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Ep 85. Primal Fear

9/18/25

A voice offscreen calls out, Keyboard, where'd you go, buddy? An alarm clock object with mouse features stumbles through the snow, the wind wooshing around him. His hands are covered in blood, and it drips down from his crusted-over eyes to stain his hoodie. He calls out again, Buddy.
The mouse object continues, Keyboard! Did you see what I made for you? The mouse object keeps a hand against the wall as he continues to stumble through the snow, feeling his way along blindly. Hokkaido can be seen on a building in the distant background, watching. Then, with a buzzing sound, Hokkaido hovers over him, before stabbing him through the back of the head with a stinger dripping green fluid. Hokkaido says, You're too noisy, his speech bubble textured like raw meat.
As Hokkaido stands over the still-ringing husk with his monstrous, insect-like body, he finds himself getting a vision of Dragonscale being chased through the snow. Smiling, he coos, Oh, and begins to search for her in a nearby building. He continues, It's been a while, where is she now? Somewhere in here? I'll grace you with my presence.
The next panel cuts to Hokkaido once more in his normal body, gripping the banister tightly as he climbs the stairs and complains, Still can't climb stairs with my newer legs, ooh, I'm sore, Father was right, sharp and quick pain is better! He bites his finger and trembles against the pain as he adds, It must be all this walking around. Oh, what am I doing here? Center Ring truly is terri- He is suddenly cut off by a loud scream as he reaches the second floor, stopping in his tracks.
An assimilated object is stabbing at the door to a janitor supply closet with two sharpened tendrils, a shunk sound effect overlaid onto the scene with each stab. Inside the closet, Dragonscale sits huddled into the cleaning supplies, staring terrified at the door as she thinks, I can't, move! I can't even breathe fire! What's going on? The next panel shows another shot of the assimilated object, showing two fluffy antennae coming from its backside emitting a fear pheromone. Dragonscale clenches her teeth in terror.
The assimilated object manages to break the doorknob off the door, opening up a hole into the closet. Eyes wide, Dragonscale thinks, I, waited, too long, each subsequent panel zooming in closer to her eye as she watches the tendril creep in.
The tendril lashes out at her, knocking over several cleaning supplies with a loud smash. Throwing her arm up over her face, she screams out loud, screaming, Someone help me! Then, the tendril is suddenly pulled back through the hole in the door, a loud bang coming from the other side.
Dragonscale stares in terrified confusion as, past the door, she hears smashing and crunching. The door slowly creaks open, light flooding into the closet, until Hokkaido is revealed standing on the other side. Looking unaffected, he says, There you are, my dear!
Dragonscale steps out into the hallway, staring at a giant splatter of blood and gore against the floor and opposite wall as she asks, What, happened to it? Blood drips from an even bigger smear along the ceiling, with a single torn-off leg lying on the hallway carpet. Hokkaido scratches at the back of his head as he answers, Well, I just, had, um, to be honest, I forgot. Wings flaring, Dragonscale screams, What do you mean?
Later, Dragonscale and Hokkaido are in a pharmacy room, with Dragonscale inspecting items from the shelves as Hokkaido asks, So, um, what is this place? Turning to look at him in disbelief, Dragonscale asks, Have you never been in a pharmacy before? Hokkaido, squinting, replies, No? Turning away again to continue further into the pharmacy, Dragonscale says, Must be nice. Forgot you were a coddled son of a bitch. These places suck.
As she picks something up off a shelf, she continues, I'm going through these prescriptions looking for a blade-duller. My kid's getting too sharp, he's gonna kill someone. He cut my other kid's hand open last night. Hokkaido, confused, asks, What is a purscription? Dragonscale, after taking a second to stew in that question, whips around to look at him and shout, Medicine? Hokkaido, smiling, replies, Ooh, why didn't you say so? Squeezing the box in her hands, Dragonscale shouts, Are you, before cutting herself off.
Hokkaido, hand coyly over his mouth, continues, I've never lived long enough to get sick. Dragonscale retorts, You look sick to me. Besides, aren't you an adult? Hokkaido answers, Well, yes, I'm 24. As Dragonscale thinks, Basically a kid to me, still weird, Hokkaido adds, Though admittedly, I'm in quite a deal of pain lately. Pointing with her thumb behind her at some locked cabinets, Dragonscale says, We could try to break in there for the painkillers. The real good stuff. Y'know, opioids?
A kick with her hooves to the keypad-locked glass, however, makes no progress at getting them in. Tail whipping back and forth in frustration, Dragonscale says, This glass is probably bullet-proof. Hokkaido, hands clasped behind his back, asks, What's a bullet? Dragonscale replies, Thing from Burning Aisles. You don't wanna know. We'd need the code to get in. Maybe it's written down here somewhere.
Dragonscale continues to think to herself, muttering, Hmm, But what if it's on a computer? There's no power, then what? As she does, though, Hokkaido's visible eye slowly rolls back into his skull, a long croak escaping him as it does. Until suddenly, he says, 9 2 7 8 3, scaring Dragonscale and causing her wings to fwup open.
Skeptical, Dragonscale asks, You're guessing? Blank-faced, Hokkaido answers, No, red memory. Annoyed, Dragonscale begins to type in the code, thinking to herself, Right, he's a fucking weirdo. Maybe when it rejects this code he'll just go home. To her surprise, though, the code works. Hokkaido tries to point this out, saying, Look, it, only to be cut off by Dragonscale shouting, Lucky guess!
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