Everybody lie down so you won't get hurt when the sun bursts

[wegotlucky]

Characters: Neal, Mr. Gold, and You!
Setting: Floor 32, Cafeteria, Floor 19
Format: Starting prose, but I can do either
Summary: Neal wanders the tower


Floor 32 (closed to Mr. Gold)
Night had fallen in the tower. It was as good of a time as any for Neal to go for a walk and see what there was. He didn't often venture outside at night, but he had been in the forest before. Here, he could hunt. He had a small quiver of arrows strapped to his back. Rather sloppily made, the arrows had a tendency to not shoot straight, and would more than likely break after bouncing off of anything, but he hoped that there would be something to hunt out here. A rabbit, maybe.

Neal liked this month's food, but anything he could do to keep himself sane, to keep himself alert. The forest was dark and still, and he was well aware that there was danger lurking in every corner, just waiting to leap out at him.

Whatever monsters lurked in the forest, he hoped that they would leave him alone long enough to snag him a rabbit and leave without incident. He still had his sword with him, by his side, if it came to that, after all.


Cafeteria
He had only been in the tower a few short months. Already, though, it felt like an eternity. He hadn't been subjected to the sheer amount of torture directly, but he had seen enough of it for him to be feeling a great sadness in his chest. He missed Emma dearly, he missed his son. He wanted to be reunited with Tamara, who had to be alive out there, somewhere.

At least May was shaping up to be a month that didn't involve the complete torture of people who he was beginning to care about. And the chicken was pretty good, too. Between bites of food he sketched out a few idle illustrations. None of them particularly good, but it was a reminder of home to him. A person from Earth would recognize landmarks from London and New York, and an array of vehicles, both modern and old.


Floor 19
Neal had never before entered this library. He had been in the one on the third floor many times before, reading the various books on the shelves. "So empty," he marveled, looking at the large gaps on the shelf curiously. Just what had happened in the tower? He hadn't exactly found out much about the history of it, after all-- no one seemed to know much, and the fact that it appeared that everything had been emptied out was extremely suspicious. Just what did they want to hide?

Still, it seemed as good of an opportunity as any to flip through the books that existed. He pulled a thick tome about magic off of one of the shelves, setting it down on a desk as he started to flip through it. To his surprise, the book was extremely detailed. Certainly not magic he knew about, but it was full of detailed accounts of research into spells that could create vast storms, famine... things that he didn't think that magic could possibly do.

Whatever world this was referring to, he hoped to never see it.

Comments

Floor 19

[earthshards]

[It isn't often that Terra visits this library; true, it had a better selection as far as raw knowledge across many worlds was concerned, but the constant feeling of being watched made it hard to actually study any of the accumulated texts. So when he sees someone at one of the tables actually reading what looks like a rather large tome, his natural curiosity gets the better of him.

He peers over the other man's shoulder, glimpsing the text and catching a few key words that indicate that this is a magic tome. Hm...] Interested in magic?

[Sorry; he's too curious for his own good. And it involves magic. He knows a few things about that.]

[wegotlucky]

[Neal, deep in his reading, definitely had an uneasy feeling, but he hadn't exactly connected the dots to it being specific to the room itself, even with all of the creepy things in the tower that he had already experienced.

As far as he was concerned, the creepy feeling came from the thick book that seemingly documented the powers of a god.

At the question, he jumped, turning around, laughing nervously as he spoke.]

You could say that.

[earthshards]

[Not the powers of a god; just the abilities of someone with a very large mana pool at their disposal and a lot of imagination and control.

Terra laughs briefly, an apologetic look appearing on his face.] Sorry; I didn't mean to startle you.

[The grin on his face is disarming enough, at least.] If you have questions, I might be able to answer. I know a thing or two about magic.

[He's not Aqua, but he doesn't need to be here.]

[wegotlucky]

[He gives a bit of a crooked grin.]

No harm done. I actually know a bit about magic, I was looking to see what it might be like in other worlds, you know?

But look at this list of spells: turning mountains to dust... draining lakes of water... it reads more like the powers of a god.

[At least the book only described how it was possible and what it did, and not how to use the spell proper. The last thing he wanted to think about was world-destroying magic in use.]

Floor Nineteen

[tohko_amano]

Tohko, as usual, was cleaning up the library and organizing books with her retrieval unit of a stalker keeping a close watch on her. However, when she saw a boy reading a thick book at a table, she couldn't help but walk up to him, curious about what he was reading. Of course, her retrieval unit would follow her as he did so, but Tohko paid no mind to him as she asked the man a question.

"Pardon me, but what book are you reading?"

[wegotlucky]

Lost in his reading about the strange magic of some unusual world, it was a moment before Neal looked up, glancing from Tohko to the retrieval unit following her. Had she been one of the people changed the previous month? He didn't recognize her, but then, a number of people had been unrecognizably changed.

"I was curious about magic in other worlds. Not sure what world this is since it doesn't talk about nations or anything. It's strange magic, whatever it is."

[tohko_amano]

She had been, and even worse, she had been one of the people outed from another possessed resident who had told the Administrators of the rebellion. At the man's reply, Tohko nodded.

"I see..while magic in other world's is interesting, you probably won't find anything specific about how other worlds work or things like that. They like to keep that information hidden from us when they can."

[wegotlucky]

"I can tell," Neal said darkly. "This book has a lot of pages missing," he said, showing off the sections that probably once contained information on just how to cause the destructive forces described in the remaining sections.

"I guess they left this book here to scare people. Kind of a scary place, though I bet that world is long gone if there's a book on it here of all places."

[Cafeteria]

[doesnotgetit]

[A girl is passing by his table, a tray with her own dinner in her hands. At first it looks like she's just simply passing by, but she pauses when she notices his sketches. She tilts her head, and a somewhat sad smile crosses her face.]

Feeling homesick?

[wegotlucky]

[He looks up at her, smiling a bit sadly.]

You could say that. Trying to stay positive and remember home.

[doesnotgetit]

That's a good outlook to have. I can really admire people who manage to stay positive here.

[She thought she had been managing to do so, but after the latest experiment... Well. Being forced to spy on the rest of the population and killing one of her closest friends broke her pretty badly.]

So you lived in a city? Which one?

Floor 19

[savedbyasong]

Shion was clearing some of the tables in this library, books were sometimes left here from both libraries. He saw the man, the man who had saved him a few months ago and smiled at him. "Hello again."

[wegotlucky]

Neal looked up, smiling. "Hey Shion," he said cheerfully, trying to ignore the hairs that were standing on end on the back of his neck. "What brings you here?"

[savedbyasong]

"I work here." Shion told him with a small smile, "In both the libraries I mean, I'm a librarian. Are you researching anything specific?"

Cafeteria

[kindofademon]

Ryuunosuke paused in carrying away his meal to peer across the table.

"Empire State Building?" he asked. "Sorry, Japanese, not too familiar with American landmarks. 'Least it's not a bridge, I'm no good with bridges."

[wegotlucky]

He smiled, a little sadly. "Yeah, that's right. Feeling a little homesick, I guess." He was fairly certain that everyone felt the same way that he did. His drawings were crude, but at least recognizable.

"I've never been to Japan, but I know a bit about he," he admitted a bit sheepishly, attempting to draw the Tokyo Tower as a friendly gesture. It ended up looking a lot more like the Eiffel Tower, but it's the thought that counts, right?

[kindofademon]

"I don't have any good advice for that." Ryuunosuke shrugged, watching Neal draw. "Well, if you stay here long enough you might forget enough stuff to not be homesick!"

Floor 19

[raichung]

[Oh! There's a familiar face! Chung comes over with his arms full of alchemy books.]

Hi!

[wegotlucky]

[Neal grins when he sees who it is.]

Hey there.

[raichung]

What are you reading there?

Floor 19

[hegantha]

[ Amberley happens to be in the row over when Neal picks up that magic tome. Is that magic she sees, son? ]

Doing some Research? I suppose knowing something about magic will help in offing the admins.

[ It's a fair assumption, considering that Neal has admitted that he would never use magic. Amberley is also assuming that the Tower used some kind of magic to keep all of them here as well. ]

[wegotlucky]

[He nods.]

I was thinking. About what magic would be like in different worlds.

[Even good magic involved his life being pretty well ruined, after all. He wants to know what else of it exists out there. If all magic is really a threat.]

You know. The magic that's talked about in these books isn't from worlds people here are from, right? That means these might be old, long gone worlds. Or worlds still out there.

[hegantha]

They're probably gone for a reason if they relied on magic that much.

[ She nods, like she's speaking fact, not opinion. ]

I've traveled to several different worlds, and no matter what, magic's always been trouble. It's kind of a shame, I've known some sorcerers that were just trying to do good, but they couldn't control it. Happens everytime.

I wonder if these other worlds have anything to do with where we're at now. If the books in here were worlds that the tower built upon. It's anyone's guess, really.

Floor 32

[trulybecomedust]

Despite what he said earlier, he did take the advice of the anonymous person and go for a walk, finding his way to this floor. It wasn't to calm himself down so much as to just think about things. If what had been said was actually true, then Baelfire was dead, not to say anything of Belle. His life for the past three hundred years was to find his son and apologize to him for choosing magic over his son's happiness, being a coward instead of the good father he should have been for him.

Whether or not he knew that monsters roamed the forest at night is unknown, but either way, Gold is not being quiet when walking through it. Now that his son is thought to be dead, he just doesn't care anymore. If there are monsters here and they find him, then so be it. Maybe in death he will find his son.

[wegotlucky]

Neal had, in his annoyance and anger, completely forgotten about the advice he had given previously. Had he remembered, he wouldn't be hanging around in the forest that he had told the man that he had never wanted to see ever again to go for a walk in. Of course, he had stated to go for a walk during the day. It wasn't safe at night.

Heck, with how still the forest was, he wouldn't be surprised if there was something really nasty lurking about, but he still wanted to be able to do something about his feeling restless and lonely. Neal missed Emma, more than anything. He wanted her here, in the tower. But at the same time, he didn't. Maybe she was better off in some other universe right now, able to be with Henry.

He heard a nearby rustling, stretching out his bow carefully, pointing it in the direction of the noise.