Episode 50 - Radios

## Radios

A white outline of words. In the middle is a white HAM radio with three dials outlined in red.

### Author

William A. Wellman

Olivier makes a connection, Clara makes summer plans, and Moth arrives in Chicago. The theme of tonight's episode is Radios.

***Content Warnings:** Animal death (Dogsmell as usual), Emotional Manipulation, Bugs, Spiders*

## Intro - White Noise

Nikignk speaks to the dreamers from the point of view of Riot Maidstone, describing her listening in on the radio to Clara Martin. He calls Clara's voice the only one like Riot's that she knew, saying that it felt like fresh air in her lungs, like her voice in the darkness. Her mother told her stories, and she watched the world outside from the screen of an old television, the sound the only promise to her that there was a world outside of the Bunker. She knew the radio frequency at which to find Clara by heart, and she haunted her thoughts throughout the day, long had they lived in their distant prisons, Riot's a concrete pit, Clara's a decaying house (see The Rathbone House), but she fell asleep in the early hours talking to her, and in her dreams, they walked freely down a beach hand in hand.

Nikignik stands where a tree used to be near the Scoutpost as the wind whistled, the rain fell, and the air was filed with electricity. they call the tempest a lovely one, similar to the boy (see Olivier Song) who walked beneath the pines. Wishing for all the world that someone would truly hear him.

## Story One - No Gold Stars

Olivier Song looks up as the storm clouds loomed over his head, and image which he a likens to a grim teacher, checking his work for errors. But Olivier was not afraid of the weather of his teachers, as the weather was his friend and he never made mistakes. Riot Maidstone pipes up, walking beside him, and asks what it'd been like when he'd gotten kicked out from Downing Hill Public Library (see Episode 15 - Cards), telling him that it must have sucked. He sasses back at Riot, telling her that obviously it'd sucked, Downing hill was important, informing her that it was going to save them. So, they'd given him tests and he was good at them, but out there he didn't know what to do. Olivier starts to internally rant about Riot's impulsiveness and how everyone seemed to like her despite her never putting in an effort and not having anything particularly special about her, while he got no such special treatment for being literally able to pull the weather out of the sky. but he reminds himself that if the Scout post didn't accept him, he'd have nowhere else to go.

They find what they'd been looking for, apparently a radio antenna, which they discover to have been knocked down in the storm rendering it unfunctional. Olivier tells her that he supposed that they were going to let the others know it was down, but Riot tells him that the Scoutpost was supposed to be hearing news from Webequie First Nation that night, and that the 'radio lady' had just said to put the antenna up high and plug it in, which she was sure they could do. Olivier asks if Riot even knew anything about radios as he takes his tools out and begins hacking the antenna off of the tree it was still attached to. Riot hands him a light to old while she finished his job. He tells her that she'd forget about her mum in time (see Episode 49 - Rescues), Riot looks up at him and chastises him for implying that she'd never see her mum again, and he asks her if she was really going to drive to California (see Episode 49 - Rescues), and she tells him that she wasn't sure yet, but she wasn't just going to sit and do nothing or pretend it was all going to be okay, and besides she was sure she could handle it. Riot hands Olivier the antenna (using his abilities to pick it up as opposed to manually) and tells him to fly it up to a new tree. Olivier tells Riot that she was going to have to go up with it as she was the one with the tools, and after she refuses his help. begins to climb the chosen tree.

They once again start talking about Riot's planned road trip, saying that she though they could do it, Her, Olivier, Diggory Graves, and Percy Reed. That they'd almost made into Box Polaris (see Episode 49 - Rescues), Olivier starts to lay out the more practical side of the journey (i.e. fuel, time, obstacles) and Riot asks if he thought he could handle it, He tells her that of cores he could, and she finishes setting up the antenna. He looks u to see Riot smiling at him, and she tells him that it'd been settled then, they were going on a road trip.

### Interlude - The Hallowoods Crackler

Nikignik tells the dreamers that if they operated a HAM radio in the Hallowoods, they might hear the whisper of The Crackler underneath the static while channel surfing. The Crackler has no call signs, at some hours of the day it simply calls out into the void of radio waves 'Help me, help me', at other hours it will talk about elements and locations in the Hallowoods. And sometimes, in the early hours of the morning, it'd sing. While it may be expected for these to be songs of frightful things, but they are gentle melodies, a comfort for those in a hopeless place.

## Story Two - Summer Program

Clara Martin asks Friday Rescher what the point of a Summer Break at Downing Hill was if there was nowhere to go for it, and Friday tells her that she'd imagine that it was so that the teachers had a chance to recover, as reducing students to ash or sucking their souls out must be exhausting. Clara tells her that she was awfully critical of soul-sucking as someone who carried a soul eating spider as a baby (see Edgar 'the spider' Rescher and Episode 25 - Spiders). Clara tells her that she didn't know which was stranger, that the Soul-Spider had babies or seeing Friday actually like something for a change. Friday tells her that she liked lots of thing, and Clara tells her to name three. Friday makes the list, notably leaving Clara Martin out of it, which Clara points out and that Friday had never called her friend yet. They check out some books with the Librarian, Clara attempting to guess her name but failing, telling Friday that there had to be a person under the static that made up the Librarian's head, and Friday tells her that she'd better hope there wasn't as she'd be crazy by then.

Clara asks Friday what she was going to be doing over the summer break, and Friday tell her that she'd been assigned on a summer program for extra credit, telling her that it was typical and not something that they normally did for first year students, but she had the feeling a position had just become available. Clara tells her that extra credit sounded great, asking if it meant that they had to take a visit to Henry O'Connor's office, and begins and sets out to locate said office.

### Marketing - Blissful Silence

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her marketing segment. She welcomes the listeners back to level two of the Botco marketing program, telling them to be honest, that at least once in the past year they'd thought to themself 'what's the point of marketing now?' She tells them that this was okay to question, as Botco really did seem to be the only option now days, with the bones of other megacorporations long since having been ground to dust. But marketing did much more then convincing consumers to choose their product over others.

There were no longer hungry for animal profit, but responsible for the conversion of consumers, ever action that they took, identifying if the consumer was happy with the world they had created. But it was important to keep the consumer hungry, unsatisfied enough to chase the next carrot they placed in front of them, they changed minds and created conspiracy to manipulate and directed the minds of Botco users to make sure that they remined loyal to the company and the product, so that they could be a part of their happy dreaming family for the rest of their spending lives.

### Story Two, Continued

Clara finds O'Connor's office quickly and with ease. After being let in out of the waiting room, clearing up that she wasn't there to discuss her final grades with him, and his confusion over her knowing about the summer program as he hadn't announced any opening for it, he asks if Clara even knew anything about the program, and reiterates what Friday had said about it normally only being something for higher years, she tells him that Friday had mentioned it to her. He tells her that he supposed that Clara had already been on some dangerous errands for the Library (see Episode 43 - Relics), taking the time to tell her that he'd never send a first-year student to work for the Instrumentalist, that had purely been the decision of the Director, but Clara tells him that she'd gotten what the Director had needed in the end.

O'Conner tells Clara that the summer program was about honing a student's unique abilities, and that the majority of it would be taking place outside of the Library. Clara correctly takes this to mean that O'Conner was accepting her application for the program, thanks him and stands up to leave. He stops her, telling her that when she'd first started at Downing Hill he'd told her that if she had potential, she 'd be able to survive in the library (see Episode 20 - Doors), and She had potential, but he knew of her attachment to Riot Maidstone, and she should be weary of distractions. She begins to tell him the context for her relationship with Riot, but she finds herself transported to a hallway with wicket furniture before she has the chance to finish her sentence. She is slightly upset with being cut off, but is over all happy with the results of the meeting, her grades were going to be seeing a bonus, she would be excelling in the 'practical applications' section of her grading, and she'd get to spend more time with Friday.

### Interlude - Old Songs

Nikignik tells the dreamers that there weren't as many people listening to the stars on earth as there should have been, as space agencies and electric grids had fizzled out, and satellite receivers had been shattered under the weight of wind and time. And yet there were still some on Box Betelgeuse who still looked up to the heavens and searched for messages deep in space (see Episode 37 - the Morning Hour). They heard songs born from starlight and radiation, music that echoed in the emptiness of space, and although they did not know it, they heard them sing. Sing of lost loves, and, creations and, destructions, sending them a message that said, 'I am still here'. They may not recognise the tune, but they appreciated the melody.

## Story Three - Chicagoland Coffins

Moth Scarberry drives with Ray up to Chicago, and Moth tells Ray to turn the music he was playing down, but he refuses telling moth that the song he was playing was a classic and speeds around a corner. They see a Dreaming Box Aquarius, and Moth comments on how big it was, and Ray tells moth that it was big because you needed 'one heck of a coffin to hold all of Chicagoland', that it'd been a while since he'd been up at Chicago, and it hadn't changed a bit. Ray asks moth where moth's uncle (see Gale Scarberry) was, and moth tells him that he had a house in Ravenswood Garden by Henry Park, which Ray responds with sarcasm, telling Moth that he'd used to sit up there and memorise the name and location of every park in Chicago, which gets Moth to give him more direct directions. They drive, and after a while Ray asks Moth if moth had seen any flies, which moth tells him not yet, and they arrive at moth's uncle's house.

Moth jumps out, and Ray asks if moth wasn't going to say goodbye to him, which moth responds by telling him that moth wasn't sure if moth's uncle was there. Moth enters the house and calls out for moth's uncle, but to no response, Ray comments on this from outside, and Moth tells him that moth's uncle wasn't there. Ray tells Moth to come back out, that he might be around somewhere, but Moth manages to find some notes that moth's uncle had left for himself, notes on conversations. Moth finds on about a conversation he'd had with Bill Scarberry, on which he comments about Moth's preferred name, and then finds one that says that the Botco Flies had made it impossible to keep living in Chicago, that he'd tried to call Bill but no one had picked up, and that he was going back to his ex-wife Darla in Toledo. Moth hears Ray honking at Moth from outside, yelling at moth that they had to go now and it becomes apparent that they'd managed to get the attention of a Botco fly. Moth jumps into Ray and they start to drive away, Moth telling Ray that they had to go to Toledo.

## Outro - Radios

Nikignik waxes poetics about Radios. Comparing them to his own abilities in broadcasting into dreams, that humans had built devices that allowed them to speak despite distance. Radios were in short supply nowadays with the fall of earths civilisation, but a few survived in the Hallowoods; nestled in bunkers or drafty bedrooms of centennial homes, the prize of survivors and survivalists alike. He says that there was power in hearing word from the world beyond, as it told one that there was still a world left to speak, much in the same as he was a voice in the darkness