Episode 121 - Cups

## Cups

A black background with a white border, the lines bending into a crown shape in the corners. Within the border a white goblet with a circle of gems resembling eyes, the 'pupils' of which are depicted in red, around its centre circumference, and writing around its lip reading "OM NEN XORN SYRENSYR VOSS NEN XOR" (the latter half obscured) is depicted tipping over, a red liquid spilling from it. Bellow this image but still within the border the words "122.CUPS" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Violet gets Bern a present, Clara finds her family, and Winona serves regrets. The theme of tonight’s episode is Cups.

> **Content warning**: Kidnapping and abduction, Animal Death (Dogsmell as usual), Death + Injury, Blood, Birds, Gun Mention, Emotional Manipulation, Body horror, Teeth, Character death
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## Intro - Another Drop

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of someone who reached the bottom of their cup, and realised they'd drunk it dry. They only got one, as everyone else did, but it was already gone, and yet their lips were parched. It was unfair that this was all there was, gone too soon, barely a cool memory. It was an injustice, but the injustice of every cup, every life, and there was always an ending where things ran dry. If only there was another way. But there was. The rain that fills their glass was a miracle, and it filled their cup and overflowed.

Nikignik lurks beneath the floorboards of Violet Keene and Bern Keene's cabin at Scoutpost Two.

## Story 1 - Happy Anniversary

Violet Keene pries up the floorboards of her and Bern Keene's cabin at Scoutpost Two, looking for the package of coffee she'd hidden there months in advance. The door opens as Bern walks in, and Violet screams and hides the package behind her back, telling her that she hadn't heard her coming, and that she'd heard the board creaking and had been trying to fix it. Bern tells her that she could have just told her, asking for Violet to hand her the hammer. Violet complies, and Bern fixes the floorboard. Violet gets distracted admiring her wife and accidentally drops the coffee, which Bern sees and assumes that Violet was taking it to the cafeteria for community to use. Violet tells her it wasn't for the cafeteria, that she'd intended to surprise her with it and wishes her a happy anniversary. Bern expresses confusing at this as it was December, and their anniversary was in June. Violet reminds her that they'd started dating in December, and Bern tells her that they'd met on June sixteenth.

Violet tells her that anniversaries were for when people started dating, but Bern says that it should be for when they first met because she'd loved her form the moment she saw her. They kiss, and Violet points out that they'd had this discussion every year for the past forty-five years; Bern tells her that they would probably have it again the same time the next year. Violet tells her that the coffee had been hard to get, and Bern acknowledges that it can't have come cheap, that they were struggling to get by as it was (see Episode 98 - Harvests). Violet tells her that she was trying to say that she loved her, that times had been bad (see Episode 85 - Roots), so she'd wanted her to have something nice. Bern tells her that she'd like to drink the coffee, but she'd like more to share it with the people she cared about. Violet tells her that Bern had better have at least one cup, and Bern tells her she would.

### Interlude 1 - Fountain of Youth

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that long had their kind dreamt of the fountain of youth, where they might kneel in the waters of immortality and sip of time itself. He asks them if they would you be strong enough if they could. To love each friend as they lost them one after the other, to find a purpose when generations fell to dust around them, to adapt their spirit as each century brought impossible changes to their way of life. And when they had lost a thousand loves, would they be strong enough to choose to love once more? He was not sure he was, but gratefully, he would not live forever. Only to the end of the universe, where all gods died.

## Story 2 - The Cure

Following the events of Episode 119 - Winters. Zelda Duckworth begins threatening C. S. Blackletter, Blackletter turns to Clara Martin and tells her to leave them, sliding her the folder they'd been looking over and telling her that she'd find her mission within, that the mission began immediately. Clara tells her that she understood, and leaves the office, acknowledging no one as she left Downing Hill Public Library for a small balcony on the roof. She reads the consents of her mission, the details of which are not disclosed to the audience, only that it was important, gave Clara the feeling that she was not the only pawn the Director had involved with it, and that in some places Olivier Song's name was still written (see Episode 15 - Cards).

Despite this new assignment, and Blackletter having told her it would be dangerous to do so alone (see Episode 119 - Winters), she mounts her broomstick and leaves the Hallowoods for the Rathbone House (see Episode 2 - Dogs), thinking that today was the day she was going to get her parents back.

### Marketing - Outfit Check

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her 'marketing' segment. She tells the Dreamers that she was doing an outfit check (see Episode 118 - Nevermores), that she'd been looking for new cloths in whatever city she was in. She explains that her new dress was made of a large tarp, and that she'd found herself a kind of poncho, to keep the sun off her skin. She had a duffel bag she was using as a purse, and goggles for her sensitive eyes. She was going to press on, as self-improvement didn’t sleep, and neither did she.

### Story 2, Continued - The Cure

Clara hovers in the chilled air above the Rathbone property with her eyes closed, repeating the spell in her head that she'd obtained in Episode 115 - Fishes: "*Voss nen xorn syrensyr, om nen xorn sysrensyr* ... *Upon thee I call, flame-father, soul-forger, master of the sacred fire of life. Burn away the evil that bleeds in the veins of my mother. Render to ash the sickness that dwells in the heart of my father. Restore them as cleansing the rust from armour, the blood from a weapon. Restore them and make them whole*."

When she opens her eyes again, ash finds the Black water mutated version of Booker Martin station up at her from the iron gates of the property, and the mutated version of Zora Martin watching her from the bedroom window (see The Rathbone House). She greats them as her mum and dad. They answer he by screaming, and she flies to the window, lowering a land touch Zora as she reached out her appendages. Clara recites the spell portion of the quote, finding her hand stuck to Zora, sucking her in through the window frame as Zoar's mass retracted to her human size and form, watching as the effects of the black water were one after the other burned away. Clara stands by Zora's bedside (see Episode 90 - Tests), and Zora looks up at her with recognition. She goes to speak to Clara, but whatever she had wanted to say goes unsaid as she instead disintegrates into ash like a log in a fire, and Clara screams.

### Interlude 2 - Bloodsong

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that their blood was a song, and he heard the symphony in all its perfection. It grew darker in their veins with each draught of black water. There might have once been a choice to avoid the contaminant. But now it was all the same, and all that contained it sang the melody of creation, including them. He wonders if this was why he was so attached the earth, despite when he'd first come to know a human the water had not yet been contaminated, and when he'd first come to love one (see Amaryllis Ward) only the smallest traces beginning to take effect. The song was a symphony now that it contained every living thing, and he did not know if it could be stopped.

## Story 3 - Tea and Power

Winona Carline moves out of her cabin (see Episode 56 - Thorns) and into her van, regretting not having Elena Alder around to help her. She hears a knock on the door and opens it to find Clara Martin on the other side, who tells her through tears that she'd just accidentally killed her mum (see Episode 121 - Cups: Story 2, continued - The Cure). Winnona sits Clara down, and several cups of tea and Clara's explanation later, asks her why she'd come to her. Clara tells her that she'd had nowhere else to go, so Winona explains that there was no shame in being friendless, but she was sorry Clara hadn't had anywhere else then her given how she'd hurt her in the past for Blackletter (see Episode 90 - Tests). Clara tells her that she'd though her and Blackletter were friends, and Winona explains to her that the two of them had a complicated past, that she'd run the summer program for her in exchange for the blood cards of Xyzikxyz, but they weren't worth it. Clara recognises them from Episode 15 - Cards, that they could tell the future,

Clara tells her that she wasn't sure what she'd done wrong with the spell, that she must have done it wrong and now her mum was dead. Clara starts to cry again, and Winona tells her that she was sorry for what happened, attempting to relate to Clara through her experience with her own mother's death (see Winona Carline). Clara states that her [Clara] Dad was still out there, and she could still fix him. Winona explains to Clara that she was trying to do something that the most esteemed magical minds had been trying to do for twenty years (see the night of black rains), most of which she'd studied with, having consulted the Spindle, The Deep End, the Complex, the Church of the Hallowed Name, but almost no one had done more research than Blackletter. Winona tells Clara that the more she chased power the more she'd have to sacrifice. Despite this Clara stands by that she needed to do what she was doing and get her dad back, and Blackletter would help her fix things. She thanks Winona for her tea, and flies away.

## Outro - Cups

Nikignik waxes poetics about Cups, telling the Dreamers that may theirs' floweth over, and their precious droplet of a lifetime be beautiful, their draughts long and sustaining. He tells them that he wished them more joy than they could store, more love than they knew what to do with. He hoped treasured moments spilled heedlessly across the floors of their lives and ruined the dreary carpets of their pasts. He tells them to drink their fill, drink while they still held the chalice, as it was their right.