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:

peccatore

[Back to the Remembered Rooms and, in turn, examining the two doors he hasn't checked out yet. One certainly looks more ominous than the other, but he honestly isn't sure which one he should be prioritizing based on that.

... He does tentatively knock on the metal door, though.]

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reading_rainstorm

There's no answer. You can look through the little window. You see inside it is a hospital room with a privacy obscuring your view of whoever is in there.

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peccatore

[... Hmm.

Okay, what if he tries to open the blue door juuuust a tiny bit...?]

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reading_rainstorm

A peek into the room of a teenager. You see the corner of a bed with a tapestry and some faerie lights hanging.

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peccatore

[Well, he can't exactly tell at a glance which of these would be the greatest invasion of privacy, but... odds are this would be the safer room to see, right?

He steps inside.]

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reading_rainstorm

You are in a finished attic room. It is very warm here. There are fairy lights strung up and a tapestry of the tarot card “The High Priestess” hangs above the mattress on the floor that has it’s sheets neatly made. This whole place would seem incredibly clean and organized if there wasn't a stack of books and papers spread across the desk opposite the bed and a trash can that needed to be emptied two days ago overflowing with energy drink cans right beside it. Along the wall is a window with a bookcase beside it, chock full of books.

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peccatore

[Ah, well. He probably can't take the entire tapestry with him, can he.

The bookcase seems like a reasonable place to search, though.]

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reading_rainstorm

The bookshelf is all fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery novels. Wow, she really likes Steven King. As you admire her collection you hear someone coming up the stairs. It's Stephanie stomping upward followed by a man with salt and pepper hair and a tightly trimmed beard.

"Stephy. Please, I know it's hard."

"Shut up! 'It's hard.' I saw enough of that jackass at the cult I don't want to go to his fucking trial."

"Stephanie...you're a key witness."

"Why...why do I have to be the one to do this..."

Her father gives her a hug.

"It's the right thing to do dear. Your testimony will make sure he can't hurt more people.

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peccatore

[Oh, he gets the distinct feeling he shouldn't be seeing this.]

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reading_rainstorm

"I want something..."

Her dad laughs.

"For going to that trial, anything for you."

"...How about a cloak. Winter's coming."

"A cloak? Not a coat?"

"Cloaks are cool!"

The memory fades from view, a sense of comfort and happiness settles over the room.

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peccatore

... Oh.

[Maybe... Maybe this is alright, then.]

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reading_rainstorm

Just a pleasant memory, and a room Stephanie knows very, very well. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a card here.

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peccatore

......

[HE'S GONNA TRY AND TAKE THE TAPESTRY???]

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reading_rainstorm

You remove the tapestry...this place feels empty without it. She doesn't have much in the way of decoration. Clearly it is something that meant a lot to her.

A flash of memory: Stephanie only a few years before this moment pulls the high priestess from the top of a tarot deck and instantly understands its meaning. Tears roll down her face as she asks her father if she can be a girl.

From:

peccatore

[...

Marco puts the tapestry back where it belongs and leaves the room.]

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reading_rainstorm

Going to check out that hospital room Marco?

From:

peccatore

[IT SEEMS HE HAS NO CHOICE (he absolutely does, but. You know).]

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reading_rainstorm

The door swings open and you are in a modern hospital room. Tile floor, the smell of antiseptic, eerily quiet. Someone moves behind the hospital curtain. You can see Ava's crutches leaning against the wall beside the bed. A knot forms in your stomach. This is wrong. You don't want to be here. You turn around and the door is gone.

From:

peccatore

[He already had a bad enough feeling about this looking in from the outside. This only makes it worse. Where can he even go from here...? What's about to happen? What will he have to watch playing out?]

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reading_rainstorm

Further in. The person behind the curtain shifts slightly...did they notice your presence?

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peccatore

[They must have.]

I-I didn't mean to intrude.

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reading_rainstorm

"Finally got the courage to face me Steph ?"

Suddenly Stephanie is there beside you, or...a ghost of her, she is younger, no sphinx eyes and for once she isn't dressed in her cloak. She wears a black blouse with an olive skirt. She passes you and pulls away the curtain to reveal a young woman with strawberry blonde hair, fuming.

"The courage!? I didn't even know you were here! I haven't heard from you in a week, I was worried Ava."

"You made your worries quite clear before I left, Grim." Stephanie cringes as Ava uses that name for her. Ava's frown burrows into Stephanie. "Your little superstition spooked you away from a trip we had planned for weeks!"

"Supperstition? You know- You've seen my magic! You know the things I can do."

"You let cards keep ruin a trip with my family."

"I told you I thought it would be dangerous, and-"

"AND YOU WERE RIGHT? Is that what you were about to say Stephanie? Oh great, your predictions came true and the doctors tell me I'm going to walk with a limp forever. So what, I should have listened to you and just stayed home with you? Holed up like a pair of hikikomori?"

"That's not what I-" The knot in your gut turns. You didn't deserve this. All this spite Ava was throwing at you, no. At Stephanie. That fear turns into anger. "You're going to call all this superstition after all you've seen. After all the luck charms that got you straight A's."

"Doubling down on the creepy girl act. Very nice Steph."

"You think I want people to call me creepy!? You think I want their attention? I sure know you do. That's why you started dating me, right? To look like the nice girl deigning to date the Freak" Tears prick at the corner of your eyes. You're crying. Ava points to the door and tosses a card at Stephanie. It slides to your feet.

"GET OUT. Take your stupid luck charm with you. We're done Steph."

From:

peccatore

[Marco watches his play out with an increasingly grim look on his face - not to mention all the other feelings that are his-but-not-his, making something twist unpleasantly in his chest.

He picks up the card.]