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.

Watch on YouTube

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

[maskformask]

[oh. i hate this.

there's no choice but to move forward] Ava?

[reading_rainstorm]

"Glad you finally remembered me Stephanie!"

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 Ava, fuming.

"Finally got the courage to face me hm?"

"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!"

"Superstition? 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."

[maskformask]

[grimaces] Well, this seems messy.

[reading_rainstorm]

The door is back. The card at your feet is strength. The last one.

[maskformask]

[takes that, then. There's no more doors?

Goes to. look behind the curtain if anyone's still there]

[reading_rainstorm]

The hospital bed is empty save for a book on astrology.

There's another door in remembered rooms, though. The bright cheery blue one if you want to check it out.

[maskformask]

[that'd make sense, given what the sphinx said. Goes to check that room, yeah]

[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.

[maskformask]

Girl, don't drink that many.

[checks the bookcase first, then will check the desk]

[reading_rainstorm]

The bookshelf is all fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery novels. Wow, she really likes Steven King.

On the desk you see homework, an essay on the fall of the Roman empire, half finished. There's a to do list for the weekend: Homework, Carving, Sewing, doctor's appointment, date with Ava.

As you rifle around you hear someone coming up the stairs. It's Stephanie stomping upward followed by...a different dad? She's sniffling a little.

"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 be part of his fucking trial. They know what he did!"

"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."

[maskformask]

[oh. Grimaces. He... sits on the bed to wait for her? And eavesdrop.

This is familiar. Though he didn't wait for any trial, himself.]

[reading_rainstorm]

She flops next to you on the bed arms splayed out over the mattress. She stares up at the ceiling as she thinks . A deep frown on her face.

"I want something..."

Her dad laughs.

"For doing this, anything."

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

"A cloak? Not a coat?"

She pops back up.

"Cloaks are cool!"

Her father fades from the memory and teen Stephanie's eyes go over to you.

[maskformask]

You're right. Cloaks ARE cool.

[reading_rainstorm]

Teen Steph gives you a big smile before she fades away. A sense of comfort settles over the room.

[maskformask]

[softly, to the air] You're very brave.

This can't be where you first met the sphinx, then. Was it... right after the breakup...?

[reading_rainstorm]

There's a shake to the room. It's different slightly. The walls and floor look more like the shop you saw in the diorama. The desk has stayed the same. A vague outline of an older Stephanie hunched over something.

The memory collapses back to the attic room.

[maskformask]

I'm sorry. I don't understand. Ah—wait. Should I go back to the dioramas? The unfinished ones?

[assuming there's no more room response, he'll head back there]

[reading_rainstorm]

A box of tarot cards falls from a shelf above the desk. You blink and the desk has been cleared and a velvet cloth lays across it.

[maskformask]

We've reached the part that I'm bad at...

[takes the cards he's found and lays them out on the cloth?]

[reading_rainstorm]

The door out shifts into the door to the hall of fate as he lays them down.

What order does he lays them in?

[maskformask]

Oh, but the problem is I wanted to find the origin of the sphinx first. Well. That's fine.

[the order he found them in? If that doesn't work he'll revisit Hints from rooms though.]

[reading_rainstorm]

That's Hermit, Tower, Emperor, Lovers, Death, and Strength. The sconces around the hall doors light up with lavender flame. It seems it worked.

[maskformask]

Phew. This is a strong spread. Okay, Stephanie. I'm going in.

[goes for it]

[reading_rainstorm]

The Hall of Fate looks to be be floored and papered entirely with pages upon pages upon pages of Stephanie's journals. Every inch of the place is covered with her hand writing. Stone doors depicting the Tarot cards Louis picked up line the wall. At the end of the hall is a final stone door. Emblazoned with the image of The High Priestess.

Different scraps of writing overlap on the floor before you to create the sentence "Death has your answer."

[maskformask]

Ah. Hm. I feel like I should probably say at this point that death is never the answer just in case this is. A concern. but I also know the tarot card isn't actually death of the body.

Thank you for telling me.

[goes to the Death card door]