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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[dragonindungeon]

Thank you.

[ Bows in gratitude and acknowledgement, before leaving to go to the diorama room ]

[reading_rainstorm]

The Diorama Hall is a more dimly lit corridor, with the light mainly spilling out from alcoves which have a few scenes being portrayed by skilfully carved wooden figures. Only a velvet rope separates the hall from the dioramas. Only three scenes are on display: two adult male figures in a dorm of some sort holding books in front of a drum with a fake fire glowing within it, a woman opening the door to an empty storefront with Stephanie standing st the center, and two cloaked women embracing in a kiss in a brightly lit office. The last alcove doesn’t have a velvet rope. From here you can tell it seems to be a diorama of a landscape in a large glass case, instead of the scenes like the others.

The path further into the hall is blocked by a velvet rope which seems to be guarded by a young woman with strawberry blonde hair sitting in a chair by the rope. She is reading a book on astronomy and barely looks up when you enter. There’s a pair of under arm crutches leaned against the wall beside her.

[dragonindungeon]

[ Looks around, then heads towards the alcove with a large landscape diorama - since it seems close enough to where she heard Steph was struggling earlier. ]

[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.

[dragonindungeon]

[ Presses the moon with a sword :o ]

[reading_rainstorm]

Pressing the moon button makes figures all shake for a moment...but nothing happens. There is a sound of grinding machinery below the display.

[dragonindungeon]

[ Tries to peek below! ]

[reading_rainstorm]

Below the diorama is a little sliding door that reveals the inner workings of the thing. Gears and spools of thread that connect irrationally. In a little box filled with soft fabric you can see some figures have been placed, people who have stayed at Tributary but are no longer there, tucked safely away.

The source of the problem seems to be a web of rose gold thread caught up in gears. In the web is a figure of Harriet and The Lovers card.

[dragonindungeon]

Oh . . .

[ Harriet :( Oh dear. :( Falin frets for a moment because she's not entirely sure what to do to fix it, before taking her own card of Temperance and trying to slide it in and untangle the threads. ]

[reading_rainstorm]

The threads seem to accept your card, turning from a rose gold color to a gold with a more distinct pink stripe in it. The threads are easy to loosen, and the Harriet figure falls free.

[dragonindungeon]

Phew.

[ Surely this will have no further forseeable consequences. Falin gently rights the Harriet figurine before pulling back to look at the diorama again. ]

[reading_rainstorm]

Having a card that is a symbol of finding a middle road stuck in the gears of a symbol of her relationships around tributary? Certainly no knock on effects. The gears are turning now.

The diorama springs to life, all but a handful of figures go to their respective homes as the light over the diorama changes to a silvery circle shining down on the clearing. The cottages Stephanie has been in open up to show their residents inside, with tiny warm lights illuminating their interiors.

A set of figures gather in the clearing, and a few of the figures you saw in the box: Jhaez, Sharolin, Harriet. A soft song plays from a speaker as the Stephanie figure spins and moves about the clearing, as if performing a dance. As a holder of a Library Card you are treated to an extra memory

As you return to your senses you hear Stephanie's voice, like a recording in your head."Day 4 Cont. Is this too much to hope for? Not only actually doing magic myself but...making My body my own? Or...more my own. I can't dismiss the work my forgotten self has made to make this body livable even if she also made it uncomfortable in stranger ways than garden variety dysphoria. It is hard to believe I have been here for under a week and the people here are already doing so much for me. I hope in due time I am able to repay the favor. I'm being shown wonders beyond belief as though they are common occurrences, I must endeavor to give as much as myself to this community as they have given to me."

[dragonindungeon]

[ Touched... what a lovely thought and memory that is. ]

[ Dwells in that for a moment, admiring, before pressing the Sun button to see if anything changed there. ]

[reading_rainstorm]

The light shifts back to a more sunny tone and all the figures go back to their usual haunts, but after a little spin in their places strings appear between them all shining in many colors beneath the light.

The Falin miniature is in the woods admiring a butterfly on a branch. A nearby Stephanie is checking her traps. The thread between them is gold and pink. There's also a red thread going to Marcille who is picking herbs and a gold one to Laios stirring a pot in the clearing.

[dragonindungeon]

[ O-O ]

[ T... that's cool, and good, but also a lot. Falin will carefully away out of the room, not wanting to disturb anything more. ]

[reading_rainstorm]

The girl sitting at the end of the hall notes your reaction.

"Heh. She always thinks she knows what's going on with people. I think she's blind to more than she realizes."

[dragonindungeon]

Blind?

[reading_rainstorm]

"Yeah. She's real bad at seeing how people actually feel about her.

She can jump to some unkind conclusions."

It may have been hard to see in the low light, but now that she's talking and put her book down, you realize this is Ava. The girl from the hospital. She is made of wood as well, and moves like Harmony did.

[dragonindungeon]

. . . nothing seemed unkind to me.

[reading_rainstorm]

"Hm. I guess that's growth, right? Do you think it was accurate though?"

[dragonindungeon]

Maybe not completely, but... no one can be truly accurate.

[reading_rainstorm]

"Hrm. Leave it to Steph to so proudly display her misconceptions.

Anyway, I'll let you get back to your wandering, miss dragon."

[dragonindungeon]

Thank you. May I go past you?

[reading_rainstorm]

"No, none of the displays back there are finished."

It's real hard to see in the darkness but you think you can make out the silhouette of a sphinx in one of the unfinished alcoves.

"Hey! No peeking."

[dragonindungeon]

But - I need to find more cards . . .