towerofanimus | We won't be home till morning

Entry tags:

We won't be home till morning

Characters: Neal Cassidy, and OPEN!
Setting: Floor 12
Format: I'll match
Summary: Neal explores his new surroundings and finds something mystifying.
Warnings: Season 2 spoilers within

He supposed that others might have more trouble that he had.

Well, that was a bit of a lie. He would never get used to the idea of world hopping, even if this would be the third time that he had done so. This one was different in any case. It was dark, foreboding. The man couldn't help but feel uneasy, and he hadn't met enough people to have a good grasp on what was going on. Sure, he had been told almost immediately about the fact that his soul was in the collar around his neck (though he wasn't quite sure he believed that), but finding information about this new Land was something that he needed to do, sooner rather than later.

The monsters roaming the tower scared him, but the man was good at running. He'd be reasonably safe, he assured himself. Doubly so because of the drawn sword in his hand. He couldn't let his guard down. His father could be here, somewhere. Emma could be here. So could Henry. He didn't trust to ask for names over the terminal. Someone could lie, or someone who would want him hurt could find them first and he couldn't have that. Better to keep as low of a profile as possible.

This floor was interesting. Definitely not safe, but interesting. It was full of stars, of galaxies. Things he had seen in books during his time in the Land Without Magic, but different. Never quite the same as the pictures. It was pretty. He felt like he could reach out and touch one of the large nebulous clouds of light. And then, without warning, the light started to fade away. "What... what the hell?"

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Despite the severity of what's being shown, Red was enthralled. Space was something that they hadn't really explored back home, so to see it all laid out like this was... well, it was pretty incredible. Even the fact that these were - allegedly - worlds dying couldn't really dampen the experience.

Someone else, though, doesn't seem to be enjoying it quite as much. Red turns around in the cockpit of his robot, searching for the source of the voice and quickly finding it in Neal. "Enjoyin' the view?" he comments sarcastically, one arm draped over the side of the cockpit.

Neal jumped at the sudden voice, twisting around. It took a long moment of staring before he calmed down, weapon still held in his hand, but not in a threatening way. "You like seeing things getting snuffed out?" he said sharply.

He turned back to the protection, watching as a large spiral galaxy turned slowly into nothing. It wasn't right. It was some sort of terrible dark magic at work, because he couldn't see anything that would make sense as a projector. "This is a mockery," he murmured. Even the powers of the Dark One couldn't erase entire galaxies from existence.

"Nah, these ain't real things. Pretty sure nothin's got this kinda power," he dismissively replied. "They're just tryin' to scare us into believin' their story." It was a pretty compelling story, Red had to admit, but in the end there wasn't enough proof for him.

If it was true, anyway, then that meant his entire life was for nothing.

He turns around again, gazing up at the destructive beauty of the projection. "I haven't seen anythin' that looks like home here," Red adds in a more subdued tone. "Hopefully it's the same for the rest of ya."

Neal didn't want to admit it, but deep down, he couldn't help believe that there was truth to the story that they were being told. A curse that could rip away everyone from a Land, something that could annihilate entire universes. It seemed to be linked in some terrifying way, though no dark magic could do this. The stranger had a point, but a deep cynicism prevented him from assuming that not seeing his own universe was a good thing.

"Maybe that's because our worlds have already been shown on this thing," he replied grouchily.

"Fuck this place! Don't even give me lip, ALFRED, because fuck it hard," came the rather loud complaints of one Misha Hunt as she trudged up the floors. Aside from all the other radical things she had been told that were more intellectual than her current situation and, thus, put on the backburner for now, she was having a grand ol' time exploring the floors out of paranoid necessity. The fact that the floor just below her had disabled her flight yet again and had her hugging a stair for fifteen minutes straight might have had something to do with her attitude, though.

She was understandably wary to try floating again in this new room, although as the lights darkened, instinct kicked in and she pulled herself away from the floor and drew her legs up underneath her. "What the hell?" she asked, unknowingly echoing the room's other occupant. Her nerves were too frayed for this. Couldn't there just be a small set of floors that wouldn't send her heart crawling out through her veins?

He twisted around at the complaint, his mind taken off of the dying universe for a brief moment as he stared at the young woman, one brow raised as he regarded her. "Been out exploring?" he asked mildly, glad to have something else to focus on if only for a brief moment. He waved his hands in an annoyed gesture as he regarded her.

"This room has to be some sort of prank," he said, once again trying to deflect his own horror at the idea that the two of them were now watching an entire universe waste away as someone's idea of entertainment. "These sorts of things... they don't just happen. It can't be real."

Misha made a discontented sound at the question. After a moment of staring at him through the rapidly darkening and horrifying clip, she moved past it by floating closer to Neal and inspecting the scenery around them. She was still a little too spooked to put her feet on the ground just yet.

"They do," Misha said with a slow, uncomfortable grimace, "but if they're trying to make a point in showing it, this is a terrible idea. Sometimes universes just get old or something, who the hell knows how that's supposed to look naturally?"

Maybe she was projecting that she knew more than she really did... but it also wasn't her first time seeing an entire universe die. If that's all the room was, then she wasn't impressed. It just added more questions to the buffet of confusion.

Red's quick to reply, turning around again to face the stranger. "Look, I ain't gonna believe it till I see it," says the dog-man with a smile, or at least an attempt at one. "Even then, it's gonna take a lot more than just that to convince me!"

He sounds happy, but it's the desperate kind of happy, the one that people use when they're trying to disbelieve something. It could be real, it very well could be. Red can only try to prove that it's not.

"At least we're all sufferin' together. Imagine bein' in a place like this alone," he points out in an attempt to help. "Speakin' of which, I'm Red."

Fortunately for Misha, the man wasn't even batting a lid at the fact that she was floating, though he was backing more and more against the wall at the shrinking amount of galaxies around them. "I don't know much about space, I just saw some pictures when I was young. But this don't look like what I read about. Stars burn on, galaxies die, but this looks like they're being eaten by something. Even if this projection is sped up." It was a long, long moment before it occurred to him that this person appeared to know something about traveling to other Lands by how casually she had used "universes".

"This isn't the first world you've ended up in, is it?" It was a chance, but the idea of meeting another portal jumper here in this hellhole was relieving.

Misha raised a hand to the side of her head, tweaking at the hair there for a moment before addressing someone that was definitely not there. "ALFRED?" she asked.

Hm?

"How obvious—?"

Incredibly.

With a frustrated and quiet sigh, Misha shrugged in acquiescence and turned to Neal proper. Even if he was a normal, she knew the sort of background he was entrapped in back home and that made it easier to admit... some of it, anyway. Either he would freak out and bail or he would man up in their weird situation and deal with it. No matter what, it wasn't directly her problem. "I'm not usually this clumsy, for the record," she said, finger pointed to Neal as if to keep him from assuming the worst. "But no, it isn't. And hell, if you read about in books, then obviously no one there has actually witnessed a universe dying in the first place. Am I right?"

Edited 2013-03-10 06:58 (UTC)

Neal gave a vague smile at that, still not entirely reacting to the fact that Red was very much not human. Neal had seen enough strange things in the past day for him that this was the least of his worries. That, and Red seemed friendly enough. "After what I've seen, it could be possible," he murmured, failing to be happy about the idea that they could be lied to.

"You've got a point," he said, just stopping himself from saying that he had been in a situation similar before. "I'm Neal," he said, offering a hand.

He couldn't hide it fast enough. His face brightened at her admission. He wasn't alone! Even if he had been brought here against his will instead of jumping through a portal, it didn't matter. "Trust me, it's not like the average person would believe you even if you were honest," he said with a shrug, watching as the last bits of color vanished from the projection. "I guess I figured it would be different than this."

She definitely caught that expression and her own twisted into a confused consideration. Don't tell her... oh hell. She had totally called that one, dammit.

"The average person probably wouldn't find themselves in this hellhole in the first place, let's be real," she said with an outright scoff. She finally lowered herself to the floor, crossing her legs and holding onto her ankles as she watched the projection start all over again. "It might be different, but it might also be exactly what we're seeing. Problem is that no one actually has the first-hand account of destruction like this since it... well, you know." She put a hand to her neck and let it flop to the side with a gurgle to imitate horrible death. You get the idea, Neal.

He noticed the look, but didn't say anything do it. She was probably used to the idea of people not knowing about world jumping, after all. It was incredibly refreshing for him to know that he had someone to commiserate with, however small. The entire concept of a universe was still something that he was having trouble getting used to. Sure, he had spent hundreds of years knowing about different Lands, but universes? Well that added an entirely new layer of complexity. "Someone must, though. Unless these are all simulations." Which was certainly possible.

That too, Neal, and for once she was glad it was that assumption someone made rather than ping on to what she was really feeling. It was an interesting thing, to realize there was someone around that she could probably speak frankly to without having to hide a whole lot for fear of letting all the wrong felines out of the bag.

"Maybe?" Misha shrugged. "Creepy, I'll give it that, but if these are recordings instead of simulations, then they aren't giving us enough context and it loses all meaning anyway. So," she added, "you know a thing or two about different universes?"

Red holds up one hand in a "wait a moment" gesture, then leaps out of the robot's cockpit and onto the floor in front of Neal. It seems like he's done many dismounts like that before; he's unhurt and even grinning slightly; what a show-off.

"Nice to meet ya," says Red, taking the man's hand and shaking it vigorously. "When did you get here?"

Show off. Neal stares, his expression not quite disapproval, but he's not exactly impressed either. Just the same he doesn't pull away from the shake, trying his best to smile despite the situation. "Today," he admitted. This was not going to be an easy adjustment for him, and he moved to run a hand along his collar, uncomfortably away of its presence.

"How about yourself?"

Fortunately, the alternative didn't even cross his mind. He watched her for a long moment, not sure what to say. He was trying to be a bit more upbeat about things, trying to look for a bright side where he wasn't sure that there was any. "It's not like the people in charge would say what it is, from what I've heard." Not that he had been told much at all. Something about some dead kidnapper.

"Been in a couple myself," he admitted, if only because he knew that she would understand.

Misha regarded him for a moment, a tentative grin spreading across her face. "I like you," she decided. As far as she could tell, he was an honest man, if thrown off by their current circumstances (and who wouldn't be?) and someone she could probably talk to without worrying about being ratted out. Not that she ever intended to tell him all that much about herself, but any leniency at all was welcomed in this ridiculous, magical and impossible place. Being able to talk about this subject specifically would probably be the most beneficial to share.

"Name's Misha," she introduced. Eying the sword in his hand, she neglected to offer her hand for a shake. "You got a name, Stranger? How many worlds are a couple?"

Edited 2013-03-11 05:38 (UTC)

"Two, maybe three days ago," offers Red, "but for all I know I'm just sleepin' back at home and it's only been a coupla minutes."

While he's stubbornly clinging to his beliefs, Red's eyes are drawn towards the man's collar - orange liquid, like the first person he'd seen here. Come to think of it, he'd seen quite a few orange collars, he realizes as his own hand goes up to his yellow one. Why were there different colors?

"Hey, I'm real new myself, but if there's anythin' ya got questions about, I'll try to answer," says Red with another little smile; real or not, it's best to try to help. Maybe it'll pay off somehow.

Neal shuffled, grinning back at her at the comment. He was glad, in this moment, that he was not alone. Even if his entire world was gone-- though there was still a large part of him that thought that it was a lie, another part of him thought that it could be the truth and that terrified him.

"Neal," he said, noticing her reaction to his sword as he set it down against the wall as to not appear so threatening. "This would be my fourth, counting where I grew up."

"Guess we're both unfortunate," Neal said grimly, noticing after a moment where Red was looking. He touched at his collar again, noticing too the difference in the colors. Whatever it meant, he didn't dwell on it. "If you know anything that's going on, I'd appreciate it," Neal said, making a wild move with his hands as he spoke.

"I've heard something about people being killed. Something about a 'Dax' and a 'Ruana,' do those names make any sense to you?"

Confusion flickered across her face. Fourth? That would make three before he got here, and she only had two possibilities to choose from. That was beyond interesting. What sort of secrets were you hiding, Neal?

"Nice to meet you," she said perfunctorily. "Look at you, you're like a baby worldhopper! What were those places like?" Nothing in her stance seemed overly forced or faked; Neal had triggered some pretty strong curiosity in her regarding that impossible fact. Having the real deal right here was, at the least, a blessing in getting through that pesky spoiler tape.

Red shakes his head. "Never heard of 'em," he mutters, "but I ain't surprised people are dyin' in here."

Leaning against the robot's side, he gazes up at the projection for a few moments before continuing. "First off, these collars keep us alive. I'd say not to take 'em off, but ya can't anyway. I nearly broke my neck tryin' to pull it off," Red says, nervously fiddling with his collar.

"Second, have ya been to the bottom floor yet?" he asks, a disgusted expression crossing his face for a moment. "There's food down there, but ya gotta eat some oatmeal before anythin' else, otherwise you can't keep it down." Grimacing, he sticks his tongue out, remembering his own cafeteria experience. "Eat it and get it over with, then you're free to eat whatever ya like."

"I ask because it was something about," he paused, feeling very odd trying to put it into words. "The things I heard don't make a lot of sense, about them." The people in charge of his place fighting each other seemed bad enough. At the comment about the collar, he glanced down at his own for a very long time without speaking. "Guess I should be glad we're able to breath with them on, huh?"

"Yeah, I have. Ate some before I came up here," he said with a nod. "It's not so bad. I've had worse. Ate what I could, back at home."

He stared at her confusion. Was she... someone he knew? But that was impossible. She most certainly wasn't one of the people from the Enchanted Forest, though he had been away from there for so long that everyone he had ever met, save for his father, were all long gone. And even then, his father was...

"One was my homeland. I'll be honest, though, I don't remember much of it. Lots of wars, though. The second one... well I guess it's kind of hard to talk about in all honesty since everyone in the third world knew about it already. You never aged, there. It's not all it's cracked up to be. The third was modern Earth. Spent most of my time backpacking across America."

"You kiddin'? That stuff's vile! What kinda food did ya have to live on to think that's okay?" he blurted, stepping back in surprise. Red had lived pretty well back home, and even on his worst days, he hadn't needed to eat something that... bland.

"Anyway," he continues, doing his best to repress the memories of oatmeal, "the only other thing I got is that this place is real dangerous. Monsters show up everywhere at night, and I hear some floors are just plain deadly themselves. Heck, I think I woulda died if I didn't have Dahak here," Red muttered, patting the robot's chassis.

Neal shrugged, not really want to admit that he had grown up poor, and then spent the majority of his life after that stealing basic foods to survive, sometimes going completely without food. "It's just oatmeal. Could use a little bit of sugar, but it's just one bowlful of bland stuff." It didn't taste that great but it also didn't particularly bother him.

"I've heard about the monsters. Guess I'll be avoiding going out at night. Better off steering clear of them. It's not like I can fend off one the size of an ogre with this," he said, waving vaguely at his sword.

"L-let's just stop talkin' about oatmeal," sputtered Red, looking faintly nauseous. The entire experience was disgusting, and he's very, very glad he doesn't have to repeat it.

"Anyway, yeah, monsters. Dunno what an ogre is, but if it's big I can probably handle it with Dahak here," he continued. It is quite a formidable-looking robot, and certainly large enough to hold its own. "I dunno what else's out there, but I hope a sword's gonna be enough for ya."

He's still a little confused about the reaction. It's only oatmeal, after all. But he shrugs it off. No need to be rude to the guy who is trying to help him out, right?

He nods at the giant robot. "Ogres are giant creatures. Pretty much blind, but they hunt for you with their hearing. They can rip a man apart really easily. Your robot might have a chance but then I really don't know." He really hoped that no ogres had found their way into this tower. That was the last thing he needed.

"You and me both, Red."

Red just scoffs, raising one of the robot's hands in a big thumbs-up. "You kiddin'? That sounds easy! I scrapped with way tougher monsters back home!" he boasts, grinning confidently and mimicking the robot's gesture.

"Anyway," continues the dog-man, "if anythin' happens, like maybe ya need a paw with those ogres, lemme know and I'll help ya out!" He lets the arm fall back into an idle position, still grinning down at Neal. "We gotta stick together in this place, right?"

"Thanks," Neal said cheerfully. He hadn't even noticed that a new universe had appeared projected on the walls as he leaned against it, rubbing at the back of his head. "It'll sure make exploring the floors easier. I've heard monsters are all over the floors at night. Guess we're lucky there's nothing here right now."

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We won't be home till morning

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just realized she has no idea about hook, omg.

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Oh man

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