2025-05-19 - Revisiting The Dollhouse

Robin's got on an incredibly baggy long sleeve shirt with some large letters on the sleeve that are unreadable as the sleeves are, for a change, shoved up to the elbow. Robin's right arm a mesh of faded burn scars and the colours the magic has turned his skin; black at the fingertips and a daily changing rainbow of hues up his arms.

Earlier he'd reached out to those he could that were in the dollhouse dream during the Chicago Fire to meet with Estella to help him make the most accurate replay possible. Ducking into the library he signs to Estella with subtitles and a whistle in a 'hu-llooo' tone. 'Heya, find anything new in the books about the new visitors?'

He looks for a chair to loiter in while others gather in their time.

A minute... Maybe two, behind Robin is Aisley. Having received the text to come and meet Estella, she was all for it. The Dollhouse had been something she dreamed of over and over again. Recalling accurately wouldn't be too hard for her.

Black boots stepped through the hard floors and found their way towards Robin and Estella. Aisley was dressed in a lack and white striped shirt, black pants, and her hair was left down to fall around her shoulders. As she approached where Estella was, a smile turned up on her lips, lifting a hand as she waved in greeting before she was closer enough to greet them.

"Hey," she says when she steps up, coming beside Robin.

Arrow arrives at a gentle pace, using a cane today, the glint of a silver raven grip bright and freshly polished. She wears all black, even in the warmer months, though the mesh shirt she wears over a black crop top is left free of a heavy coat to cover it all. Her platinum hair's pulled back with a few antique pins into a knot that may have started the day neat, but certainly isn't ending it that way. "Roomie," she says, by way of greeting her roomie, and nods to both Waverly, Aisley, and other literary lurkers.

There's probably a thermos of tea in her crossbody bag, but she does the climate controlled archive the service of not pulling it out to share sips amongst her peers. Maybe in a few months when things get really real.

Austin absolutely cannot always be found in the library, and in fact has never set foot in it before. He is, however, on time as he does so, looking around with some interest. He's in fairly unremarkable clothes -- dark jeans, sneakers, a long-sleeved light-blue heathered tee with a little red A with a yellow halo printed where a fancier shirt might have a breast pocket. His curls are particularly bouncy today, as though they're as pleased with the warming spring weather as anyone else.

"Hey," he greets the group with a bright smile, settling into a comfortable stance near the other most recent arrivals. "This place looks neat. How's everyone doing? Also," to Estella specifically, "hi, I'm Austin, or Oz, either one. Nice to meet you!"

Folding his legs up in the chair Robin waves to Aisley and then Austin, and then his roomie, Arrow. He considers the words and finally signs leaving the letters floating big enough.

'So we were all in the shared dream in the dollhouse that was dropped when Allister and his daughter were running out. ' there's a pause and he proceeds curious and with some caution that all of this is weird as it is her ancestral family story. 'We wanted to offer to rebuild the dream while awake in case that's helpful for you. You kind of flinched when it was brought up before. How are you doing with all this stuff?'

Looking to the other three he lets them add their thoughts on it if they wish to; hands stilling on teh tabletop.

Pulling out a chair to the table and joining it, Aisley looks at the words that Robin puts out to Waverly and nods her head slowly. Adding in a hushed tone required for a library, "If that's something you want of course," glancing over at Robin and then the rest, "I'm sure we are all in agreement we don't want to add more hardship to you or cause you any distress. Just want to offer help."

Arrow gets comfortable in one of the seats and lifts a hand to wave to Austin at the intro. "Yes," she agrees with Robin. There's a look to Estella, but she doesn't say more than, "Arrow," at first, by way of a very brief introduction. "It was the weirdest thing, like some kind of lucid dreaming. After the father and daughter ran in, the little girl saw us in the house, two separate storylines connecting. Our dream and their fiery nightmare... but we woke before we could talk with them."

"I don't know if we can go back in." She glances over at Robin, "To pick up or pull them out of the fire into a calmer place to talk. It was one of the weirdest shared dreams this place has spun up." She shifts in her seat. "At least that I got dragged into."

"It's the only one I got dragged into," Austin says, snagging one of the remaining nearby chairs and settling into it. "And I dunno a lot about what's going on really but I'm happy to help with anything if I can." From the expression, not knowing a lot about all this might even involve things like 'who is Alistair', but if so he seems to have decided that isn't yet information he needs to get. Not while they're still checking whether Estella wants to know more about the dream or not, certainly.

Robin considers Her question of 'did she' before wobbling a hand back and forth and then holding his hand up with fingers an inch apart int eh 'little bit' way. There's a shrug before he makes a sign starting with a gesture to his face and adding words. 'I watch people's faces a lot. Not judgement. Sometimes I worry about people. All of this has been weird and a lot.' With that he points to Aisley- that!

His eyes drift to Austin and Arrow recalling what they remember; his own expression a little uncomfortable with a small nod. There is a good question though- what would people have to do?

'I was thinking as we are all gathered around a pretty bit table we could make a scale model of it here with the side open, but I wasn't upstairs to remember all the detail bits.' there's a pause before he amends, 'Until I was falling out the window there. Better view.' Not the one he wanted.

Moving a few things he takes a deep breath to consider memory here, not being telepathic to do something cool like link their consciousness or whatever. He starts with an illusion of the basic house shape with the kitchen first taking on details: little pine wood cabinet doors that open and shut that have been painted and have been worn smooth with a lot of use, wooden box with burners painted on it and a door that opens forward for the oven, and the curtains and the wallpaper coming into view.

Aisley watches as Robin starts to create the dollhouse again from what he has to work with, seeing the details come together, "There was a hole in the middle of it, as if something fell through it," she offers.

"I recall the sounds more than anything. The panic of moving things around and to leave. The panic in the little girls voice." Looking back to Robin. "Robin and I were standing together in the dream, I'm almost certain the little girl stared right at us. It felt so real."

"What happ--?" Austin starts, looking more clearly confused and a touch concerned by Estella's profession of not being sure what happened, and then equally clearly realising that this question, as phrased, probably qualifies as a dumb one. "What did you f--" Also no. "I'm sorry you forgot something." It doesn't actually address any of his desires for information, but it's genuine, at least.

He leans in a little for a better look when Robin starts to 'rebuild' the dollhouse, and looks rather impressed by it. "I was mostly upstairs," he says, pleased to presumably have something to offer. "I wouldn't say the hole was like something fell through it... it was a really neat hole. Like, built that way? So the house could open up. There were... three floors, I think. No, four, there was an attic I think, 'cause there was more up to go, and I was on the third. That's where the bedrooms were. I woke up sitting in one of the beds 'cause it wasn't long enough. Next to a big wooden doll." A pause, his brow furrowing. "Also I was dressed like I was supposed to go summer surfing maybe? I dunno if that matters but it was kinda weird."

An attempt will be made to better (or at all) describe things if and when prompted. Unfortunately, he doesn't have magic to let him put the images into Robin's head either.

There was a hole in it- right! This is why he has help. Robin works on the image to start to include the stairs, the hole to look down. Little blocks with a fabric cover for the 'covers' get added as well as he could see at a glance.

Austin mentions the wood figures that were 'sleeping' and those get shaped and formed. Look, it's surreal estate happening live, go teamwork!

He makes the time him, tiny Aisley and Cedric. He adds upstairs a mini Arrow and chibi Austin. When the note of the girl coming up is brought up he points around the room and tries to work on a expanding the illusion to just around their chairs. ' when I looked out the window in the living room' he looks up to Waverly, 'there was a man, Alister hurrying down the stairs with a small child that turned from him and ran up to the house sticking her face near it, grabbed it, and - I'll try to remake them.'

Aisley looks over at Austin at the correct and nods slowly, he had been closer to inspecting the hole than she had been, she's stayed away from it and looked around the first floor. A grin spreads on her face at the mention of surfwear.

Trying to recall more from the dream, Robin adds in his own bid from Alister, and she nods again in agreement with what he was saying. "Does your family have any heirlooms like this doll house? Does it look familiar to you at all?"

"Maybe! It's been like... two years since I went surfing..." Austin looks a bit wistful at that thought, but shakes it off. "The hole and the stairs and... everything didn't have any safety rails or banisters or anything. The beds were..." He leans in further and reaches into the illusion, sort of pinching and pulling at a few details of them to try to indicate to Robin the differences he remembers from the current representation. "And the dolls looked like someone carved them by hand, but really smooth too. They had dresses kinda like my sister made her Barbies when she was little, only kinda longer. There weren't any under the beds, or any monsters or even boxes or anything," he glances to Arrow, "We looked."

Turning his attention to the 'outer' area Robin's moved to working on, he offers, "They were really big. I mean. Probably normal size compared to a doll? But yeah. And they were kinda dressed like they came out of the Boo'edwalk or Mecha-Arcana or something. The guy said... there was no time and grab what they could and the little girl called him Daddy and wanted her dolls I think, and then she screamed when the house opened up and I guess she saw us. I think." He looks around at the others for confirmation. Dreams are slippery things.

Arrow, silent for a little while watching the dollhouse take shape, chimes in with a quiet, "Yes," she says, echoing what Austin said, "There were vintage carved wood dolls in the beds." She relays what she can remember about the dolors in the room with the dolls in the little doll beds, nodding to Oz. "There we no railings on the staircases, and the windows had gauzy curtains. There was ticking in the distance, soft, but I think that was in the real house, not the dollhouse." She looks to Aisley briefly, though the two of them didn't spend much time in each other's company in the house, at least not on the same floor. And then her gaze flips back to Austin. "We did look. You never know what you're gonna find under the bed..."

"I remember the British accent on the father. The dollhouse was in a sitting room. Nineteenth Century attire... and the girl's accent was faded." She closes her eyes and continues, "The sky was thick with smoke, and nearby buildings were brick, stone. It was all urgency and the world tilting after that. I don't remember much more. 'Daddy, there are people in my dollhouse.' I think that's all she said. But then she reached for us, glass broke, and we were pulled from the dream." She blinks open her dark-lashed eyes and looks at the illusory house that Robin's made.

Robin pauses and turns to Estella blinking. He shifts a look to Aisley, then Austin , and finally Arrow catching small details, but excited so squnch things and add and alter things in as they amend. There's a pause though before he asks, %c'Your dollhouse? it survived and was passed on to you?' that's his immediate perception. There's a lot of folks with postcognition that might love to take a look at that.

It's the words though and this time he adds the illusion of a little girl coming up to the tiny house. His eyes widen. He points to the kid confused. Looking back to her when she asks about the ticking sound like a clock he nods and clucks his tongue to the rhythm of it- tch tch tch tch.

Goosbumps rise over Ailey's skin as Weaverly repeats the words that they have all contributed to making the woman remember, or did she? Maybe she didn't, however, the voice and the sound was exactly that of the child in the dream.

Wide eyes turned to each person who was in the dream with her, and they all heard it.

"Does your family have a storage of family heirlooms somewhere?"

Arrow falls silent, her attention shifting between the others. She looks from Estelle to Aisley and back, and then sits back in her chair and studies the former. She does look familiar, like the little girl. "You bear a very striking resemblance to that little girl." she's just on the verge of asking directly.

And then she settles instead for: "Did you ever play with a dollhouse as a girl?"

Austin blinks and looks up when Estella echoes that phrase, and echoes how it was actually said, not how she just heard it. "How did--" he starts, and then blinks at her a couple times. "If..." The logical(?) conclusion seems to be working its way in there, resulting in, "You look really young..."

A beat, and he blinks again, looking to Robin. "Can you do smells? Like can you do how it smelled when we were there? With the dollhouse and the," he imitates the clock himself, this time. Someone has apparently told him some time that smells are really good for evoking memories. And whatever it smelt like at the time, that claim's managed to stick.

Robin tilts his head and signs, 'We don't know why Alister is still alive and now here. He said he can't remember. I was hoping we knew where the dollhouse was to see if someone could read it. You seemed to be the best guess there. I have a lot of things I can't remember- don't want to. I get that. Is cool. Thought we could maybe help your family out.' there's a small, encouraging smile to her. Sometimes these things don't have answers.

He's really thinking on the little house trying to go over what the group knows of it, though one of the less researched items. 'No one reported one in the ship from the pics but maybe it didn't hold up under water. Maybe there wasn't one to pass on.' His fingers thoughtfully pull up other leads trying to figure out the rest of that day. He puts his hand in the house to open the little cabinet door where there's a little model Robin napping in the cupboard. Hullo.

With nothing clicking with Waverly, but the eerie feeling that that voice is the girl in the dream. Not to mention when Robin says. Aisley asks, "Would you be willing to go into a dream with us or even me? One where we pull our thoughts together and create it?"

Of course, she looks to the others around her to see if they would be ok with such suggestion. "It's an altogether different experience when you are seeing it and feeling it in a dream." And it might more triggering than the dollhouse recreation.

Arrow shifts in her seat, crossing her legs carefully, and leaning slightly to one side. It takes a moment more of listening to Estella talk, her own eyes wandering. She glances past the curl of Austin's blonde hair, skims her gaze down the curve of Aisley's cheek, stares for a long moment at a splotch of paint on Robin's cuff. It's something in the cadence of something Estelle says clicks and dredges of a piece of memory, of voice, and cadence.

It's niggling at the back of her brain when Aisley's speaking about dreams, and that slots a stubborn piece into place.

"That voice..." She trails off, and perhaps corrects herself, "It was a child's voice in the broadcasts that kept breaking through the speakers, with the piano in the background, all far off and muffled. I think maybe—" She glances over at Robin who mentions Alister being here, against many odds. "It could have been your voice breaking through." Through time? Reality? Both?

Austin watches the group, and can't help looking faintly disappointed when that idea doesn't seem to make the cut. It disappears pretty quickly when Aisley makes her suggestion. "We can do that?" he asks, looking at her, then everyone else, then her again. This is an intriguing idea. And maybe just a tiny bit disconcerting.

Alas, he wasn't here to hear the voice, so Arrow's realisation just get him looking at her, instead, then Estella, and back to Arrow. Oz is out of his own ideas, but definitely still engaged in others'.

Robin looks to Aisley and nods in agreement. Maybe that's a better way to go; some answers are better than no answers. There's a pause before signing with more little blue subtitles 'when you're in the dream sometimes you can pull others into it if you're close enough and change the situation- Make the screaming turn into butterflies. It's pretty great.' A small grin. Looking to Aisley he points to her and adds with fingers quickly, 'She and our roomie are better at it than I am. I'm explaining it badly.' But he is excited about it letting Aisley correct him.

Looking to Austin there's a nod of encouragement. He's considering this and nods tentatively 'I was trying to leave out the burning smell if that's cool?' He does not look like he's ready to add that one in. When Arrow mentions the small girl's voice he asks 'with music?' that sign drifting as one hand swings back and forth over his arm like a lazy swing.

"We can do that," Aisley answers Austin first, then she additionally tells them all more, "I can create dreams, bring people into dreams with me. Considering all the details we've discussed tonight, ones I knew, ones I'd forgotten or had not seen, I can now recreate it and..." trailing off there considering this was a new discovery about magic, about her, for some... she simply ends with "I can make it happen."

When Arrow mentions the broadcast, Aisley turns her attention to her, her eyes narrowing as if remembering. A distant memory of the Holiday times, the odd voice that had come through. "Yes," but that is all she says, letting Arrow explain the rest to Waverly.

"Around the time we were decorating for the winter holidays, there was a broadcast that broke through the speakers all around the park. It was a melody played on the piano and accompanying it was a voice. A little haunting, if I'm honest, but I'd almost forgotten it." Arrow taps her nails lightly against the silver topper of her cane. "The park seems all wrapped up in your family and echoes of your past in specific."

"You did the heavy visual lifting," she says to Robin, watching the floaty words spring to life.

Austin nods and shrugs at Robin. Maybe he catches the tentativeness and unease with the idea, maybe not, but either way it looks like a genuine acceptance of the thought being set aside. There are other ideas going around now, and surely not much could rival that dream one, right? "It's a really good illusion," he agrees with Arrow.

"That's really cool," he says, despite the newness of the discovery; the disconcertingness of it might return when and if he's ever in a position to be part of that magic, but for now just the fact of yet more unusual talents existing among them wins out. "Can anyone, like... play the melody?" he asks, head slightly tilted. Sure, it might be a memory jogger, but now he's also just curious what it was.

Robin signs with more little letters, 'I don't think it's selfish to be connected to a thing. But if we are right and that is you than I'm not mad about being spilled on the floor. We're good.'

His fingers stop signing and there's a silent laugh shaking his head before looking to Austin as that's a good idea. 'I cannot. maybe someone's got a copy. few recorded it. be worth looking..' Aisley can do the dream trip part. That could be cool, or terrifying. Maybe it'll be different."

“Ok,” Aisley says easy enough to Waverley. “Let’s set up a time and place to do that,” obviously the time for that is not now. To be honest, it had been a whim that she’d suggested this and didn’t think the woman would agree. Now that she had, Aisley looked a little nervous.

Shifting focus to Robin and then Austin. “I can play it on my guitar. I think I remember enough of it.”