#* gloryseized & tulin / you don't gotta fight all by yourself‚ y'know!

[flockrest]

unprompted / always accepting / @gloryseized ( Link )

     So it's a pretty slow-going night for collecting star fragments, as it turns out.

     Which is totally fine! Really! They can't all be winners — and it gives Tulin all the more time to get Link caught up on everything that's happened to the flock while he was away!

     But. Well.

     Even in knowing this, the disappointment that ruffles his feathers is a hard thing to ignore. It's been too long since they'd last hung out like this, both ( mostly Link ) too busy with their own dedications and responsibilities ( mostly Link ) to find the chance to have fun just for the sake of having fun, and now the fun's not even gonna have the decency to start when they're all prepped for it to?

     Go figure.

     He chatters on some more 'bout the ( thankfully harmless but very hilarious all the same ) explosion Molli accidentally ignited on Master Revali's Landing the other day, continuing to try pacing his restlessness out along the deck of the Stormwind Ark near where Link's seated himself, before eventually flumping down beside him with a sigh he can't quite keep locked behind his beak. He lolls back 'til his head's on the hero's shoulder, semiplumes squished up 'gainst Link's ear and cheek.

     "Sorry it's so boring up here," he says, feeling ridiculous for it a second later 'cause it's not like Tulin has any sorta control over when and where stars fall. It still feels like it's kinda his fault for how things are going, though — they were s'pposed to be in Necluda's skies tonight ( they were s'pposed to be there two moon phasings ago, actually, but who's counting ) as per their routine, but his brother had arrived at their peaks real tired and Tulin hadn't wanted to push him into being, like, dead-tired. Even if Link insisted otherwise.

     The shoulder beneath his head rises and dips in what he's fairly sure is probably a snicker. Tulin turns then, playfully offended squawk already building up in his chest, 'cept Link isn't actually laughing at him.

<< I'm glad you're here. >>

     Oh.

     Feathers puffing with a delighted, tickling warmth, Tulin feels the joy that always sweeps over him when Link's being real nice like this all the way down to the tips of his talons. To all the tiniest spaces between his bones! They're flock and nest, 'course, so this isn't the first time he's been told something along these lines, but the love that radiates from that quiet smile and those assured signs just seems— heavier. Fuller. Link's-talking-'bout-more-than-right-here-and-now-er. It's seriously hard to resist bowling him over with a hug in the face of it.

     Tulin's getting better at not immediately ruining a peaceful moment when he sees one though, and that tends to require a more delicate touch. ( Or, uh, as delicate a touch as he can manage. )

     "That makes two of us!" he laughs, beaming with barely contained giddiness and nudging at Link with a wing. Then, y'know what, he gives the night sky around them one last look, scoots closer, and plops the back of his head right down onto his brother's lap. If the stars remained still for whatever time they have left before they gotta go, Tulin decides he wouldn't mind it if it meant being together like this just a while longer. "I'm glad you're here, too!"

[flockrest]

@gloryseized

birds of a feather

[flockrest]

directly referring to this / @gloryseized

     For all that's changed in these past moon phases ( and wow, is it a lot ), Tulin still starts moulting exactly one whole winter from his last shed feather. It's kinda funny, 'cause being the Sage of Wind can feel like such a grand undertaking that he almost forgets these little things can happen to him. S'not usually something he makes a big deal of, anyway — not when everyone goes through the same thing, asks the same questions, and gives the same ol' answers.

     'Cept this time, over a dinner of seafood curry, when Cree picks up one of his fallen quills to hand back to him with a teasing, "Got anyone special to preen this winter?" — it's not the same ol' answer that comes fresh to Tulin's mind.

     It creeps on him slow, like if a Chuchu knew how to hunt. Fragments of maybe-connected thoughts that emerge so casually as Molli turns to repeat the question, even more teasing-teasing-teasing — then it pounces. Creeping like a Chuchu; hitting him like a lit bomb arrow.

     Maybe he does have someone special to preen this winter. Special enough to wanna give one of his feathers to when he isn't his mum or dad or Molli or Uncle Harth or nest or even, technically, flock.

     Tulin's not sure how to feel 'bout it.

     On one wing — a friend! Stars, a really, really close friend that's special enough to be more, one he's happy to be able to love lots! Happy to have fought with when his home needed it! Happy to continue fighting with now! Happy to have travelled with, and seen an awful lotta awesome stuff with, and done so many impossibly cool things with, and learnt so much from as a warrior and not-a-warrior, and—

     "It sounds like you've already figured out how you 'feel about it', Tulin," Mum gently tells him, in the split second it takes for him to take a breath from all his babbling.

     "So...it's okay?" Some part of him knows he doesn't need to, but he peeks up at her and Dad with a chick's eyes — the ones he swore off of — 'cause he really wants this to be okay. Like, really badly needs this to be okay. "With you guys?"

     Dad smiles real soft, and that's a yes if Tulin ever saw one.

     Turns out, there's a lotta preparations you gotta do before you can invite a Hylian over for a full preening.

     Most of it's the same as preparing to fully preen a Rito — like the collecting, the painting, the dying, and the weaving he leaves to Kido 'cause he wants his cords to look good. But there's also stuff like getting used to a specific hook-and-thread for Hylian hair, and trying to do the same with Hylian hair itself when you don't have any of it just lying 'round for practice.

     Eh. Tulin makes it work.

     By the time his guest of honour finally returns to their peaks, with how fluttery and restless Tulin's gotten, everybody knows to leave their hero be until he's done with him. Which is great! 'Cause, um. It's a while.

     Link's hair feels how it looks. Soft and a little fluffy, a lot thinner and harder to grab at than his own feathers. He ends up using his beak waaaay more than he thought he'd have to, but Link doesn't complain 'bout being preened like a hatchling, so he doesn't think to apologise for it. He chats when he can in between fixing up braids and pulling stupidly fine hair through bead openings, 'bout stuff like what he's been up to, what Link's been up to, did Link know Molli's got another new idea for her arrows, has Link gone to see that pretty, pink tree by the village's entrance, and everything else under the sun shining into the aerie.

     Before he knows it, he's tying off practically the last scrap of real free space left on Link's head with a cinch of his beak. He leans back, sorta tired, but — gazing upon all that he's put into those golden locks, at everything he's saying bright and loud and bombastically clear to everyone who'd bother to look ( and oh, they'd look, alright! ) — with a heart that feels almost worryingly full.

     He can't stop grinning as Hyrule's hero assesses his work. He traces it out with his touch, looks at it this way and that. Tulin doubts Link knows this when nobody's probably sat down and explained it to him, but the colours are important. 'Course they are. And, y'know, he doubts Link knows this even more: but to be given a Rito's quill is to be claimed.

     As flock, yeah, duh.

     As nest, though, too.

     For the one who believed in and took him to do what nobody else could in a time they needed it most; for the one who has given him another amazing something and someone to chase after ever since he was a fledgling; for the one who trusts in and— and loves him enough to sit here for ages and ages and ages 'til he's all done with his preening—

     For Link, it's as his big brother.

     ( "Yeah, you better love it!" Tulin laughs, a joke and earnest sincerity all at once. He returns the, "thank you, thank you," 'cause Link really was sat there for a while without a break — stars know he wouldn't be able to do the same without, like, exploding or something.

     Then Link's hands do something weird.

     T...wind. Huh? Is that...? He tilts his head, the question unvoiced but plainly written all over his beak: what's that s'pposed to mean? )

[flockrest]

directly referring to this / @gloryseized

     Tulin loves learning, even if it can get pretty boring sometimes with the Elder when he's running his Gatherings or with Mum when she's tryna teach him stuff like how to properly dust off hammocks.

     Tulin really, really loves Link, and there's no but or though or even if 'bout that.

     It figures, then, that he'd really-really-really love learning with and 'bout Link, which is something that's been true and holding true ever since the hero stepped foot into these peaks — 'specially now that they've started language lessons!

     Hylian Sign, it turns out, is somehow way more and way less finicky than what he knows of Rito Key. The movements are smaller and can get real compact — kinda quieter, in a sense — so it's taken a lotta fine-tuning on both their parts to allow Tulin to do more than just understand. It's different from everything else he's currently learning and trying, but, y'know, he thinks he's been doing a good job of picking it up!

     He must be, 'cause even Dad seemed a little lost and very impressed when he recounted all that he and Link went over this time during dinner tonight — lightly testing him on everything and turning to Link for the answers he wasn't sure of. Which is, like, Dad-speak for answers he doesn't know, and how neat is that?! Tulin basically knows more 'bout this than his dad, now! And-and Link's getting better at making out bits and pieces of Rito, too: when he started teasing Dad 'bout falling behind for the first time in his entire life in warbling tones, his friend jumped right in and joined Dad's side on teasing him back!

     ( Totally unfair of him, by the way. Tulin had to swipe a bread roll from him when he wasn't looking for that!

     ...And then passed him his last piece of trout when Link caught him mid-bite 'cause he felt bad, but the point stands! )

     Hehe. Link really is the coolest. And the nicest! They'd touched some more on how to talk 'bout others in his people's tongue today — hard to explain when the Hylian equivalents don't really tell you anything useful 'bout anyone, and probably harder to wrap your head 'round when that sorta blankness is what you've grown up with — but Link hadn't complained, or pretended he completely understood so Tulin would stop, or anything else like that.

     He'd stopped anyway though, 'cause it's a lot and he can be a patient teacher as well! As long as Link knows they have words that mean something like I like you without actually saying that, or I hate you without actually saying that, he's perfectly happy to leave recognising them and how to use 'em for next time. Maybe he can even try showing Link some Rito Key! Ooh, ooh, can Link whistle? Can he get Uncle Harth or Mr. Huck to make him one? How awesome would it be to see him say you-that-I-like? Or— or you-that-I-love!

     ...Which Tulin, now that he thinks 'bout it, doesn't know how to even remotely say in Hylian Sign.

     That's no good.

     He leans further out from his roost, keen student for the last time tonight as he watches Link go through the motions of, "I love you." It looks pretty simple and very doable, so it's with a huge smile back that he shuffles to the very edge of his hammock, wings rising to wholeheartedly repeat after his friend—

     —Only to fall straight out, directly onto Link with an oof!

     "Tulin," Mum's voice cuts in from above them, and that's totally unfair of her, 'cause it's not like he meant to fall! S'not his fault — not for that, and not for how he suddenly can't stop laughing, giddy with almost-sleepy silliness and the warmth that burst in his chest when Link caught him.

     "Sorry," he says when he's got his breath under control again. He pushes himself up from where he's landed, eyes bright as he straightens, shakes out his wings, and tells Link, the way he told Tulin: "I love you!"

[flockrest]

@gloryseized

words cant describe how wretchedly tender i feel about tulin’s quest

[flockrest]

@gloryseized

[-26] two for flinching!

[flockrest]

@gloryseized

he did get those braids after all