[01] || [A Hilda Between Worlds] || [Open]

[lorule]

Characters: Princess Hilda and you.
Setting: Dormitories, Art Gallery, Library, the Meadow and the Observatory.
Format: Prose or action, I will follow.
Summary: Hilda wakes up in the tower, promptly chooses to deny that her world is dead and goes off to explore. The prompts include the princess (unsuccessfully) trying to get a terminal to work and encountering a shadow child, amongst other happy things.
Warning: Nothing; will edit if something comes up. The post obviously contains spoilers for A Link Between Worlds.


• Dormitory Floor 1 / Room 1-03
Room 1-03: 'Your world has been destroyed. I saved you. Let's all be happy here.'

Hilda read over and over again the letter she'd found upon sitting up. Moments ago she had been standing in the Sacred Realm. The next thing she remembered, she was waking up paralyzed in this forsaken place. This of course was more than enough to unsettle her, but this was nothing compared to the story this letter was telling her. Lorule, destroyed? Impossible. Yes, the demise of her kingdom had been set in stone long before her birth and she had herself let go of the only hope her kingdom had. Ultimately, the destruction of her world was something she knew was meant to happen.

But not so soon. With her waking up in this strange place, something was obviously wrong-- Maybe her kingdom was even more endangered than before, but destroyed? She couldn't believe it, she refused to. Fighting the nagging feeling that there may be some ounce of truth to the letter's content, she crushed the letter in her hand and got up from the bed in an instant.

Her eyes then settled to the trunk at the end of her bed. She knelt next to it and opened it, looking for its content. Her dismantled staff, clothes and nothing of much use. She grabbed the pieces of the staff and worked on putting them back together as she looked around, giving a look to the other beds in the room. Were there other peoples living here? She would find out soon enough, she figured.

Dormitory Floor 1: Now equipped with her staff, a purple and golden stick mounted with an inverted tetrahedron Triforce, Hilda left her room. Her priority was to find out more about this place; more than she had so far. This place was even more strange than she had expected. The very texture of the walls was nothing like the constructions in Lorule.

Slowly she walked through the corridor, looking from times to times at the various doors and the names written next to them. She frowned, what little she saw was unfamiliar to her. Odds were that she wouldn't find anything familiar here. Yet she decided to try and open some of the doors on her way-- Only to find them locked and frustratingly letting go of the handle. But hey, this may just have been the door to your room.


• Art Gallery (Floor 22)
The numerous figures and events depicted on these walls meant little to her-- This place would probably have been a paradise for Yuga. A particular set of painting caught her attention, however. A series of paintings depicting the history of Hyrule from the distant past. She looked at the paintings with interest; albeit their content was nothing new to her. While she had never seen these paintings before, Yuga had told her all of Hylian history, or at least all about what he had been able to learn.

Another set of painting soon caught her attention. The paintings on the opposite wall depicted a seemingly similar story, but this one had a noticeably less positive outcome. Her expression darkened upon seeing them. She set her staff against the wall and raised a hand, to touch the middle painting. Why did they have these here? Yet it was the only depicting of Lorule she had found in the entire tower. So she remained there, staring at the painting for a long while.


• Terminals (Library - Floor 03)
Now this was intriguing. Not the books, no. The books were nothing new. She had plenty of them back home, and while she would be more than happy to read some of these, something else caught her attention. Namely, that weird thing embedded into the wall that had started displaying things right as she had passed by. She had seen these things in the dormitory floor as well. Surely they held some significance, but in what way?

The best way to determinate that was to try and interact with the strange device, she figured. The thought of using the keyboard didn't cross her mind for even a second though, and she pointed at the terminal with her staff-- Obviously this object was magical in nature, maybe casting magic over it would reveal its secrets?

If the fumes elevating from the terminal as a result were anything to go by, this experiment didn't go well.


• Meadow (Floor 25)
After the sad spectacle the tower had offered to her up until now, the sight of the meadow came as a shock. Not only hadn't she expected to see such a place within this horrid tower, but she had never seen such a place at all before. Lorule was a world shrouded in darkness that prevented the simplest of flowers from existing. A land covered with dark clouds that forbade the light of the sun to ever reach it.

She walked in and looked around, having a hard time hiding her amazement at what she was seeing. So this was what a normal world looked like? She couldn't figure how or why this place existed within the tower, but at the moment it didn't matter. Of all the things she had seen in the tower, this one was of nature to appease her. She slowly kept moving in, kneeling down at times to look at flower-- She would probably stay here for a long while.


• Shadow Children (Observatory - Floor 45)
After quite a while spent exploring the tower, she decided to take a rest at the observatory, looking through the glass to see if she could perceive anything through the thick fog. Obviously she couldn't, but the sight was somewhat similar to that of Lorule. Empty and without hope. In fact, much of the tower reminded her of her Kingdom; the monsters roaming around, the feeling of oppression, the destruction. And one more thing was about to remind her of her lost Kingdom:

"Why did you survive?"

She turned as soon as she heard the familiar voice, there was no mistaking who it was and yet— This couldn't be.

"Ravi-?"

But upon seeing where the voice came from, she backed down in disgust. A black creature, pale imitation of a human being with only its white teeth as distinct feature. This creature certainly not who she thought it had been, and the words he further uttered only confirmed this to her. She scowled at the being and tightened her grip on her staff.

"Why do you use this voice?!"

She brandished her staff to cast a spell on the creature, to trap him in a barrier and leave him here-- But the spell failed. And even though she decided to leave rather than face the creature one more second; it followed her of course.

Comments

[athousandcurses]

After the last day or so, full of ups and downs, Grainne needed a moment to herself to sit and process everything she's been told and heard. It's been mostly downs since the moment she arrived here, and something told her that she could only expect more of them. She still hadn't explored much, so headed to the one floor that seemed most comforting.

Walking into the meadow, she spotted the other woman and paused, uncertain if she should apologize for intruding or just go find another place to sit.

[lorule]

Hilda was scrutinizing a purple flower when she felt the other presence-- In fact she spent an abnormal time simply looking at the flowers without touching them, as if she was afraid to see them ruined. She quickly turned around, expecting to see yet another of these monsters-- Only to see the other woman.

"Who's there?"

[athousandcurses]

Grainne almost jumped at the sudden question, but shook her head and replied, "Grainne. I'm sorry if I disturbed you. I came here to think and didn't expect another."

Maybe... Grainne wouldn't mind having company after all, especially since she doesn't feel that this woman is a Servant. She is a bit tired of running into other Servants by now.

[lorule]

Hilda wouldn't even know what a servant was, besides the literal meaning of the word. She shook her head when Graine replied. She had seeked-- And to an extent found peace in this meadow, but the presence of that person did not disturb her.

"You did not." she replied and turned back to the flower "I have just arrived in this tower. I did not expect to find such a place here."

Observatory! ...Does this count as fourthwalling? If you don't like it, I can edit it out!

[warriorscribe]

Enoch spent a bit of his time on each floor, lately. He couldn't decide if he was giving the tower a farewell or looking for answers he'd missed. Faceless creatures or no, any floor with windows or open air drew him to it, and it was because of this he found a dark-haired lady - noble lady, even royal, reacting to a shadow child, well...as if she had never encountered them before.

Shadow child. Psychelysis phantom. The twisted remains of those caught up in the pull between worlds.

"Ah...I...I'm sorry, but...that's..." And the truth, already so hard to tell, dies on his lips as he gets a good look at her at last. She looks strikingly familiar...

Naah, it's fine!

[lorule]

Hilda turned immediately as she heard the other, hesitating voice-- He may not realize it, but at this moment Enoch was a welcome distraction for her to ignore the insults and profanity that this thing was telling her. This creature may have been able to imitate the voice of someone she knew; but nothing more. None of these words belonged to that voice.

She saw his surprise as he looked at her, but all she wanted right now was a clear answer.

"That is what?"

[warriorscribe]

"It is..." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "What it seems to be. Who it seems to be. When we're pulled into this world, others are taken with us, but...they don't make it unharmed. I thought they were illusions, too, at first. I couldn't hold onto it for long...it came to light they were brought from our worlds first when Zo, the one who rescues us, tried to bring everyone else two years ago. He couldn't handle so many at once, and the souls came through broken. Ever since, they have come when someone has been rescued. Like astral collateral damage..."

[lorule]

Hilda did not say a word as Enoch explained the truth behind the shadows. If this was true, the idea was horrifying. Had it not been enough to put her people through pain and misery before killing them? Did they have to keep suffering even after their life had been taken away? Did he... She turned back to the shadow child and looked at him for quite a while— No. It couldn't be him. She couldn't even begin to imagine Ravio with such a malevolent grin on his face. She shook her head.

"Are you telling me— Not only was he killed, but now he has to live hell beyond death?" she spoke in a choked tone and dragged her eyes away from the shadow, back to Enoch "No... The Ravio I remember would never say such things. He may not have been the bravest one, but even through pain he wouldn't fall so low."

She's probably trying to convince herself more than she's trying to convince Enoch.

Dormitories

[sageprincess]

There is one thing Hilda will find familiar in this strange new world: the name of Hyrule's Princess on a plate a few doors down from the room she herself awoke in. However, the woman who answers the door after Hilda's insistent jiggling of its handle is not quite the same as the one the Princess of Lorule knows. There is a clear family resemblance, of course; this woman has the same blonde hair and blue eyes, but she is also older, taller, and in possession of a far more world weary look in her eyes.

Hilda's appearance seems to surprise her as well, as she is left silently staring at the other woman for a few moments after answering the door. The images of Lorule's Triforce in particular are gawked at for longer than what may be considered polite.

This... is not what she expected to see when she woke up this morning. So many questions and thoughts swim wildly in Zelda's head that eventually she decides only to give voice to the simplest one.

"... Can I help you?"

[lorule]

After a couple of failed tries, her attempts to open the doors were done with little conviction. The name on this particular plate had caught her attention though— One of the first familiar sight to greet her in this accursed tower. A surprising one at that. Zelda should have been safe in Hyrule with Link by now, right? Surely whatever had happened to her, and maybe to her world, couldn't have reached Hyrule.

However, the name didn't catch her attention nearly as much as the person who ended up opening the door. She had expected never to see again the Princess of Hyrule, and after what she had done to her, this was probably for the better. But was it really her? The resemblances between the princess she remembered and the woman standing before her were striking— But the differences maybe much more so. The age of course was the most obvious difference, but not the most worrying one. That look in Zelda's eyes was. She recognized it, for she had come to bear it herself after all these years worrying and fighting for Lorule. It was something that belonged to the realm of shadows, not to that of light.

Yet if the name written on the plate was anything to go by, this had to be her. Why or how, she couldn't say. But maybe she could help indeed, with providing an answer to the most basic question.

"... Princess Zelda?"

[sageprincess]

So this woman knows of the Royal Family of Hyrule. Really, that should help her narrow things down (not from the era of Skyloft, and not from Tetra's time), but this time the recognition only brings more questions. She looks like a royal herself, but no member of the Royal Family would adorn themselves with inverted Triforces like that. At least, she doesn't think anyone would.

Bewilderment remains clear in her expression, but she does manage to get herself to answer Hilda's own question.

"Yes, that is correct. Though, I fear you have me at a disadvantage..." A hesitation, signaling her assumption. "... Your Highness?"

Definitely not a Zelda that knows of Hilda, that much is certain.

[lorule]

"Have you forgotten me...?"

If so then, that was for the better. She had expected— Hoped even hoped that Zelda would remember her and the events that had transpired. But if she had forgotten what crimes she had committed, this would be one less burden for her to carry. That loss of memories was probably related to her change in appearance, though she couldn't begin to guess how or why.

Yet again, maybe this was just a matter of parallel universes and time paradoxes. Not that she even suspected such things existed. She nodded as an answer to Zelda.

"My apologizes. I am Princess Hilda of Lorule." she stated, as if this was the most natural thing in the world, before marking a pause "Could I please come in?"

Dorm Floors

[bashfulshifter]

[Rick isn't in his room right now, but he does catch Hilda fiddling with the handle to it and is a little curious about her motives. Well, the cat part of him is more curious about her strange scent--she's yet to be claimed, which he interprets as her being new. So she's probably just trying to find someone to help her, of course!]

[As the orange tabby cat that spots her from down the hall will probably not be too helpful at guiding her in the right direction, Rick shifts into the human form that will be. Maybe. Okay, it's kind of hit-or-miss for him (particularly if she saw him shift, that tends to throw people off), but he tries.]

S-Sorry...a-are you, ah...l-looking f-for s-s-someone?

[lorule]

[ Hilda had noticed the cat, but hadn't been paying much attention to it. She was looking for answers and a cat couldn't really help her with that at the moment. That is, until the cat suddenly shifted into a human being. Which left her understandably surprised, even though she had only seen the transformation from the corner of her eye.

She knew a man who could turn himself and others into paintings, so such magic wasn't unheard of. Yet this was no less surprising and his offer for help was lost on her. ]

Did you just... [ She paused, how to say that politely? ] Were you— That cat...?

[bashfulshifter]

[Oops, she saw him. The blonde man turns bright red and keeps his distance, not wanting to unnerve her any more than he already has.]

A-Ah...yes. I...I d-didn't m-mean to...s-s-sorry.

[Awkward silence while Rick stares at his shuffling feet, wondering if there are any better ways to explain himself and finding none. Maybe, if he asks if she needs help again, she'll just...ignore it? Or forget? But that would be so rude!...]

[lorule]

[ Hilda shook her head quickly as he apologized. This had surprised her; but the man did not look evil and she hadn't meant to embarrass him. That and she still needed help to find out what this place exactly was. ]

N-no no, it's fine. [ She paused before regaining her countenance, speaking in a calm and more confident tone. ] I have just awakened in this place, and I am on a quest to find answers. If your offer for assistance still stands, could you please help me find them?

Fl 25 - Meadow

[neverbeamemory]

[Sephiroth is lain down somewhere in the grass quite far from the staircase. His consciousness drifts somewhere between lightly napping, and deeply appreciating the summertime meadow. The light breeze, the fresh smells - all things that he may well be soon leaving behind forever.

All grey-training clothes and silver hair lost within the blades of grass.

He has to blink back a wave of receding lethargy as someone wanders close, almost too close; he has to quickly bend a leg up and out of the way before Hilda might have tripped over it.]

Hm.

[lorule]

[ After having met Grainne, Hilda had decided to stay for some more time in the meadow. The flowers, the sun, the breeze— All these things that didn't exist back in her homeworld, or at least not under this form. She wanted to experience them for some more time. Goddesses knew when she would be able to see such wonders again.

Hilda hadn't actually noticed Sephiroth's presence until he bent his leg out of the way. She looked down and finally spotted the silver-haired man. Well, this floor was definitely more frequented than she had originally thought. Yet it wasn't surprising that many people would enjoy such a place.

She nodded at him in acknowledgment before speaking on a formal tone. ]

My apologies. I had not noticed your presence.

[neverbeamemory]

[Forcing the residual tiredness as far back to the back of his conscious mind as it would go Sephiroth sat up to look easier, closer up, over this purple-clad resident he hadn't seen before. She had to be a newcomer, judging by her bearing alone, never mind that Sephiroth kept a well-minded mental log of all the people who were present in the Tower at any time. It was easier to, now that they all lived within closer quarters to each other.]

You should be careful where you put your feet.

[He's at least trying not to sound so offish, however the lethargy might taint it.]

/forever late

[zelfies]

Link spent a good deal of his time on the floors that emulated the outdoors. It at least eased the crippling feeling of constantly being closed in by the Tower. He paid little attention to the young woman nearby at first, but when she lingered for a while...

The little hero approached her, silently at first before speaking.

"I haven't seen you before." Always the most eloquent greetings...

/never too late

[lorule]

Hilda was still observing the flowers when the Hero approached her, so obviously she didn't notice him right away. That is, until he spoke up. At this point Hilda turned and looked around for whoever had spoken. Nothing in sight (why is Link so short) until she finally looked down—

—A tiny version the Hero? If anything, his clothes were identical to those of the Link she had met before. He looked much younger however, even though and he bore a physical certain resemblance with him as well.

Maybe it was like the Zelda she had met in this tower. Another era, another hero chosen by the gods. Only one way to know.

"Hero of Hyrule?"

:)

[zelfies]

Link somehow maintained a straight face when she first (literally) overlooked him. Why did that always happen?? Why was everybody here so ridiculously tall?? That hardly mattered, though, when she addressed him as a hero of Hyrule. Link raised his eyebrows.

"Hero of Winds, really... But I know about Hyrule!" He wasn't sure how all of those Hero titles worked. Another small pause. "Who're you?"

I am slow, forgive me for only tagging this now.

[falseidentity]

"You never see plants before?"

There's another person here, though man or woman, it's hard to tell. Short blue hair, fairly androgynous appearance... She'd been lying down in a particularly deep patch, though the footsteps had woken her. This woman... Is amusing, in the way a child's amazement is. It's something to take note of and enjoy.

"...I'm not the flower expert, but I can try to remember some of the things a friend taught me. If you'd like."

But a tag is never late, it arrives precisely when it means to

[lorule]

Hilda had been busy analyzing another purple flower when she heard the voice, and immediately turned around. She hadn't noticed that other's person presence up till now. Well, it was not that she had never seen plants before, but--

"Plants where I come from are... Different."

And by different she meant of the twisted variety. Only shadows of what plants should truly be, much like everything else in Lorule. She nodded however, these plants had made her quite curious and what little she had gleaned on plant from ancient Lorulean books had never taught her much.

"I would very much like. It would be my pleasure if you could tell me more about them."

[falseidentity]

"I can't remember too much, but..."

Kachessa will stride over and kneel down, examining the flowers in the immediate area. Hm... So many. Time to dust off the old memories and try to figure this all out.

"That one is... A peony. And over here is some daffodils."