garden with them, and the two embrace, Bill welcoming moth 'home'.

### Interlude 1 - Package Delivery

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that if they needed a package delivered, they had chosen a poor era for postage. If they worked for Botco it was easy as they had postal drones, and sometimes made contact with outside communities, exchanging good for new customers. If they had the ability to summon a demon it would come at a great cost, but they'd save a fortune in postal fees as demons could cover a great deal of ground in one afternoon. Delivery method would change depending on teh type of demon summoned, lesser demons such as the Omen preferring flight. And if they are the Church of the Hallowed Name, then their letter delivery was a mystery for the ages, but their messages will arrive precisely where they need to.

## Story 2 - Almost Perfectly, Too

Other Riot finds herself back in the laboratory of Anderson Fauts, somehow able to remember it. She's in a glass cell next to Olivier Song who whispers to herself about being unable to reach the weather. Riot tells her it was because they were inside, but Olivier informs her that it shouldn't matter. Riot tells her that she couldn't reach her mum (see Valerie Maidstone). Olivier reminds her that it was her fault, and her fault that they'd been captured, this had been she she'd wanted. Riot tells her this wasn't what she'd wanted, she'd wanted things to go back to normal, she'd wanted her mum back. Olivier tells her that she'd been replaced, and Riot hits the glass separating them, telling her not to say that. Olivier sarcastically tells her she was sorry for hurting her feelings, but everyone she loved was either dead or captured, and the saddest part was that since Other Riot had led Botco straight to Riot Maidstone and Valerie they didn't have any need for her anymore. Riot punches the glass separating them, splitting her knuckles in the process, and claims that she was Riot. Olivier tells her that she may have Riot's face, but she was nothing like her. She [Olivier] asks her where they were, Riot only answering that they were someplace very bad.

Riot squints through the glass and notices Nimbus sitting in the darkness, though she naturally does not recognize the cat, or even know what a cat is. She alerts Olivier of her presence, and Olivier recognises her, wondering aloud how she may have gotten to be there. Riot asks Olivier what she [Nimbus] wanted, that she was looking at her. Olivier tells her that she probably just wanted treats, or ear scratches. Olivier apologises to Nimbus for being unable to play while locked in a cell. Nimbus turns around and disappears again into the shadows just as the door to the room hisses open, and Anderson Faust enters the room. He greats them, apologises for their crude accommodation, but tells them that they are destructive enough on their own. Riot recognises Faust, and says as much, which Faust notes as being unlikely and unfortunate, asking if Riot had perhaps been listening to his interviews on the Morning Hour (see Episode 21 - Mornings). Olivier interrupts them and tells them that she would appreciate knowing who he was, and Faust turns to her, calling her "subject B5" and introduces himself, telling her that he'd like to offer her a chance to make herself useful.

### Marketing - Licensing Agreements

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her marketing segment. She lies and says that at Boco they celebrated the many things that made people unique and encouraged customers to be truly themselves. However, everyone needed a friend, and Botco's algorithm decided which dreamers they'd encounter in their dreaming experience. No matter what they were into or how they dressed, there were people in the Prime Dream who loved their style. This was just one way they used the comprehensive data collected to ensure that their dreaming experience was as customized to them as possible.

### Story 2, Continued - Almost Perfectly, Too

Riot interrupts Fauts and Olivier and tells him that she was in the wrong place she was supposed to be with her mum and Lady Ethel, but Faust just tells her that she was in the right place, that she shouldn't trust anything Ethel had to say (see Episode 68 - Sands). Olivier speaks up again, telling Faust that he'd just killed or hurt all of he friends, whatever he thought she was capable of, she could do so much more. Faust tells her that he didn't doubt this, he'd worked with subject like her before, but none were quite so dynamic, he only wondered at what she could do if she was pushed. Riot asks why she was there, as she couldn't shoot lightning out of her hands, and Faust tells her that she was a successful experiment and a scientific miracle. Operation Willson had been waiting in the wings for years, and Other Riot had only taken 23 attempts to get right. Riot asks what he meant by that, and he tells her that she was the 23rd attempt at making an adult replica of Riot Maidstone. Cloning would have been simpler, but then they'd have to wait years for her to grow up. Riot realises that Faust had manufactured her, and Olivier asks how he could just make a replica of someone else, he ignores the morality of the question and answers the Longistics, that in the future it could be used as a form of eternal life. Riot tells him that she wasn't just a duplicate, and this surprises Faust, and he tells her that he'd make a note of that, and he'd work to resolve it in the next iteration of her.

Riot stars kicking at the glass and tells him that she just wanted to be with her family, but be tells her in a way she was, as he cared for all his experiments. She tells him that she had to get back to her family, and he ignores this and tells her that in nature thigs tried to avoid death, but she was stuck on it. He turns back to Olivier and asks her again if she was going to be useful. She starts to vent to him, that she'd been useful, she'd burned herself out time and time again, and she wasn't going to do that anymore. she was going to get herself and her friends out and she didn't need him. Faust tells her that he liked to see the bust of energy when the subject realised that they were in a cage. Riot speaks up, asking why Faust had made her, and he tells her that he'd done it "*for the thrill of advancing our species*". Faust leaves, and Riot asks why Oliver hadn't accepted his deal, she tells her because she'd done that already, and she hadn't wanted to leave Other Riot alone. Riot asks why, as she'd thought Olivier hated her, but Olivier just tells her that she supposed Other Riot reminded her of someone she knew.

### Interlude 2 - Broken Seals

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that there were some seals that had never been broken. To enter the Grand Archives of Zelkryzelk was to plummet into omniscience. There was the Pain Puzzle of Xyzikxyz which was currently being used as a desk ornament at Downing hill; the same place where great malevolence was bound in a painting of a field of sunflowers (see Old Bindings). Some boxes held the dead, such as the stony tombs where spores of Rothogroth were planted to preserve the memory of the buried (see Mx Morell), or the temple of the end, where an engine (see the Heart of Marolmar) was sealed away, a masterwork never to be displayed, bound in ice for eternity… or so they (see Indescribables) hoped.

## Story 3 - The Soul Electric

Percy Reed finds himself in a dimly light room with walls lined with silver. He is alone with a man who laid asleep in a glass Dreaming Pod. Percy attempts to great the sleeping man, only for another voice from behind him tell him that he couldn't hear him, and Percy turns around to see Oswald Biggs Botulus in the now open doorway. Oswald continues his sentence, that he wished the man could hear them, he'd like to pretend he could, but there was no brain activity. Percy asks who the man was, and Oswald tells him that he was his son, his name was Harold, and implies that Harold had tried to commit suicide. Percy introduces himself, and Oswald does the same in turn before elaborating further on what happened to Harold, that he'd found the best therapist in the world, but still tried to take his own life, but had gotten lucky (or unlucky) and survived, only becoming empty. He could run the greatest company in the world but not keep his own son safe. Percy double checks that Oswald was the one who ran Botco, he'd kidnapped his friends and hurt Diggory Graves, and if they weren't okay, he threatens to burn the building they were in to the ground. Oswald confirms that he runs Botco, and tells Percy that they had his friends, who were all in different locations depending on where they were most valuable. Percy concludes that this meant he was most valuable with Oswald, and Oswald tells him that he was living proof of the spirit, and he'd do anything to have a second chance with his son.

Percy tells hm that being a ghost wasn't an enjoyable experience, and Oswald asks if he would rather be dead. Percy denies this, but tells him he had once wanted to die (see Episode 1 - Keys), when Oswald asks what had changed, he tells him of Diggory, how they'd reminded him that sometimes things did get better, the friends Oswald had hurt were the only reason he was sticking around. He tells Oswald that it may be better to let his son go, and it wasn't like Percy could bring him back. Oswald nods and produces the papers that Solomon Reed had given Ethel in Episode 44 - Rains, and tells him that the method was incomplete, all he needed was Percy's description of what'd happened to him. Percy refuses, that it all should have died with Solomon, but Oswald tells him that they had the means to make Harold a body so he wouldn't be trapped like Percy, and once they were done Percy and his friends could go free. This is enough to convince Percy, who begins describing what Oswald would need.

## Outro - Boxes

Nikignik waxes poetics about Boxes, asking if they brought the Dreamers comfort. he tells them that he dwelled in dimension and starlight, that no vessel could ever contain his memories. But for their kind, they preferred a kind of control, they put their families in a box to keep them safe from the weather; their things into chests and cabinets and shelves, and even when their life ended, into a box they went. Unless they were set on fire, or lay on the forest floor, and the winters left their bones to gleam in the passing summers. Or they ran wildly through life, outrunning the ceiling, the walls that rose around them, and they fought for a moment in the wind. They were not born for a packaged life, and beyond its walls there was a round horizon, calling for them.