House No. 2: Walter Goes For a Walk

Art by Andrew Mercator

## Content Warnings

* Neglect
* Death

> Have you ever loved anyone this much?
>
>

## Episode Summary

### Intro

The Narrator begins the episode by stating the listener should forget about the happenings of House No. 1, as they're instead moving on to the smaller, quieter, more quaint, and fuzzier happenings of House No. 2.

### House No. 2

#### Appearance

There is no mention as to what House No. 2 looks like from the outside, but it has to have two stories, as Walter comes down the stairs. It has a kitchen with door to the outside and a small fridge. After Walter tries to open said fridge, the tiled kitchen floor is decorated with glass from broken milk bottles. The house seems to have a fence that Walter needs to jump after leaving the kitchen through the backdoor. Walter's person is sitting on an armchair in the sitting room, in front of a fireplace and next to a sofa.

#### Story

House No. 2 is home to Walter and his person. While Walter has a busy life, his person tends to be asleep most of the time and Walter is very careful not to wake him. Instead, Walter prepares his own breakfast (breaking a glass bottle of milk as he tries to open the fridge that he doesn't dare clean up) before heading out to explore Little Street. He is not very good at opening or closing doors, their handles are too high up for him, so he leaves the kitchen through the open back door and jumps the fence.

After patroling Little Street for a bit, Walter heads on outside of it. He visits the butcher because he knows she might give him a treat and, right as he is about to eat it, he meets Toby. Toby informs him that he plans to have a "conversation" at House No. 2 later that day to resolve an argument going on in the woods, and Walter tells him to stay away from his sleeping person.

Once back home, Walter attempts to clean by hiding the glass shards under a magazine. Soon after, the first member of Toby's conversation arrives, it is a bird. The bird is soon followed by Toby and Beck, an elderly associate who later leads the meeting. Before the second party of the dispute shows up, an unnamed but rather large number of other animals show up and settle in Walter's kitchen. Walter tries to keep them quiet so they won't wake his person. The council begins when a salamander comes through the door.

Soon, Walter can no longer see Toby and begins searching the house for him. He finds him in the sitting room, where he keeps opening his jaws over parts of Walter's person, before settling on wanting to take a bite of the head. Walter protests loudly, to which Toby launches into an explanation of how he deserves to have this, as he has helped Walter and it would grant him (Toby) more power. He says he saw it do the same for humans, though it is unclear if this is alluding to the happenings of House No. 1. Once again, Walter protests, asking Toby if he has a habit of eating things that are still alive. Toby tells him his person is dead - and is quite shocked when said person suddenly wakes up due to their fight. Walter's person makes him run out the kitchen door, the other animals following suit.

The story ends with Walter's person offering to go for a walk with Walter.

## References to this Episode

* The conflict between birds and salamanders first established here is further expanded upon in future episodes.

## After Credits Bit:

Today's final crossword clue was 'we saw it in a dream', and the answer will come to you in the twilight of sleep. Probably. You’ll have forgotten it by morning.

## Trivia

* Walter's species is intentionally left ambiguous so that listeners can draw their own conclusion.