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.

Comments

[reading_rainstorm]

"I am also Stephanie. She does not see it yet, but we are the same. We have the same goals. I just am more willing to do what is necessary to pursue them."

[maskformask]

Have you considered working on your pitch a little?

[reading_rainstorm]

"We don't have very open lines of communication. This place is the most I have been able to speak for myself since we were fully embodied."

[maskformask]

Okay. I think you need to find a way to do that. Because taking someone over and insisting it is for the best for both of you when you can't talk to that person is actually very creepy and she will fight you the entire way on that.

[reading_rainstorm]

The Sphinx blinks at you.

"Would you help me with that?"

[maskformask]

Sure. Should we workshop a message?

[reading_rainstorm]

The sphinx is so confused by this. Just looking dumbfound at this offer.

"Yes? If you are willing? I really don't wish Stephanie harm. We hold the same things dear..."

[maskformask]

Of course I'm willing. I think that's a great start.

[there's notepaper around that's pinned up right. Can I take that down and start jotting down a draft while the sphinx talks]

[reading_rainstorm]

Yup! You even have ink and writing implements too! How handy.

"Okay...I want it on the record that I only want to eat people who annoy me or are hiding things from us. That really seemed to upset her last time."

[maskformask]

[writes down that bullet note] Okay. That's a start. Keep going. Maybe something about not totally taking over her independent mind? Most people value having one of those.

[reading_rainstorm]

"It's my mind too! We are the same. She thinks my thoughts and I think hers. We just come to slightly different conclusions."

She's starting to get aggravated by this line of questioning.

"Why do I have to be trapped in her with no control? We suffer because of her refusal to listen to our instincts!"

[maskformask]

[makes a note of that first thing]

Suffer?

[reading_rainstorm]

"The hunger! She starves us of knowledge. She thinks we can be sustained on mana alone."

[maskformask]

Is it as simple as reading more to sate it? Or is it something else?

[reading_rainstorm]

"Reading tends to sate it well enough. As long as we do it enough."

[maskformask]

[making a note of that] What else do you want to share?

[reading_rainstorm]

She thinks for a long moment.

"I think that is it..."

[maskformask]

So, to summarize:

You're frustrated at the lack of open lines of communication and since you can't talk directly you're being forceful instead, because the only other option is total silence. But you don't actually want to work against Stephane. You have the same goals and see the same things, you just have different perspectives and ideas on how to get them. You don't wish her any harm and you hold the same things dear. It's not just a body you share, it's a mind.

You do sometimes want to eat people, but only if they annoy you or are hiding things. It's not a general case. You're distressed. You feel trapped in a corner and like you have no control. And you're always hungry, because you require knowledge to live, and she's been starving you; you can't be sustained on mana alone. Reading enough would do it, though.

Any sign off or direct words to her you want to give?

[reading_rainstorm]

"We do not have to be enemies. I want my own name."

[maskformask]

Okay. I'll tell her.

Do you think I should go through the remaining memories? My goal was to collect all, in case that was important, but this part itself feels pretty important.

[reading_rainstorm]

"I know one of the missing memories is of how...I came to be. If you think that is worth it.

I will leave you now. Light the contracts on fire if you want to see the rest of this memory."

The sphinx flaps her wings fades away into the darkness

[maskformask]

[quiet for a moment, then, yeah, goes over to light those contracts up and see what happens]

[reading_rainstorm]

The contracts light and their flame turns a soft lavender hue. The smoke from them swirls around Louis to form two figures that start to take shape and definition. Stephanie standing rigid and sweat beading at her brow and an inhumanly tall and mint green skinned woman standing in the ritual circles that speaks to her with a smug tone.

"That was wrong again mortal. What should I take from you this time? How about...your warmth."

"Fine it is yours. My turn...

Eight brilliant scholars take their chairs;
I pray you, please observe them.
A steward's seat looks down on theirs
That he might better serve them. "

"...A place setting? Shining cuttlery and a plate?"

"Wrong. It is a menorah. Eight candles that are lit by a center one placed above the rest."

"Fine take the last mortal as your prize. We continue."

"Actually, since I have beaten you thrice, and you only twice. That's game. Best of three."

"What? I never agreed to-"

"You didn't I was the one who set the terms of the game though, and it remains my right to. The game is done."

"If you think you have gotten away with this disgrace mortal-"

Stephanie takes out a balled up rag and tosses it at one of the sigils, smudging it and breaking the spell. The woman in the circle disappears. Stephanie collapses to her knees and shivers.

[maskformask]

[is she still there and interactable, or just a mirage? If real, he'll go over and put a hand on her shoulder]

[reading_rainstorm]

She's there briefly. She puts a hand on his. It's cold. She gives him a weak smile.

"I saved them. I did actual magic and I saved them. That's what matters."

And she's gone. In the ash of the contracts, you see a card. Death.