Episode 134 - Libraries

## Libraries

A black background with a white border consisting of thin wisped lines. In each of the corners a white letter is written, from top left clockwise "D, H, L, P". in the centre of the lines four items are depicted, a knife, a drum, a penny, and a last item that vaguely resembles a backpack. In the centre of the image a white room is depicted with bookshelves for walls and two turned over chairs, with red smoke coming into the room through an open door. Below this image but still within the border the words "134.LIBRARIES" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Friday returns home, Victoria decides to trust herself, and Mr. Writingdesk breaks protocol. The theme of tonight's episode is Libraries

> ***Content warnings**: Al has no skin (as usual), Violence, Kidnapping and abduction, Death + Injury, Blood, Needles, Birds, Gun Mention, Strangulation/suffocation, Emotional Manipulation, Body horror, Werewolf related body dysphoria, House fires*
>
>

## Intro - A Kind of Collection

Nikignik narrates to the Dreamers of Amaryllis Ward, telling them that she had always loved libraries and the community that she got from them, but in the latter years of her life a different kind of library drew her focus. A collection of book and artefacts that left chaos in their wake, but invaluable to those who carried curses to help them understand themselves. She would not live to see this library succeed.

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that it was a long time coming, but the destruction of the heart of Marolmar was not the first time they'd seen the masterwork of a loved one darkened by time in their absence (see Downing Hill Public Library). But he had a responsibility to the Dreamers, even if they were not as attached to the story as he was. Nikignik resides in Professor Henry O'Connor's office.

## Story 1 - A Present for the Professor

Friday Rescher walks the halls of Dowing Hill Public library armed with a knife headed for Professor Henry O'Connor's office (see Episode 124 - Educations). She opens the door, finding him to have seemingly been expecting her as he regards her with smugness while packing a suitcase, asking her if she'd come to say goodbye. She tells him she wasn't accusing him of having stolen her as a child (see Episode 111 - Winds), telling him that she wanted to know why, as she'd never known him to be otherwise kind to her. He ignores the question, instead debating aloud between packing one of two magazines. She asks him why he was packing, and he explains to her that he was retiring, as he was no longer able to see eyes to eye with C. S. Blackletter's plans for the future, in that she planned on ushering in a new world empire. He tells her that he believed in fairness, and that he didn't think what had happened to Friday to have been so, while Blackletter did not believe in such distinctions.

O'Connor asks if Friday had only come to ask about why he'd saved her, and she tells him that she'd also come to give him a gift. He tells her that he couldn't fit much more in his suitcase, but she says it was very light, a warning to get out of the library as there wasn't still going to be one at the end of the night. She tells him that she'd now repaid her life debt to him. He comments that it would be an undertaking to do any serious damage to Downing Hill, but he supposed it wasn't their lucky day (see Friday Rescher). He leaves her standing in the office, and she takes a moment to reflect before pulling out her welding mask and flame thrower (see Episode 25 - Spiders) and sets the room on fire. She leaves the office and goes from skipping to dancing down the hallway, destruction following in her wake.

### Interlude 1 - North or Nowhere

Nikignik makes an announcement for those who lived in the Northern Hallowoods and had a library card or books borrowed from the Downing Hill Public Library. He tells them that the library was closed due to scheduled renovation, relocation, and possible demolition. If they were unable to return their books before their due date, they may have less to worry about than before (see Episode 9 - Birds), as Downing Hill’s chief enforcer of overdue books had sought a new occupation (see Episode 92 - Omens). Alternatives to the Downing Hill included the Church of the Hallowed Name, falling into the crystalline dimension beyond their own, or the Grand Archives of Zelkryzelk. Going forward the address of the library might be north, or nowhere.

## Story 2 - The Wolf in the Library

Al Buckley recounts to Victoria Tepiani and Harrow Blackletter what C. S. Blackletter had told him in Episode 130 - Cradles. The three of time, plus the remains of Arnold Eggers (see Episode 110 - Walks) sat in a room in Downing Hill Public Library that had unofficially become their safe haven, the walls limed with shelved full of books, that when one was removed, you'd only find another behind it, with no telling how far back it went. The doorway to the room was through a cabinet on the Downing Hil visitor wing. Victoria asks where Blackletter had said Downing Hill would be moved to, but Al tells her he didn't know, but Harrow speaks up telling them Blackletter had mentioned this to zir, telling them that she planned on taking them to the North Pole, Clara Martin was out trying to set up the location ahead of time. This distresses Victoria, who starts to question how she'd be able to contact her parents, commenting that she understood now why Clara had been acting like Olivier Song.

They suddenly hear the sound of The Omen scratching at the other side if the closet door, screaming at them to leave as there was a fire in the library (see Story 1 - A Present for the Professor). The Omen leaves, with it the sound of something heavy crashing to the floor from outside. Victoria attempt to open the door, but finds it to be stuck in place, Al offers to see what was happening on the outside, phasing through the door. Harrow suggests with panic that maybe the cabinet had been knocked over as Victoria notices that the door was beginning to heat up as smoke poured into the room from beneath it. Harrow asks Victoria if she could get them out, and she briefly resists, reminding Harrow of the last time she'd used her covenant around zir (see Episode 78 - Runaways). But she relents, apologise to Harrow as she begins her transformation into her Starwolf form.

### Marketing - Page 768

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her 'marketing' segment. She tells the Dreamers that she'd resumed her journey, that she believed the cause of her travel's difficulties being the loneliness, but she wasn't letting that keep her down. She'd stopped at a place sparsely containing books, that she'd assumed the locals had taken the worse ones to use for survival, and that was why there were so many copies of her book there (see Never Stop Dreaming). She tells the Dreamers that she planned on taking a copy with her to reread, to see what had changed between her now and when she'd written it.

### Story 2, Continued - The Wolf in the Library

Victoria first attempts to tear down the door, which with considerable effort she succeeds at, but only finds an empty void beyond, the door on the other side presumably broken. So she turns to trying to break through the bookshelves, slashing away at layer after layer of books, but not getting anywhere as the room grew thick with smoke. Harrow calls to her that ze was going to try something, try and find a door (see Harrow Blackletter). Ze reaches out for her, telling her to trust ze and ze'd trust her.

She take's zir hand, and in the blink of an eye they were no longer in a burning room but laying on a snow-encrusted clearing beneath the night sky. She asks zir how ze had done this, and ze tells her that ze had always been afraid of the doors, but if Victoria could become a wolf again ze could do this. Victoria looks up to see that she could see the burning Downing Hill, seeing Penny Rescher run in past the felling occupants, as well as Alice, Tattery Stabbs, Winona Carline, Amelia Abbott, and Elena Alder (see Episode 131 - Chasms). She turns back to Harrow, finding ze looking at her before ze tells her that ze had left Al's drum in the library.

### Interlude 2 - Omniscient Minds

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that libraries for them were safe places, but there were some libraries that were not so forgiving. The Downing Hill Public Library’s collections were ravenous and rarely fed. The Grand Archives were not without their threats, compiled and maintained by Zelkryzelk, and omniscience came at a terrible price. It was there, in the archives, if ever he chose to become all-knowing. Perhaps he would, if he lost hope for all else, and could find no other way to bide his eternities. But for now, he only saw all, and must learn from what he saw like any other.

## Story 3 - Proper Goodbyes

George Writingdesk makes his way through the Downing Hill halls with Atticus Raven and Zelda Duckworth, cursing at the instrument he was attempting to use to track Friday and Penny Rescher for not working (see Episode 128 - Haunts). Raven suggests that he turn up the exclusion level, and Zelda tells them that they should be looking for their girls, asking for their names and then beginning to call out for them and Al. Writingdesk manages to get the instrument to work, and it suddenly gives him a clear signal. He thinks to himself that when he'd first joined the Complex he'd have been as excited as Raven was at the troves of CPE related material they could seize, but now he had one mission and only one. Zelda spots Al, calling out to him as both Raven and Writingdesk realise that Al was a ghost. She leaves them, calling to Al that she was never going to leave him again.

Writingdesk notices Penny and Friday standing at the end of the hallway, Friday still armed. Penny calls to them that they'd broken their promise to not follow her (see Episode 127 - Hooks). Raven demands that they both came back to the Complex, preparing to attack them but Writingdesk stops him. Writingdesk tells Penny that he hadn't come to follow her but rather to give her a proper goodbye. He watches as Friday approaches them, but ignores her, tells Penny that it'd been a pleasure to know her, that he hoped the life in the Hallowoods was what she'd wanted. Writingdesk reaches into his coat to grab his CPE institute badge and pitch it into the fire, but Friday mistakes this for him reaching for a weapon and her abilities manifest, causing all of Writingdesk's previous injuries to reopen and him to collapse. Raven opens fire on the two girls.

## Outro - Libraries

Nikignik waxes poetics about libraries, quoting to the Dreamers that reading was dreaming with your eyes open, but tells them at on the contrary, dreaming was reading with their eyes shut. For within the abyssal depths of their subconscious thought lay a story about their fears, and hopes, and insecurities. And always an open gateway into the starlit expanse above, from whence cats and the nameless travellers that dwelled in dream may come. A pathway into the dream-city of distant Kazanth, if they knew how to walk it.

### Until Next Time, Dreamers

*Until next time, dreamers... butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high! Take a look, it’s in a book, the invocation to pull the mad crystal god Ilimnithar into our dimension! Eldritch rainbow!*

## Trivia

* The Episode Art is a set with the Episode Art for Episode 135 - Flames.