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]

Getting closer to her, you can see that like Harmony behind the reference desk, this woman is wooden.

"Worse I'd say. I don't even know why Steph keeps some of them around. She's always been a bit of a packrat though."

[maskformask]

[does this one resemble Stephanie like Harmony, or do they just seem like, well, a visual shorthand for heart npcs?]

Well, sometimes things are important to us even if they're complicated.

[reading_rainstorm]

No, this one looks very different from Harmony. Taking a jab, yeah these are Steph's npcs.

"Even that one?"

She's pointing at the dormitory diorama.

"That shit has rancid vibes."

[maskformask]

Sometimes the most rancid stuff still gives us part of an understanding? But I'll go look.

[he heads over there. He glances the figures over briefly, their pose etc, though he ...avoids looking them in the face]

[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. 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.

[maskformask]

Ah. Yeah. Rancid, I see.

[reaches over to try to take the card out of the journal]

[reading_rainstorm]

The velvet rope drops for you as you attempt to reach across it.

"Ah, letting you in a bit. She must trust you to only break things in ways she likes"

[maskformask]

I like her a lot. I'm really happy she's trusting me, though obviously I don't want to overstep.

[gently leaning over to try to extract that. grimaces. How small is this diorama? Life-size, or miniature?]

[reading_rainstorm]

Life size. You're able to get the card. It's The Emperor.

[maskformask]

[goes to look at the child]

[reading_rainstorm]

It's Stephanie. You can see it in the nose and the ears and the brow. They have bright green eyes. Following their gaze you can tell they are most focused on the other figure. Not the priest, their father.

[maskformask]

[Louis assesses the following things when trying to decide what to do.

1. is there a button
2. is the journal built into the diorama or it can it also be moved
3. are the tears painted on or are they actually moving]

[reading_rainstorm]

1: No button
2: The journal can be removed.
3: They are "Moving" in that stop motion way the npcs are moving. They aren't made of water though.

[maskformask]

[attempts to take the journal and give it to baby Stephanie. Being gentle, though, doesn't want to break anything.]

[reading_rainstorm]

The journal is hand made, and leather bound. There is an owl embossed on the front. You're able to put it in Stephanie's hands and a feeling of a calm and contentment washes over you. The tears stop flowing.

[maskformask]

[softly] Of course there's no way to change the past. But, well, all the things in here are of you. They're still with you, in the end.

[reading_rainstorm]

There's a shifting and a clearing of her throat from the girl. Failing to pretend she isn't listening in. The child Stephanie's gaze seems to be focused on you. A smile at the corner of their lips. They get out. You know they get out.

[maskformask]

[makes a gesture like he's ruffling the figure's hair, then gets away from the diorama. Makes a wry smile at the girl running this section] Sorry, sorry.

[reading_rainstorm]

"A bit sappier than I expected...but nice."

You realize that with the three cards you have, you could open the way to the Hall of Fate. You have enough cards for a past, present, and future spread.

There are other cards to find, and other memories to see though.

[maskformask]

I'm secretly a bit of a sappy person. Or, at least, I tend to say the things that I think need to be heard but are usually a bit cringe to say, I think.

[grins at her. He is not leaving with just three cards] What's your name, by the way?

[reading_rainstorm]

She laughs a little at that.

"Ava Burnett. Junior Librarian. I'd get up to shake your hand but it's a bit of a hassle."

She nods to the crutches.

[maskformask]

No worries. I'm Louis Castaigne. Nice to meet you.

[ambling toward the storefront diorama]

[reading_rainstorm]

"Nice to meet ya. Careful with the other two, they're nicer."

Focusing on the storefront Fills you with a sense of warmth and security. Details filling in and expanding on the set the models stand in reveal this place to be the renovated entrance to a house made to operate as a place of business. There are bare shelves, recently cleaned, and some even looking brand new. The register on the desk is certainly brand new, with a tablet point of sale and contactless card reader atop a much older desk and a display case alongside it. the Stephanie model stands awestruck in the center of the room. She seems a similar age as she is now but her eyes are a bright, shining green instead of the strange yellow hue of her sphinx eyes. A woman in a star patterned blouse tucked into high waisted jeans with blonde hair dyed black at its ends.

The velvet rope falls entreating you to take a better look.

[maskformask]

I'll be careful.

[walking around, examining details, not really touching things, just seeing this moment for Steph and looking for cards]

[reading_rainstorm]

Stephanie's voice enters your head again.

"April 30, 2019 cont. When Florence said she had a surprise for me and made me wear a blindfold I figured she just was taking me to a restaurant or movie theater she rented out or something like that...I didn't think she was buying me a fucking house? My parents' house? The crystal lantern? I know it's a business investment technically. We will need a storefront to operate out of, this was beyond imagining though. I nearly died when she took the blindfold off me. I wanted to kiss her!...Well that's not exactly new, is it? I need to talk to her about it but the only times I can get her off the topic of starting our endeavors together is when she's with her boyfriend.

Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and try a fucking dating app to distract me from this stupid crush."