Zelda (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sageprincess) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2013-08-12 08:46 pm
sageprincess) wrote in towerofanimus2013-08-12 08:46 pm
Entry tags:
it is something that grows over time...
Characters: Zelda and you!
Format: Action to start; will match
Setting: Floor 77; Floor 3; Dorm halls and around; Floor 25 and around; Floor 81; Floor 101
Summary: Zelda deals with the shadow children outbreak.
Warnings: WORDS. SO MANY WORDS. Also more angst than you can shake a stick at, I guess.
Floor 77; August 12, morning
[Zelda has a very good habit of checking her mailbox every morning. Most of the time there is nothing, but she has gotten too many important things through the mail to forgo her daily ritual.
But perhaps it would have been a good idea today.
The moment Zelda turns the latch on her little box, she is instantly pushed back, slamming into the opposite wall by a torrent of water. But it's not just normal water, she soon learns. It burns her eyes and every gasp of air is met with a mouthful of salt and copper. It's salt water.
Seawater. An ocean mixed with blood.
The mailroom has been thoroughly flooded with a few inches of water before she manages to scramble to her feet, soaked to the bone and bloodstained. It's just glamour, she tells herself, heart beating wildly. It's not real.
But this is the future you've doomed them to. Even if you restore the worlds, this is what awaits you.
It's an ugly truth she's been trying desperately to forget. Because if she thinks too long on it, if she fully realizes that even her struggles here are ultimately futile, she may just lose the will to fight. And that's something she can't afford to do. Not now. Not when so many are depending on her--
Her thoughts are quickly derailed as she feels something bump into her leg - a cloth package marked with the Eye of Truth bobbing away in the bloody sea the Tower has given her. She shouldn't open it, there's no one in the Tower that knows the significance of that symbol, it must be another trick, the logical part of her screams, but the familiarity of it draws her, possesses her to pick it up and slowly unravel its bindings. Jewels and broken pieces of gold slip out and fall into the water as she does, but it is the worn, bloody leather gloves she finds that causes her blood to run cold.
The gloves soon join the jewels in the water as she nearly drops the entire package. A single ruby and a strip of white cloth remain in her grip, and that's all it takes to put together where the other gems are from.
The crown of Hyrule.
Shivering, soaked, and with panic wild in her eyes, the Princess grasps the wall of boxes behind her desperately for purchase, staring in horror at the cruel display before her. And to herself, she chants:]
It's not real, it isn't real, none of it is real--
Floor 3; August 12, afternoon
[After a change of clothes and recovering from what she found this morning, Zelda does what just about anyone who's been in the Tower for a significant amount of time does to cope.
Compartmentalize and repress.
She throws herself into her research, despite some part of her knowing she won't get anywhere without some new development. Even if it's frustrating, it's easier than thinking about all her "gift" reminded her of. She's pouring over the 'psy-' section of a dictionary, trying to find something worthwhile given the lack of actual psychology books, when she gets the feeling someone is staring at her. And sure enough, when she looks up, she finds one of those shadows with gleaming white teeth she saw in the elevator shaft "smiling" at her.]
What is-- I thought the red light was meant to keep the shadows in the lower levels...
[There's certainly alarm in her expression, but she lacks the kind of fear one shows when facing a malevolent creature. After all, the shadows didn't seem to care about her before, and this one is only staring.]
Did the explosion destroy the barrier somehow...?
[She muses to herself as she examines her sudden company, even going so far as to reach out and attempt to touch it when it becomes blatantly obvious it won't attack. So this is a 'psychelysis phantom,' huh...?]
Dorm halls and around the Tower; August 13 and 14 (Easy mode: anyone Zelda considers in a solidly positive light should be able to shoo these phantoms away.)
[After her initial examination, Zelda doesn't pay much mind to the shadows tailing her. Sure, they're creepy, but then again, she's had a retrieval unit stalker for the past four months now. She's learned to ignore its presence when she doesn't need to slip away from it, and the shadows are much the same.
The Goddesses should have chosen another.
Until they start speaking, that is.]
What--?!
[She whirls around at the sound of a familiar voice - Rauru's voice - but only sees the small entourage of phantoms she's collected.
Geeze, this is supposed to be our leader? I knew a dozen women under my command that would have been better than her.
Why did you leave us behind, Princess? Don't you care about Hyrule anymore?]
Of course, they are related to the phantoms. [She tells herself shakily, trying to get her bearings after hearing the voices of those she hasn't heard in over a year. Nabooru, Saria...] I should have expected as much, really.
[After a steeling breath, she turns back around and continues walking. For the most part, she is able to continue Tower life as normal, though occasionally one might find her standing with her fists clenched and jaw tight as she tries to ignore the Sages of Light, Spirit, and Forest's criticizing words.]
Floor 25 and around the Tower; August 14 and 15 (Normal mode: these phantoms will require people Zelda considers to be friends to shoo away.)
[Look at what I, the patriarch of the Goron race, have been reduced to! Is this how the Royal Family treats its kindred and allies?!
You're our leader, not theirs. Or has it been so long that you have forgotten who you really are?
Zelda finally loses her patience when the Sages of Fire and Water appear.]
That is not it at all!
[And to think she had come here to try to get some peace! The two shadows surrounding her have other plans, of course.
Then why are we still like this? Why is Hyrule still a wasteland?!]
I have been trying but--
[But all you've done is doomed everyone to die in less than a year--
Such "conversations" gradually become more and more common as time goes on, with Zelda refuting the phantom's arguments every time. As time progresses, however, she starts feeling more and more tired with fighting, and while she attributes this exhaustion to a lack of fitful sleep, the glamour glitching reveals her wireframe limbs are starting to change from their normal indigo to a pale, almost clear shade...]
Floor 81; August 16 (Hard mode: this phantom will require people Zelda considers to be family to shoo away.)
[As the end of the week approaches, she realizes there's one Sage she hasn't heard from yet, and the dread that follows is possibly worse than anything the others have said. Combined with her exhaustion, it makes her stop on the eighty-first floor, instead of continuing to the mailroom as usual. She had gone for some semblance of normalcy, but now...
Staring out the bulged out window into the glamoured sky beyond, she waits. And soon enough--
Princess.]
Impa...
[She does not turn around, does not face what her attendant, her guardian, her mother has become.
Do you not love me anymore, my child?]
Of course I still love you. You raised me, protected me...
[Then why have you replaced me?]
What? I-I could never...!
[Does that man, that "Arthur," sing you to sleep at night? Does your "Servant" protect you like I did?
Zelda flinches noticeably, shoulders raised like a guilty child caught doing something wrong. Her eyes begin to water, no amount of preparation able to stop such words from hurting.]
No, it isn't like that at all! I care for them, but I still care for you too!
[They will never be your family - they aren't from your world. Our world. You understand this, don't you, child? You know they will leave you. They will never be able to care for you or protect you like I did before you turned me into this.
And that's the final straw. Too exhausted to fight logically against the voice of the woman who raised her preying upon her insecurities and fears, Zelda puts her hands over her ears, closes her eyes, and cries.]
Please, stop!
Floor 101; August 17, closed
[By the end of the week, Zelda's collar is nearly completely drained of its color, only a few flecks of indigo remaining, and Zelda herself can barely find the energy to move. When the glamour glitches and shows things for what they really are, only a thin halo of protective fluid remains around the light of her soul, the rest of her body clear and white.
Unable to venture much farther away from the dorms, she rests in the hanging gardens, body reclining against one of the trees near the center, with Dax's sapling clear in her sight. To most passing by, she probably looks like she's sleeping, chest rising and falling slowly and evenly, and to their credit, that's all she really feels like doing. The week has certainly been taxing enough. But there is one, final phantom that has come to haunt her, and at her feet it looks down upon her silently.]
So you finally came.
[Her eyelids lift, though it's hard to say she's really seeing anything.]
It is you I have wronged most of all, isn't it. I thought I was doing what was best for Hyrule. What was best for you. ... But in the end I have only invited suffering upon all I have wanted to protect.
[...]
Apologies cannot possibly make up for what I have done, but I truly am sorry. None deserve such a cruel fate less than you. If only... I could turn back the clock once more... and perhaps he could save you in my place...
[Eyes closing once more, the Princess of Destiny's head lulls quietly to the side as she offers up the last of her energy to the Hero of Time.]
Format: Action to start; will match
Setting: Floor 77; Floor 3; Dorm halls and around; Floor 25 and around; Floor 81; Floor 101
Summary: Zelda deals with the shadow children outbreak.
Warnings: WORDS. SO MANY WORDS. Also more angst than you can shake a stick at, I guess.
Floor 77; August 12, morning
[Zelda has a very good habit of checking her mailbox every morning. Most of the time there is nothing, but she has gotten too many important things through the mail to forgo her daily ritual.
But perhaps it would have been a good idea today.
The moment Zelda turns the latch on her little box, she is instantly pushed back, slamming into the opposite wall by a torrent of water. But it's not just normal water, she soon learns. It burns her eyes and every gasp of air is met with a mouthful of salt and copper. It's salt water.
Seawater. An ocean mixed with blood.
The mailroom has been thoroughly flooded with a few inches of water before she manages to scramble to her feet, soaked to the bone and bloodstained. It's just glamour, she tells herself, heart beating wildly. It's not real.
But this is the future you've doomed them to. Even if you restore the worlds, this is what awaits you.
It's an ugly truth she's been trying desperately to forget. Because if she thinks too long on it, if she fully realizes that even her struggles here are ultimately futile, she may just lose the will to fight. And that's something she can't afford to do. Not now. Not when so many are depending on her--
Her thoughts are quickly derailed as she feels something bump into her leg - a cloth package marked with the Eye of Truth bobbing away in the bloody sea the Tower has given her. She shouldn't open it, there's no one in the Tower that knows the significance of that symbol, it must be another trick, the logical part of her screams, but the familiarity of it draws her, possesses her to pick it up and slowly unravel its bindings. Jewels and broken pieces of gold slip out and fall into the water as she does, but it is the worn, bloody leather gloves she finds that causes her blood to run cold.
The gloves soon join the jewels in the water as she nearly drops the entire package. A single ruby and a strip of white cloth remain in her grip, and that's all it takes to put together where the other gems are from.
The crown of Hyrule.
Shivering, soaked, and with panic wild in her eyes, the Princess grasps the wall of boxes behind her desperately for purchase, staring in horror at the cruel display before her. And to herself, she chants:]
It's not real, it isn't real, none of it is real--
Floor 3; August 12, afternoon
[After a change of clothes and recovering from what she found this morning, Zelda does what just about anyone who's been in the Tower for a significant amount of time does to cope.
Compartmentalize and repress.
She throws herself into her research, despite some part of her knowing she won't get anywhere without some new development. Even if it's frustrating, it's easier than thinking about all her "gift" reminded her of. She's pouring over the 'psy-' section of a dictionary, trying to find something worthwhile given the lack of actual psychology books, when she gets the feeling someone is staring at her. And sure enough, when she looks up, she finds one of those shadows with gleaming white teeth she saw in the elevator shaft "smiling" at her.]
What is-- I thought the red light was meant to keep the shadows in the lower levels...
[There's certainly alarm in her expression, but she lacks the kind of fear one shows when facing a malevolent creature. After all, the shadows didn't seem to care about her before, and this one is only staring.]
Did the explosion destroy the barrier somehow...?
[She muses to herself as she examines her sudden company, even going so far as to reach out and attempt to touch it when it becomes blatantly obvious it won't attack. So this is a 'psychelysis phantom,' huh...?]
Dorm halls and around the Tower; August 13 and 14 (Easy mode: anyone Zelda considers in a solidly positive light should be able to shoo these phantoms away.)
[After her initial examination, Zelda doesn't pay much mind to the shadows tailing her. Sure, they're creepy, but then again, she's had a retrieval unit stalker for the past four months now. She's learned to ignore its presence when she doesn't need to slip away from it, and the shadows are much the same.
The Goddesses should have chosen another.
Until they start speaking, that is.]
What--?!
[She whirls around at the sound of a familiar voice - Rauru's voice - but only sees the small entourage of phantoms she's collected.
Geeze, this is supposed to be our leader? I knew a dozen women under my command that would have been better than her.
Why did you leave us behind, Princess? Don't you care about Hyrule anymore?]
Of course, they are related to the phantoms. [She tells herself shakily, trying to get her bearings after hearing the voices of those she hasn't heard in over a year. Nabooru, Saria...] I should have expected as much, really.
[After a steeling breath, she turns back around and continues walking. For the most part, she is able to continue Tower life as normal, though occasionally one might find her standing with her fists clenched and jaw tight as she tries to ignore the Sages of Light, Spirit, and Forest's criticizing words.]
Floor 25 and around the Tower; August 14 and 15 (Normal mode: these phantoms will require people Zelda considers to be friends to shoo away.)
[Look at what I, the patriarch of the Goron race, have been reduced to! Is this how the Royal Family treats its kindred and allies?!
You're our leader, not theirs. Or has it been so long that you have forgotten who you really are?
Zelda finally loses her patience when the Sages of Fire and Water appear.]
That is not it at all!
[And to think she had come here to try to get some peace! The two shadows surrounding her have other plans, of course.
Then why are we still like this? Why is Hyrule still a wasteland?!]
I have been trying but--
[But all you've done is doomed everyone to die in less than a year--
Such "conversations" gradually become more and more common as time goes on, with Zelda refuting the phantom's arguments every time. As time progresses, however, she starts feeling more and more tired with fighting, and while she attributes this exhaustion to a lack of fitful sleep, the glamour glitching reveals her wireframe limbs are starting to change from their normal indigo to a pale, almost clear shade...]
Floor 81; August 16 (Hard mode: this phantom will require people Zelda considers to be family to shoo away.)
[As the end of the week approaches, she realizes there's one Sage she hasn't heard from yet, and the dread that follows is possibly worse than anything the others have said. Combined with her exhaustion, it makes her stop on the eighty-first floor, instead of continuing to the mailroom as usual. She had gone for some semblance of normalcy, but now...
Staring out the bulged out window into the glamoured sky beyond, she waits. And soon enough--
Princess.]
Impa...
[She does not turn around, does not face what her attendant, her guardian, her mother has become.
Do you not love me anymore, my child?]
Of course I still love you. You raised me, protected me...
[Then why have you replaced me?]
What? I-I could never...!
[Does that man, that "Arthur," sing you to sleep at night? Does your "Servant" protect you like I did?
Zelda flinches noticeably, shoulders raised like a guilty child caught doing something wrong. Her eyes begin to water, no amount of preparation able to stop such words from hurting.]
No, it isn't like that at all! I care for them, but I still care for you too!
[They will never be your family - they aren't from your world. Our world. You understand this, don't you, child? You know they will leave you. They will never be able to care for you or protect you like I did before you turned me into this.
And that's the final straw. Too exhausted to fight logically against the voice of the woman who raised her preying upon her insecurities and fears, Zelda puts her hands over her ears, closes her eyes, and cries.]
Please, stop!
Floor 101; August 17, closed
[By the end of the week, Zelda's collar is nearly completely drained of its color, only a few flecks of indigo remaining, and Zelda herself can barely find the energy to move. When the glamour glitches and shows things for what they really are, only a thin halo of protective fluid remains around the light of her soul, the rest of her body clear and white.
Unable to venture much farther away from the dorms, she rests in the hanging gardens, body reclining against one of the trees near the center, with Dax's sapling clear in her sight. To most passing by, she probably looks like she's sleeping, chest rising and falling slowly and evenly, and to their credit, that's all she really feels like doing. The week has certainly been taxing enough. But there is one, final phantom that has come to haunt her, and at her feet it looks down upon her silently.]
So you finally came.
[Her eyelids lift, though it's hard to say she's really seeing anything.]
It is you I have wronged most of all, isn't it. I thought I was doing what was best for Hyrule. What was best for you. ... But in the end I have only invited suffering upon all I have wanted to protect.
[...]
Apologies cannot possibly make up for what I have done, but I truly am sorry. None deserve such a cruel fate less than you. If only... I could turn back the clock once more... and perhaps he could save you in my place...
[Eyes closing once more, the Princess of Destiny's head lulls quietly to the side as she offers up the last of her energy to the Hero of Time.]