[The Turn of the Tide] || [Open]

[the_white_rider]

Characters: Gandalf and You.
Setting: Dormitory Floors, Hidden Floor, Cafeteria and Meadow.
Format: Action or Prose, I will follow.
Summary: The white wizard comes back with counsel in this dark hour. Essentially, after nearly a year spent on his dead homeworld, Gandalf is back and looking for informations regarding the state of things.
Warnings: Nothing. Will update if something comes up.


• Dormitory Floors (Morning)
Few were the people who would find comfort upon waking up within this dreaded tower. After all, what sort of reasonable being would find reassurance to be condemned to live in such a terrible place? The White Wizard was one of those people. Indeed, if Zo still had the means to summon people within the tower, it meant power had not been exhausted yet. It meant those who had remained behind were still alive, as he had hoped while he had been stranded on the shadow that once was Middle-Earth.

Last he had been in this tower, the truth behind their surroundings had been revealed and the glamour unveiled, as a consequence of the reserve in energy of the tower having been depleted. Doubtlessly a good thing, yet he had not forgotten the deadline. And so the first thing he did upon waking up was to leave his room and check the closest terminal--

Fifty-eight days. He closed his eyes and sighed. So very little time, yet an eternity. Miracles had been accomplished in much less than that. There was still hope. And his priority now would be to find out people who could inform him. Find who was left in the tower and learn from them what the situation was.


• Hidden Floor (Anytime During the Day)
Gandalf was familiar with most of the 101 floors that made up this tower. Most, but not this one. He was fairly certain this one floor had not been there before, and if the transporter that needed to be used to get there was any indication, as well as the special retrieval units that inhabited it, maybe this one floor was a safe floor. This was yet to be confirmed however.

He walked in and looked at the information displayed on the walls and smiled– Unless everyone in this tower had gone crazy (which was a very viable possibility especially considering what fools certain had been, but he'd rather stay positive), they would never have put such information where retrieval units, let alone the administrators could see them. This confirmed his feeling this floor might be safe, and he spent some time there, reading at the information with great interests.


• Cafeteria (Floor 01 - Evening)
Some things never changed. The oatmeal for all newcomers and the nutrition bars were one of them. If he were to trust what he knew about the tower, this would be the sign of a Jason month. Yert obviously things were no longer as they appeared, so he wouldn't be so quick to judge.

Still, Gandalf came down and had his meal-- Casting a most disapproving and sorrowful glare at the food. Not really what he enjoyed eating. But after nearly a year without anything to eat, that was better than nothing.


• Meadow (Floor 19 - Nighttime)
It was later that day, during the right that Gandalf went to the meadow. Apparently, the wizard knew exactly where he was headed and stopped before a few random stones on the ground, in a spot of the meadow he had personally picked a long time. Well, random. To anyone else these stones probably did look random, but to Gandalf they had a meaning. He had placed them there specifically as a marker. And before long, he removed them.

Indeed, he had stored two very important things there: the book that contained the entirety of his theories and findings about the tower, as well as a cache of the pipe-weed he had personally cultivated. One of these two thing was slightly more important than the other. But only slightly. Hopefully they were still there.

Comments

Hidden floor; gomen for tl;dr

[sageprincess]

Engrossed as he is in catching up on what he missed, Gandalf will likely hear the new arrival to the hidden room before he sees them.

"Good morning, Ari-- ah..."

The voice should be unmistakeable, however. The Princess of Hyrule stands momentarily frozen at the entrance to Aria's headquarters, staring at the White Wizard as if she's seen a ghost. And in a way, she has. After a certain amount of time, she gives up on ever seeing the people whose souls Zo has lost his grip on, and Gandalf has definitely been gone longer than that ever shortening time frame.

Gandalf, in all his years and experience of guiding leaders towards their destinies, will likely note the subtle changes to her countenance since he saw her last. She's older, obviously, with an air of experience the seventeen year old girl he met in the library lacked. Even slack-jawed as she is in that moment, there's a hardness in her gaze that was only just beginning to form around the time of Dax's death, and a weariness that never quite left in the wake of the first glamour failure.

However, she stands tall, shoulders back and head held high even in her shock. Narya still rests upon her right ring finger, gleaming beneath her own personal set of notes she brings with her.

She can't be certain this is the same wizard as the one who gave her that ring; she learned that lesson long ago and has never forgotten it. But he's here, in this sanctuary, and her intuition tells her he wouldn't be devouring the information contained within with such vigor if he had no context for it all. Her brows draw together as she asks hesitantly, almost fearful to hope:

"... Gandalf?"

[the_white_rider]

And indeed, Gandalf did hear Zelda before he saw her.

The white wizard turned around to face the voice, still holding onto his staff, but this was only a formality. That voice was impossible to confuse with any other, for how often they had spoken together prior to the glamour revelation. He was quick to notice the changes, however. Slight as they were, yet revealing of what trials she undoubtedly had to go through while he was missing.

All those he chose, all those he guided toward their destiny, they all changed. The course of life changed people, this was an invariable fact. But the course of destiny even more so. Was it a good thing? Doubtlessly, yet this was also a sorrowful thing. In a world rid of evil, in a world where Ruana and her accursed tower didn't exist, she wouldn't have had to go through these changes. Seeing those and chose changing in such ways was, indeed, quite painful and sorrowful.

He would not comment on any of it though.

"Princess." He smiled to her and nodded, as if to confirm that he was indeed the Gandalf she knew, and not another from another world "It is a relief to see you are still here."

[sageprincess]

It's really him. The one who set her on this path all that time ago. She has often wondered what he would think of her in his absence, if he would approve or disapprove of all she has done, but the idea that maybe, just maybe Zo would manage to bring him back to the Tower is one she rarely, if ever entertained.

(It's not that she has given up on those stuck wandering wastelands of their former homes, just that there is only so much pain and loss a mortal girl can allow herself to feel before she is crushed under its weight. She has no time to bear such heavy burdens.)

"It... It has been so long," she responds, disbelief still heavy in her voice despite the confirmation that this is indeed the wizard she knew. Her mind has been set into such a whirlwind it is difficult to think of what to say beyond the obvious. "So much has happened."

[the_white_rider]

The disbelief in her voice was not surprising-- Familiar if anything. The same disbelief had inhabited the voices of all those who thought him gone for good after he fell to the shadows of Moria. With his own experience of the tower, he too would have been surprised to see anyone coming back after such a long time.

"So long, yet so little compared to what's to come." It's to say two months; and given what they had to accomplish, it was no stretch to say these two months would look very long and short at the same time. He then looked at her, with a bit of concern in his voice.

"So have I heard. But please, tell me how you have been doing, Princess."

[sageprincess]

"How have I been doing?" she parrots, clearly not expecting that question out of the myriad he could have asked. Then again, she did not expect any of this when she came to see Aria this morning. It's a moment before she answers, and she doesn't look at him when she does, instead looking down and staring at the notes she brought with her.

"... As well as I can, I suppose."

Guilt and fear weigh as heavily as ever on her conscience, but she has not allowed herself to lose herself to them. Not yet.

[the_white_rider]

Gandalf nodded when she repeated the question-- Yes, he probably could have begun by asking about the latest news regarding the tower, about ways to restore the world or their fight against the administrators and time itself. But there were things more important, even if they might not look like it.

Her answer told him all he needed to know. From this, he could tell these past months had probably been as difficult and painful as every months she had spent in the tower since her arrival. Possibly even more, much to his chagrin. He didn't reply immediately, pondering for a couple seconds.

"The final stage of this journey begins. Sooner than I would have predicted when we first met, yet doubtlessly for the better." He turned back to the notes he had been reading a minute earlier "And I see you have accomplished a lot."

[sageprincess]

"We have," she agrees, quietly, moving properly into the room now that the shock is starting to wear off. They had been virtually powerless just over a year ago, and now they stand on the cusp of either their victory or oblivion.

But of course, this is Zelda, and though she has grown a great deal since that fateful day in the library, some things haven't changed. Regardless of all she has done, all the demons and monsters she has looked in the eye and said "not today," her tendency to doubt herself is one of them.

"I just pray it has been enough."

[the_white_rider]

Indeed, considering what little they had at the beginning - it's to say nothing - what they had now was nothing short of impressive.

"Has it been enough..." He said and paused "There was never much hope that anything we could do would be enough. Only a spark. Frail and ready to crumble. But it never crumbled. For all the hardships the people of this tower went through, they always cultivated that spark of hope. And now, you are about to turn this spark of hope into a miracle."

Hope was a very special thing. Immaterial yet priceless, and now so close to the ending, none of them should lose what they managed to cling unto. Zelda least of all.

"Soon, it shall be the day when all of our efforts will culminate." He smiled "And I am hopeful."

[sageprincess]

She listens, quietly, and even she has to admit there is some truth to his words. Certainly, there were those among them that had given into despair, refusing to trust or hope or love again. But they were always in the minority. The evidence is in the celebrations of life she's borne witness to, the strength of the bonds she's seen forged in two years' time.

It's a little tired around the edges, but she eventually returns his smile.

"And you are as certain as ever."

This time around, she's glad for it.

[the_white_rider]

His certainty that in the end, good would triumph, had proved correct in the past. And more than once. And so long as there were those who would not give in to despair, his certainty would continue to be true. Or so he believed, at the very least.

"What I am seeing helps a lot." He added regarding his certainty as he put down one of the documents he had been reading. Most specifically, those regarding Zo. "Zo holds the keys to our future, and we are to chose the right one."

Always the small people you wouldn't expect much from. They were always those who ended up being, in fact, the most important.