Stephanie's Heart: The Archive

[reading_rainstorm]

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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[reading_rainstorm]

The desk is uncommonly empty. A brief flash of memory of Stephanie preparing her trap. All valuable documents and items being hidden away in a safe place in a different room. You also gleam that the item that was bait would be on the fourth wall of the diorama. A painting of considerable value but fitting within the theme of a spate of thefts that had been happening in town.

The candle has sigils carved on the side, with a good enough memory you might be able to recreate them back home. The spell is to fill a room entirely with light. The

[turntoash]

Metis committed the sigils to memory. They were to create light, which made them likely the source of the orbs near the ceiling. The postscript in Stephanie's narration suddenly made sense - this woman, a thief, could teleport using shadows, and Stephanie had attempted to block that without realizing that she was casting one herself. Interesting...

She gave the diorama one more once-over to see if she'd missed anything.

[reading_rainstorm]

Nothing more in this one. Just a glimpse into a woman's messy interpersonal life.

[turntoash]

Not that that wasn't interesting enough, but Metis figured there was some sort of time limit. She couldn't stay asleep forever, after all.

Next up was the storefront. She approached the velvet rope and eyed the diorama.

[reading_rainstorm]

The halls of the archives certainly are not rushing you forward. Metis can take her time exploring what they have to offer.

Focusing on the storefront fills you with a sense of warmth and security. Details filling in and expanding on the set the models stand in reveal this place to be the renovated entrance to a house made to operate as a place of business. There are bare shelves, recently cleaned, and some even looking brand new. The register on the desk is certainly brand new, with a tablet point of sale and contactless card reader atop a much older desk and a display case alongside it. the Stephanie model stands awestruck in the center of the room. She seems a similar age as she is now but her eyes are a bright, shining green instead of the strange yellow hue of her sphinx eyes. A woman in a star patterned blouse tucked into high waisted jeans with blonde hair dyed black at its ends leans against the doorway with a satisfied smile.

Once again, the velvet rope drops, entreating you to take a closer look at the scene.

[turntoash]

Interesting... Metis made a note of Stephanie's eyes, wondering if they had changed other times and she'd just missed it.

First step was to examine the figures. For one, was this blonde woman the same as the blonde woman she'd spoken to? What about Stephanie? What vibes or memories could she glean here?

[reading_rainstorm]

Stephanie's eyes had been their usual cat like appearance in the last scene you'd visited. The blonde woman is definitely different, older for one, and her face was more rounder and softer than Ava's. Stepping closer to Stephanie you can see the attention to detail in the model, having even a tear forming at the corner of her eye. Stephanie's voice fills your head again.

"April 30, 2019 cont. When Florence said she had a surprise for me and made me wear a blindfold I figured she just was taking me to a restaurant or movie theater she rented out or something like that...I didn't think she was buying me a fucking house? My parents' house? The crystal lantern? I know it's a business investment technically. We will need a storefront to operate out of, this was beyond imagining though. I nearly died when she took the blindfold off me. I wanted to kiss her!...Well that's not exactly new, is it. I need to talk to her about it but the only times I can get her off the topic of starting our endeavors together is when she's with her boyfriend. Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and try a fucking dating app to distract me from this stupid crush."

When the journal entry ends, the storefront lights up and suddenly the shelves are filled with books on magical theory, mythology and religion. There's incense and crystals and strange handmade wooden carvings and printings covered in sigils for sale.

[turntoash]

Aw. That was sweet. Having someone who cared that much for her, even platonically... Metis winced. Something about that stung.

She chose to file it away for later.

Next step would be to examine the counter with the strange machine on it. Definitely nothing she'd seen before, but it looked like the focal point was a flat sheet of glass, maybe? Crystal? Was it like a crystal ball? And what about behind the counter? Was anything hidden back there?

[reading_rainstorm]

Feels like some sort of glass most likely. If Metis touches it, it will light up and ask for payment. "Swipe or tap to pay"

Behind the desk there's a locked cash drawer, small stack of blank journals and a few bottles of inks and packaged fountain pens. The inks look handmade.

[turntoash]

Huh. Was the glass capable of taking gold? It wasn't very big; doubtlessly magic was involved, especially given the theme of the shop.

Metis looked through the inks, then moved to browse the shelves.

[reading_rainstorm]

It's strange that this is a diorama and all the books appear to be the genuine articles. Of note among the books are multiple copies of "Liber Null", "Psychonaut", "Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic, and Alchemical Sigils", "Practical Sigil Magic", "Red Book by Karl Jung" and "Aggripa's three books of Occult Philosophy". The crystals here seem to be genuine artifacts on close inspection. The wooden carvings have tags on them "Cleaner air in the kitchen" "Pest Ward" and "Pleasant dreams" the printed sigils are on a shelf that says "Luck charms, one use only. Please consult clerk if you don't know your big three zodiac signs."

[turntoash]

Hm. Not a single book Metis had heard of. Not that that was a surprise, though even if her memories HAD been back, she still wouldn't have recognized them. Similarly, she had no idea what her zodiac signs were, though that didn't stop her from slipping one of the luck charms in her pocket.

Anything else here that she had missed?

[reading_rainstorm]

That's all the store has "in store" ahahah.

[turntoash]

Heh. That was a good one.

On to the dorm room, then. As with the last two, Metis took a look at it before the velvet rope dropped.

[reading_rainstorm]

This one is harder to look at than the others, focusing on it puts a pit in your stomach. The first figure is dusty and poorly maintained; he is an anxious looking man with dark hair and glasses staying off to the side, observing with a grimace you have seen on Stephanie's face before. The other figure seems to have been defaced, chunks chopped out of it in places. It holds Stephanie's journal above a fire that looks a lot more real than it did a moment ago. His gaze seems to meet yours with a smug satisfaction. He stands rigid and upright, dressed in well pressed dress shirt and slacks with a stole over his shoulders. The stole has a symbol of eyes with crosses for pupils at its ends. The room is lit with buzzing fluorescent lights, a row of child sized bunks stretch to the end of the room. The bunk behind the men is in disarray, the cot has been removed from its frame and lays on the floor In a heap. You realize suddenly that just outside where you could see is the model of a child, watching in horror. They clutch the hem of their shirt tightly, tearing at it, as tears well up on their face.

[turntoash]

Metis looked over the scene for a moment, pursing her lips. It wasn't a fun diorama, but she couldn't quite piece it together yet. She had hypotheses, sure... nothing for it.

She stepped over the velvet rope. Her first target of observation: the child. What more was there to see there?

[reading_rainstorm]

It is pretty clear that this child is Stephanie. Long before she was "Stephanie." The nose, the brow, the ears. It's her...but they are far from being Her yet. The voice of the child fills your mind.

"May 2007: Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I’m so stupid. I should have known they would find my books. Especially after that tattle tale Caleb saw me reading in class. Now they are all gone along with my journals. Even the one mom made special for me. Dad didn’t even try to stop Father Renvo. It’s clear he doesn’t love me anymore. He’s too obsessed with his new wife. I can’t believe he’s forgotten mom so quickly.
Father Renvo went easy on me, though. A week of no breakfast, and I have to pray for forgiveness for holding blasphemy in my heart in front of class tomorrow. I need to not cry this time or the teacher is going to hit me again. I hope god is not confused by the prayers they make me do and the ones I do myself."

[turntoash]

Metis clicked her tongue. The details may have been unfamiliar, but the emotion at the heart of the scene pulled at vague memories that were yet still locked away. She pushed the feelings down. Not the time.

A spark in her mind, though. What if...?

Metis made to pull the journal free of Father Renvo's hand, to give it back to the child.

[reading_rainstorm]

Being near Father Renvo fills you with a roiling rage that burns in the back of your skull. His grip on the journal tight, but you are able to pry it from his grasp. It's a hand bound leather journal with an owl embossed on its cover. Placing it in the hands of the child puts out the fire in the barrel and causes a chunk of wood to fall from Renvo's form. A card slips from its place in the journal and falls to the floor. It is The Emperor.

[turntoash]

This must have been one of the cards... Metis picked it up and examined it before slipping it into a pocket. Did this mean there was something like this in each of the dioramas?

Metis darted over to the diorama with the kiss - though not before kicking Father Renvo out of service to the anger swirling in her head - and snuffed the flame on the candle out.

[reading_rainstorm]

The model of Renvo breaks apart at the arms, seeming to sneer up at you as you leave.

Blowing the candle out in the office makes the globes of light disappear, filling the room with darkness. The energy in the room fades to a nervous ripple. Less charged with excitement and heat in the moment, to something more...intimate. Is the Stephanie model somehow blushing harder now?

[turntoash]

Hmmm... maybe they didn't all have a card. Worth noting that this one still had a reaction, and an interesting one at that. Metis pondered her options before making a decision. She'd come back here later if necessary. For now, though, she elected to examine the final diorama - the map.

[reading_rainstorm]

In the case is a large and impeccably detailed diorama of Tributary. All of its locations and cottages are lovingly carved from wood. Its many inhabitants are represented by wooden miniatures in the places they often can be found or by the houses in which they reside. There are two buttons on the diorama one of a sun with a needle and thread and one with a moon and a sword.

[turntoash]

Metis took a moment to appreciate the craftsmanship, then pressed the button for Sun House.

[reading_rainstorm]

The figures all spin around in place and the light changes, illuminating thin threads of different colors connecting all the figures to each other. You can see that the Metis figure has a lot of grey strings going from it, but the one connecting her and the Stephanie figure is a sunny yellow.