Now I turn the dials in careful calculation // daphne's tags

[vellichor]

history:

Spoiler:

Daphne grew up in until she was 15, at which point her age was frozen. She came from an impoverished family, who lived in a small village in England during the 1840s.

Daphne was out late one night after sneaking away from home due to seeking work as a thief to help her family pay the debts they owed. While she was out, after she’d helped a band of other, slightly younger children steal from a caravan, a doe shrouded in darkness approached her and offered her a land where her and all her friends could go to escape their current circumstance. She was unsure, but the doe offered her a chance to stay one night in this land and she accepts because, even with the money she’s made, she knows dinner won’t be waiting for her at home. She is taken to a land where all her desires are fulfilled. She gets to eat as much as she wants, she sees some of the other children throughout the night and they worry about nothing and play all day. She even gets to tell them what feels like an endless amount of stories, which she had memorized.

Finally, the night comes to an end and Daphne is returned to her world at the end of the day. She returns to what she recognizes as her forest and walks home. When she reached her town and enters her house, all her siblings and her parents are gone. They seem to have left in a hurry because a candle is still burning. She waits for them. Night comes and they haven’t returned. Looking around town, none of the adults or children not involved in the raid have returned. She begins to enter houses and finally comes across a note in one house. She can’t ready so she slips it in her bag to look at late. When she tries to sleep sleep in her room, she wakes up to to see a doe standing in the tiny hut. It speaks and offers her the opportunity to stay in the Otherworld again. Daphne says she doesn’t want to go because she can’t find her family or friends. She asks if the doe will read the note. It accepts.

The note contains a message from the head of the town’s church expressing remorse for not telling them there would be a surprise visit from those who they owed. If they couldn’t pay, which he was aware no one could, they’d be taken away from the town and likely executed. She accepts the doe’s offer after it shows her that they have, in fact, died and there is nothing left for her. She enters the Otherworld.

For a long time, things are very good. There are many children and they all seem happy. She loses track of time and, after many years, becomes aware she hasn’t aged. However, she slowly notices that some children have gone missing. She continues to read stories and cook for them and put the younger ones to sleep. She notices it’s hard to remember the names of the missing, even if she’s tended to them for a long time. Through all this time, she has become very close to the doe and sees it each night. She asks where the children are and why she can’t remember them. The doe tells her not to worry about it but she still tries to ask every night.

After this goes on for some time, she wakes up but she isn’t in her own bed. She’s in a well furnished room surrounded by bars. Other children are all around her. The missing. Even though she’s trapped, things here aren’t so bad. They receive the same amount of food and are still allowed to read stories or play games. But more go missing here.

One night, the doe comes to her room and leads her out of it. The doe calls her a ‘Caretaker’. This is an important title in this Otherworld. The doe says not to worry but she is worried about how many children go missing. She says if she’s a Caretaker then she should look for them. The doe reprimands her and they eat together before she is returned to her room.

The next night, her door is left open and she can see a child walking down the hall in the company of a rabbit. She sneaks out and follows them until arriving in a large chamber. It is dark here. There are sinister shapes chained to the walls and odd voices chanting in a language she doesn’t understand. Still, she follows. She watches as the rabbit brings the child before a tall woman and then the child lets out a frightening scream before collapsing. A light spills from the child’s body and floats in the air before rushing to a nearby canister.

Daphne doesn’t understand what happened but her doe appears before her. She follows it to the woman, despite what she saw. The doe tells the woman she is a Caretaker. Suddenly, the woman moved her hand and she is in terrible pain. She cries for them to stop but they don’t. She has been propelled into the air and feels different. She notices an opening in the ceiling and flies towards it. There is screaming below about a mistake. She bursts from the darkness into the light, to see a world she doesn’t recognize. She spins through the light until arriving in a strange area, which she soon comes to know as Tanglewood.