#AND NEITHER WILL SARIA

[hero-of-the-wolf]

the Kokiri are all waiting for Link to come home.....

[arkiwii]

nbfhfhgdgdgdfhhg

[good-advice-ganondorf]

The more I think about Majora's Mask the more theories I make and they all make me very, very sad.

Regarding the transformation masks, I don't think they're meant to be parallels to Saria, Darunia, and Ruto. I think Deku Princess, Goron Elder, and, of course, Lulu fit their roles better. In a sense, I think the transformation masks are also Link.

The Deku butler's son is what he could have been in Kokiri forest. He could have been a happy little boy, with his father and his community. But Link and the Deku butler's son both left home to explore, and as far as both the Kokiri and the Deku are concerned, neither came back.

Darmani is what he could have been in Goron City. A powerful hero to the Gorons, celebrated by them for clearing Dodongo's Cavern. A close link between the goron elder, Darunia, and their sons. Both him and Link remain after death, reflecting on their histories as heros.

Mikau is what he could have been in Zora's Domain. Maybe not a cool as hell guitarist, but a husband to Ruto. Who would stop at nothing to keep her happy and safe, like infiltrating a fortress, or climbing inside of a whale.

And even the Fierce Deity is just Link, but back as an adult. As if so much changed so rapidly, he felt like he transformed into something less like himself, and more like a powerful god.

I hope this is coherent. I have a lot of thoughts about Majora's Mask, and maybe someday I'll try to compile them all. The hero of time is so incredibly interesting, I really like theorizing about his thoughts and feelings on everything that happened in Ocarina of Time. Tell me your thoughts on this, if you'd like, I always like to hear more.

[dlamp-dictator]

Okay, I know it's been awhile since I've been into Arknights, but I gotta' talk about this real quick, because it really does feel like some actual insanity that Lappland has something like this. I know the developers tend to make some weirdly cracked modules, but this is some madness that's almost on par with Eyja having Res-shredding on her first module.

But first, a not-so-quick disclaimer. It's recently come to my attention that Lappland's name is a known slur in some Scandinavian circles, and while I've read a handful of things that imply her name is meant to come from a specific location/region in the Nordic/Scandinavian area I will play things safe and refer to her as Saluzzo from this point on in this little analysis/discussion out of both recognition of the above and to be mindful of others reading this as I believe this is still a hot-button issue in some areas of the fandom. With that said, I'll only be doing this in deeper discussions like this, as... well, frankly, I've neither the time nor energy to police people on the internet and until Hypergryph actively changes the name themselves we'll all be very confused if I suddenly start talking about a character named Saluzzo off-handedly in a random post I make.

With that said, onto the craziness.

So, Saluzzo here's a Lord, a sub-class of a Guard, which specializes in (usually) physical DPS, High HP, and some minor laneholding depending on the archetype. Lords specifically deal physical ranged damage on ground tiles, which tapers off the further away the enemy is. But that's not important. For Saluzzo, the main thing is her talent: Spiritual Destruction, which silences enemy abilities. This disrupts a handful of the more annoying quirks that some enemies have like exploding on death, having some sort of passive shield/resistance barrier, passing through blocking units, stopping those damn Artificers from summoning the artillery shell, so on and so forth. Combine this utility with her already good damage and stats has given Saluzzo a very vital role in almost any new event or chapter. Namely, neutering some of the more... interesting quirks that come into certain chapters and event maps and made her a cornerstone for any new content.

And I feel I should mention that Saluzzo is a game launch unit. She's been here since the start and still has a place in modern Arknights' meta. The only other units I could say are comfortably in this position are Ejyafjalla and Saria, and those are Six-Stars.

Her module, by extension, is just as nutty. Combined with her already good physical damage, she can now deal a minor amount of arts damage with her base attack. This makes her ability to already shred through physically tanky enemies even better. But the true nuttiness is that additional fragile debuff along with her silencing when upgraded, letting enemies take an additional 8% of damage from all sources.

Including true damage.

For six seconds.

In a tower defense game.

Oh, and her Skill 2, her main skill, can attack two enemies at once to inflict the debuff.

Yeah, this chick is insane, both in lore and in game. She's so cracked that the only way to powercreep her was to make an alter of her even nuttier.

But yeah, that's Saluzzo. Looking forward to the coming 5.5 storyline. I don't keep track of Arknights' story nowadays, but I do keep up with the handful of extra chapters that focus on characters I like, and I like Saluzzo and the Siracusa storyline a lot. Here's hoping things keep moving up from here.

Now to finish Chapter 14 this week... and catch up on Wuwa afterwards.

[cerastes]

Since you like talking about relationships, I've got one I've been rotating in my head but can't really figure out: Kal'tsit and Muelsyse. They're both extremely long lived and, judging from Mumu's song, it's a major source of pain for her. But their personalities, at least on the face, are so totally different. I imagine they'd take quite a while to figure each other's shit out, since neither seems inclined to speak clearly or trust anyone more than necessary, leading to a dynamic that evolves quite a bit, and for a long time, perhaps to the confusion of less observant peers.

With both being practically the urban fantasy equivalent of long lived archmages with aching hearts, as well as experts on their particular fields, there's quite a few parallels one could make between them and their interactions would be very fascinating indeed!

However, I think you touched upon something that I think is both important and a bit different from how you put it: A main difference between Kal'tsit and Muelsyse is, in fact, that Kal'tsit does allow herself to trust in others, while Muelsyse keeps her cards close to her chest, even among those who she supposedly trusts.

Kal'tsit isn't naive, but she does in fact allow herself to trust others... A whole lot, in fact. She believed and trusted Theresa, and still tries to carry out her goals, she trusts in Amiya, not just because Theresa chose her, but because she really believes she's got what it takes. She trusts Rhodes Island Operators so much that, even though she's a powerhouse herself, she doesn't handle everything that Rhodes Island has going on and even has some Operators she implicitly trusts enough to let them handle some seriously dangerous stuff either under her or by being her extension in other endeavors she can't be there for personally, such as Margaret Nearl and Elysium. Reluctantly, she trusts in Doctor's abilities and temperament, in part out of necessity, in part because love it or hate it, Theresa did trust Doctor quite a lot, and so she'll trust in Theresa's trust.

Muelsyse, on the other hand? Her 'trust' is hugely utilitarian. Her choice of joining up with Rhine Lab was born out of necessity, as she judged that Kirsten and company would be her very best bet to achieve her own goals, but that backstabbing environment doesn't particularly allow one to make good friends or trust anyone too easily. In fact, during Mansfield Break, Muelsyse quite literally couldn't compute why Silence would be helping Anthony (Mountain) without ulterior motives: The fact that Silence would do it first and foremost out of the goodness of her heart was unbelievable to Muelsyse, because it goes against everything she's learned, especially in Rhine Lab. In a way, one could argue this is where she started changing a little, and it brought to mind how Saria was legitimately trying to be there for Ifrit because Saria legitimately holds affection for her, which Muelsyse thought was a load of barnacles before, at least without any sort of further objective or ulterior motive. Hell, Muelsyse's character song is a perfect fit for her: Chipper and energetic, yet, the lyrics are very sad and lonely.

I think a dynamic between Kal'tsit and Muelsyse would fundamentally be very... Curt, initially. All business from Kal'tsit's end, because Muelsyse has yet to earn her trust, all plastic smiles and idle hands from Muelsyse, because unless Kal'tsit can verifiably be of use to her beyond being a bigwig at RI, she doesn't need to know her.

But Kal'tsit grows on you, you know? Doctor's not the only one with those people skills... Perhaps they are at another level altogether, given they can handle even the freakiest freaks and weirdos and wrangle friendship out of them, but to say Kal'tsit isn't formidable in the arena of trust is but a lie. She'd get in, I'm sure. Muelsyse would see someone akin to her in ways other Terrans simply could never achieve, and while they are very different in terms of demeanor... Well, so are Kal'tsit and Closure, and Kal'tsit and Warfarin, two good friends of hers. Kal'tsit can definitely deal with Muelsyse's antics, and I think Muelsyse would enjoy seeing someone so similar to her in so many ways that can also allow herself to trust others. Maybe Kal'tsit could be important in just that: Muelsyse allowing herself to trust more.

[rebornofstars]

SEPFEMBER DAY 21: SARIA + WISH

She had been at odds with Mido for a long time now, and for the life of her she couldn't remember why.

"Was it because of the child?" her fairy asked when she brought it up.

"The child?"

They were all children, here, in this place. Children or trees or fairies. What else could they be? The kids were not allowed in to this most sacred heart of the woods—they that the forest had stolen and turned to tree-flesh were doomed to wander only in the fringes of Kokiri. Along the border that the hylians called Lost. But her fairy had said child, and that was an odd word, a strange choice. The children used that word to talk about only themselves as a group. It was not a description that would single any of them out.

"The boy," her fairy clarified, and that was another curiosity. Boy? A hylian sound. The meaning of it escaped her for a moment, until she recalled Grandfather Tree's slow mouth forming the word. It was a hylian's word for young and, somehow, simultaneously for child.

Saria bit her lip. She remembered being puzzled by the double meaning. How could the word for child and youth be so close? The children were older than all of the trees save for Grandfather. They had always been here. She did not remember—

She had had this thought before.

Boy. A hylian word.

"There was a boy?" she asked the night sky.

"Yes," her fairy agreed.

"Oh," she said.

"Mido did not like him. You gave him your ocarina. He had to go," her fairy said. It chimed, a little sadly. "He took with him one of my own. Navi."

"Navi..." Saria mused. She paused. She did not remember ever owning an ocarina. "But the children are forever."

"Fairies aren't," her fairy said. It fluttered, a tiny pink ball. Saria held out her palm for it to land upon and suddenly flashed back to another time—the same motion, long ago, except the fairy that had kissed her warm skin back then had been green. Or blue? "And neither are boys."

"Oh," Saria said again. She reached out with her mind, rewinding the growth of the trees towards the sun and the slow wrinkling of Grandfather. Her fairy landing on her palm, pink, and her fairy landing on her palm, green, and her fairy landing on her palm, blue, and—

"How long has it been?" she asked. "Since the boy?"

Her fairy was quiet.

"I do not know," it said eventually, in the language of immortals. They both looked up towards the sky. Saria had given him an ocarina, had she? She could not remember, but somewhere inside her she felt an absence, still. "But I fear it has been a long, long time."

.

HAPPY DAY 21! ONLY TEN MORE DAYS TO GO!! ISN'T THAT FANTASTIC!!

Today's drabble got away from me a little. I love the kokiri.

This post has been scheduled ahead of time (when you read this I will be very busy) so no highlights today! Tomorrow I will return!

TIME FOR THE QUEUE!

[lykieu]

Clear water surrounds her senses, lapping at her periphery in gentle waves. The scent of chlorine fills her nose as crystal patterns glitter off the pool's surface. Saria floats, suspended in motion, as the world spins onward. The sky is open and blue, gulls flying high above. Sound is muffled and breathing is slow. It's funny how too much freedom can be startling. But she's been learning to let go.

An hour passes, or only just a minute, when the sun vanishes from sight. Blue is obscured by blonde for a moment when Muelsyse enters her vision, sunglasses atop her head, pina colada in her hand.

"What are you thinking about?"

Saria answers with surprisingly equal lightness, "Nothing."

Muelsyse smiles in that playful yet knowing way, a gentle tug of a pale pink corner. "Good. Wasn't this a great idea?"

Vacation isn't a word in Saria's vocabulary. But neither was absolution.

She says quietly, "Come closer."

Muelsyse's expression softens a fraction. She leaves her drink at the ledge to wade close, moving in water with such ease that it's captivating.

In this moment, there are no other thoughts, no worries, when Muelsyse pulls her under.

Saria allows herself to sink when she knows her only chance of drowning is in those arms.

[envigender]

ouhhhghh the new arknights song..... saria and silence and ifrit, walking through a greenhouse as a family. arranged exactly like the scene from the manhua. the one where silence becomes convinced that saria is going to kill ifrit if necessary? they fr used that scene for the cheery christmas song?? oh and mumu is there in the background! i am not normal about this

...actually the one big difference being that saria is standing behind silence, rather than next to her... the distance between them after the rhine lab incident...... silence almost positioned like a barrier between saria and ifrit....... ohh my god

. also i want kal'tsit to infodump to me about arknights' alternative christmas lore now (sankta jesus Real????) but that's neither here nor there

[aresmarked]

[gets back in line] maybe saria finally figuring out how to relax a bit? (with some help from the fam of course)

They let Ifrit guide on this because frankly, neither of them have sought out 'having fun' in years. It's easier too, to not get caught in the work that's awaiting them, letting her guide them from shop to shop and seeing what draws her eye.

It's a bit of extra elbow grease to get her to stop actively looking for potential threats, but Ifrit gives herself a pat on her back, watching her turn her attention to picking out full—and really nice!—outfits for a wide-eyed Silence.

[ginger375]

LUtober Day 25: Forest

See the full collection on AO3.

Time was restless. He supposed that could have been a metaphor or something, but after today’s portal shift, he found he couldn’t sit still.

It was an in-between era, but the landscape was similar enough to Time’s own that it could have been just before or soon after.

After getting the boys set to tasks and ensuring he could leave them to their own devices for a while, Time left the boys around the camp and headed into the forest.

The padded footprints of a four-legged animal followed, not trying to hide themselves from being noticed.

“Come on if you’re coming along, Pup,” Time called out to Twilight, who had shifted into his wolf form. The beast trotted to catch up and joined Time at his side.

The path through the forest was overgrown—or perhaps hadn’t been made yet— but the general route was familiar enough that Time could maneuver his way through the trees. Wolfie found his own route around fallen logs and moss-covered boulders, keeping Time in sight as he did.

It wasn’t until they rounded a bend that they found what Time was expecting to see.

The entrance to Kokiri Forest.

Time stepped up to the hollow log that led to his childhood home—his first childhood, anyway. He ran his fingers over the bark of the wood, recalling the gateway being a lot bigger; but then, he’d been a lot smaller the last time he walked through it.

He sat down next to it, a sad smile on his face. Wolfie sniffed around and stuck his head into the passage, which lasted all of a second before he pulled back and let out a series of sneezes.

Time laughed as Wolfie rubbed at his snout with a paw. It wasn’t like he could even go in; neither could Time. They couldn’t walk through there now if they wanted to. Adults weren’t able to enter the home of the Kokiri. He’d just get turned around and wind up back here.

All he could do was wonder.

Was Saria there right now? Did she know him at this point? Was Mido still guarding the path to the Great Deku Tree? Was it even the Deku Tree that raised Time growing there now? Or was it the sprout he planted after his tree father perished protecting the emerald?

Time sighed. So much introspection, so little daylight left.

He pulled out an ocarina–not the sacred one from the royal family, but the one his dearest friend had gifted him when he left their forest.

It had been some time since he played this one. He brought it to his lips and softly blew a few notes. It didn’t quite have the oomph that it usually did, but the slow gentle version of Saria’s Song was fitting for his mood.

Wolfie sat himself down beside Time, leaning into him to provide what little comfort he could. After hearing the song a few times, Wolfie added his own low howls to the music.

On the other side of the gate, a small child dressed in green listened with a smile.

[heretichromia]

A (mediocre) defense of Shining and Hoshiguma.

Narrow use cases in the advanced metagame don't equate to low power.

I think we sometimes forget the purpose of tier lists, and the kind of people who most need them. Especially in a game like Arknights, where "best in slot" is an extremely loaded question compared to most other games, it's hard to really properly convey unit power.

That isn't to say that tier lists aren't helpful. There is a significant difference between the power levels of characters like Młynar and Ebenholz, and people who don't want to (or don't have the game knowledge required to) read and compare kits and try to navigate the mess that is showcase videos (which are typically not good demonstrations of an operator's utility) get pretty good information from a website generally telling them "build Pozyomka if you want a good sniper" and "don't build Vigil if you want a good vanguard."

...But come the fuck on, man. I promise this isn't just a Gamepress rant. This is a community perception issue. Gamepress's tier list is just an illustrative example of how bad the community at large is at evaluating anything but the absolute top tier of obvious meta threat.

If you're not seeing the problem with the above, then consider this: what unit would actually be best for the kind of person who needs a tier list to build?

The tankiest non-limited operator in the game, perfectly serviceable for almost every map with good performance, who still sees routine usage in many high-difficulty maps and even the occasional Contingency Contract?

One of two units that are mediocre blockers, are significantly squishier, and have extremely few optimal use cases outside of dedicated Contingency Contract strategies that aren't realistically applicable to normal gameplay?

Why on earth is Hoshiguma ranked below Liskarm and Blemishine? Why is Hoshiguma in roughly the same tier as Croissant and Bubble? Why is Shining rated just above two units that are pretty much never used?

I feel like this is the sort of thing that happens when you let Reddit-brained "analysis" get to your head, and you forget how to evaluate units entirely. This isn't even the new player tier list! It's supposedly for endgame, trying to evaluate operators "for all game modes."

I hope they're not trying to include Contingency Contract in there, where Liskarm and especially Blemishine are in fact extremely valuable, because CC is a game mode where Cliffheart is considerably more impactful than Thorns. You just can't take into account CC in a tier list like this without having the list make no sense at all.

None of this means that these units aren't...dated, or that they don't have problems in the modern game. They are, and they do. But this is a pretty poor way of reflecting that. I could see an argument that neither of them belong in any sort of S-tier, even on Gamepress's dumb list where there's four separate grades above A+. But...if that's the case, then we still need to be honest about where the alternatives fall, because the problem with Shining and Hoshiguma isn't that they're bad at their jobs.

———

What are they good at?

If you understand their kits, just skip this section. That said, so many people don't. I see people talking about how Sussurro does Shining's job better than her all the time, which is true if you're only looking at raw healing numbers and not actual damage mitigation.

...Tanking. Specifically, physical tanking, though Hoshiguma's large HP pool means she's pretty decent at absorbing Arts damage too (just not as well as someone like Saria with built-in RES).

—

Hoshiguma has a big slab of DEF, the highest persistent value on any operator. She's good at standing there, taking damage, and reflecting damage back to enemies that hit her. That last bit is why she sees continued high-end usage today. While she can get almost 2,350 DEF with her S1 (the highest possible DEF in the game attainable by a single character, if I'm not mistaken), she's mostly used for her S2's reflect, where she can still get nearly 1,700 DEF (Mod-Y). That, combined with her 25% chance to just...completely ignore damage means she is a hilariously tanky unit compared to her competition.

If what you're looking for is someone who can stare down as much physical damage as possible and live to tell the tale, Hoshiguma is going to be one of your best options, if not your best.

—

Shining, meanwhile, is the best single-target ground unit healer in the game. While her effectiveness spikes when healing high-DEF targets like Saria, Hoshiguma, etc., she's simply good and effective in all scenarios where she's healing ground units taking a sufficient amount of physical damage. I've done...an embarrassing amount of math for this subject, so if any of this is wrong, I'll cry (but also please let me know).

Here's the conclusions:

With her Mod-X, Shining S2 will more or less always outpace the best-in-slot persistent healing (Lumen) in actual total mitigation, even on relatively low-DEF units.

On high-DEF units (Saria, Nian, Hoshiguma), Shining S2 can outpace Sussurro S2 in effective mitigation—on a persistent uptime skill.

Shining S2 loses a lot of value if Shining has to heal anyone but the main tank, because she could waste her shield on someone else. This can be effectively mitigated in most circumstances by proper unit placement, or drawing fire with fast-redeploys, Nightingale cages, etc., but it's something to keep in mind.

Shining S3 is completely incomparable to anything else in the game. Nothing comes remotely close when it comes to mitigating incoming physical damage.

Shining is far and away the best unit in her class at her job. Again, nobody comes remotely close.

———

But, yes, they do have one big issue.

...This is pretty obvious, but physical tanking isn't the premium role it used to be.

It is not useless, and for many players represents a much simpler strategy to dealing with several powerful enemies than the "canonical" strategies you'll find in video guides. It's also an almost universal utility. Surviving physical damage is something you have to do in almost every map, so bringing someone like Hoshiguma who's good at doing that is never bad. At worst, there's a small number of better options, like Saria, who can in many cases reduce Hoshiguma + Medic to a single unit, but...I don't really think we should be implying that a unit is barely better than a vanilla 4* because they're sometimes (and not always!) outshone by one of the most powerful operators in the game that not everyone is guaranteed to have.

...But I do have to emphasize that the role isn't premium anymore.

A sizable handful of modern bosses these days have ways of getting around walls. And they should. It'd be very boring if the best strategy to every encounter was to wall up and watch the enemy bash its head against your units until it dies. But between all the methods of crowd control, debuffs, teleporting, or simply walking through your operators that bosses are doing these days, you'll find that there's frequently better tools for the job than getting a really tanky guy.

Some frequently used options:

Bursting the motherfucker to high heaven before they can ever touch your operators or the blue box.

Straight-up immortality, a la Specter or Specter the Unchained.

Utilizing crowd control, be it through outright stuns, Suzuran slows, Gnosis freezes, various sources of bind (Gladiia, Rosa, etc.), or even shifting from Weedy on low-weight bosses.

We have such expansive toolkits at our disposal nowadays that we don't need to rely on operators who are "just" good. Hoshiguma and Shining are very good operators at their jobs! Their jobs are just sometimes not the best fit for any scenario, and in many cases, the worse options will still suffice, while bringing something more to the table. If you can get by with Saria + Ptilopsis, why wouldn't you opt for the higher SP generation? If Mudrock works and you don't need a healer at all, why substitute one operator for two that do considerably less damage? This won't be true all the time, especially since enemy stats have been on a steady increase—even my level 90, Mod-Y, S1M3 Saria isn't enough sometimes. Still, tankiness is definitely something that, if it's in excess, just...goes to waste.

—

But...

...why are we evaluating operators under the assumption that everyone has every other operator at their disposal? Yes—if you have literally every operator in the game, and can use them proficiently, then you're likely only going to use Hoshiguma when you need her reflect. If you have Saria, then you're likely to use Hoshiguma only sometimes as opposed to almost every map.

I feel like we fall into this trap really often. If a unit isn't the absolute best in every circumstance or doesn't do something hilariously overpowered they're unplayably awful, on the same level as 4*s, and shouldn't be built. Yeah, of course, you shouldn't prioritize getting E2 Hoshiguma if you're sitting on E1 Thorns, Pozyomka, or some first-rate DPS unit, but you cannot look at Hoshiguma's numbers, then look me in the eye and tell me she's a marginal improvement at best over fucking Bubble.

It's a problem that's worse with lower rarity units, especially 5* units, as the current memetic thought is that 5*s are barely better than 4*s, despite that being demonstrably untrue in many circumstances. (Can I blame SUPAH for that?) That said, I wanted to focus on Hoshiguma and Shining here, because they're victims of the same thinking that are actually still optimal in some situations, with no one who does their job better than them.

[arkiwii]

Heya! What is that winged being in the E2 artwork for Olivialter? It's not exactly bird-like, or like an owl at all, so does it represent Saria maybe? It does remind me of a wyvern.

That's a very good question! because that thing makes no sense! it looks like a bird, but also looks like a dragon, it doesn't look like the wyvern in the background of Saria's E2 neither... I like the theory that it might be Saria, but it might be a bit strange symbolically since Silence says explicitely that she doesn't want to depend on Saria, so why having a giant Saria creature watch over her?

My theory? it's the blue-eyes white dragon. she's a yugioh player. the soul of the cards will bring the balance of ethics back. you cant stop her.

[balladetto]

     Once, when Link was even smaller than he feels, he'd knocked his shoulder out of its socket in a terrible fall.

     Terrible in that he'd cried about it, ashamed and at the then-height of pained, not that it was a particularly horrific tumble. He'd just landed wrong, he remembers someone telling him �� frantic and almost apologetic in their reassurance. Too much has happened for him to reconstruct a face for the memory, but Link can still recall the stutter in their words. You're g-gonna be okay. Y-you're gonna— gonna be f-fine.

     And he was. Someone had gone to fetch a healing fairy while others came to keep him company. It'd been the right shoulder, burning at the joint and numb all the way down to his fingertips, but he'd found a spot of hurt he could grit his teeth through; then breathe through; then eventually speak through. By the time the fairy was brought over, Link had been so deep in the rhythm of holding himself together that he'd nearly slapped her away when she broke it.

     He remembers her, he thinks, the most out of everything. There's a distinct clarity associated pain will give you with any recollection. She was rose-pink, a little darker than he was used to, and she'd bristled when he whimpered through a fresh wave of tears and pushed at her with his pinky.

     "Stop that," she'd said. "Bones aren't easy, you know. It'll only hurt for a pinch, it has to for me to fix it. You're already being so brave! Can't you be brave a while longer?"

     Outside the memory, Link lays crumpled on cold tiles, eyelids like crushed butterfly wings and the cave of his chest barely moving as he looks up and up and up. He thinly wonders, for a fixing like this, how long he'd have to keep being brave for.

     Neither of his shoulders took the landing this time, but he knows many things are wrong with both of them. By extension, many things are wrong with all of him. He should take stock, a part of him understands. He'd like to take stock, another part realises, if only he had the capacity to. Each breath shifts the slivers and splinters his bones have shattered into. Agony twists through every vein like a replacement for the blood he imagines paints his trail from platform to windows to the far below floor. He can't feel his fingers, which twitch as if to grip something — his left hand, mangled, rests as if in graveyard dirt.

     There is no amount of searching in this sea that will land him in a place where this might be bearable.

     "Link!" Navi yells, a trilling bell that drowns out the sound of dying. His heart threads an extra thump, like he still has it in him to be scared alongside everything else, before it fades back into a whisper of a pulse. She wheels above him in panicked, powdery circuits: hair to boots and back. "Get up! You have to get up!"

     He does. He does have to. Link doesn't get to think he's gonna die now. He doesn't get to be tired enough — small enough — for that. He draws a rattling inhale, head practically cracking open with how the air presses against its seams. He's sixteen. The world will end if he's nine. He's sixteen, sixteen, sixteen.

     He chokes on liquid rising in his gorge, coughs it up, and closes his eyes when gravity brings the blood down in blotches on his skin. It's— really gross, and that's such a mundane thought in the face of what he has to reckon with that his chest starts spasming with strangled laughter instead.

     "Link!"

     Navi, he replies in his head, 'cause that's all he can do. He traces over more names: Sheik, Zelda, Saria, the Sages, the Kokiri, the list goes on as his voice dips into hitching, searing gasps. It's an awful thing to realise — that's all he can do. Link has to get up, has to be Courage, has to be more than what he is.

     And he can't.

     Sound drifts down from above, mocking. Cruel. It's a laugh getting louder and louder, and Link prises his lashes apart with the sheer will borne from a unique dread. A kind of fear, if you felt it not in sensation, but in the dizzying spiral that is the certainty of where this will all end.

     A kind of fear — and a kind of fury.

     Link is nine, thrown to the ground, battered and muscles stinging with a magic he tastes as something crackling on his tongue. He glares up at the tall man on the tall horse, smouldering so brazenly with protective, frustrated outrage that he shakes with it. He is not unafraid of the sneer that answers him, but he does not look away.

     Link is nine, broken over the ground, near dead and stuck in a body he's tried to make his. His eyes are cold as he watches Ganondorf descend, burning with tears dyed red from failure. The brand on his left hand glows, resonating with a magic he no longer has the nerves to feel. Navi doesn't leave. There are a thousand things he wishes he could scream.

     Large fingers fold around the wrist of his gauntlet, deliberate in their ignorance of the softness a joint that bent must be afforded. As his arm is lifted, the pain dragged along every passing second like some horrible, continuous song-note that eclipses even his fears, he pretends none of the noises coming from him are his and thinks everything that could mean: I hate you.

     He thinks everything that could mean: I'm so sorry.

     The man raises his other hand, palm closing in, and Link forces another entire earth on the child he can't be even here — even now. He does not look away. Navi, oddly muffled, rings something wordless.

     Link waits for the end of this story.

[raisengen]

Every now and then I wonder — why is Rhine Lab called Rhine Lab?

The Rhine is a European river, flowing predominantly through Germany. Rhine Lab is a Columbian company, with no obvious ties to Leithanien — indeed, Parvis remarks on their contrast. The lab was founded by Kirsten and Saria, and as far as I’m aware neither of them have ties to the country either.

NoriZC has posted some art that supposes Rhine as a geographical location based on maps, but I would consider that very weak evidence.

Could it be named after Das Rheingold? An opera by Wagner, the titular treasure grants one the power of rule if one forsakes love, and is additionally cursed to provoke envy and jealousy.

Hm, there are piecemeal parallels, but I don’t think they make a coherent picture. Kirsten gives up love for power, I can see that. Saria is the dragon that guards Rhine, I suppose. But there’s too much left out for my tastes. Rhine Lab is no Rheingold, it is not the catalyst and cause of envy and betrayal. It is merely the stage where the character’s natural dramas play out.

What else bears the Rhine name?  Could the name refer to... rhinestones?

Rhinestones, a category of crystals or glasses used as a cheap substitute for diamonds, originally sourced from the Rhine. (For a bonus, they are sometimes associated with American country music.)

Rhine Lab was founded by Kirsten and Saria, but Kirsten was always the driving visionary of the two. Kirsten, who wants to reach up to the stars. The stars, which Kal’tsit tells us are false. The falsehood that Dorothy’s Vision suggests Kirsten is wise to.

Could it be that Kirsten has always suspected? Who knows, maybe her parents’ death was no mere accident, and is linked to this secret. Maybe Kirsten declared, right from the start, that she knows all that twinkles is not a diamond, and all that shines is not a star.

[magical-regical]

I fought bird mephisto today and hoo boy that was way harder than Patriot since it's a test of how fast/well you can heal your operators instead of a straight dps check. Barely got by with the skin of my teeth, god bless Purestream, I don't know when chapter 8 came out but I can't imagine clearing this with year 1 operators, maybe Saria's healing is enough to sustain (and the other medics) and then SA and Eyja sweeps? I have neither Saria nor SA so I won't be testing that theory anytime soon.

But you know, while I was finding my strategy, I kept thinking, "Gee you know who would make this stage much easier, some might say trivial even? Fucking EYJA ALTER."

I'M AT 120 PULLS AND I'VE ONLY PULLED 2 6-STARS AND NONE OF THEM WERE THE OPS WHO SUPPOSEDLY HAVE A RATE UP. FUCK.

Also can I just say the red stages on chapter 8 were fun. R8-8 and R8-11 are legitimately the first stages where I had to retreat and redeploy most of my operators in a stage instead of just fast redeploys and Surtr. I had my IS brain on for those stages lol.

[adrift-in-thyme]

@zelinkcommunity

Happy Valentines @cooking-with-hailstones! 💖 Hope you enjoy this little fic

Lullaby | T | OoT Zelink

Ao3

Zelda can’t remember the last time she was as exhausted as she is right now.

Perhaps, she has never been. After all, years of relentless training, and even defeating Ganondorf seem to pale in comparison to what she has just done.

“This is the fight of your life, love,” the midwife had said when the contractions had begun in earnest and she had squeezed Link’s hand so hard it was likely painful. And she’d been right.

It had been excruciating, exhausting, an endless battle she wasn’t certain she could win. But Link had been there the entire time, fingers entwined with hers. And though she had hardly noticed when he coaxed sweat-soaked tendrils of hair from her face or murmured reassurances, his presence had been an immeasurable comfort.

He squeezes her hand now, and she turns to him with a small smile.

“How’re you feeling?”

She sighs, letting her gaze slip back to the little bundle cradled in her arms. Even after everything she’s seen and endured, she still finds it incredible that their love created something so wonderful.

Their newborn daughter, Zelda Saria Hyrule.

“Tired,” she breathes, “and sore. But looking at her now, it was all worth it.”

It’s true. The worst of the pain is no more than a distant memory, now that she is here with the man she adores and the child she already loves.

She would do it all again in a heartbeat—saving Hyrule, training to be Sheik, enduring the agony of childbirth— if it meant getting to this same point. And she would do it all happily.

“She really is something else, isn’t she?” Link murmurs, awe, and adoration practically dripping from his voice. “I think she has your eyes.”

Zelda tilts her head, thoughtfully. “Mm, maybe. I think she has your nose.”

Link leans forward and regards their child scrutinizingly. “No, no definitely not. It’s too tiny and cute.”

“Oh, all right.” She chuckles. “But I like your nose!”

Link looks unimpressed. “It’s gigantic, and you know it. I could’ve killed Ganondorf with it.”

Zelda can’t help the laughter that bubbles up in her. But the jostling wakes Saria from her peaceful slumber, and she begins to cry, in desperate high-pitched tones.

“Oh, dear.”

She lifts the baby up and sets her against her shoulder, patting and shushing gently. Her efforts do little to calm her.

“You know,” she manages over the ruckus, “I’m realizing now that I know next to nothing about comforting a baby.”

Link chuckles. “Neither do I. I was raised by a tree.”

Zelda sighs, as Saria’s wails only grow louder and Link’s expression comes to mirror her own desperation.

“This is going to be harder than it looks, isn’t it?”

He nods. “It certainly seems that way.”

A princess who lost her parents too soon and a fairy boy raised by a tree. Zelda has the urge to laugh. Certainly, no one ever pegged them as being prime parent material.

She wonders if Impa has any tips she’d be willing to give. She must have figured something out in order to raise a young girl in a war-torn world and teach her to be a warrior.

“You know what?” Link pipes up, suddenly, and when Zelda turns to him, a little grin has brightened his face. “I’ve got an idea.”

He fishes his ocarina from its place strapped to his belt and lifts it to his lips. Seconds later a familiar tune weaves itself through the air.

Almost instantly, Saria quiets, wails turning to sleepy coos.

Zelda gives a quiet chuckle of relief and sags back against the pillows. Who would’ve thought a simple song would be enough to soothe their child?

Though, it’s not just a simple song at all, is it? She thinks, with a smile. It’s really quite special.

The music washes over her in waves, bringing years-old memories with it. Mother humming as she tucked her into bed, Father teaching her to play it on the ocarina, a little fairy boy listening attentively as she entrusted him with the melody that could unlock almost any door.

…including the one to her heart.

As the last notes fade, she reaches out and takes Link’s hand.

“You’re going to be a wonderful father,” she murmurs.

Grinning, he leans forward and gives her a peck on the cheek.

“And you are going to be the best mother in all of Hyrule.”

Zelda hums. She isn’t too sure about the truth of that claim yet, but she is beginning to think that maybe, just maybe they’ve got this.

After all, they’re together. And when they’re together there is nothing they can’t do.