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]

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.

[zelfies]

Link could have sworn that he turned faintly green when he put the first spoonful in his mouth. His upper lip curled, and he looked up at Tetra, mouth still full, as if saying 'is this for real?'

Actually, yes, Link. It's the only real thing you're going to eat for a long time.

He slopped the unappetizing paste around his mouth for several seconds, almost afraid of swallowing.

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

Tetra only nodded, waiting to eat her own food until he finished the oatmeal. If only to be nice about it. And really, it wouldn't help at all if she were to flaunt the glamoured food while he still had to finish.

"It ain't gonna get any better like that. In fact, it'll just get worse the longer you make it last."

That should have been good enough incentive, right? Yeah. Definitely.

[zelfies]

"Mmff..." Another moment of swishing before he finally choked it down with a shudder.

"Is all of the food this bad...?" Link cringed down at his bowl as if it had just sprouted legs and a head.

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

"No, it's not. At least, not always. Sometimes we get some really awful menus like Jason's nutrition bars. Zo gives us really good food whenever he's in charge."

When had Tetra become the mature one of the pair? She had to think but couldn't even place it as any specific time while she was in the tower. It just happened.

"Come on, the quicker you finish it, the sooner you can have something that tastes a whole lot better. And since when does a hero let food beat him?"

[zelfies]

Link shot her a glare. Really? He was thinking the same thing: When had Tetra become so...

Boring?!

He forced down another spoonful.

"Why do I have to eat this?"

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

She would object (maybe violently) to being called boring! Sure she didn't get into much trouble anymore, didn't worry Zelda as often, but that came with experience in the tower. Experience that had gotten her killed on more than one occasion. No, now she was trying to be the kind of heir Zelda would want her to be.

"Because you'll throw up anything else you eat until you eat that. I think one of the administrators said that it helps acclimate us. Or something like that."

[zelfies]

"Ick..." Another dramatically pained spoonful. Fine, fine. If he had to do it, he had to do it.

That didn't mean he was going to like it, though.

Link began shoveling the oatmeal down quicker. Tetra was right. The quicker, the better.

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

She watched him quietly, poking at her food until he was done and then she pushed the extra tray over to him. The explanation of all the food (and what it actually was) could come later. Jason-month later.

"Now you can have this stuff. It's a lot better, I promise."

[zelfies]

"Aaah-" Link dove into the new tray. This stuff was much better. He spoke in between bites.

"So-" chewchewchew "-is there anything else that I should know about?"

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

Tetra half smiled. At least he hadn't lost his appetite. Quietly, she picked at her own food, eating a bit here and there as she thought about what else he need to know.

"Well, you can't die permanently here. I've died-" She counted on her fingers quickly. "-four or five times now? And you might run into people that know you. There have been a few Link's here before."

[zelfies]

Another slow raise of his eyebrows.

"Okay..." The lack of permanent death didn't come as much of a shock to Link. He had been pulled from the brink before by fairies. He simply assumed that the magic they held here was similar. It was good to know.

And according to his reasoning, it perfectly rationalized reckless activities and experimentation! Then, of course, there was the elephant in the room...

"So... what's our goal?"

[stop_calling_me_zelda]

To burst his bubble or not to burst his bubble, that was the question. Death was death. And it hurt. She could still feel or remember how it felt each time she died. Whether it was when she was held beneath the water in the Bath Game or when Sephiroth stabbed her.

"To find a way to save our worlds. If you find one of the terminals around the tower, there's a countdown. We have that long to save our worlds and the people left there."

She paused for a moment, considering her next words very carefully. Link was a hero, someone who could bear the Triforce of Courage, a chosen one of the Goddesses.

"This is gonna seem scary but you need to know: if we don't, Ruana will use their souls to power to tower or she'll send us all back. Alone an unable to die."