#selective mute link

[batrogers]

Stone

Fic written for @queering-the-chain prompt "In the Bedroom"

Rated high T, maybe M but mostly just sensuality, no sex.

Time/Malon, reminiscing on their first time. Selectively mute, stone (non-reciprocal) Time.

Also on AO3

IIII

There had been a lot of nightmares in the recent past for Link, while he struggled to recover from...

Well, his own memories. He lay in bed in the tent and tried to think of something happier, something to take his mind off things: the loneliness and the fear. He’d been here before, many times, and there were always good things that came after.

Things like Malon. Link pressed his hands to his face and thought of her as the tent lay quiet around him. The others were asleep and he could just let his mind wander to something sweet.

Something like being nineteen, and worried she’d mind his distance, his absence of so long. Coming back to Lon Lon Ranch, the only place that really felt like home, despite never really living there... But so much of importance had happened here, and Malon... Malon had always been there. He’d stayed sometimes, but he’d been an awkward child and before this...

“Malon?” he said, and she looked up at him and smiled in relief.

“Link, you’re back? Where have you been?” she asked, as if she couldn’t see. She proved it seconds later, flicking the drop earrings in his ears that belied his previous stay as much or more than the fine linen shirt she wore. “What’s this? It’s pretty.”

Some part of his chest clenched and relaxed at once: she didn’t ask about his speech, didn’t bring it up. He’d learned to talk finally and that helped but he had spoken little before, too shy of how his voice sounded to try. But now...

“I brought you a gift.”

Malon immediately perked up. She took the cloth and the clothes and then, laughing, she drew him with her into her house and – to his surprise – up to her room.

“I should try it on,” she said, and smiled, eyes low. Link swallowed.

“I can go—”

“Don’t you want to see it?”

He did. He very much did, and a few years living with Nabooru had made it so her undressing didn’t – strictly – mean anything to him. He’d seen it a dozen times.

But it hadn’t been her. Malon stripped, exposing her soft body – she was heavily muscled, but on top of that was fat that he’d never see on a Gerudo woman, not the ones he knew. Nabooru and her wife worked themselves spare, and so had he, but Malon was built differently. Her legs and arms were thick with muscle, and softened by fat that curved her stomach and hips into something he found he couldn’t stop staring at.

Malon smiled back at him and grinned, not even reaching for the clothes he’d brought her. She turned to face him, nude and smirking. “Well, fairy boy?”

Link licked his lips and cursed in his head: he’d forgotten how to speak all over again, too caught up in his thoughts to find the way between head and mouth like he’d practiced so long. Malon seemed to realize, and she stopped, her face shifting to concern.

“Do you want me to stop?” she asked.

Link shook his head firmly and then set his hands carefully to his shirt, making a small gesture at first, to offer to take it off.

Malon grinned and nodded herself. “Only if you want to.”

Link snorted and stripped off the shirt, walking up to join her and laying hands cautiously on her hips. He was... Shy.

Thinking back on it, Link laughed softly at himself. He’d been so young; so new to the idea. It had hardly been his first exposure to sex, but it had been the first time he’d... lead. Been in charge. Been the one doing it. He’d caught Nabooru and Fara in bed before, and others: a lifetime of sneaking into places he shouldn’t be, and hiding in haylofts meant he’d seen a lot. But touching her....

Malon had been eager for him. She hadn’t commented on his chest, not until she touched it and raised both eyebrows as his body was softer in a place she hadn’t expected. She’d reached down, as if to check more, and Link had caught her wrist and pulled it away to kiss her palm instead.

“You... Don’t want me to touch there?” she asked, confused but not upset.

Link shook his head and pressed his cheek to her palm, unsure but...

Hopeful. Hoping she understood. Hoping she listened.

She had.

[peachssodapop]

I love projecting onto characters ♡

I love the selectively mute Link headcanon, sometimes I like to toss in him struggling using sign to communicate as well cause sometimes it's just like that and you have nothing

Second comic is literally based on an mlp scene, I think Link is soft spoken when he does talk

[zelda-supremacy]

Silly goofy TotK AU where Link marries Sidon (wanted an excuse to kind of draw Sidlink + design Link a Zora prince outfit) 😋

[ophanim-vesper]

Hot Take

Link DOES communicate in sign language (Hyrulean Sign Language™ to be precise) but tells people the 'vow of silence' thing because everytime he does HSL people think he's a witch casting a spell on them.

[m-othfeets]

link instigates their first kiss and immediately worries that he crossed a boundary and he wants to fold in on himself and pass away

[blueskittlesart]

no pressure at all, but i was wondering how you think Zelda would react to a mute/deaf link? i bet she originally thought he was conceited but had the gut punch realization that he couldn’t help it and that she had spent all this time judging him

struggling to figure out how to word this but i think this is.. essentially what happens in canon? canonically, link is selectively mute, which essentially just means that physically, he can technically speak. there's no physical problem with his vocal chords, hearing, etc that makes him mute, it's a mental block instead of a physical one. that doesn't mean that it's something he can control, though. I've heard it described as being like your vocal chords just "stop working" in certain situations, whether due to anxiety, trauma, overstimulation, or some other trigger. meaning you still physically can't talk, there's just no anatomical reason for the mutism. so whether he's deaf, physically mute, or selectively mute, i think zelda still has the gut-punch oh shit, he couldn't help it moment and that she DESERVES to have that gut-punch, because that realization that she'd been projecting her own insecurities onto him and refusing to take into account his situation is an important kickstarter to her personal growth and development. But i guess what i'm saying is i don't think her reactions would change very much if you change the way he's communicating with her. With selectively mute link, i do like to think that he eventually becomes comfortable enough around her that he's able to speak for short amounts of time and begins to communicate that way, as is implied in canon (but that's never actually outright stated, just that he "opened up" to her eventually, so it's possible he never actually TALKED to her at all and communicated some other way.) sign language, written language, however he decides to explain what's going on to her, he still was physically incapable of speaking to her before, and she still judged him heavily for it. so tldr yeah, i think no matter what form of mutism you want to give him, she always has to have that moment of shock and realization that she was pushing her own insecurities onto him and that she was downright CRUEL to him. it's one of the most important moments of her arc!

[mistresslrigtar]

“You only live once” - the strokes!

🫡

Written for my 200 follower challenge. Send me a song prompt. I should have stated in the beginning, the song can be instrumental. Those are inspiring, too

Thank you, @bahbahhh for the song prompt You Only Live Once by The Strokes

This was another tough one because this is an upbeat song and I almost used it in my rock star au - so there was a lot going through my mind every time I listened to it. I started writing a one-shot about Link starting a bar fight in the Noble Canteen and bolting, but it felt off. So, after our brainstorm session yesterday I wrote what you said this song brought to mind. Hope that’s okay, because it felt like the right fit. Enjoy!

Excerpt:

Hylia had a sick sense of humor if she’d offered Link a second chance at life only to snatch the one thing that brought him true happiness away. If that proved true, Link was certain he’d lose the last shred of sanity he was holding on to. He’d wind up as mindless as Zelda–just an empty shell who’d spend the remaining days of his life wandering the plains of Hyrule below her.

[hotcheetohatredwastaken]

BDOR Prologue: The Sword that Learned To Speak — Pronunciation (2/?)

Twilight is trying to learn how to read and write. Wild speaks up to help. Twilight tries to bribe him. tw: none? teasing about selective mutism, which is apologized for

“N—no, shut it.” Twilight dropped his head into his hands, closing his eyes so he didn’t have to see the damning phrase—a sword needs to voice—again on Wild's fingertips. He massaged at his temples, fighting the headache steadily building behind his eyes. “I know that you’ve got a voice in there, somewhere. An’ I’mma get it out of ya, even if I have to spend every last rupee I got tryna drag it out.” He raised his head to glare at Wild, pointing an accusatory finger. “You hearin’ me? I don’t give up easy, neither, I’m a Hero of Courage.”

Wild raised his hands in mock surrender, shrugging, but nevertheless his eyes glinted with a humorous light. He didn’t have to sign to get his sadistically gleeful message across: yeah, good luck with all of that.

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Read the rest of this chapter here! BDOR Prologue: The Sword that Learned to Speak

Or check out the series, which includes other Prologues and the main fic, Blood Drops on Roses, here! Blood Drops On Roses: A Linked Universe Fanfic

[pianokantzart]

I don't know if you have ever been asked that before but what are your thoughts on mute/selectively mute Mario? Just curious.

I like it, but I don't have a lot of thoughts on it. There is definitely a lot of evidence to pull from the games to ascribe muteness to Mario, and I do enjoy headcanons and fics that delve into that, but my personal favorite characterizations for Mario come from the Luigi's Mansion series and the Mario Movie, wherein he is quite chatty.

[dubiiousfood]

Post memory 7, Blades of the Yiga.

After the incident with the Yiga, Link refuses to rest until Zelda is safe. He's tired and practically nodding off, but he can't let himself while Zelda may still be in danger.

At the same time, Zelda is feeling extremely guilty of her behaviour towards Link in the past, after he saves her life, It eats her up from the inside out, and seeing him in this state doesn't help.

[carbonateds-oda]

if they even think abt giving link speaking lines I’m going to throw the fuck up

[airoarts]

Finished the video game

[Image description: A short two-panel comic based on the ending of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. In the first panel, Zelda looks up, smiling slightly, and says "I was sleeping all this time... but you woke me up, Link." In the second panel, Link is shown giving a thumbs up and thinking to himself, "I'm not telling her that I farmed her for dragon parts." End ID]

[solargeist]

totk Link looking at wolf Link like “if you say something rn I won’t tell anyone, promise”

but wolf Link was mute even in human form so he just stares, maybe barks

[zelda-supremacy]

Lazy Sidlink art 🦈

[verflares]

i wanna transplant a lot of how ive written botw/totk link into my og one i think..... mostly just because writing for him last year made me realise how much i enjoy seeing how far you can go with using minimal dialogue + actions and expressions over words to convey thoughts and feelings, both from that pov and from others

[girlwonderers]

wip wsaturday

i have a small bg3 fic i'm almost done with (if i can decide that i'm satisfied with the ending as-is), but i'm also poking an old loz draft very cautiously with a stick, so have something from that:

“Here you are, sir,” the stablehand said, before patting the stallion on its nose and stage-whispering, “You be good, Storm!” Zelda managed to recover her composure long enough to ask, “Storm?” Link looked up from where he was adjusting the saddlebags on his own mount; his hands were occupied so he said, “Had to wait for the rain to catch him. He spooked easy.” “I…I see,” Zelda said, and tentatively stretched out her own hand—having seen enough accidents at the Ranch as a child to encourage caution—but Storm showed no signs of skittishness now; he only lipped at her fingers and snorted. “Well, little one, I hope you’ll consent to let me ride?” “Oh, he’s very gentle now,” the stablehand said. “Master Link’s taken good care to warm him to new people—I keep telling him he should take a job with us,” she added, with another gentle stroke along the stallion’s flank. “Plenty of folks would pay to have him break horses for them.” “I’m sure,” Zelda murmured, half-distracted by the horse who seemed, still, a near-perfect mirror of her own Cora from all those years ago, dressed in her tack and saddle—Cora, who had jumped at every field mouse on the road until Link had shown Zelda how he calmed his own warhorse. Not that he’d ridden a proper warhorse back then; his Epona had been smaller and lighter than the stallions the cavalry preferred, but Link had trained her from childhood to take direction from his knees rather than the reins and she’d been possibly the smartest animal Zelda had ever seen. Which reminded her— “I don’t believe I caught your horse’s name,” she said, turning to look at Link, who glanced up from his packing job and immediately looked away again. “Stu,” he said. Zelda blinked. “Stew?” she asked. “In reference to the food?”  The stablehand was giggling, though, and from over by the counter the stablemaster looked up from his ledger with a wicked grin. “Now, young master, I don’t recall writing that name in my registry,” he said. Link coughed, and fiddled with the buckles on the saddlebag, and Zelda swore there was a blush creeping up to the tips of his ears, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes, though he did raise one hand just long enough to fingerspell S-T-U-B-B-O-R-N A-S-S-H-O-L-E. “Link,” Zelda gasped, as the stablehand dissolved into snorts.