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:

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.

From:

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. ]

From:

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."

Edited Date: 2025-01-20 08:03 am (UTC)

From:

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. ]

From:

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.

From:

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. ]

From:

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."

From:

dragonindungeon

Blind?

From:

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.

From:

dragonindungeon

. . . nothing seemed unkind to me.

From:

reading_rainstorm

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

From:

dragonindungeon

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

From:

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."

From:

dragonindungeon

Thank you. May I go past you?

From:

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."

From:

dragonindungeon

But - I need to find more cards . . .

From:

reading_rainstorm

"Well there sure as hell won't be back there. If anything finding, cards is gonna help put those the new displays together.

Might be something in the ones out here though."

From:

dragonindungeon

... alright. I'll go look at the others.

From:

reading_rainstorm

There's the bunks with the man about to burn a journal. Two cloaked women kissing in an office and Stephanie and a different woman in an empty storefront.

Does Falin pick one to examine further or ask the cards for help?

From:

dragonindungeon

[ She goes to the man about to burn a journal, alarmed!! ]

From:

reading_rainstorm

Focusing on the diorama, it seems to gain depth and width Beyond the bounds of its alcove. The first figure is the man who was shelving books in the remembered rooms hall. 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. Having gotten closer, you notice a third figure: A child probably eight or nine. They are watching in horror at the scene, tearing at the hem of their shirt as tears stream down their face.

The velvet rope that separated you from the diorama falls to the floor.

From:

dragonindungeon

[ steps protectively in front of the child and tries to grab the journal ]

From:

reading_rainstorm

These figures seem inanimate, unlike the others you've met. You easily snatch the journal. Handmade and leatherbound, there is an owl embossed on its cover. A child's voice 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."