Δ but is there a floor of just pots?

[zelfies]

Characters: Link + open!
Setting: Dorm floor 1 and various other floors
Format: starting in prose, feel free to switch to brackets
Summary: Link arrives in the Tower and does a little exploring
Warnings: none so far


Dormitory floor 1, the surrounding halls of room 1-08
A tiny blond boy poked his head out of room 1-08 in the early afternoon of January 10th. He could have just as easily been friends with Rudolph, if it weren't for the (miniature) sword and shield he carried on his back. Pointy ears, little boots, a matching cap and tunic. He was obviously confused, eyes darting up and down the hall as he crept into view and shut the door behind him.

In a short life that had recently taken a turn for the unpredictable, this was the weirdest thing Link had seen yet.

He had read the letters, committed them to memory as well as he could. He wasn't about to take them to heart without at least learning more, especially not the one about the world ending. He was still here, right? Wherever here was.

What to do, then? Have a look around, of course. Start with all of these doors and see what he found! Link began travelling down the hall, knocking on doors and poking into each bedroom as he went. That always worked, right? There had to be something.

Floor 90
Here, Link felt more at home. He was travelling one by one through the floors, undeterred by the sheer magnitude of the tower.

Eyes darting between the stairs that would take him farther on his journey and the gently rippling waters of the lagoon, Link decided that taking a second to "test" the water couldn't hurt. He slipped his boots off and left them in the grass, smiling to himself as the sand of the beach ran over his toes.

He had yet to notice the occasional rippling of a fin gliding over the water's surface.

Floor 45
"Ooh..." Link's eyes widened as he set foot on the landing of the observatory. He frowned, though, when he noticed that it didn't offer much insight at all as to what was out there. It was only clouds. He was too high up, then?

He began to run around the perimeter of the great glass room, just to be sure.

Passing between floors 24 and 22
Twenty-four was completely empty and twenty-two was just filled with a bunch of paintings, he discovered from having a quick look around. Although it was odd that they would have a completely empty floor, that wasn't what confused him the most.

Where was twenty-three?

Link could be found jogging from floor to floor, as if hoping that somehow, this time, it would magically appear. If that didn't work, he'd be looking around on the surrounding floors. A secret switch? A door that he missed? There must be something somewhere!

Comments

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

So it really was him. She didn't wake up that morning under the influence of one of the administrators, hallucinating a Hero. Tetra stepped forward quickly, still a bit suspicious, and punched him in the arm.

Just to make sure.

"You're real."

Brilliant observation Tetra.

"We're on another world, kid. It's called the tower of Animus."

[zelfies]

Link's eyes widened, his lips turning down in an exaggerated frown. This really was another world?

And... Come to think of it. Tetra looked older.

"Is the note true?" His head whips around to face his room, where the note proclaiming his home's supposed demise still sat on the bed behind the closed door. He turned to shoot her a glare when she punched him in the arm and reached up to rub at the spot.

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

The glare hardly bothers her when it would have gotten a rise out of her two years before. Crossing her arms, Tetra took a moment to think this over. He clearly didn't remember the tower and that kind of hurt but she couldn't do anything about that.

"Yeah, it's true. Everyone here was rescued from their worlds just before it was destroyed."

She wouldn't get into the ugly details yet. Give the kid time to adjust. Kid. It was hard to think of him as a kid when he should have been close to her age if it wasn't for the tower.

"You eat yet?"

[zelfies]

No words, but that wasn't unusual. Link's face just fell into something between shock and despair. No, there had to be a mistake. He looked down the hall in either direction, purely on instinct.

Her question about eating went ignored.

"Where's Aryll?" Because naturally, she's with Tetra. Tetra's kept her safe in the past!

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

She froze the instant the name passed his lips, not sure what to say. For a moment, Tetra considered walking away, finding Zelda or someone who could explain it better than she could. She didn't sign up for this.

"She's not here, Link."

Not anymore. There was a grave with her name on it though.

And Tetra wouldn't let him near the graveyard now. Not for awhile, anyway.

[zelfies]

Link's frown deepened. That was it? She wasn't going to explain any further? Where was Aryll?

"But then where is she?" He simply couldn't accept that possibility of Aryll being gone. It wasn't right. It wasn't possible. That wasn't how it worked. Aryll was safe. And if she ever wasn't safe, Link would save her. That was what big brothers did.

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

How could she explain without upsetting him? Besides leading him to the graveyard that she's sworn to herself that she won't let him see. There were several possibilities of what had happened to her.

She was returned to the dead version of her world.

She was used as fuel to power to tower.

She was a fractured soul turned into a monster here in the tower. And possibly killed by someone.

"Don't worry, she's safe. That's all I can really tell you. I'm stuck here too, you know." Lying works too.

[zelfies]

Link paused, still eyeing Tetra warily. Why couldn't he remember anything? He would have known if the world had ended, wouldn't he? But... In the end, he would just have to trust Tetra. She wouldn't lie to him. Of that, he was certain.

"What are we doing here, then?"

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

Oh, ouch Link. It's a good thing she couldn't read minds, that would hurt a lot. Lying was necessary though. For now. She couldn't bear to tell him the truth of things, couldn't bear to know what it would do to him if he thought he'd never see Aryll again.

And there was still the chance that he could. They still had time to try to save their worlds.

"We were rescued. Right before our worlds were destroyed, Zo brought our souls here. These collars-" She reaches out and pokes at his, "-keeps us alive."

[zelfies]

"I hate the collar..." he grumbled under his breath, pulling at it. The thing didn't physically bother him. It fit just right. But still...

"Who's Zo? Can we talk to him?"

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

Tetra's hand shot out, taking a hold of his wrist. Not painfully, just enough to stop him from pulling at the collar. She couldn't be sure if he had the strength to yank it off still.

"You really will die if you take that off. And I don't think you wanna do that on your first day here."

She remembered, each time someone looked like they wanted to pull the collar off, when a boy had demanded it be removed. And died. The video recorded and played for any resident watching to see.

"We can sometimes, but it's Riki's month right now. And I think Ruana is next month and then Zo. We might hear from him sooner though, we'll see."

[zelfies]

Link raised his eyebrows when Tetra stopped him so suddenly. He blinked, staring at her a moment before lowering his hand and leaving the collar be. He sure didn't want to die.

"Are they the boss?" he guessed, his hand traveling up toward his neck unconsciously.

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

Good, that was what she wanted. Him to leave it alone and not want to die. Progress! There were still a bunch of things she needed to explain to him (like the oatmeal and collar checkups) but those could wait for now. Just as long as she explained before he skipped a check-up or ate something else first.

"Yeah, they call themselves the administrators. They're almost like gods with the kind of power they have."

[zelfies]

"Gods..." That makes everything make a little more sense. "They know how it all works, then?" Link would have to speak with them, if that were the case.

...And, he was kinda hungry.

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

"They do, yeah. Or how most of it works." There were a lot of things that they didn't know about the administrators still and the attempt to bring Jason down had been a failure. That didn't bode well for them for April, Jason didn't seem like the type to forget a slight like that.

"Come on, I could use a bite to eat." Because she was sure he could to, just coming out of his room. "Elevator's this way."

[zelfies]

"Me too." He followed Tetra down the hall toward the elevator, occasionally getting distracted by a slightly open door or another resident poking outside.

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

She didn't go too quickly, giving him a chance to look around. The dorm floors really weren't much to look at, not in her opinion, but there were other floors she knew he'd love. Like the aquarium.

"It'll take about half an hour to get down there, so you know, but it's the fastest way. There's more'n a hundred floors here."

[zelfies]

"A hundred?!" Link jumped back slightly as they made their way down the hall. An hour and a half just to go eat?

"That's a stupid idea. Why would they build a place that made it take an hour and a half just to go eat! They don't have warp jars??" All huge places like this had warp jars!

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

"No warp jars. And it might take less than that. Depends on where the elevator is right now, how long it takes to get to us and then back down. It's a lot faster than running down and a lot safer."

Plenty of monsters to run into and she didn't want to get stuck on a floor to die again. She's had enough of that particular experience. She hasn't died as many times as others but enough that she doesn't want to again if she can help it.

[zelfies]

"The floors are that bad, huh?" With a little skip, Link caught up to Tetra as they neared the elevator.

If she didn't even want to risk the walk...

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

Any other day, she might have been willing to take the risk but with the recently failed attempt on Jason's life, it could be more dangerous. It may not be his month but there's always a chance that he might send something nasty up.

"Can be. Sometimes. There are monsters here that you can't kill."

[zelfies]

Link simply raised a cynical eyebrow at Tetra. Monsters that you can't kill? Nah, they were probably just doing something wrong. Or, really, they weren't doing what was right. There was always a way. It just wasn't always obvious.

((You wanna timeskip down to the caf? Or call it a day once they get to the elevator?))

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

((up to you!))

Don't you give her that look Link. Tetra knew the tower well enough to know that for a fact. Whether it's through experience or hearsay though... well, she wouldn't answer.

[zelfies]

((Caf jump it shall be!))

He still didn't believe her. Either way, the elevator ride had been just as brutal as Tetra had said it would be. What a stupid design.

Link was hungry, though, and his stomach rumbled as he sat down at a table and prepared to dig in. The oatmeal... didn't look very appetizing, but even pirate slop was acceptable when desperate times arose!

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

It was stupid, Tetra agreed, but that was something to take up with the administrators. And Tetra tried to avoid talking with them unless she had to.

Tetra herself settled down across from him with two plates, one for each of them when Link finished his oatmeal. It really helped to have a friend with for the first meal, so they could grab something decent for the other.

"You only have to eat it once, at least.