Episode 124 - Educations

## Educations

A black background with a white border, the right upper two lines of which display the numbers 1 - 13 in even intervals, while the ones on the lower right are broken in several sections as if partially rubbed out. Within the border two cloth dolls are depicted positioned top and tailed. The one on the left is depicted in red in a reversed position, with eight buttons (eyes) on its face and no mouth. The one on the right is depicted in white, with two eyes and a half-stitched smile. Below these imaged but still within the border the words "124.EDUCATIONS" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Friday stitches things together, Olivier's calls are answered, and Jonah moves mountains. The theme of tonight’s episode is Educations.

> ***Content warnings**:* *Religious Abuse, Animal death (Beast the Bear), Violence, Kidnapping and abduction, Death + Injury, Blood, Birds, Emotional Manipulation, Drowning, Bugs, Body horror, Electrocution, Rats*
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## Intro - Homeschooler

Nikignik speaks to the Dreamers of someone who did not go to school and had no want to go to school. Thinking that they saw it for what it truly was, feeling pity for their few friends who went because their studies did not include the word of God, and they learnt false facts and recited evil doctrines. And their parents had not taught them how to survive, had not prepared their souls for the latter days. As the Night of Black Rains began, their family left in the night to join other survivors.

Nikignik sits in the tent in which Mr. Raven and Mr. Writingdesk had been strung up (still alive) after the events of Episode 122 - Creeps. They are watched from the door by Friday Rescher and Penny Rescher.

## Story 1 - Two Cages

Penny Rescher and Frida Rescher sit sewing dolls together discussing what to do with Mr. Raven and Mr. Writingdesk (see Episode 122 - Creeps). Friday lists ways that they could kill them, dismemberment, throwing them in Edgar 'The spider' Rescher's web, but Penny rejects them. Friday tells her that she was beginning to think she didn't actually want to kill them, which she says would be ridiculous given all they had done to her (see Penny Rescher). Penny tells her that she knew this, but there were other things in The Complex like Penny who'd been left locked up, and only they knew how to get in. Friday says that they'd just have to manage, wondering aloud how long it would take before they began cannibalising each other. She tells Penny that she surely couldn't want to go back to the Complex with Raven and Writingdesk accusing her of being attached to them, but Penny tells her that she'd have to be able to understand.

Friday tells her that she was trying to get over it, by setting fire to Downing Hill Public Library, and if that didn't help by killing C. S. Blackletter. Penny asks if Friday thought she would be able to kill her old professors if they were in the same position as Raven and Writingdesk, and Friday tells her that she would without hesitation. She tells her that this was the difference between the cage Penny was in and her own, that in Penny's cage they played games and read nursery rhymes, but in hers they made her kill the other cellmates for sports. This took all the weakness out of her, and it was why she didn't understand why Penny didn't want to kill Raven and Writingdesk. Penny tells her that this was what she was there for. Friday tells Penny that she didn't have to come with her to Downing Hill, that people were going to get hurt and even Grandmother Briar was going to keep that Blackwood Coven witches away. Penny reassures her that she was coming, as what kind of a sister would she be if she didn't show up for Friday's 'grand revenge arsonry'.

### Interlude 1 - What To Learn?

Nikignik asks that Dreamers what they'd learn with the brief years they had been given? A few decades ago, they might have been burdened with the pressures of a society. He would not point any fingers at who was to blame for this, but a certain soul harvester did not leave as small a trace on his farmworlds as he seemed to think. It was over, broken by the rain. they might want to learn which skills would best help them survive, the years were theirs, and there was too much to learn, and only so much space in their heads. Best fill it with what pleased them.

## Story 2 - The Blizzard

Olivier Song prays to Ephelzeph to be able to reach him (see Episode 122 - Creeps), but it did not respond to him as Creep began to break apart the ice, Riot Maidstone calling out to him as the sheet she stood on began to rise. He runs to join her as the ice they stood on began to rise until it was twenty-five feet in the air, and they could only catch glimpses of the others. Riot tells him that she had alot of idea on how to handle their situation, that they could jump down to a present safer lower ice island, but that might break all her bones, they could try and dig into the chunk they were on with their ice picks, but it might flip over and drown them, of they could balance on it like a barrel. Olivier tells her that those all sounded like bad ideas. Suddenly the ice stops rising and everything comes to a silent stop, and the two agree to head in the direction that Olivier thought he'd seen Cindy Lockheart and Mort heading in.

Olivier tells her that he'd known that there would be a guardian in the zone, be he hadn't thought that the guardian would be the zone. Riot asks why he meant by this, and he explains that the Hallowoods was a zone, and the first one, the second zone was the north most Hallowoods, and the third was there they were now in what used to be the Artic circle (see Episode 109 - Windows). Riot asks if C. S. Blackletter had offered him any directions on how to survive in the third zone, and he tells her she had, but they all relied on his powers working. Olivier suddenly falls to his knees, defeated, apologising to Riot for him being useless. She hugs him, telling him that he didn't need to be, she just needed him with her, remarking that at least he had training, unlike her. The two are distracted by this that they don't notice Creep approaching them beneath the ice, until Olivier looked down and saw the words "*you're next*" written in cursive along the underside on the ice (see Episode 120 - Wilds). The ice beneath them breaks apart, and Creep emerges from it ready to kill them.

### Marketing - The Moth

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her 'marketing' segment. She tells the Dreamers that there was something staring at her, but she could only just see its eyes, red and glowing. It was tall, as tall as she was. Its eyes were compounded, antenna long and feathery, possessing black fur in articulate tufts. It had hands, segmented and many. She tells it that it could come closer, going on to describe that it had wings, lots of them filled with eyes. She tells it that she thought her and it to be alot alike (see Lady Ethel Mallory), and she was sure they could talk. The moth leaves.

### Story 2, Continued - The Blizzard

Olivier falls and is sent rolling, losing his pack in the process but managing to grab his stormcloak. He crashes to the ground, looking up to see Creep rising in the form of a hundred black bears. It greats him, but he ignores it, calling out to Riot in fear that she might have fallen into the water. Creep attacks him, and he runs, attempting to fly away but is unsuccessful, but still finding himself suddenly airborne as the platform beneath him tipped into the sea.

He wonders if Blackletter was still manipulating him (see Episode 15 - Cards) but has a turn of heart when he remembers that he as loved and powerful. Instead of falling he manages to catch himself in the wind and is whisked away into the sky. He realises that Ephelzeph had heard his call, had rushed to his aid from a world beyond space (see Indescribables). It didn’t like the freezing, and it bristled within him as he was helpless to stop it from consuming the sky of emerald stars with the blizzard of the century.

### Interlude 2 - Educational Institutions

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that if they had been listening to his messages so far, they may be filled with questions. To those he could recommend some sources to better educate themselves. For all things regarding Marolmar, they should consult the walls of the tomb in Marolmar’s World. For matters regarding the Council of Heavens they were written on the interior tiers of the Council Chamber. The catacombs in the Dream-City of Distant Kazanth provided a primer on the nature of dream. And for all other matters, they should see Zelkryzelk the Omniscient One, keeper of the Grand Archives.

## Story 3 - The First Stone

Jonah Duckworth, following the events of Episode 118 - Nevermores, tells the Rat King that they'd come to the place he'd first fallen to from the cabinet (see Epsiode 4 - Bodies). The Rat King asks if he'd dropped something when he'd fallen, but he tells it that he was there because about a quarter mile up there was a door with a key still in it (see Episode 1 - Keys). The Rat King tells him that there was a third cabinet, but its location was a mystery to it, much as Jonah as the third herald had been for a long time. Jonah asks the King how it got around, as it seemed to be in the temple of the end whenever it wanted. The King tells him it was because it was better at being a Herald then him, and also because the Faceless King did not want him back.

Jonah asks how he was supposed to get better, the Rat King suggests thinking about what he wanted, and Jonah tries this to no effect. The King comments that they were going to be there a long time, and Jonah points out that it could leave whenever it wanted. It tells him that it probably should, that Ephelzeph was trying to enter the Faceless King's domain (see Episode 124 - Educations: Story 2 - The Blizzard), but it would hate to leave Jonah lonely. Jonah tells it to go ahead, that he'd be there for a while but if it saw Hector Mendoza to tell him that he was coming as hast as he could, but he might not be home soon. The Rat King leaves, and Jonah realises that the floor had covered in it, that it was dripping down from the door in the sky (see Episode 1 - Keys). He begins stacking rocks in hope of reaching it.

## Outro - Educations

Nikignik waxes poetics about educations. telling the Dreamers that one was coming for them, it could not be stopped, marched inexorably in their direction, they could run all they liked, it would be there, waiting with ruler-like claws and chalkboard teeth to correct them. But they would survive, it would find you again and again, in many forms, they may spot it, in the halls of some archaic institution or grand archive, but they were more likely to find it in the words of a friend, slowly reconstructing their view of the world, lurking in the pages of a story, crouching in the world outside their window. It would change them so far from where they started that they would barely recognized themselves. And they, being educated now, would think themselves the better for it.