towerofanimus | His passing thoughts and his sorrows and desires

Characters: Neal Cassidy, OPEN
Setting: Floor 81
Format: Starting out prose. Will match
Summary: Neal contemplates what to do with the "gift" he was given at the end of June.
Warnings: None to start.

It had been a while since Neal had last found himself venturing around the Tower. The memories of June had left him wanting to avoid as many people as possible, and he had found himself struggling to sleep in his bed with the words scrawled on the ceiling. Nothing was safe anymore, and as far as he knew, things could possibly get even worse. His "gift" from Ruana, Rumplestiltskin's magic dagger, was strapped to his side, hidden away from prying eyes.

He didn't plan on using it as a weapon, but he couldn't be too careful. Why would such an object be given to him? It was meant to torture him, Neal was certain. He had killed a child. He had killed someone he cared about, and he had attacked, he murdered a sleeping man, and killed one of the most threatening people in the tower. His life was a wreck, and he had only admitted what he had been to the little girl and to Zelda. He didn't want to admit it to anyone else.

Maybe Shion, eventually. But he was afraid what might happen to him if he got too involved in things. He needed to protect himself, but he also couldn't stand back and do nothing, could he? He looked out below, staring into the haze. Pandora was something that he could do, wasn't it? He had spent his entire life running away from his problems. He had been running for a long, long time. Longer than he could comprehend. He had been brought here for a reason. Probably to be useful to Ruana's sick and twisted games.

He might not have a clue how to stop running, but now was good enough as any to try.

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Unlike Neal, Zelda doesn't have a family or a home in the warmest sense of the word to return to. Link was gone, Impa had ascended to the greater purpose she was destined for, and even the land Hyrule Castle itself had stood upon was little more than an island of rubble floating in a sea of lava.

Oh, she yearns to see the fields of Hyrule again, but the idea of being alone once more is... not a pleasant one.

These are thoughts she keeps to herself, however, instead diving into the safety of logic. "Steel and strength are valuable, but at this point... cunning and intelligence are likely to be our greater allies," she explains, turning around and leaning against the glass of the window to face Neal. "Even the gods and demons among us cannot hope to face them head-on as things stand now."

But perhaps... if they can figure out what Dax meant by the "keys" in Jason's possession...

Edited 2013-07-20 00:37 (UTC)

If Neal knew.... well, it wasn't like he had always been in the most pleasant places to begin with. Destiny was one of those things that he both hated and accepted. It was a very real thing, but here he didn't know what was in store for them. What use did fate have in a place where it seemed that the powers in charge enjoyed toying with people's souls?

"Yeah," he said. He didn't feel particularly cunning, but he had survived for a very long time on his own, with and without the help of other people. "Can't fight people who have pulled our souls from our bodies, huh?"

He regarded her for a moment, thoughtful, wondering if he should bring up the conversation on the network that he had eavesdropped on. After a moment, Neal decided against it. It might not entirely be safe to talk about things like that, even if Jason didn't seem about to kill her over it. "There's gotta be another way, though."

Thus is the problem with keeping your past under tight lock and key: you never realize it when there's a sympathetic soul right in front of you. Destiny is indeed a cruel mistress, but alas, there are no legends or stories to work off of here. At least not to their knowledge.

She nods in agreement. "If we can piece together what these 'keys' Dax spoke of are, we might be able to wrest a bit more control of ourselves away from them. Hopefully after that, finding the rest of the information that has been locked away will be an easier task than it has been so far."

Information she would very much like to get her hands on as soon as possible. Until she does, conversations like the one she had Jason can only be considered conjecture.

Maybe eventually Neal would learn better, but for now he still kept his past under wraps even if it did him no good here. It wasn't like there were enough people from his world here for it to come as a shock to any of them, and he had admitted his past before.

"Keys," Neal repeated, thoughtful. He honestly hadn't given it much thought, not being the sort to entirely think about riddles when he was too concerned with his own survival. But it was time that he stopped thinking so selfishly about things. "I guess our first goal is going to be whether or not these keys are literal."

Metaphorical keys could still be important, though. It wasn't like getting Jason on their side would be easy, if it was even possible.

With any luck, Zelda would learn better too. But then again, with less than a year left to be with these people one way or another, what's the point?

"And that has been the part I have been stuck on," she sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger in frustration. Even her conversation with Zo didn't shed any substaintial light on what these "keys" could be.

"The idea of 'unchaining ourselves' certainly is not literal, but the drug keeping us limited in power must be. And yet... Jason himself did not seem to have any idea what Dax was talking about. I suppose he could have been lying again, but..."

Augh, every time she starts thinking about it, she ends up running in circles.

"Maybe," he said, thoughtfully. Neal had learned a lot about what living around an extremely powerful and terrifying monster, though. Maybe even with all of the terrible things Jason did he was still nothing more than a pawn. "Or maybe Jason didn't want Ruana getting wind of something," he suggested. Right or wrong, though, he didn't want to be the one to confront Jason.

Edited 2013-07-25 00:23 (UTC)

Again, she sighs, this time with more irritation than before, though not at Neal himself.

"That is certainly another possibility," she concedes, but not without frustration crossing her brow. There are so many different explanations, so many unknown variables and what-ifs-- how in Nayru's name are they meant to uncover the truth of the matter at the heart of it all? The stress of it is starting to get to her.

"My apologies," she continues after a moment, lowering her hand from her face and allowing the wrinkles of her features to smooth over. "I have been thinking too much on this, I suppose."

He can tell she's getting stressed. They all are. There's so little time, and they have to start now if they even have a prayer of staying alive. He rubs at his forehead, nodding.

"It's okay," he said quietly. "We can figure it out, right? There's gotta be some way to know what to do or where to start." Maybe there were more clues out there, somewhere. Neal wasn't the violent sort. He wasn't like his father. If it was absolutely possible, he didn't even want to see someone like Jason get hurt.

Ruana needed to pay, but even then, he couldn't bring himself to hoping for revenge.

His passing thoughts and his sorrows and desires

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