reading_rainstorm | Stephanie's Heart: The Archive

In your dreams you are in a thick and foggy forest. It could be mistaken for the woods around Tributary if you don’t know your plants. You are on a trail leading into a clearing, in the center of which is a simple, concrete structure with a single door. A chaos star has been spray painted on it with a stencil.

You approach the structure. Looking over your shoulder you see a large shape lurking in the fog, obscured by the foliage. Two shining Feline eyes peer at you from the brush. You feel your heart rate spike as you turn the knob and find an old fashioned elevator tucked neatly inside with an accordion grate standing between you and the ornate, gilded interior. It creaks open as the presence behind you steps into the clearing. It is a sphinx, an eight foot tall lioness with the face of a woman and the large brown wings of an eagle on her back . The feminine face and olive skin tone of a Greek woman from antiquity smiles as she readies herself to to pounce, the wings on her back stretching and give a few readying flaps.You back into the elevator and close the gate with shaking hands as the sphinx leaps at the elevator. Her claws twisting and shearing the metal of the grate slowly, but she is too late. The elevator springs to life and you descend.

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A small light above flickers on as it illuminates your view outside the exposed elevator as you sink into the concrete structure. You descend for a few moments before an opening in the concrete gives you the view of an observation deck on a hill, looking down on the sprawling suburbs and campus of a college town. The elevator continues downward. The concrete gives way to old, dusty marble as you continue sinking. You see a vast maze stretch far and away that gets nearer and nearer. This has to be it, right? Your destination? No. You plunge further down, past the walls of the maze and the marble is replaced again by well polished wood. Beautiful stained mahogany rises past you as your descent finally starts to slow. You are greeted by another grate that creaks open for you. Entreating you to enter.

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From:

whatpossessedyou

...hello...?

From:

reading_rainstorm

He sighs and puts the book down.

"Hello, Miss Barrow. How can I help you today?"

From:

whatpossessedyou

I'm looking for—cards. Do you know where I might find some?

From:

reading_rainstorm

"Ah. I've um...I've been having trouble looking myself. Most likely they got in the rooms and dioramas somehow. Us librarians can't actually go in those."

From:

whatpossessedyou

I see. Well... I'll see what I can find, then.

[she's heading into the Sun House shrine room door first]

From:

reading_rainstorm

It's the Sun House shrine room! Almost exactly as you know it.

Someone is tucked comfortably into the four mattress high bed, loom, spinning wheel are all exactly where they ought to be. There's something else here as well though, one of the bookshelves from the reading room is along the wall and there's a chair from the reading room as well. Sitting in the chair is...Stephanie? No, a wooden Stephanie sits reading a book, unlike the other wooden people you've seen so far this one isn't self animated though, she seems to be puppeted by a figure made of pitch black smoke with eyes and large black pupils. The figure and the puppet look up at you at the same time. She speaks with a soft, whispery voice.

“Oh, hello. I wasn't expecting- me?”

From:

whatpossessedyou

Oh! Hello... yes, it's... I mean, this isn't usually what it feels like to be in Stephanie's mind, but...

From:

reading_rainstorm

"It's interesting...seeing a place we know so well...physically. Right?"

From:

whatpossessedyou

Yes.

It's strange to see—this, too.

[she touches the Stephanie puppet's head]

From:

reading_rainstorm

"It is?...Would you prefer I use the other body? Or I could ...not use one."

It looks wooden, but once you touch it, it feels real.

From:

whatpossessedyou

Oh—no, I don't have a preference, exactly. It's simply not something I normally see from the outside, you know.

[absently caressing her cheek]

From:

reading_rainstorm

Her hand goes to yours holding it there gently. Looking up at you with those big dark eyes.

"You can go to her...If you want. The trick door..."

From:

whatpossessedyou

Oh—!

[frozen for a moment]

From:

reading_rainstorm

She laughs a little at that reaction and gets a devious little smile on her face. It sets your heart a flutter...wait are these your feelings? Or are these Stephanie's? She kisses your thumb before letting it go.

"You can keep looking for the cards too..."

From:

whatpossessedyou

I... I think I'd better. But I'll come soon.

Is there one in here...?

From:

reading_rainstorm

"Not that I've seen...I'm sorry. Perhaps try the...broken door? I keep hearing it open and close."

From:

whatpossessedyou

I'll go look.

I love you.

From:

reading_rainstorm

"I love you too."

Going inside the shabby door you find yourself inside a ruined cabin. There are three college age humans around the room. Moss grows on their limbs. Vines twist around their bodies, creeping from inside a stone circle in the center of the room. Behind the circle there's an altar built of discarded furniture. Scrawled pages of yellowing notebook paper are stapled to it all over. There's an open bag that looks to have some implements for a spell prepared.

Edited Date: 2025-01-15 06:03 am (UTC)

From:

whatpossessedyou

...well, that doesn't look healthy.

[going to look in the bag]

From:

reading_rainstorm

Inks, black and red. A set of brushes. A lighter. Bottles of silver dust and iron filings. 6 documents, 3 in foreign script (latin) and three in olde english. They are...contracts?

From:

whatpossessedyou

[she tries to read them, and will also examine the yellow notebook paper to see if anything is legible]

From:

reading_rainstorm

The contracts are promises of time in the mortal world in equivalent to the time it would take to learn a language, for the knowledge of said language.

The pages on the altar appear to be entreaties for help from a "Lady of Pages" in their studies as well as odes to her in thanks. It seems possible they have ran afoul of this figure somehow.