#idk it's right in the middle

[starlitangels]

Talk Nerdy

Listen, Erik said Link would be Vincent's main in Smash Bros because Vincent has a fondness for the character and fell in love with Breath of the Wild like the rest of us did. That is enough for me to decide Vincent is at least kinda a Legend of Zelda fan. And as a Zelda fan, this was just an excuse to be a Big Nerd. 1.2k words

—

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! I just need one more hit..." Vincent muttered under his breath. So focused on his game that he didn't realize I was standing in the archway behind him. He didn't hear me, smell me, see me—nothing. I smiled and watched Colgera fly around the screen while Link and Tulin furiously flew around in the swirling wind.

Biting my lip, I crept out of the archway and behind the couch. Vincent swore as he took a shot with his bow and it shattered. I smirked, leaned down until I was right behind his ear, and raised a hand.

I dropped it onto his shoulder. "Whatcha doin'?" I asked loudly.

Vincent swore and nearly threw his controller into the TV. Instead managing to only arc it over the coffee table. "Lovely!" he exclaimed. "Don't do that to me!" In a blur of movement, he had his controller back and the game paused. He spun to look at me. "What was that for?"

I laughed. "I'm sorry," I said around my laughter. "I couldn't help it. You were so focused you didn't—you didn't even notice I was right there. I had to see how close I could get!"

He sighed, giving me an affectionate—but exasperated—shake of his head with a little grin. "You're a menace," he said.

I shrugged. "Just for you, and just when we're alone. Because you love me."

"I do. I do love you." I leaned across the back of the couch and met his lips in a kiss. He reached and grabbed at my hips, hauling me over the back of the sofa while I shrieked as I flopped down onto the cushions. He cackled. "There we go. We're even now. And you get to sit with me and watch me play."

"Fine with me."

He kissed the top of my head and unpaused the game. Quickly equipping a new bow to try and shoot Colgera again.

"Rare for a Zelda boss' weak spot to not be their eye," I joked.

"Mmhmm," Vincent agreed, barely paying me any heed.

We sat in relative silence, broken only by Tulin's encouragement and the boss music and various sound effects like the cyclones and Vincent's controller clacking, for a few minutes.

"You're running out of cold resistance," I said.

He cursed under his breath and paused, searching his menus for another dish of food for cold resistance.

"Didn't you get a portable pot in one of the Zonai capsules?"

"They don't work in boss fights," he replied. Right as he found another meal he'd made to fight the cold and had Link eat it. He unpaused and went right back to it.

"Damn, this track slaps," I said quietly.

"It really does. I barely noticed it my first time playing through this game since I was so focused on the fight. Now, every time I restart, I always fight Colgera first. It's the best boss fight."

I smiled. "How many times have you played through Tears of the Kingdom in the last six months?"

Vincent shrugged. "Like five or six. But I don't search for all the Koroks every time. Just as many as I need to get all the spaces in my inventory. I still haven't found all of them on my main Switch profile's save. They added more. It was already a pain in the ass finding nine-hundred in Breath of the Wild. Now there's a thousand. They managed to shove a hundred more into almost the exact same map."

I smiled. "These are your favorite Zelda games, aren't they?"

He didn't even break his concentration from the boss fight. "Maybe. Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Ocarina of Time are pretty high on the list too." He moved around with his motion controls to aim his bow. "Twilight Princess is high on that list," he added. "I'd only been turned for six years when it came out and I was in the perfect moody, dark headspace to vibe hard with the game's aesthetic. Maybe the nostalgia helps keep it that high on my favorites. It's also just a good game to boot. And, if I may say, the most iconic appearance for Princess Zelda. She was barely in the game and yet when I hear the name 'Princess Zelda', I always think of her Twilight Princess look before even her Breath of the Wild one."

I smiled. Mmm... talk nerdy to me, you lovable dork, I thought fondly. "I never finished the Forest Temple in that game. Much to my best friend's chagrin. Twilight Princess was their favorite Zelda game while we were growing up."

Vincent shot me a quick look. "We'll fix that. I'll break out the Wii or the Wii-U and we'll get you through it."

"If we ever have time," I muttered sarcastically.

"Fair point. We'll find time. The fact that we don't really need to sleep as much has helped me get through this game multiple times."

I snickered and continued watching him.

The Rito Village/Dragon Roost Island theme hit and washed over our living room in a wave of nostalgia. Vincent sighed in rapture at it.

"This music is so good," I whispered.

"Uh-huh," he agreed. "Nintendo really went off with all the Tears of the Kingdom music. Remember that trailer's saxophone?"

"Mmhmm." I grinned. "Remember the first trailer to feature Ganondorf's voice and the entire internet blew up like 'Matthew Mercer'?"

Vincent started laughing. "That was hilarious. So many memes."

"Yeah. It was great." I gasped. "You're on your last shot, Vin!"

"I know. I'm so close."

"You know, if you did this with a Multi-Shot bow, you could do this a lot faster."

"Yeah, yeah. But I like doing this fight first. It's a challenge." He let go of the button on his controller. Link loosed the arrow.

It arced toward Colgera. Vincent and I both held our breath.

It struck, breaking the final bit of cracked ice.

"Yes!" Vincent cheered, pumping his fist into the air. I whooped and let him give me a kiss.

"Good job, lover boy," I said.

"Thanks, lovely." He gave me a soft look. "I forgive you for scaring me to death."

I burst out laughing. "Thanks. And you're welcome."

He kissed my hairline. "Were you wanting a turn on the Switch or were you just coming in to watch me play?"

"I was actually coming in to ask if you wanted a hot cocoa or something but I saw an opportunity that I couldn't pass up."

"Menace," he accused affectionately.

"Playboy," I retorted. He grinned.

"I would actually love a hot chocolate though," he added in a cheeky little whisper, curling his shoulders up and smiling like a mischievous kid.

I smiled. "I'll get some made for us. You're cute." Kissing his curly, glossy blue-black hair, I got up from the sofa and went toward the kitchen while the cutscene kept playing on the TV.

—

Tag list: @pinksparkl @zozo-01 @thegoldenlittlerose

[fishluring]

the funny cave bug

[aerospaceaspirant]

Infinite in Both Directions

@sketiana // cells undergoing mitosis // neutron stars colliding // 'saturn', sleeping at last // voyager golden records // diagram of an atom // diagram of the solar system // 'a toast to the alchemists', laura giplin // neural stem cells // ciliated ventral epithelium // 'constellations', the oh hellos // jwst deep field // 'singularity', marie howe // heart of the phantom galaxy // 'zephyrus', the oh hellos // apoferritin // aerial view of a forest // a graph me and my project co-chair made to model angle over time of our payload // molybdenum and sulfur atoms // unknown // pillars of creation

[hinamie]

thank u canon plant nerd megumi for my life

bonus:

[mochasucculent]

Another Owl House thang I started right after Clouds on the Horizon and then promptly never finished, this time bullying Hunter with that one SU line lol

[lucabyte]

Taking pride in One's own appearance.

[birdy-babe]

OH MY GOD STOP

ITS A FAMILT PHOTO OF THE FOUR OF THEM????

YOU CAN SEE EACH OF THEIR OUTLINES

I love that this vision includes them all living together most likely <3

[parasitoidism]

Been thinking about his camerupt obsession as I play. Also charms that don’t exist

[swingingthehatchetnow]

Bill: Do you think we’re father and daughter in every universe?

Alice: I don’t know. I’d like to think so.

———————Meanwhile————————

Solomon: Bitch

Steph: You’re one to talk

[waterghostype]

i think harumi and lloyd could be pretty funny in dr

[assassin-artist]

this kills her in one hit [original meme here]

[antsday]

okay i will admit it: i don't like 431 from a narrative standpoint (or really any standpoint) but if you view it exclusively as the true epilogue in an alternate universe of mha in which 5 year old katsuki is right about deku looking down on him and doing everything to spite him and wanting to bring about his downfall then the whole thing becomes kind of absurdly funny

[front-facing-pokemon]

[hinamie]

playing around w slightly different hair renders

[fangirl-erdariel]

Maglor casts the Silmaril into the sea. He wanders the coasts. He sings. He wanders. He does not count the passing time, it just goes by him as water in a river around a rock. He doesn't know when it begins - if it even has a real beginning at all

All he knows is that a heavy cloud or thick smoke has slowly gathered on his mind, making it hard to think, sometimes, hard to clearly grasp or understand his own thoughts. His memory is slipping too, strangely, as the memory of an elf never should, things shifting or being lost under this shadow.

But forever clearly, almost becoming more clear while other memories are shadowed, the words of the Oath echo in his mind. Why did he cast away the Silmaril? Was he so weak, so incapable of bearing pain? He should have kept it. He was a fool. He should seek it out again, but how? how? he cannot breathe underwater, it is gone beyond his grasp.

Slowly, stealthily sneaking up on him, the shadow clouds his sight too. At first a faint mist, hardly noticeable, just making traveling mildly more irritating. But eventually he realizes that it has been night for him… much much longer than is possible. That he must have walked in seeming darkness for years now, and morning and day have never come, no, in fact the night is only deepening…

At last, he is groping blindly in utter darkness, in the world and in his own mind alike. He huddles where he hopes he's sheltered, and sings, and feels his way aimlessly onward, and sings, and lies down alone in the horrible night that no light can penetrate.

But he remembers. He remembers. Once there was light, he remembers. Bright, bright light. It burned him, and he threw it away. Fool, fool. He was such a fool. Why did he throw it away? That light was bright enough that it would be able to dispel even this darkness, he's sure. He was a fool to throw it away.

And he remembers, he had sworn to regain the light (he remembers other voices also swearing the oath that echoes in his mind, but the faces of those who swore are long since lost in the shadows upon him). He should not have thrown away what he had sworn to regain. But now all is dark, and he cannot see his way enough to know where he's going when he walks, seeking the light he cast away is now an impossible task…

So instead he lies still where he last fell down, and sings of loss and cruelty and foolishness, sings something he has sung so many times that his mouth knows it without thought, the words burned into his mind even though, with the shadows in the way, he can no longer grasp the memories and knowledge and history the song was born out of

[crancisfrozier]

Apparently in the Middle Ages they used to draw these little pointing fingers in the margins of books called “manicules” that would highlight important passages. These are rad we should bring this back.