#also just a heads up that this is not a shipping thing! i view minish cap link and zelda as platonic best friends

[druidbottles]

The past year and a half have been really tough for me, and there's no coping mechanism quite like putting your blorbo in situations, so here's some Minish Cap Link grief fic, with lots of comfort from Zelda.

(It's a bit of a vent fic but not really.) The main moral of the story here is that Link and Zelda are best friends and Zelda is supportive and loves Link very much!

[dipshitcoyote]

Breath of the Wild Daemon!AU

Ok so! I’m working on an actual fic using these concepts and this version of the BotW world, but I thought that maybe some of you might be interested in my ideas so here! I’m putting pretty much everything under a readmore, because this is copypasted from my planning document, which got very long and doesn’t even have anything to do with the plot of what I’m writing ^^’

Enjoy!

Link’s daemon is a Hyrule Field Mouse (lol get it) named Firielore (fih-REE-ehl-ohr), Firi for short. From Fi, Ciela, and Farore. They settled early, when Link first drew the Master Sword. Historically, the Hero most often settles as a wolf, but other forms are not unheard of and he isn’t the first Hero to settle as something more unassuming.

Pre-Calamity, most people, even other knights, thought that Link and Firi’s behavior was odd. Neither of them ever spoke (Link is mute, but Firi can speak and just doesn’t), and Firi was just as stoic and inexpressive as her human. As a mouse daemon, she was always on his person, usually on his left shoulder as was uniform for smaller daemons of knights and soldiers, but was rarely seen out of that position except for when she would turn to increase their field of view or leave him briefly to scout stealthily around corners/over boulders and the like.

Relating to the issues that make him canonically selectively mute, Link’s lack of self preservation re: his Duty translated to Firi as well. Things like stretching their bond too far for too long for the sake of getting the scope of a situation or enemy, but not letting the pain show externally where someone else might be brought to their knees with it. Other things like Firi using herself as a distraction, running from Link’s arm to the Moblin’s to divide its attention and leaving them both exposed to give Link a chance to strike. The monsters don’t know the difference between hitting a daemon vs. its Hylian, and that makes the contact less bad, but not insignificant. There were rumors throughout the castle that Link and Firi had been separated traumatically or that the Master Sword allowed them the distance, but both are untrue- their bond was no different than any other Hylian, they just pushed it further in the name of duty.

Link and Firi’s character development (in the memories) is subtle just like in canon. Through the Yiga attack she is always on Link’s left shoulder, even when they and Zelda are just traveling. On the hill with the Silent Princess is the first time she’s not there- she hops off his shoulder when he crawls forward to look at the flower and she moves closer to it. After Zelda’s failure at the Spring of Power, Firi touches Zelda’s daemon to comfort him, just for a moment.

Firi had and has (Impa gave it to them with the Champion’s Tunic) a small set of custom armor for protection, but rarely wore/wears it; she’s fast enough that any attack that would possibly hit her in battle would probably kill Link as well. On the battlefield she would either deftly scurry around Link and warn him silently about attacks from behind, or slip into a small armored pouch that existed to protect her in one-on-one combat unless an opportunity to assist presented itself. In the present, she doesn’t participate in battle the same way she would 100 years ago (with the aggressive distraction and the like), moreso providing Link extra ears and eyes in a fight.

Post-Calamity, she is considerably more physically active, but she still doesn’t speak out loud- except very occasionally to Link himself. I.e when they first wake up in the Shrine of Resurrection, Link hears Zelda’s voice first and opens his eyes to Firi sitting on his chest, also saying his name. However, she’s still a very quiet daemon, especially considering that Link communicates via signing and it would be considered acceptable for her to talk for him. In Post-Calamity Hyrule she’s more outgoing towards other daemons and will greet them physically if appropriate.

Zelda’s daemon, Hylayrune (hih-LAE-roon), Layrune or Rune for short, is unsettled until the moment she awakens her power, when he settles as a Snowcoat Fox (Real life equivalent: Arctic Fox). His name comes from Hylia (all Zeldas daemons’ names start with ‘Hy’), (La)Nayru, Hyrule, and rune/ruin. Before he settled, he took atypical forms for the sacred princess’ daemon that were more representative of Zelda’s scientific pursuits, such as bugs (usually a bee), frogs, and lizards. Almost always, the Princess settles as a bird of prey (often owl, occasionally eagle or loftwing), or in some cases a small dragon (as the three dragons Dinraal, Farosh, and Naydra are said to be the daemons of the three Goddesses, with Hylia’s being most often depicted as a golden dragon or occasionally a huge, golden Loftwing).

Rune’s late settling, and his preferred forms before settling, were a huge cause of anxiety for him, Zelda, and their father. This is all tied into their self-doubt about awakening their sealing power and being able to fulfill her duty as the sacred princess, but it’s also personal for the King. His daemon is a Mountain Crow, which though known to be clever and resourceful are seen as a bad omen, even a curse, within Hyrule. It puts stress on his regime, and the idea that his daughter prefers frogs and lizards over forms that have become symbolic of the royal family and the sealing power is deeply troubling. Rune takes “appropriate” forms only at official appearances and ceremonies, and even then, usually a more wild hawk over an owl, eagle, or dragon.

Other characters:

The Old Man/King: Mountain Crow (real life equivalent: Raven)

Urbosa: Islander Hawk (with kind of a more desert coloration. real life equivalent: Harris Hawk)

Riju: Unsettled, usually a Sand Seal bc they love them

Impa: Blue-Winged Heron (real life equivalent: Great/Little Blue Heron).

Beedle: Hylian Retriever (A golden one, fight me)

Other random stuff/past Links:

- The Princess traditionally settles when she first unlocks/uses her powers, and the Hero traditionally settles when he draws the Master Sword. There are some exceptions, like the Hero of Twilight being old enough to have already been settled, and the Links in games without the Master Sword settling in other ways.

-Hero of Time and Twilight both had Wolf daemons. Their wolf forms are kind of a combination of them and their daemons’ appearances. Time had a lighter colored wolf and Twilight had a darker colored wolf.

    - BUT Hero of Time’s daemon is usually a mouse as a child, when he’s unsettled, alluding to past and future heroes.

    - The mouse thing (here and for the Hero of the Wild) comes less from personality and more from the feeling of facing an enormous dungeon boss as Link, like a mouse about to fight a lion.

-Both the Hero of Wind and Four Swords/Minish Cap Link also had mouse daemons.

    - For Wind this is because of the mobility he needed re: moving on a ship (also kind of like a ship rat? Disclaimer: I’ve never played WW)

    - For Four Swords/Minish this is because he shrinks down and is pretty much the same size as his daemon (she’d have to shrink a little bit too but not as much) and I just think that’d be really cute

-I’m not sure what Skyward Sword!Link’s daemon would be. Not a loftwing because it isn’t possible for anyone but a Goddess or a sacred princess (with Goddess blood) to settle as one, but I’ve never played SS so I can’t really say. It would have to be small enough to ride on a loftwing with him, or a bird of some sort- probably all of the people in Skyloft settled like that, now that I think about it. Maybe a beetle?

-Link from the original games probably has a wolf daemon, as well as LttP/LBW Link.

- Spirit Tracks!Link has a white dove daemon and she rides on his head like the birds in the game and its adorable

-Ganondorf always has a boar daemon in any iteration. When he transforms into Ganon they merge, similar to Wolf Link, but grotesquely instead of dissolving together in Twilight.

-Only the Hylians, Sheikah, and Gerudo have daemons

    -The Sheikah have mostly same-sex daemons, with opposite-sex daemons being about as rare as same-sex daemons among the Hylians and Gerudo. No one’s quite sure why.

    -The Zora have sort of a connection to their jewelry and weapons, but not necessarily a physical one. More of a literal “put your soul into your craft” type thing, which is why Zora armor is the way it is and most of the Zora have specialized livelihoods like sculpting and smithing.

    -The Gorons don’t have a physical Thing, they have a special brotherhood with other Gorons. It’s why you rarely see Gorons traveling too far from Goron City, and almost never alone. They can be alone, like a Zora can be without their craft and affects, but it negatively effects them after a while.

    -The Rito have their songs; though not all of them are musically inclined, its a cultural thing and not a physical requirement. Kass would be considered very spiritually aware and expressive, whereas Revali would not, but a non-musician Rito doesn’t suffer for it. There would only be an issue if there were no bards among the entire Rito race, and the songs faded from memory.