#also in not beign super attached to perfection

[voidcat-senket]

"Send me a Ship and a Number and I will Write a Kiss"

Spyscrapper #38 "…because they’re running out of time."

but also Altmal #48 "…out of habit."

Spyscrapper #38 "…because they’re running out of time."

He’s not even shaking anymore. Cal sighs out another long, slow breath from where he’s tucked against Bode. He blinks slowly. The orange of his lightsaber reflects on the metal of Bode’s harness buckle, a flicker of flame. They’ve been here two days, in this cave under a lake, the entrance crumbled behind them, sealed in. Two days drinking the trickle that makes it through the impenetrable layers of rock. Three days, no food- but it’s the breath that’s the problem. Soon, they’ll run out of air. He can already feel how every breath feels thready and not-enough, and blinks when the lights seem to dance in his eyes, low as they are. Bode’s chest rises and falls under him. They’ve curled up, ostensibly, for warmth, but it’s the comfort Cal seeks– needs– most, the comfort of another. He might die here, but he won’t die alone. Bode may not be a Jedi, but he is family now, and getting to die with family- that’s something he thought he’d never get to have.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t talk,” Bode mumbles, a divot pressing between his brows. It’s shorthand, by now. ‘Conserve air as long as possible. Don’t talk, don’t exercise. Someone might come. Greez is looking, he’s always looking after you.’

Cal reached for Bode’s hand. Bode’s fingers curl around his, thumb pressed to the ridges of Cal’s knuckles.

“It’s my fault you’re here, that you’ll die here…” He scoots closer, props his chin on their tangled hands so he can look at Bode’s face.” …And despite that, I’m still glad you’re here with me. So I’m sorry.” Bode’s mouth flattens in response, his closed eyes tightening. Bode turns his head, and when he speaks it’s rough with feeling more than disuse. “Scrapper, don’t.”

“I know…” Cal smiles tightly. All things end. He thought he’d have longer. This is a gentle death, as they go. But Bode- has Kata. “I took you away from someone that needs you.”

Bode flinches. He tries to roll over, but he’s weak and Cal is heavier than he looks. 

“I was being selfish. I wanted more time with you to myself.”

Bode’s eyes crack open, and there’s a look of pure, naked fear Cal has never seen there before- a vulnerability he’s never seen before that injects warmth in his veins. His smile gentles as he brushes a tear from the corner of Bode’s left eye. “I guess I took everything that was left.”

Bode twists, dislodging Cal to shove his face into Cal’s chest- hiding against it. Cal blinks up at the ceiling before curling his hand under Bode’s chin and lifting it from him. He props himself up on one elbow and presses forward.

One last wish. His lips meet Bode’s. They’re shockingly soft.

There’s a whiplash crack through his awareness and water floods the room.

Altmal #48 "…out of habit."

He’s tired. He’s tired more than anything, sore from fighting and sorer from the death of so many of his brothers. There’s a pain he can’t handle in his chest, twisted and strange, and for now he can only attribute it to the golden light that Al Mualim had wielded.

Sleeping again in Masyaf feels strange, unreal. He hasn’t been here since he left, his left arm still bloody and bandaged, for Jerusalem. The room he once shared with Altair and Kadar seems far too small for one adult, and he wonders how the three of them ever fit here- not that Altair was supposed to. That boy had had a room of his own. He’d never liked it, though, and he always complained that it was too cold, if asked. If asked why he was sneaking into their room, into their shared pile of blankets on the cot on the floor- when all were asleep.

It’s morning. He should get up. He should assist the survivors with cleanup.

He rode here so quickly yesterday. The fields soaked up so much blood. He slips back into the daze of half-sleep.

Time travels with the sun.

The light leaves his window but still, he hasn’t gotten up. His stomach grumbles, but he ignores it by practice. He’d hear if more fighting was needed. He’d always been able to hear the courtyard from this narrow little window.

He drifts back to sleep. A bird lands on the sill, screeches when it notices him, and flies away. He drifts back to sleep.

There’s a commotion in the yard. The voices are garbled at first, but with careful listening he picks out a tearful reunion. Brothers that had thought each other lost. He drifts back to sleep. A warm body presses under his arm, as Altair and Kadar always used to, one or the other, Altair from late training and Kadar from his midnight walks. He huffs as they squirm to comfort, and kisses the head of hair when it finally stills, as he used to. He drifts back to sleep.

“It’s morning, Malik,” a voice whispers into his ear. His nose scrunches, then his brows, and he rolls away from the intrusion, pulling a thin pillow over his head. “Habibi,” the eagle chuckles, taking the pillow away. “You can’t spend two days in a row in this child’s cot.”

“Then stop me.” He grumbles.

“I’ll tell everyone you kissed me.”

Malik glares. He takes the edge of the sheets and pulls them over his head, resolutely curling up on his side.

Altair laughs as he lifts to his feet and wanders out, closing the door quietly.

Growling, Malik throws the sheets from him and rises. The problem is– Altair would.

[ketchupkio]

hey ho, op of the totk rant about the sandbox approach to totk here, i read your tags and i just wanted to add that i am german and played the game with the original japanese audio and german text, i like to call the things as the names i know them as even if i know the english version of them as well :D

i understand that you like the sonau tech stuff (personally i found it super clunky and mostly too tedious to deal with .. also i just like walking or riding around gdfhkbndj) and i get that, i totally do! and im not trying to argue against having that sort of movement in the game, but the EXECUTION of it!

like you could have achieved the same kind of movement and abilities with shiekah tech, you have all the parts from guardians, you could make flying maschines too! even more effiecient with guardian legs beign able to step over stuff that wheels get stuck on- and after zelda is in charge now shiekah tech could have been developed further again since she liked it too and wouldnt impose any rule against it, the time reversal for example could just have been the stasis rune but taken further- and if you had zelda as your companion, you could have an ability to losely attached the pieces you want to build (like with the shiekah arm prosthetic i gave link for the rewrite im doing for example) and zelda does the actual building to make it work in a quick little animation- for nearly everythign the sonau are used for the shiekah basically already had it and its driving me nuts that they instead undid it all only to .. do it again but worse o-o

sorry for the lil rant hdbksbfsbfkjd

YEAH I TOTALLY AGREE!!! The stuff that they wanted to implement could have been done much better with more ✨nuance and finesse✨ than the actual execution, and the reason given that the Sheikah tech just magically disappeared one day???? Bullshit. No one acknowledges this, and there are still Sheikah tech parts in the towers and the tech labs??? It obviously didn't ALL go away bc it's still there in those specific places. I don't know how the tech that's lasted 10,000 years up to this point, that works regardless if we take the tower warp pads as evidence, would know that the Calamity is gone and just disappear. It didn't go away once you did all the shrines, and you could argue that the monks were the last living part of it that would know if Link did it or not???

It's just. It's stupid, and very evident that the director was different from one game to the next. Totk kind of undoes the message that botw had and that just makes me angy (not to mention the blatant lore crimes that we're all going to have to work around if we wanna make the whole timeline make sense. I want to tear my hair out).

It would be better, as far as the botw shrines go, to just make them inactive. The door closes, the light goes out, the warp pad turns off. The totk shrines are plopped around because that's a Rauru thing, and they look like they're going to disappear anyway once his spirit is at rest, bc it's just a big rock, a decorative stone thing, and some sand. They're not part of the landscape like the botw shrines were.

Really, I only like the Zonai tech for the hover bike part and the steering stick applications, everything else I don't usually touch (though rocket shields are fun as a replacement Revali's gale). Like a lot of people have done really cool things with it, but I'm not those people 😂😂😂 I just have my One Thing that I use to get around scary places and it pulls left pretty hard so it's far from perfect.

The same thing could have been accomplished many different ways without introducing the Zonai. Like I would have given anything to see the Twili come back with their lore entwined with the Sheikah (bc the Sheikah probably learned how to make their stuff from the Zonai! It would make sense if the game acknowledged it).

Hahaha,,,,, I could go on about this forever tbh. My opinion on totk as a whole is: fun to play but disappointing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Now all we can do is fix it with fanfic.

Though that was a good idea on how to re implement the Sheikah stuff! If you're cool with it, I might use it :3c (not for a whole retelling of totk, just for like. Flavor in the au I'm working on bc I was already planning to ignore the botw shrines disappearing.)