Episode 116 - Forecasts

## Forecasts

A black background with a white border made from four zig-zagged arrows, pointing top-and-tail in the corners. within the border the top section of a grandfather clock is seen depicted in white. The clock face has been replaced with the image of a half-sun half-moon, the moon half is depicted in white, the sun half is depicted in red. Bellow this image but still within the border the words "116.FORCASTS" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Al explores the library, Penny joins the circle, and Olivier fights back. The theme of tonight's episode is Forecasts.

> ***Content warnings**:* *Abuse, Bullying, Animal death (Beast the Bear as usual), Kidnapping and abduction, Blood, Birds, Emotional Manipulation, Bugs, Body horror, Religious Violence , Child Sacrifice, Al Has No Skin As Usual*
>
>

## Intro - Three Cards Again

Nikignik narrates to the Dreamers Winona Carline as she uses the Blood cards if Xyzikxyz, floating in a pool of blood in her home. She pulls Death for the present, but she already knew this. She pulls a card for the past, and it is Life, and the final card for the future is Void.

Nikignik sits on a grandfather clock (it's clock face replaced with a sun and moon silhouetted against each other, sometimes smiling, sometimes frowning, predicting not the time but the course of the day) in a Downing Hill Public Library guest room.

## Story 1 - Touring The Grounds

Al Buckley asks Harrow Blackletter what was up with zir face (see Episode 110 - Walks), Johannah Wicker agreeing that she also wanted to know this. Harrow tells them that it was just how ze looked, C. S. Blackletter looked the same way and ze think it is a part of her covenant. Johannah asks what a covenant was, and Al tells her that it was a promise from God. Harrow says that this was true, and some people had different promises. Harrow asks if they were okay, that they shouldn't be found for a little while and in that time ze was going to talk to some friend and figure out what to do. Russell McGowan asks if they could talk to whoever was in charge so they could get back to Scoutpost Two. Johannah says that she wanted to go back to Fort Freedom, and the two start to argue.

Al, displeased with this, floats through a wall and out of the room, finding the innerworkings of the Downing Hill building (see Downing Hill Public Library) allowed for him to wonder as far away from his tether as he wanted. He floats through the library spying on the residents as he goes, coming across both Laurence Abbott and Sofia Rescher. Eventually Al comes into a classroom full of students being taught by Henry O'Connor. O'Connor tells them about potential future avenues through Downing Hill, before noticing Al's presence (along with Clara Martin). O'Connor greats him and asks if he was in his class.

### Interlude 1 - One More Week

Nikignik narrates to the Dreamers a week in the life of a survivor in the Hallowoods. Sunday, they spend splintering wood into boards to repair the decaying beams of their roof. Monday, they search for food, taking none under fear that what they do hunt and gather may not be edible. Tuesday, they curse the heavens and all who dwell there, the pond where they used to fetch drinking water was now dark (see Black Water). Wednesday, they meander around in a stupor. Thursday, they make it to the Dry Market, and find that they were sold out of produce. Friday, they board up the windows as the cold grew worse. Saturday, they stare at the ceiling and wait for the leak to return. If they had chosen to slip beneath the black surface of the bog and sleep, Nikignik asks the Dreamers please replace the contents of the forecast for each day with ‘blissful slumber’.

## Story 2 - A New Sister

Penny Rescher sits on the floor of the community cottage in the Blackwood coven, telling Friday Rescher that there was a wall around the coven, so she'd almost been unable to find it. Friday tells her that she was surprised she'd been able to find it at all as it was supposed to be hidden. The two sit back-to-back, this bringing comfort to Penny, and she asks if Friday had always been at the coven. Friday tells her that she hadn't been there long at all (see Episode 96 - Horizons), having only recently escaped a place called Downing Hill Public Library (see Episode 82 - Failures). Penny asks if this meant that she'd also run away (see Episode 103 - Crossroads), and Friday tells her that in a way she had, explaining to her what her life at Downing Hill had been like (see Friday Rescher) and telling her that she hoped the people who'd taken her were not so unkind. Penny tells her that she'd been kept in a glass box as long as she could remember. She asks if Friday had ever felt her, knew she was alive. Friday tells her that she had never been sure how much of it had been wishful thinking, telling her about her void knife and how it had broken, that this may mean that Penny wasn't safe around her. Penny tells her that while she was there everyone was safe.

Friday asks if the guessing of how their powers were going to manifest drove her insane. Penny tells her that they'd both been controlled, she could only sway so much inside a box and after a while she'd given up. Friday asks if Penny had any friend still there, how far away was the Compound. Penny tells her that it was far, but she didn't know where it was exactly, she may have seen a sign for Tennessee. She tells her that she hadn't had any friends and asks if Friday had any at Downing Hill. Friday tells her she hadn't, Olivier Song had left a long time ago, and she'd thought Clara Martin had been her friend, but she wasn't. Grandmother Briar enters the room and tells them, tells them that if they were ready, it was time to begin. Penny tells Friday that she was scared something bad would happen, but Friday tells her that while she was with her nothing bad could. Penny reminds her that it went both ways. They exit the cottage.

### Marketing - Share A Sickness

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her broadcast. She tells the Dreamers that it was raining again, she'd had her fill of it and found a campervan out front of a house to cozy up in. She laments missing the beds at the Botulus Corporation. She tells the Dreamers that Oswald Biggs Botulus was also affected by the black water, maybe even worse than she was. She tells them to share this with their friends when they woke up. She tells them that the concentrate she'd used to drink was the same prescription as his, that them sharing a sickness made is choice to kick her out (see Episode 94 - Milestones) all the worse. Because he knew the toll it would take on her (see Episode 102 - Decadences). She swears that once she had her bearings she was going to go back and ruin his life.

### Story 2, Continued - A New Sister

Penny is lead through a crowed of witches by Grandmother Briar who takes them to the prophet tree (see The Blackwood Coven). Grandmother Briar asks Penny to join her under the tree, and Friday encourages her forward. She [Grandmother Briar] addresses the crowed, telling them that they were welcoming a new sister into their circle today. Penny glances back and sees that the crowed had joined their hands and surrounded them. Grandmother Briar bends down and touches the earth, causing black crawling vines to sprout. The vines crawl across Grandmother Briar's hand, and the floor until they are pooled around Penny, Friday, and the tree. Grandmother Briar prays that the greenmother watched out over this Penny, to let her travel safely through the Hallowoods, that she may walk unseen by her enemies, and banish the demons of the earth wherever she found them. She then approaches Penny and weaves a braid in her hair, fixing the end with a thorn.

She turns to the crowed and tells them to present Penny with their blessings. one by one each member of the group steps forwards and presents Penny with an object, some being braided into her hair, hung around her neck, folded into her cloths, or simply put in her hand. Grandmother Briar thanks the greenmother for her blessings and announces that Penny was now a sister of the coven, so they now ended their ceremony and instructs the crowed to 'partake'. They all come forward and reach into the brook that ran along the prophet tree, drinking from it as they began to sing. Penny goes to join them, but Friday puts her hand on her shoulder to tell her not to. Penny asks Friday what the two of them were going to do now, and Friday tells her that the two of them were going to kill everyone who was ever cruel to them.

### Interlude 2 - Remember Me From The Orchard

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that it must be a comfort for them, not to be entirely alone in their experience of life. There was for Indescribables a sort of orchard at the centre of the universe, where young gods were nurtured by old teachers before they were allowed to pass into the great and unsafe universe beyond. He knew there were others there, when he was. He had not forged a connection with any of them, hardly knew where some had ended up. If he did find them, what would he say? He asks if the Dreamers could imagine what a sickening interaction that would be. It was better to retain his dignity, and his solace. He was busy too.

## Story 3 - Prone To Panic

Olivier Song runs away from Beast following the events of Episode 115 - Fishes. She asks Cindy Lockheart if she'd be able to shoot it again, but Cindy tells her that she didn't think it'd make a difference as it was already dead. Olivier asks if this meant that Cindy's sniper rifle wasn't goof for anything, as she'd thought it fired silver bullets, but Cindy tells her that for it to work she'd need time to set up and space to shoot from. Olivier calls that there had to be something Beast didn't like, they could take down a Dreaming Box (see Episode 72 - Errors), but Riot Maidstone tells her that they should focus on getting out in one piece.

Olivier stops running and Diggory Graves stops as well to tell her that they had to run, but she tells them she was trying something. She focuses so that she might be able to use her abilities and waits until Beast is her line of sight. She shoots it with lightning, knocking it back but it shakes it off. She tells it to stay back, or she'd do it again, but Beast charges at her, and she finds that she can no longer reach for the weather (see The Hallowoods: The North most woods). Olivier looks to see that the other expedition members (save Cindy, Jonah Duckworth, Hector Mendoza, and Heidi) had also stopped running to come to her aid, and she faces down Beast unafraid.

## Outro - Forecasts

Nikignik waxes poetics about forecasts, asking who could tell what the next day would bring? No one knew the future, except for those who read the Blood Cards of Xyzikxyz, or La Dernière Page Noire, or had bent the rules of space and time. He tells the Dreamers that he would add the TV weathermen, but they were all but extinct. He tells them that he was not sure he would want to know the future, if he could. He came close in being able see everything that was happening in the present, and with surprising frequency, the future was a result of the present. If he really dedicated himself, he was sure there were workings going on in the universe that would alarm him, and some that he would find encouraging. But for now, his focus lingered with the Dreamers, on the Hallowoods, on those who dream upon this little planet, changing colour from blue to black.