#I'll definitely be editing this to add things I forgot but MMMM.

[strangebedfellows-blog]

Miscellaneous nonsense dump-list of things pertaining to Skull K/ids in general: 

Skull K/ids are the result of Kokiri that get lost in the woods, or simply spend so much time hovering just on the periphery of the Deku Tree’s magic reach that they change without quite changing. ( Fairies tend to lose them before the process, or depart after transformation. )

They’re a very weird blend of human and plant, with skin looking and feeling closer to wood than typical flesh. They weigh a fraction of what one might expect -- instead of a full child, think more like hefting around a scarecrow. Their limbs typically lean more toward too long proportionate to their bodies than the inverse. Consequently they’re reasonably fast on their feet ( though their biggest advantage is their agility ) and incredibly adept climbers, but strong swimmers are rare. Not quite built for submersion. Fire Also Bad.

Eyes are invariably orange-gold, and due to what I’ll lazily call ‘magic tapetum’, do in fact Actually Glow at night if there’s any outside light source whatsoever.

Given the specific nature of how one comes into being, they’re...not rare, per se, but there typically aren’t very many of them. Additionally, while there are exceptions, they tend to operate solo.

They can subsist off of plant matter ( I’m talking ‘stare you in the eye and eat a pinecone’ levels ), but they vastly vastly vastly vastly prefer actual human food. Who could blame ‘em.

They don’t have or use names amongst themselves! They’ve long since forgotten all of their kokiri life and that half of their identity with it, and living out in the wilderness with so limited a pool of peers doesn’t demand their presence, really. They’re prone to forgetting other species use them, and rely primarily on faces / unique clothing / smell, particularly the latter ( and especially among their own as they all look nearly identical ), to tell things apart. 

Additionally, there aren’t any music teachers out there and they have no organized systems of their own, so it’s safe to assume nobody is teaching them all anything. Thus most skull kids only play improvised little tunes by ear, with no means of preserving or sharing save helping someone mimic their hands. Typically each individual will have one Signature Ditty they made themselves, which is another means of differentiation among their own.

‘Why would a skull kid ever have had the cash to buy the skull mask anyway’ The Minish! All their money is either looted or just found by lucky happenstance -- generally speaking, the Minish view the little hellions favorably enough to tuck cash away in a specific area if one frequents it. Nothing substantial, but your average forest-dwelling little nuisance has petty cash on ‘em.

They die as kokiri die, which is to say by basically just dissolving at an undetermined but probably predetermined point in time. Nobody knows why, or how. Though that’s just naturally - they’re mortal and can be killed like anything else. 

this one is just personal preference and silly but I largely discount the beaks? I just. Ignore the beaks. If they must be there en masse beyond the one individual’s use, I’d pretend they’re just very easily made and quirky and thus popular among them, like a fad.

Regarded warily among hylians; there’s a lot of folk tales about them spiriting kids away, and honestly more than a few are based on truth.

...And the specific miscreant I write:

He is absolutely, absolutely ancient. Old. Olllllld. Quite possibly one of the first, even.

Didn’t initially leave the woods themselves, but just wanted so desperately to explore and keep exploring....he can’t recall if he was lost, or if he was looking for something, or if he was enjoying himself -- he just knows he was, and was what he then was. Can’t question it much when any recollections of the past are just gone, as all frame of reference is just lost.

The one thing he did retain, however: a musical ability far beyond his peers. He’s unique among them because he can play just about anything by ear after hearing it, and as one of the only ones who doesn’t keep one signature identifying song in favor of cycling through new ones all the time. ( He got some mileage out of Saria’s Song, but eventually retired it so he could enjoy it privately. It was a selfish move, he just likes it That Much. )

Always mildly dissatisfied with his appearance? Wanted the skull mask to look tougher, made his little beak mask to look tougher without compromising his entire gottdamn face, by the time TP rolls around ( I wasn’t joking, he’s ancient and for as-yet-undiscovered reasons he’s not going anywhere anytime soon ) he’s taken to throwing feathers all over himself and painting any exposed skin, so on and so forth. Whether this is the result of insecurity, a survival tactic, or simple decoration for sake of differentiating himself is yet to be seen.

I do feel it’s a thing worth noting: I don’t think he’s a particularly awful little dude, and do wholeheartedly believe people overreacted to him and gave him plenty of reason to be as torn up during the events of MM as he was. Please note at no point does anyone in the village imply he ever physically harmed anyone, and even in-game once the mask has already started to take control over him he doesn’t kill Epona. He’s not violent by any means whatsoever ( excluding traditional skull kid hostility towards adults, which isn’t fully-aware malice or anything akin to it ) on his own. He’s relentlessly annoying once he sets his sights on something, absolutely, but he’s not out to actually HARM. Then they tattled on him to his old friends who did, in fact, ditch him, and they threatened to murder him if he didn’t stop........doing childish things, as an entity basically cursed to permanently be a mischievous sort of child. His mindset isn’t surprising, really.

Also as far as this blog’s concerned Termina is obviously and clearly a real place, but one magically sealed off and separate from Hyrule. He stumbled upon it entirely by accident himself, latent magic remaining from his kokiri days enough to earn him just one point of entry that he was sure to remember and frequent. ( Or possibly already knew of, as he was friends of the giants before Termina was created; there’s wiggle room here that I’ll probably iron out the more I actually write on him. )

I’m mulling on bot.w-era him, but rest assured he’s getting along FAMOUSLY with the koroks someplace and still making a nuisance of himself.

He’s kind of.....a trickster deity trapped in their youth? That’s the best way I can describe him personally, if I’m honest with you. Any trickster deity, but stuck in youthful stasis and unable to mature and truly reach his potential.

Incredibly.....................lonely....................boy Everything mortal..........dies before him................and he’s been around for so LONG

Good with his hands! Flute ability, he carves, he makes puppets ( TP ), etc. Probably whittles. Isn’t he cute.