Episode 5 - Chapter 87

“I'm so glad you're here,” Robert tells Tom. “Why have you brought me back to this meadow?”

“Back?” Tom replies, “I haven't brought you back anywhere. I've brought you to the safest place I could think of.”

“But it's the same meadow,” Robert insists. “Wait a minute, what did you mean about coalescing?”

“You'll see,” Tom replies. “Yes, they are the same meadow. Only the last meadow was a cage constructed from your memory, while this meadow is a collective memory.”

“A what?”

“Collective memory. This is how all your family remember that day, even if they've almost forgotten it like you had; it's still there, deep in the subconscious.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 86

Robert turns his back to the family picnic, resisting the urge to look just once more and see the world as his dad sees it. “Not engaging...” he mutters, “Not engaging.”

He has to admit to himself that it is a beautiful day, the sun sitting high in a cloudless sky, a gentle breeze ruffling the grass and sea of daisies.

“You never see fields of daisies any more,” he says to himself, passing time.

“Well that is a pity,” replies the voice of Tom, “It is such a beautiful thing to see. Now, there you are, and we finally meet.”

“Where are you?” Robert asks, turning to see thin air around him.

“Oh I'm here,” Tom replies, “I just may take a little time to coalesce.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 85

He feels his mother's anticipation of the picnic, mixed with a little anxiety that she hasn't brought enough. She wants, more than anything else, for this to be a day to remember. He smiles at that feeling, if only she knew, and he chuckles, suddenly aware of his own body, once more seeing through his own eyes. Once more looking at his mother looking at her son.

He quickly shuts his eyes, panicking that he might look again and get lost in someone else's head. The last thing he wants is to experience what James is feeling, determinedly attacking whatever comes to hand, or to see the world through the eyes of Mister Banjo. “Sit tight and try not to engage with your environment,” he reminds himself. “Right, I can do that.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 84

Robert chases Mister Banjo across the meadow, barking and laughing their heads off. He hears his mother shout for him. He turns to look, as does his dog, and they collide, tumbling to the ground. The fall snaps Robert out of his reverie and he's once again seeing through his own eyes. He sees his younger self roll in the grass, while the dog regains its composure much quicker. Robert quickly looks away, before it happens again. Instead he looks at his mother, suddenly on her feet, hand over mouth in concern for her fallen son. He feels the relief flood through her as she sees the boy get to his feet, laughing. He feels how happy she is, as he looks through her eyes at her children, how full of pride she is, how full of love.

Episode 5 - Chapter 83

Robert sits up and opens his eyes. On the other side of the meadow he can see there's a young boy chasing a dog. Nearby, a couple lay plates and plastic boxes neatly on a large blanket they've spread out while a younger child sits and idly bashes something on the ground.

Robert looks back at the elder boy once more, he's familiar in some way, and the dog is... is... the dog is his! It's Mister Banjo. Suddenly he's seeing through the eyes of the boy, chasing after his dog. He can feel his heart racing in his chest as he runs, feel the sun upon his skin and the wind in his hair. He knows that his heart is glowing as Mister Banjo barks at him and he laughs, barking back, looking forward to the best picnic ever.  

Episode 5 - Chapter 82

Robert clutches at himself, keeping his eyes tightly shut. He can't be back here, not after all he went through. He must've gone mad or be hallucinating and when he opens his eyes it'll be different and God he needs to breathe, yes breathe, not think about where he is or how he got here or how long it took or what he went through but breathe, yes breathe.

He concentrates on his breathing, forcing himself to focus, struggling to make himself take long, drawn out breathes, releasing them slowly, thinking of nothing but breathing in and out.

Slowly, gradually, Robert manages to calm himself. His breathing is regular and his mind relaxed when he hears a dog bark in the distance and a child laugh and shout “Bad boy Banjo!”

Episode 5 - Chapter 81

Robert steps through the door, returning to the meadow he has spent lifetimes walking away from. For a moment his brain just doesn't comprehend what he's seeing. He turns back saying “I don't understand,”. There's no door there, no cottage, just endless summery meadow.

He turns, bewildered, nauseous, as the realisation crashes into him, sinking him to his knees. A deep, throbbing ache invades his brain. He clutches his temples, squeezing his forehead, trying almost to push the pain down, back, away. He's only vaguely aware that he's shouting “No, no, no...” over and over.

He crumples the short distance to the ground, allowing himself to curl into a ball, clutching at himself, trying to calm down.

Episode 5 - Chapter 80

 “Why would something in the Weave want your attention?” I asked.

“Well now,” Oak replied, “That is certainly the question of the hour.”

“What are you going to do?” I pressed him.

“As I have already said,” he said, “I intend to wait.”

I was about to say something but he continued. “What would you have me do, might I inquire?”

“I don't know, something!”

“My experience,” he started, pompously, “Tells me that I don't know enough to know what kind of a something I should do. There is something wrong with this picture,” his arm swept our living room, grandiosely, “Some parts of it contradict others. Nothing adds up. To do something now, the wrong something, might cause the very disaster we seek to avoid.”

  

Episode 5 - Chapter 79

 “But that was before,” the guide tells Raven.

“Before what?” he asks.

“Before social networks,” comes the reply, “Before the internet came into the Warp. Now a momentary amusement is turned into a jpeg, or an amusing gif, or in this case a short, cute animation. Our somebody shares it with friends. They share it with their friends. The idea goes viral and suddenly there's an epidemic in the Weave.”

“Sorry,” Raven interrupts, “But how is this supposed to be enlightening?”

Before them, the morass of rainbow mice is beginning to deepen as yet more and more appear from various holes, cracks and crevasses.

“Because this is not an isolated example. These idiotic things are appearing everywhere, and they don't fade. The Weave is drowning in nonsense.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 78

 “A rainbow mouse?” Raven asks, as a second appears from a different opening.

“Indeed,” the guide replies. “Once upon a time, if somebody had an amusing idea like a cartoon mouse all the colours of the rainbow, that idea might pop up here, run around for a few days, then disappear. If that person wrote their idea down or drew a picture, it might last a bit longer, but it'd eventually be so thin as to be nothing at all.”

More mice appear, all multicoloured. Raven counts six, no eight, twelve. It's not long before he's lost track and the courtyard is teeming with hundreds of rainbow mice, all running in different directions, bumping into each other with a pop.

Episode 5 - Chapter 77

 Raven agrees, and the guide leads him to a large open plaza, devoid of any stalls or traders or people at all.

“It used to be the case,” the guide tells him, “That things like passing fancies popped up but very quickly faded to nothing, but not any more.” He points to the opposite end of the square, where there stands a wall full of holes. “Keep an eye on those walls, and those three holes in particular. I've been assured there's a nest of them in there.”

“A nest of what?” Raven asks as the tip of a rodent's nose peaks out from darkness. It sniffs for a moment, then makes a break for it, dashing across the ground for a safe hole nearby.

“What on earth?” he asks, as a multicoloured cartoon mouse runs the gauntlet on hind legs.

“That,” says the guide, “Is a rainbow mouse.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 76

 “This place,” Raven sighs in exasperation, “You people, is there nothing you wont do, no boundary you wont cross?”

The guide scratches his nose in irritation. “We do not invent all this,” he says tetchily. “The Weave responds to what's created in the Warp, what people imagine or dream about, the ideas they have. A passing fancy or whimsy out there, suddenly is real here.”

“But Granny Wrangler? Really? Somebody thought about that?”

“They didn't just think about it, they were quite specific with the details, somebody sat and thought it through. There is something I'd like to show you, if you've time for a small diversion. I think you may find it enlightening. It wont take long.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 75

 “Away to me,” the Granny Wrangler shouts. The dogs begin to circle the old women, slowly moving them on. There is an occasional squawk of “Tea,” from somewhere in the group, but they slowly make their way through the market.

“I fear to ask this,” Raven says, “But who buys old ladies?”

“Anybody who wants to enter the tournament,” is the answer.

“Tournament? What sort of a tournament?”

“The Battling Grannies Championship Medal is its proper tittle, at least half the embodiments will enter a candidate.”

“Sorry, you've lost me. These grannies are being sold to fight in some kind of gladiatorial style combat?”

“Exactly. Those are just your basic handbag swingers, but once they've had a bit of training... Last year's winner, Mrs Brown, you wouldn't believe what she could do with her knitting.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 74

 “Herding grannies to...” Raven trails off, dumbfounded. “To do their shopping?” he inquires hopefully.

“To be sold,” the guide insists.

The dog ducks and weaves until the stray group of old women has been returned to the bigger gaggle.

“Take time,” shouts the Granny Wrangler, coming round a corner. He's dishevelled looking, in a country life kind of way; green coat and wellies, flat cap and goatee beard, home-made cigarette in his mouth.

Both dogs move away from the old women, but still run back and forth to keep them together.

The Granny Wrangler takes the cigarette from his mouth. He begins to whistle but instead finds himself hacking a deep cough, surprise on his face. He stuffs the cigarette back in his mouth, draws deep, and exhales, smiling.

Episode 5 - Chapter 73

 One of the women breaks away from the group, heading toward a stall selling all manner of biscuits, from the very large to the very small.

“Come-Bye” shouts the voice, and the dog runs a circle round the whole group, gradually decreasing its diameter to herd all four women together again.

“Walk Up,” shouts the voice again when the women are back together. The dog once more advances steadily towards the women, pushing them back to what Raven sees is a much bigger group. Another dog circles this bigger group, running here and there unprompted to keep them together.

“What on earth? Raven asks.

“That's the Granny Wrangler,” the guide tells him, “Herding grannies to market.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 72

 Raven is barely listening to his guide as they progress through the market. He begins to notice that the outsize books and scrolls which form the furniture of the market are beginning to look a little shabbier. The bigger ones which act as tables, pedestals and walls look scuffed at the edges, some dust jackets are ripped or partially missing, scrolls replaced with rolled up newspapers.

He's about to mention these changes to his guide when they are overtaken by four old women, bent with age, hobbling at some speed. “Tea,” one of them squawks, “Tea,” the others echo. A dog runs past them to block their path, bringing them to a huddled standstill. “Tea,” one of them says.

“Walk Up” shouts a voice, somewhere behind them. The dog begins to walk towards the group of women, who retreat from him as he does.

Episode 5 - Chapter 71

 Raven follows his guide through the books and scrolls, wonders and oddments of the market. The Author was good to his word, providing a middle aged man dressed in an oversize Girl Guide uniform to lead him. And very informative he is too, chattering away with informative babble about the objects and places of note that they pass.

“...and that stall to your left, the one with all the hats on it, that's the stall of Jake the Rake, a notable milliner to the court of the Author, though to be honest he's been a hatter to many of the Fears, they do have their fads, the Fears I mean, ah, now, over there, that lightning bolt in the storm jar, that's believed to be the very first literary storm, very rare, should be on display in a museum, if there was a museum in the Weave, which there isn't, now along here is the alley of duellists...”

Episode 5 - Chapter 70

 “So you're suggesting” I said, “That something caused the freezer to come to life for a reason.”

“Yes,” he replied, “And when it failed to elicit a response it stopped. Probably because it required too much energy.”

“What would want to do something like that? And why?”

He looked at me quizzically. “Both questions could be answered with a shrug of the shoulders,” he said, shrugging. “I am as ignorant as yourselves.”

“You must have some idea,” Mary insisted.

“This is the Weave,” he replied, “It could be anything, for any number of reasons, most of which would make no sense to you or I. All we know for certain is that something is out there, and it wants to get our attention.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 69

 In one fluid motion the man's body cuts past the captain, forcing him to stumble and release Fiona for a moment. The man catches her arm and twirls her into his, waltzing her back into the dance without missing a step.

“I am acquainted with every variety of flower in my father's kingdom,” he says, “Yet I am not acquainted with you.”

“No,” she giggles, smiling, “No you're not.”

He is very handsome, she thinks, in that noble kind of way. Square jawed, solid cheek bones, deep blue eyes.

“Should I summon a burgomeister to make formal introduction?”

“No need,” she laughs, “I'm Fiona. Your father's kingdom?”

Episode 5 - Chapter 68

 “Instinct, possibly,” Strauss tells them. “Bears have very good instincts, we believe.”

“So you're saying he could be a spy?” Fiona asks.

“Or the envoy of whoever invited you,” Strauss replies.

“Wouldn't I know?” The captain asks.

“If it was one of the Fears,” Strauss tells him, “No, possibly not. There's not much they can't do if one of them puts their mind to it.”

At that moment their dance is interrupted by a noble looking gentleman with dark hair placing his hand on the captain's arm.

“Hope you don't mind terribly, but I believe that this,” he waves in the direction of an army strong orchestra, “Is a gentleman's excuse me.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 67

 “I don't follow you,” Fiona tells Strauss.

“The captain is a teddy bear. The Weave is full of many tales of cuddly bears, all with conflicting associations. Whoever built the cage may not have thought too much about what associations it held, probably because they didn't need to. They believed they would always control the environment.”

“So once he was outside that environment,” Fiona replies, “Those associations would start to manifest?”

“Precisely so,” Strauss tells her. “And that would include strains of real bears, how they behave, and even dancing bears.”

“Then why does he look like a man?” Fiona asks.

“Well you couldn't very well have a giant teddy bear at a royal fairytale ball.”

“I have another question,” the captain asks. “How did I know to jump in the hole?”

  

Episode 5 - Chapter 66

 “Duly noted,” Fiona says, “Gone by midnight. What time is it now?”

“Still rather early, we believe,” Strauss replies.

“Good. I want to enjoy this for a bit. Wheeee!” She giggles as the couple turn, throwing her head back. “This is such fun” she looks at Larry. “Now explain the captain's behaviour.”

“We believe there are two possible explanations. On the one hand he is being manipulated, by someone with very great influence, to guide you through the Weave. Whether they be friend or foe is unclear. Or on the other hand, the gaoler who built the prison didn't think too much about what they were putting in there. Didn't think about the psychology of the décor.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 65

 “How do you feel now?” Fiona asks the captain.

“Confused,” he replies, “But safe.” For a moment he seems to lose his step, but quickly regains his composure.

“There is, of course, a perfectly rational explanation for the captain's behaviour,” says Strauss, Larry appearing at the captain's left shoulder. “But we have more pressing concerns.”

Larry wobbles as the couple step into their next turn, but he grabs the captain's collar to steady himself.

“We believe we may have found our way to a fairytale ball. If that is the case, then it is vital that we have departed before midnight. Nothing good ever happens at midnight in a place like this.”

Episode 5 - Chapter 64

 “Not my idea.” the captain nods to their surroundings “This doesn't come from me.”

“But it was your idea to jump,” Fiona replies, enjoying the rhythm of the dance.

“Yes it was, but I don't know why. I just knew. And it's not the only thing I've done of late that I can't explain.”

“No?”

“No. You've seen me. I mean me! I'm a teddy bear without eyes. My two main qualities are pitiful and cute. Not tearing through trees screaming in rage and pain. Yet as soon as you left the room, I knew that that would be all I could feel until I was with you again.”

“Curious,” Fiona replies as they sashay.

Episode 5 - Chapter 63

 “It's Captain,” her companion replies in a low, rumbling voice, “And I do.”

She looks back at Larry, Curly and Mo and winks. “Go mingle,” she tells them. “But stay close.” Turning back she says “Shall we, Captain?” offering her arm.

They descend, arm in arm, to the edge of the dance floor. Her captain studies the movement of the waltzing throng for a moment or two before twirling Fiona into his arms and dances her into the crowd. She's not surprised to discover he's a very good dancer, leading and guiding in a gentle yet firm manner. As they swirl and twirl their way into the heart of the dance she says “You have a very stylish idea of 'lost,' Captain Bear.”