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

[wingsister]

:And Stephanie?:

[reading_rainstorm]

"Will remember it..less completely. It is all an extension of her and the Archives are a very large place to be."

[wingsister]

:I see. It doesn't seem very useful to be Companion-shaped here, but I did actually shape-change yesterday and if this is a dream...:

She's very hard to look at for a second and when it's over, a old, white haired woman with a beaky nose stands in front of the wooden girl, wearing a white suit of clothing that surprisingly matches the white clothes that Vanyel/Lyric got from the giftboxes.

She wiggles her fingers. "Better."

[reading_rainstorm]

"Oh my! Hehe. That's a very useful form to have in these circumstances"

[wingsister]

"Normally I just ask for humans to be my hands, but that won't help with the stairs."

Now that she can go up it, she'll head toward the Dioramas, since they sound interesting.

[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.

[wingsister]

She'll examine the first of those, then.

[reading_rainstorm]

Focusing on the diorama, it seems to gain depth and width Beyond the bounds of its alcove. 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.

[wingsister]

She frowns, not liking the look of that priest at all.

[reading_rainstorm]

The velvet rope falls away as the whole of the scene becomes clearer to you. You realize as well there is a child in this diorama. Standing in the corner, just out of sight before it expanded. Tearing at their shirt and crying. A child-like voice fills your head.

"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."

[wingsister]

"I don't like your priest," she says out loud, because if the diorama is talking to her then she's going to talk back. "He doesn't seem like a good man or a good priest for that matter."

[reading_rainstorm]

The girl in the chair chimes in.

"Elias T. Renvo was a hell of an asshole. Got a whole bunch of people killed, ruined the lives of the rest. You know Steph is the only living person who was in that cult anymore?"

[wingsister]

"No, but good for her for getting out. I'm sorry the rest of the children didn't."

[reading_rainstorm]

"Eh. She didn't really...get out? It just kinda...fell apart around her. I don't know if she ever forgave herself for that."

[wingsister]

"But she isn't with them anymore?"

[reading_rainstorm]

"The way she tells it nowadays, she was never with them in the first place. Dragged there by her father. Didn't have much of a say in the matter after her mom died."

[wingsister]

"Children rarely do," she agrees, sighing.