#so it would probably take Link and Zelda all night of riding as fast as their horses could handle

[skyloftian-nutcase]

The sky burned.

He had never seen anything quite like it. He had never tasted smoke and ash so heavily, smelled metal and blood mixing in a nauseating manner that nearly emptied his stomach. He'd never seen so many bodies. He'd never fought for more than twelve hours straight.

And he'd never seen the sky burn.

The bells in the temple rang repeatedly, a warning and a petition, a prayer and a guide. It punctuated the screams, it harmonized the ticking of lasers as they charged and fired, shooting through the air with such intensity that it created miniature claps of thunder as the heat separated the air harshly before it returned together with a snap.

And the sky burned.

Abel watched as the castle was engulfed in flames, filling the night air with sickly hues of red that drowned out the oncoming sunrise. They had fought all night to hold the guardians at bay to no avail. The capital had fallen. The king had fallen.

Hyrule had fallen.

He should have died in the castle alongside the king. When the library ceiling had collapsed in on all of them, that should have ended it. He should have died so the king could have lived.

Instead he was the only one who survived.

He shook his head, ridding himself of the distraction and despair. He may have failed his duty to the royal family, but the fight was not over. Hyrule hadn't fallen yet. Just the capital. There was still an entire country. He had failed the royal family, but he would not fail its people.

Barking orders at what remained of his troops, the captain of the royal guard corralled as many people out of the city as possible. When his men had found some semblance of organization, he ran back into the fray, ending up in the square with three guardians. One swiveled its head, its eye, once blue like a placid lake, was pinkish red, infected by the blood stained clouds that shot out of the castle. The other two were preoccupied, one destroying a building while the other killed the remaining civilians in the alley where it had cornered them.

Abel felt his blood freeze as the center guardian's laser focused on him, and then his entire body screamed in rage. He echoed it with a battle cry, charging ahead with his shield. He remembered his son's trick, he remembered seeing his little knight deflect a stray accidental blast so long ago.

He just had to time it right.

The guardian fired. His heart skipped a beat. He put the shield forward, shoving with all his might just as it made impact.

His arm shrieked in protest, and his entire body shuddered.

And the guardian's head melted as its own blast reflected back at it.

Gasping for air, Abel let his arm fall limp a moment, remembering how the pot lid Link had used had shattered into a thousand splinters, his arm broken from the maneuver. He remembered rushing to the princess' aid while internally panicking over his son.

But duty had always come first.

He prayed Link and the princess were safe.

Would they be able to stop this? Would the divine beasts be enough aid to halt an entire army, as well as the calamity itself? Would the princess be able to fulfill her destiny alongside his son?

Abel shook his head. Now wasn't the time. He was growing weary from fighting all evening and all night.

The other two guardians noticed their comrade had been destroyed and immediately started to charge towards the knight.

"Captain!"

Abel turned to see a handful of his soldiers coming to his aid. He asked, "The civilians?"

"The other team is helping to evacuate them," one of his men answered.

The temple's bells rang again and then were silenced by a terrifying crash of thunder. The guardians ripped the building apart piece by piece.

And the two in the plaza charged their lasers.

Electricity shot through Abel's veins. He couldn't deflect two blasts at once, and using his shield as his sole strategy was going to get everyone killed. His arm was already aching from fighting all night, and the one parry had nearly crippled him.

Abel roared and charged forward, trying to continue zigzagging back and forth so he wouldn't be an easy target. If he could make one fire on the other, then maybe--

One guardian charged faster than the other, its blast creating a cavernous hole in the earth, sending cobblestone flying, and Abel along with it. The captain of the guard landed in a heap just in front of the other guardian as it reached its peak charge.

Abel refused to die this easily. Getting a glimpse of the other guardian in his periphery, he rolled over cobblestone and broken weapons and bodies alike, slipping under the guardian entirely as the other fired, knocking its companion onto its side and exposing Abel once more.

With one guardian at least incapacitated, his men charged forward to chip away at it while Abel was left with the other. He ran towards it again, trying to get to its legs, knowing that if he hit it enough times he could at least damage them and slow the metal beast down. When it charged another blast, he cried out in warning to his fellow knights, who had finished off the other guardian, and they all scattered. Abel dove into an alley this time, fighting the jolt of horror as he landed atop the still body of a child.

The guardian's leg tore into the alley, trying to reach for Abel. When the knight scrambled away hastily, it reached another leg above the alley entirely, slowly tearing buildings apart to reach its prey. The child's bloodied form vanished in the debris that fell. Abel felt sick all over again, but the situation was far too immediate and dire to ponder everything he'd seen over the last twelve hours.

The buildings around him crumbled entirely, leaving him cornered against the wall of another alley, and he reached for a sword he no longer had, having lost it back in the plaza.

He was pinned and he knew it.

Looking around for the nearest weapon, he found a large tree branch that had somehow been blasted into the area from the nearest garden. He grabbed it desperately, glaring with all his hatred into that baleful pink eye.

He would die a knight of Hyrule. The Calamity would never take that from him.

There was a cry that tore through the air, a little hyah that made the knight's entire being nearly crumble with the instant recognition. A small figure dove from the nearest rooftop, sacred blade glowing so brightly it nearly blinded Abel. The figure landed on the guardian's body and sank the blade so deeply into the guardian's eye with such vehemence that when it collapsed he had to brace against it with his foot to pull the blade back out.

The sky burned around them, and the little knight's eyes burned even brighter.

"Link," Abel breathed, collapsing.

His son's fierce glare melted into worry as he rushed to the captain, falling to his knees to be at eye level and look him over. Hovering behind the guardian was another figure, a girl whose white dress was already stained with soot and soil and sweat.

The princess.

"Link, you--you have to leave," Abel immediately said, putting a hand on the teenager's shoulder. Link's eyes narrowed stubbornly, almost as if in defiance, and Abel shook his head, growing dizzier by the second. The mere sight of his boy made the world crash around him, the fight finally catching up to him. "L-listen to me. I--my men are gone, Link. The castle has--"

He looked beyond his son for a moment, watching the princess as she stared at him desperately.

"The king...?" she asked quietly, her words barely audible over the destruction all around them.

Abel swallowed. "He's gone, Your Highness. I'm... I'm so sorry."

Princess Zelda's face grew whiter than her dress. She covered her mouth quickly, eyes horrified at the news, and turned away. Abel watched her a moment longer, feeling all the worse for having failed in his duty to protect the king, and then returned his focus to the young knight in front of him.

"You have to get her out of here," he said quietly, his voice beginning to shake.

Link immediately shook his head. He looked up beyond Abel, up at the castle, where the Calamity itself swirled around like a demon ready to consume its prey.

"Link!" Abel snapped, catching his boy's attention. "Listen to me! The castle has fallen. My men can't fight an army of these guardians! The divine beasts have done nothing, and if the Calamity can corrupt our army, then there's no doubt they can corrupt the beasts as well."

Link swallowed, brow furrowing together. His boy, who had tried so desperately to always be so stoic, began to look afraid. He shook his head again.

Abel's hand slid from Link's shoulder to his face, making him focus on him. "Son... they're gone."

The Champions are gone. You have no support. Don't you understand? Don't you see this is impossible?

Link's lips trembled, and he bit harshly to still them.

"Get her out of here," Abel repeated. "You can't win this fight. Not here, not like this. Go to Fort Hateno, Link. We'll rally the troops there and figure something out."

It was more than just bad news and a command. It was hope, and Link latched on to the words, his face growing stony with determination. Abel pat his cheek lightly and gave what little bit of a smile that he could muster. "I'll meet you there, okay?"

His son watched him, his façade cracking a hair, his breath hitching for just a moment. Abel slid his hand behind his boy's head, pulling him close so their foreheads rested against each other, and they both closed their eyes for a moment. "Keep her safe. Do your duty, Link. Now, go."

The moment was lost, and Link pulled away. He took a slow, deep, steadying breath, and then nodded. With determination set on his face, he turned quickly, rushing to the princess and grabbing her by the wrist, pulling her away from Abel, away from the castle, away from city and the ruin and the disaster all around them. Zelda followed helplessly, tears staining her cheeks as she turned back to look one last time at her home, her kingdom, before they vanished around a corner.

Abel sat there on the cold stone floor a moment longer, catching his breath and readying himself. He offered up a prayer for his son and the princess, for Hyrule and its protection. Then he rose, dragging his feet out into the plaza and finding his weapon and shield he had dropped.

And he moved forward as the sky burned above.

[redisaid]

The World Will Only Darken Without Candlelight - Chapter 3

Torches

In which Zelda agrees that Link is a horse girl and I regret writing this much action even after I pared it down.

5566 Words

Read it on Ao3!

I got a venom like a snake running out of my mouth. It's got you burning at the stake. Innocent or not, you're not a bet I care to take. And Father Ignorance will make brothers of us all, As he sets our torch aflame. Chasing down the flimsy specters that we co-create.

“About earlier--”

Zelda cut her father off with a simple, “I don’t want to talk about it now.”

They were both well-aware of exactly how much time they had, and how that did not lend itself to a serious conversation. Zelda didn’t want Rhoam to use that as an excuse to weasel his way out of it. And knowing him, he’d be happy to take that as the easy way out.

She wasn’t about to let him off so easily.

The show would start regardless. The pieces were already moving on the board. Even now, both of them sat in the royal box in the middle of the grandstand, watching the lone rider light the torches around the edge of the arena to signal the start of the tournament.

Rhoam coughed into his hand, ruffling the beard he’d fluffed out for the occasion of being king.

Zelda always hated that beard. She’d never seen him without one, though. He probably looked worse.

“Well,” he offered to cover the relative silence between them. The crowd on either side of them had begun to settle and weren’t doing enough to ease the discomfort that filled the gap between their thrones. “At least you’ll get to see the new show in its entirety.”

Zelda had no comment in return for that. She had only attended rehearsal up until the point she wasn’t needed anymore. She didn’t need to watch an hour’s worth of stage fighting. Not when there was other work to be done, at least. Costumes to organize with Purah. Props to sort with Impa. Gerudo Town to be repaired with Urbosa and her dancers.

Anything and anywhere but here, really.

Mostly for the fact that she would now be stuck watching this very show almost every night for the rest of the summer. She had evening after evening of trying not to look bored to look forward to. She would strategize how to keep the mosquitoes at bay while staying in character, though the thick fabric of her costume didn’t let all that many through to her skin, blessedly. She would sweat in the heat of the summer nights with only a paper fan and a plastic goblet of ice water to help. But the greatest fight of all was having to stay awake, especially after a long day of walking around.

Walking around and dodging Link now, lest she forget.

The rider passed their booth on his way to the final torch. Whoever it was seemed to have a good handle on the process at least. The dark bay he was riding wasn’t the least bit scared of the torch he was holding to kindle the others with. And he was managing to make it fast.

At least this part of the show had received a much needed upgrade. Last year, her father had old Sir Peter the Ponderous, one of his favorite old knights, riding with the torch. The beginning of the show had always dragged, but never so much as when Peter was responsible for starting it.

Zelda instantly regretted her mental compliment, though, when the rider wheeled his horse back around dramatically, and flipped down his black hood with the hand not holding the torch.

To reveal that, in fact, she’d thought he was rather short for a reason. It was fucking Link.

Of course it was Link.

Rhoam turned to her with a grin before he stood to address Link and open the show.

Of course it was Link. Link who could ride like that, throw axes, sneak past her attempts to find him, be the darling of the crowd without saying a word, and apparently protect her from whatever bullshit her father didn’t want to tell her about.

Of course.

Zelda stilled the scowl that threatened to form on her face, but only just.

“Word of your deeds this day proceeds you, oh Silent Knight. I hear that you have come to my kingdom, the great land of Hyrule, to challenge my Champions?” Rhoam called down to him.

Link nodded fiercely up at him. Even through the concentration of trying not to glare at him, Zelda noticed how he nudged the horse with his leg just slightly, and how the beast responded in kind by snorting and stamping a hoof.

Oh great. He was a horse girl. Horse guy? No, it didn’t have the same connotation to it. No, Zelda had decided it. Link was a horse girl, and this somehow explained everything.

“Very well then,” Rhoam continued, nodding back down to him. “My honored guests and I bid you to entertain us tonight with your skill and bravery. My Champions know well that courage is the mark of a true warrior. Let’s see if you have any, hmm?”

Another nudge. A different leg. This time the horse only snorted, no stomp.

Well, at least his damn horse was well-trained.

Though Zelda supposed Link was too. He was just listening to higher orders than she could give.

But he didn’t have to be so damn competent about it.

Rhoam leaned out of the royal box a bit more, gesturing first to the left, then the right side of the crowd. “What say ye, people of Hyrule? Shall we have this young man prove himself a Champion first? Shall we have a joust to test he’s worthy to face my finest?”

The packed opening day crowd was already roaring their assent, but Zelda’s brow was furrowing silently for a different reason.

He was making Link do the joust too? And then the Champion fights after? After a day of following her and acting out all these scenes?

Whatever her father was paying him wasn’t enough. That was so much work. So much physical, exhausting work.

And then to do it all again tomorrow?

But the crowd was cheering, and the usual crew of jousting knights were filing into the arena on their horses.

Usually, the joust was reserved as an opener to the theatrics. It would end in a draw, with the last two knights both unhorsing one another and being unable to continue. To that, Rhoam would call for his Champions to show the crowd a display of true skill and have them do their little tricks.

But this would mean that Link was meant to win this, and then compete with the Champions as well.

Zelda reserved to go easy on him tomorrow, for this at least.

And because he’d gone to Rhoam to ask him to talk to her. So, maybe he did have some sense in that little skull of his.

“Horse girl,” Zelda muttered to herself as a reminder.

Horse girl indeed. Link rode off to don some jousting armor in one of the outer tents while the other knights did their thing, introducing themselves and placing their banners in front of the royal box.

This, at least, wasn’t all that different from before. They all had their cheesy lines they’d shout at the crowd. Their terrible stage names. Sir Isaac the Ironic was actually just a guy named Steve. He did her dad’s taxes and had equestrian experience from playing polo of all things.

Most of them couldn’t aim the lance very well, or at least didn’t know how to make it break in a fun and dramatic way. Not that Zelda could blame them. It was still a giant, heavy piece of wood that they had hold in a difficult and awkward way, and aim at a specific spot on their opponent in order to break it well. Hit the other man’s head and you might send him to the hospital. For that reason, bouncing off the chest ineffectively was the vastly preferred option if you were otherwise not confident in your aim.

Zelda had always wanted to try it. Her father never let her, though. He told her it was too dangerous. And that she wasn’t confident enough around horses.

Well, maybe if one didn’t bite her when she was eight, she’d feel more confident about it.

Maybe if her father hadn’t raised her in a place where she was constantly around stupid horses and having to be afraid of being bitten again, she would feel a lot more confident about a lot of things.

Link appeared again on the back of that same dark bay, the both of them outfitted in a set of armor. This was just another suit of the faire’s, perhaps modified to fit Link’s slight frame, but still looking dented enough to have seen some use. He wore green and gold for his colors, carrying a banner that was emblazoned with a Korok leaf. Compared to those of the other knights, who all represented noble houses from Hyrule’s ancient past, it seemed simple and plain.

But that didn’t seem to bother Link. He rode out onto the field, visor open so he’d be recognized, to the raucous cheers of a crowd that was otherwise starting to get bored with the lack-luster joust. He placed his banner alongside the other knights, and wheeled his horse around dramatically again.

The same horse, Zelda noted. Not one of the faire’s own jousting horses. The white one named Snowball was fine. But the chestnut gelding Link’s opponent was riding was the meanest thing in the entire stable, and while he wasn’t the horse who had bitten her, was Zelda’s most recent excuse for avoiding that place all together.

“I haven’t seen you this interested in the joust in years,” Rhoam whispered to her as he caught her staring.

“You’re making him do it,” Zelda muttered back. “Any reason?”

“He’s good. You’ll see,” Rhoam promised.

Zelda was pretty sure she was tired of Link being good at things. But she watched regardless.

Link was up against a long-timer who’d been declared the winner of the previous joust for the fact that he had actually managed to break one of his three lances. Thus far, the only break of the night.

This, of course, was expected of Sir Jason the Joker, who usually managed to do fairly well at the joust, even if he’d spent most of the day in the beer tent. In reality, his name was Jerry and he was an IT contractor during the rest of the year. He thought that working at the ren faire was a good way to get nerdy girls, and was absolutely creepy about the way he’d repeatedly told Zelda this when she was only a teenager.

She’d never seen him take a girl home.

“New horse?” Zelda asked of her father as Link and old creepy Jerry lined up at the rail.

“His horse,” was Rhoam’s explanation.

She was right. Absolute horse girl. Brought his own fucking horse. No wonder he’d worn cowboy boots throughout rehearsal week.

Neither Link or his horse even so much as flinched at the whole affair, though. Zelda watched as he took the lance from a squire with relative ease, even though the damn thing had to weigh almost as much as him. He held it as though he’d done this thousands of times before.

And that horse of his had no problem carrying him at full speed right towards creepy Jerry.

Link’s lance tip absolutely smashed itself right where it should have, on the special plate designed both for this and to deflect the debris from creepy Jerry’s neck. Creepy Jerry, for his part, only bounced his lance off of Link’s shoulder.

This was how it went, each time, every time. Three times, to be exact. On the last one, Jerry even made a good show of falling out of his saddle after his horse had slowed a bit at the other end of the lists.

But with the way he wobbled as he did it, Zelda couldn’t be sure if this was for showmanship’s sake or because he had indeed spent too much time in the beer tent earlier.

Link did his little victory lap around the arena to yet even more cheers. And while it was nice to have a jouster who was, you know, good at jousting, Zelda had once again lost interest in his continued success. Really, how dare he be so good at pretending to be good at something?

“Your bit is coming up,” Rhoam warned her as he stood again.

Link picked up his banner, and something else that an assistant ran up to him from one of the darker corners of the arena. He completed his lap with the banner flying behind him, and showing a purple-hilted sword to the crowd.

Ah, right. That lovely little fake Master Sword of his. How could she forget?

But the people clapped. They were loving it. People love fairy tales, after all.

“Now I see why you are so courageous, young challenger!” Rhoam roared down at him as he stopped before the royal box, still holding the sword aloft. “Why didn’t you show us that in the first place? It is not every day that someone comes to my castle bearing the sword that seals the darkness!”

What followed was some lengthy speech Rhoam gave to invite Link to be one of his Champions if he should prove himself worthy of the title. Zelda had to admit that her father was a natural at this, even if his writing on the script was overly flowery. Prior to buying the castle and starting the renaissance faire, he’d hammed it up on stage to the collected works of the famous Sheikah Court Poet of old--the nameless author of the ancient era’s great plays. Rhoam had spent his youth with a troupe that performed just these works throughout Castle Town and its surrounding suburbs. Oh, and apparently convincing Zelda’s mother, an aspiring young doctor, to put up with him.

Zelda dutifully did her part as he mentioned his daughter, his princess, courtesying down to Link and offering him a demure wish for good luck.

Though she sat back down hard enough to make her throne squeak.

“That’s an antique, you know,” Rhoam chided her quietly as the show progressed on the arena floor, trumpets announcing Revali’s entrance with Rito-flavored fanfare.

“That you painted gold with spray paint,” Zelda reminded him. “Actually, that I painted gold with spray paint because you told me to. I remember how it got stuck in my hair.”

This time it was her father’s turn to not dignify that with a response.

Revali’s portion of the show was mostly the same, only this time his archery tricks were punctuated with insulting Link. Link, who’d changed into his Champion’s tunic again, this time without the black hooded cape that had served to cover most of it during the opening torch ride. This portion of the show had previously been for the Champions to individually boast about themselves, but was now tuned to be more about them doing that to Link.

Link, who stood around most of the time and watched.

He did this for Daruk too, but clapped and did offer him a little smile as he broke boulders and hurled rocks clear across the arena. Even for Urbosa, he mostly just stood and watched as she performed a sword dance that Zelda normally would have clapped a little too loudly for.

But not tonight, not if she too was hiding something from her.

Mipha, though, didn’t really do much of her usual spear and water show. Instead, this was replaced with yet another vomit-inducing scene between her and Link, where he once again mostly stood there while she simpered on about how she would be so honored to fight alongside of him as another one of the king’s Champions, but how she couldn’t let her heart get in the way of her responsibility to test him honestly.

Zelda just had to look over at her father and make the slightest of gagging noises at him to announce her displeasure.

“It’s romantic,” Rhoam said in his defense.

“Are you reading those raunchy novels Urbosa likes or something? I can put you on a dating app, you know, if you need to be reminded of how real women attempt to be romantic,” Zelda told him.

Rhoam’s beard flapped out from a sigh, but he just turned back to the show.

He hadn’t dated anyone since her mother died. Perhaps that was a low blow.

Zelda spent the remainder of Mipha’s scene trying to justify it regardless.

She stood with her father after that, as he gathered all the Champions to the front of the royal box to bid them to begin their tournament in earnest. Zelda, for her part, stood there as silently as Link did below.

Maybe he was thinking the same thing she was. That this new version of the show felt awfully long. It was getting late. The sun had well and truly set nearly an hour ago.

Poor kid. She’d probably made him miss his breaks by using hers to evade him. He was just doing his job.

She’d talk to him about it. Or talk at him. Explain herself. Attempt to, at least. Probably just end up ranting about her father and how he’d dragged her into this little land of make believe with him when they’d lost her mother. That it was all some sick coping mechanism that he’d gotten away with for fifteen years now. Maybe he’d listen. Maybe he’d just stand there and go blank and take his mind out somewhere else.

She wondered what Link thought about when he stared off into nothing.

Probably horses.

They sat back down and watched as he fought the Champions, one by one.

He missed a target when shooting shot for shot with Revali, and Zelda almost took a moment of joy in that. Almost, because the miss was scripted, and had Revali going in to insult him again only for Link to turn and shoot at his target, filling the bullseye with his remaining arrows. Revali retaliated with a purposeful wide shot at him for Link to dodge, which he made a good show of looking like it was closer than it was. And the next. And the next after that, until Rhoam had to make a show of declaring Revali to be the loser of this contest for poor sportsmanship.

Daruk was next, who immediately judged that it wouldn’t be fair for him to judge Link’s strength against his own. Link did a funny little bit where he tried to lift a boulder anyway, but Daruk instead declared they should have an eating contest. Link, in turn, seemed to be the most excited for this than he had been for anything else, and mimed his disappointment well for the crowd when a plateful of rocks was brought out.

Zelda knew, from asking Impa why there was a container of brownies sitting in the sound booth, that Link’s rocks were, in fact, made of mashed up brownies. But he still ate them. A disgusting amount of them, actually, in order to beat Daruk at this contest.

Urbosa challenged him to a duel on a full stomach of said brownies. Zelda found herself queasy at the notion of having to move around that much after eating two brownies, let alone what probably amounted to a dozen of them. But that didn’t stop Link.

He fought her admirably, showing a level of experience with stage combat that rivaled Urbosa’s. Urbosa, herself a former stage actress, who had been working at the faire and doing this for fifteen years now. Urbosa, in her mid-forties with more abs than most people could achieve at their youngest and strongest. Urbosa, who knew how to make this look very real, having this young kid go step for step with her, never so much as missing a single beat of the choreographed fight. She grinned even as she took her scripted loss to him, clearly pleased with how well it had gone.

Mipha was last, of course, to build up some dramatic thing about her childhood crush on him or some bullshit. Zelda went to her happy place during most of it, admittedly, which was thinking back to the one archaeology class she’d managed to sneak into her schedule last semester.

The clashing of spear against sword stirred Zelda from those thoughts as she was surprised to find Link and Mipha actually fighting. Granted, she was giving a cheesy monologue as they did, but still dueled him. Mipha’s stage combat had never been the best, and while she lacked the fluidity that Link had in his movements, it seemed she must have gotten some pointers since last year. They had a pretty good little fight. One that still ended with Mipha surrendering and saying she didn’t want to fight him, but far more than Zelda had expected either way.

And with that, the crowd cheered again. Despite the late hour, the heat, the bugs, the smoke of the torches. They loved it.

Rhoam stood and bid her stand with him, all the while clapping himself. Maybe at himself.

Well, at least he was pleased with all this work. Zelda would be happy for him in her own little way, and she was, really.

She just wished he wasn’t keeping something from her.

---

“I didn’t really get your whole speech at the end there,” Purah later told her in the dressing room. “Was it supposed to be about him and the sword or what?”

“That confused all of us during rehearsal, honestly,” Zelda replied, then jumped as Purah scratched her back in the process of removing her corset. “Easy with your nails!”

“Oh sorry,” Purah apologized. “I keep forgetting I have these acrylics on. Typing with them is a nightmare. I have so many regrets.”

“I thought it was about him and Zelda at first,” Impa piped up from where she was hogging the airflow of a nearby box fan, despite being the only one in the room who had enjoyed the blessing of air conditioning for a majority of the day.

“Ugh no,” Zelda spat back.

“What’s the matter Zelda? Don’t you like Linky?” Purah taunted from behind her as she continued loosening the corset’s laces, with a bit more caution this time.

“Leave it, Purah,” Urbosa warned from her vanity. She was busy wiping the blue lipstick off with probably the third or fourth makeup wipe. It was on there that thick. “Rhoam didn’t tell her about the whole following her around like some sick puppy dog thing. She has reason not to like him.”

“He’s short,” Zelda retorted.

“I like short guys,” Purah continued to tease. “But don’t tell that to Robbie.”

“Zelda doesn’t even like guys,” Impa sagely noted.

Zelda, did, in fact, generally prefer women. Generally. Mostly. She wished she only liked women, really.

“Zelda thinks that is none of your business,” was what she had as an answer.

“So you do like him then?” Purah questioned as she pulled out the last lace. “Oh, is that why you looked like you were gagging at all of Mipha’s scenes?”

“No, I was gagging because they were like something out of one of Urbosa’s romance novels,” Zelda told her, holding the corset to herself as it fell loose.

She enjoyed a few deep and full breaths without the restrictive garment. The first she’d had in over fourteen hours now.

Why the fuck had she agreed to do this again? The days were long. The pay was pretty bad, worse for her because it just went straight to the bank and never in her hands. The gratitude was…nothing. It never had been. Not even a thank you. A hug. A kind word of appreciation from her father for supporting his dream. For being a part of it.

If she got home before him, she’d be in bed by the time he pulled up to the house. On the rare nights he got home before her, he’d be asleep on the couch, TV blaring by the time she arrived.

She wasn’t supposed to be here. She was supposed to be back in Hateno, hanging out with her friends from college, working at the disease research internship she’d put her heart and soul into getting.

“My novels aren’t nearly that bad.”

Urbosa’s deep laugh at her own comment was enough to stir Zelda back from the brink again.

“It’s late. You girls can go,” she continued, shooing Impa and Purah off. “I’ll help her with the rest from here. Be careful.”

“Careful of what?” Zelda ventured to ask.

Urbosa stared up at her, an odd vantage to have for once. Even in a ratty t-shirt, sweatpants, and without her traditional makeup, she was still quite intimidating, betraying no other emotion except to dare Zelda to question it as she said, “It’s dark in the parking lot. They could trip and fall.”

“I’m gonna trip and fall into bed,” Purah threatened in response. “Opening day is gonna have me going to bed at old person times.”

“It’s nearly midnight,” Urbosa reminded her.

“Yup, old person times. Night!”

Impa followed her out of the dressing room with a nod, only rolling her eyes a little bit at her sister.

Zelda turned from them to find Urbosa handing her the pile of street clothes she’d left folded on her own vanity that morning. It seemed like weeks ago she’d last worn those.

“Thanks,” Zelda said, taking them and turning away again to slip into the sports bra, tank top, and shorts that she so dearly missed throughout the long day.

“Listen I--”

Whatever confession Urbosa was about to offer was cut short by her phone ringing. Loudly. At least the ringtone was a very catchy little Gerudo tune.

She picked up the phone, and listened to whoever was talking on the other end of it for a while. Nearly a minute, actually, before saying, “Stop that. Don’t panic. It’s just a flat tire. I’ll be right there.”

“The parking lot strikes again?” Zelda commented from her own vanity as she sat to take her own makeup off.

Urbosa shook her head and hung up on whoever she was talking to before sticking her phone back into the oversized purse it had come from. “Apparently. My niece Riju, you know, the one I introduced you to last week? She’s selling her sand seal plushies here this year. She’s got a flat out there. She just turned sixteen. She doesn’t know what to do. Don’t they teach that in driver’s ed anymore?”

Zelda laughed at that. “I panicked and called my dad the first time I got a flat. It’s okay. Go help her. I can close up here.”

Urbosa looked as though she didn’t want to take that answer, but looked over at her purse again, then toward the door.

“You’ll call me when you get home?” Urbosa requested.

“I’ve been the last to leave many times before, Urbosa. But I’ll call you if you feel like playing mama bear tonight,” Zelda offered. “I still have to steam that dress anyway. You know how long that takes. You’ll probably have that tire changed well before I’m done.”

The phone in Urbosa’s purse rang yet again to prove a point.

She sighed again, but picked up the purse. “If you forget to call me, I’m calling the cops,” she warned Zelda as she left.

“Love you too,” Zelda called after her.

In all honesty, she liked being alone at the faire. And she wasn’t all that alone. There were still grounds crew out there, cleaning up the mess the guests left behind. They were the ones that actually closed up the faire for the night to the tune of locking the gates. And they’d be here until the early hours of the morning.

But until then, there was the eerie emptiness of a place meant to hold a lot of people. That should have scared her, but it didn’t. It felt fitting. The ruins in which the faire was held had this time to just be ruins again. Quiet, enduring, full of mystery.

Was it weird that Zelda wanted to be among that? Maybe. Not as weird as wearing cowboy boots as casual footwear, though.

Zelda used the time she spent steaming out her princess dress and hanging it back up precisely the way that Purah had instructed to think up how she could succinctly apologize to Link. Each time, her thoughts just spiraled and spiraled. How could she even explain herself without giving him her life story?

He wouldn’t want to hear it. She was a mess. He could do no wrong. He couldn’t possibly relate.

Fine. She’d let him just go on silently hating her, trying to get rid of her or whatever he’d promised her father he’d do. Zelda resolved that it was a useless endeavor by the time the dress was devoid of wrinkles. She’d just try to be less shitty to him tomorrow. That would have to be good enough.

It was late enough when she left that she only spotted one groundskeeper on her way to the parking lot. She’d given him a little wave, but he didn’t wave back. Probably didn’t see her.

That was fine. She’d been seen enough that day. Too much.

And while the parking lot was indeed dark, her car was still easy enough to find, even without clicking the remote to unlock it. There were only a handful left that weren’t permanent fixtures like horse trailers and a handful of trucks and cargo vans belonging to vendors. Hers was the only white sedan among them, at least. Even Urbosa, her minivan, and her niece were nowhere to be found.

Zelda, for her part, didn’t feel the need to pay all that much attention to the night. She was on her phone, searching up the hours for her beloved pizza place to see if there was any chance it was still open. She’d hardly eaten all day and was starving, and that sounded much better than stopping by the drive thru on her way home.

So the last thing she expected was for a gloved hand to block her view of the screen as it pulled her head back. Nor did she expect a knife to be held to her throat.

“Scream and I’ll kill you,” a voice threatened directly into her ear.

She dropped her phone. Her keys.

This was real. This was actually real. Someone was holding her mouth shut and had a knife on her, sharp enough she could feel the edge just beginning to bite painfully into her neck.

And she was so shocked that she couldn’t even scream if she wanted to.

Hands grabbed her hands, pulling them back, wrapping something around them. It tightened uncomfortably around her wrist, but not all the way.

Not all the way, because whoever it was was startled by a scream from behind them.

A battle cry that Zelda knew, even if she’d never actually heard the voice behind it speak.

She turned her head to follow it to find Link charging at them in just a pair of cargo shorts and nothing else. Not even shoes. Not a single cowboy boot to be found.

But he had her attacker on the ground faster than she could even process. The knife was slapped away from her throat and kicked across the gravel of the parking lot, clinking away into the darkness.

Zip tie. It was a zip tie on her wrists. What the fuck? What the absolute fuck?

Zelda pulled it off and tried to figure out where her phone went.

“I’m calling the police!” she shouted as she searched over the sounds of Link struggling with her attacker.

Her attacker, who was wearing a red and black hoodie and a black ski mask. She tried to remember this so she could tell someone and be useful, but this was all happening so fast. Link had him on the ground one second, then aimed a punch at his temple that he dodged. Then the next second he was up and running, and Zelda still hadn’t found her fucking phone.

By the time she did, under the rear bumper of her car, with the screen now slightly cracked, he was gone. He was gone and Link was left panting, shirtless, and staring at her. A thin cut on his forehead dripped blood onto his cheek. The gravel hadn’t been kind to his knees either, and had left them bloody too. But other than that, he was alright.

And so was she. Thanks to him.

“Are you hurt?” was the first thing Link ever said to her.

His voice was soft and gentle, like he was talking to a frightened animal.

Well, he was.

For once, Zelda had nothing to say in return. Nothing she could say. Shock still rippled through her system, threatening to make her weak in the knees as the resolve of finding her phone and doing something about it left her.

She just shook her head.

[syilcawrites]

for your zelink prompt,,,how do you feel about a modern AU where the two bike to the beach and have a picnic?

a/n: I added ‘high school’ to the prompt too hope you don’t mind asghjjhas (’: Also this turned out a lot longer than I planned hope that’s okay ;-; I want to practice writing in Link’s voice more so this is in his pov!! Anyway! I hope you enjoy this, and thanks a lot for the prompt <3

ao3

hot buttered apples with chamomile tea

There are two types of monsters: ones that sleep under your bed and ones that sleep behind your eyes. For Aryll, it's the former.

And Link saw a lot in the latter.

He rubbed his eyes to try to erase the bags that rest stubbornly underneath them, but he wondered if he was just making it worse. Probably. But why did it matter anyway? He usually got three hours of sleep tops, so he always liked to think that darkness had become a permanent edition to his features. He tapped his toes against the pavement, waiting, peering around the corner of the school's brick fence, trying to catch a glimpse of the black car that Zelda usually pulled up in. With five minutes left until school started, he was beginning to worry—she was never late. And for the first time in his entire high school career, he was early.

It was a last minute trip they had planned, when they had snuck onto the school roof after class yesterday.

"I want to see the ocean," she had told him, under the summer's unrelenting heat. They were both sticky with sweat, even though they were sitting under a shady area, and the next thing she said made no sense to him. "I've never been to the beach before." Living here and never once going to Hateno Beach? He thought she was kidding at first. But she stared at him dead in the eye with her lips pressed into a thin line, as serious as ever. When he jokingly proposed that they ditch school the next day to go to the beach, she didn't hesitate to say yes.

It had taken him practically the whole day yesterday to convince her to sneak up onto the rooftop, and yet she was completely fine with ditching an entire day of school to go to the beach.

She was weird and unpredictable and he loved it.

He decided to check his backpack again for the twelfth time in the past hour, just to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. His memory was pretty terrible to begin with. He always found something new that he had forgotten whenever he went to check his backpack. The first time he checked, he realized he didn't bring any cups. Just that one thermal bottle whose lid doubled as a cup. The second time he checked, he realized he had forgotten napkins. If worst came to worst, he guessed he could just offer up his jacket or something, if she really needed to clean her hands or wipe her mouth—would that be any better though? When was the last time he washed his jacket?

"Link?"

Before he could try to sniff his sleeve, Zelda's voice pierced his thoughts.

He zipped up the backpack once more and peeked around the corner again—and finally, he saw her familiar twin braided blonde hair bobbing up and down as she ran toward him.

With… a frenzied kind of pace.

"Link!" she shouted again, breathless, as she waved her arms up and down in panic. Behind her he could hear another person shouting—but it was hard to hear their voice, since it was drowned out by the sound of Zelda urgently telling him to go, go, go.

Fumbling, Link lifted the bike away from the brick fence and rolled it out, hopping onto the front seat.

"I thought you said you had two bikes!" Zelda exclaimed, quickly tossing herself over the second seat without missing a beat.

"I mean, this is kinda like two bikes isn't it?" She only learned how to ride a bike three days ago and he wasn't comfortable with leading her down a rather windy road to get to the beach on her own. The last time he taught someone how to ride a bike was Mipha, years ago, and she almost face planted into a cliff because he let go of her bike and had forgotten to tell her how to brake.

Besides, he had to bribe Aryll fifty rupees to take the tandem bike out today. If he wanted to borrow her regular bike, she would've asked for a hundred. That was equivalent to a week's worth of mowing Tokk's front lawn.

Link was probably getting scammed by Tokk, but he was only 40% sure about that.

"Won't we look ridiculous riding this around?" Zelda scoffed as they began pulling out onto the road. "I thought we were supposed to be discreet? A tandem bike—Oh Hylia!" She kicked his shin with her foot, urging him to hurry. "Impa's coming!"

"Who?" Impa? He didn't think Zelda had mentioned her before.

"Miss Zelda!"

Link glanced at the direction that Zelda had come from, and he saw an angry looking young woman in a black suit racing toward them at an alarming speed. A chill ran down his spine as they locked eyes.

"You!" Impa shouted, pointing a furious finger at him. "Who are you!"

Without a second left to waste, Link clicked into gear and pedaled away fast before that angry finger could intentionally poke out his eyeballs. They shot down the road, with Zelda's exhilarated laughter mixing in with the sound of the rushing wind whistling by them.

For some reason, it was a strange and distinct sound, like it was reverberating all around him; he felt trapped in it.

Until her laughter abruptly stopped.

"Look out—!"

He looked up; but by then, it was too late. An apple that hung low from the tree smacked him square on the forehead with a resounding thud.

——————————————————————

"You know," Zelda said, accepting his hand as he helped her down the rocky cliff that led to the shoreline, "the beach looks different from above."

Link hadn't been to Zelda's home before, but he knew what it looked like from below. It was an odd-looking building that used to be an abandoned lighthouse, but then someone moved into it a couple of years ago, and that someone had hammered on weird platforms and objects to it, so now it looked like Hateno's novelty sculpture.

"Your room's at the top of that lighthouse building right?" Link asked, grunting as he jumped down onto the sand with a hefty thud. He turned around and held out both of his hands to her.

"Mhm. Purah let me have the upper loft when I moved in with her. The view's amazing at night, you can see all the stars." Zelda crouched down and gratefully accepted his hands. Her hands were rough. She jumped down.

Link couldn't see the stars from his bed, because a gigantic tree was right in front of his window.

Her prickling stare withdrew him from his thoughts—she studied his face as if she was observing every detail on it. He could count the sun freckles that had begun appearing around her cheeks; heat climbed to his cheeks as he leaned back a little, finally aware of how close they were.

"I hope that apple won't leave a bruise on your forehead," she muttered, her eyebrows furrowing together, with that little crease appearing between her brows. Always one crease, never two. "You took quite a hit back there."

"I—" he paused, his mouth still slightly ajar.

What was he gonna say? That he was too focused on the sound of her laughter to the point where he wasn't paying attention to the road?

She tilted her head quizzically, waiting for him to speak.

Link let go of her hands to adjust the straps of his stiff backpack. "I know a spot near the rocks," he muttered, turning to a cluster of boulders near the water. It was flat enough that they could place the blanket down and set the lunchboxes and thermal bottle without having to worry about them falling over.

They walked side by side.

"The patterns on the rocks are so symmetrical," she murmured, tapping her chin with her finger. "Like the cliff we just climbed down from—you could tell during high tide the water reaches it, just barely though. I've always found it fascinating that exposure to water erosion could create such beautiful patterns. Don't you agree?"

Link nodded, and a smile quirked up on her lips. The hop in her step was a little higher than usual as she sped up to reach the cluster of rocks faster. He liked listening to her observations of little details, even though he didn't offer much opinion of his own. It was nice to hear and see Hyrule through a different kind of lens.

She was already climbing up the rock by the time Link reached it, and she stood there proud and tall with her hands on her hips, facing the vast ocean.

"We should eat before the food gets cold," Link called up to her, unzipping his backpack to hand her the picnic blanket. It used to belong to his mom. At one point he stole the key to his dad's chest and opened it up to find a bunch of things that used to be hers, probably, because there was a picture of her in there, squished in with a bunch of other stuff. He stole that picture too. And to this day, his dad still hadn't noticed anything was missing.

Link wondered if his dad knew, and just let him... have it.

"Of course," she said, her eyes glinting hungrily. She grabbed the blanket from him, and with it, his thoughts.

She spread it out as he climbed up to her.

Her reactions were always funny whenever Link brought food for her. For some reason, she always tried to mask her excitement—but she was terrible at hiding the anticipation that gleamed in her green eyes, and even more terrible at trying to keep a smile from erupting on her face while he pulled out the two lunchboxes.

"Chamomile tea," Link stated, as he pulled out the thermal bottle next. He paused to watch her, and her mouth formed an 'o' as she greedily grabbed it from him, opening the cap up. He popped open the lid of one of the lunchboxes and slid it toward her.

There were sliced hydromelons, egg pudding, honey crepes and fruits, and her favorite—

"Hot buttered apples!" Zelda exclaimed, reaching for one.

In the other box he had a handful of savory foods—maybe he should've opened that one up first.

"I'm glad you took my suggestion." Her fingers paused just before she picked the slice up. "But first, the tea," she said quickly, as if she was reminding herself. She poured it into the lid of the thermal bottle, handing it to Link.

"I want to see your expression when you try it," Zelda insisted, beaming. She was smiling a lot today—more than she has in the past two years that he'd known her. "You take a bite out of the apple first, and then drink the tea, and then it tastes amazing."

"Just like that?" he asked, eyeing the light crisp color of the chamomile tea she handed to him. It reminded him of apple cider.

"Trust me, Link. You'll want to keep eating it," she promised, tugging down at her two braids. She always did that when she was waiting for something—every time she was standing in line at the vending machines to get the both of them candy pop sodas at school, she did that same little tug. "I'm picky with my food, so you know I wouldn't simply be saying this without meaning it."

Link picked up the slice—the hot buttered apples had turned into warm buttered apples by now, but he figured it wouldn't change the taste all that much. As soon as he took a bite out of it and took a sip from the tea, her eyes sparkled.

The combination of the two warmed his stomach—the pinch of cinnamon she had recommended he put on it really kicked it for him, and he had to refrain from shoving at least ten more into his mouth. Considering how much she was staring at the hot buttered apples, he wanted to save the majority of it for her.

"Good? Right? They both have that toasty taste but it's a different kind of toasty. The chamomile tea, when brewed correctly of course, has that touch of floral kick to it too! And the hot buttered apples with that sprinkle of cinnamon just melts in your mouth and it's the most wonderful thing ever, isn't it?" She quickly thanked him as she accepted the tea when he handed it to her, and she picked up a slice to take an eager bite of her own.

"It's really good." He wasn't the best at expressing himself through words, but despite their simplicity, it seemed to have gotten through to her, as that gleeful glint in her eyes only gleamed brighter. "Did your parents—" He paused mid-chew, realizing just a little too late that his question was going to dampen her brightness.

And it did, just a little.

Idiot.

Whenever he asked about her immediate family, she would tense up—just like now. She cast her eyes down at the lunchbox, eyeing all of the food that he had prepared, her lips pursed. She would always be on the brink of telling him, but then she would turn away in the end.

Maybe… she needed a little push, to talk about it.

"My mom hated apples." The words felt weird in his mouth—he's never spoken about his mom to anyone, and he only brought her up once to his dad. Link raised his eyes to meet hers. Zelda had stopped chewing too, and looked at him with wide, curious eyes.

"That's what my dad told me at least, when I asked him what she hated the most." No one in his family ate apples that much, and it all made sense when he found out about that little fact a couple of years ago. It was hard for his dad to talk about her—time didn't heal the pain behind his voice when he told Link those three simple words: She hated apples.

And behind those three simple words were years upon years of grieving, and he never asked his dad about her again.

He watched as Zelda picked up another slice, her mouth parting slightly. "My mother loved making all sorts of meals with apples."

Loved, Link thought.

Past tense.

They sat in silence for a bit, just munching on those hot buttered apples, while passing the tea back and forth between each other.

"My mother made a snack for me that always involved apples in some way—whenever I was sad, angry, or when she was proud of me." He expected her to look lost in thought as she spoke, but she wasn't. She was as present as she could've been, and he was... it made him feel a little better. Less alone. "Hot buttered apples with chamomile tea was my favorite. She made it for me quite often," she said, chuckling. "What was your mother like?"

She gave him the last slice.

He hesitated; both in accepting the last piece and at her question. The only thing he had was a worn out picture of her, weathered down by age. And that blanket. "I don't know, I don't remember anything," he admitted, taking the slice from her.

Her gaze softened.

Link once punched another classmate in grade school because they asked him, how could he be sad? If he had no memories of his own mom? What was there to be sad about, since he couldn't remember anything? And for the longest time, he didn't let himself be sad over her. How could you be sad about someone you had no memories of?

But one day, Aryll barged into his room—her face red, with snot running down her nose, crying, because she had an argument with their dad. "What if I forget about her, Link?" Aryll had said to him in between her choked up sobs. "I feel like if dad never talks about her, she'll disappear forever."

He knew then that there was pain with memory, and pain without memory. One wasn't more valid than the other.

Because either way, no one won anything in the end.

"I wish I could've met your mother," she said. "I'm certain I could've changed her mind about apples."

There wasn't a lick of a tease on her face. She was serious.

For the first time in a while, Link laughed.

[so-i-dont-forget-again]

So I Don’t Forget Again: A Breath of The Wild fanfiction

Entry 99: Lookout Post

 We stayed up all night star gazing. His glowing spots were just as memorizing as ever. We read through my journal and his letters. When we got to the part when my mind went to a dark place Sidon simply held me close and said that I at least knew what he would do now. I felt so secure and safe in that moment. So happy. How does he always to this to me? How is it that he always makes me feel so, I don’t know? Any negative feelings or thoughts welding up inside, he doesn’t just make them go away he somehow manages to find the heart of them helps me find a way to change it. Like with my dark thoughts we talked through them, not just ignored them, or my feelings for Daruk and all the others who’ve passed, or my realization that what he pointed out I knew a hundred years ago. We explored and talked through all of them just like that night when I broke down and my conflicting feelings about my past and Mipha came pouring out. He never did anything for me or in my place, he supported me allowing me a greater chance to do it myself. Whenever he speaks of how great I am, that makes me want to do even better! Not just for him but for myself. I feel I have this self-motivated drive that I wouldn’t have if he hadn’t help me kick start it. He doesn’t simply get rid of things he helps to make changes that last. Sidon’s just so amazing. I wish No, what he’s done for me I will do someday for him! I’ll change his life for the better someday! I will be the Sidon to his Link! I try my best but what he does for and to me I can’t truly describe. I can only work towards being the kind of person whom could do the same for others, and for him.

As much as it would have been lovely to stay together longer, I could not just let Sidon stay here. I led him back to where the canyon and desert meet when the sun was rising. Before leaving he gently held my right arm and asked how it was fairing. It was behaving as usual honestly, it was much slower to heal than the rest of me, it still hurts even now honestly. He then closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on mine, asking me to be a little more careful, and to treat my right arm better because it seems to get injured often.

As he started walking away, he stopped, turning to me saying that he wanted to say one last thing. He said that whether I’m a Voe or a Vai I am adorable. He then paused for a moment before that toothy grin took hold on his lips, saying especially when I blush. He put a big emphasis on the ‘especially’ part. Then added that either way it doesn’t change the fact that I’m the greatest person he’s ever met. With that said he left me with a racing heart and my face feeling as hot as the desert in the afternoon. HOW DOES HE DO THIS!? I’M JUST THINKING ABOUT IT AND MY HEART’S RACING AGAIN!

I’m so happy and so scared to see him go. I believe that he should be safe in the domain, but he was with me when I killed the Yiga clan’s leader. They may target him. There are way too many ‘what if’s’ in this situation. Thankfully some Gerudo women agreed to travel with him so at least they have safety in numbers. Oddly enough, though I was worried about the Yiga in that moment I was more worried about how upset Muzu and possibly his father would be. He ran off without saying a word to anyone I believe.

On the way back to Gerudo town we bumped into Vilia. We chatted for a bit about what had happened and about Sidon. She remarked that we seem very close. It was a short chat though. I’m not exactly sure how long it’s been so I wanted to meet with the chief as soon as I could.

When I reached the audience chamber Buliara asked me what took so long, then said that it didn’t matter. The Chief had given me permission to see her in her room if she wasn’t at the audience chamber so not so willingly Buliara led me to the Chief’s room and stood guard at the door.

Chief Riju stood at the edge of a balcony which overlooked the whole town. She told me that she had been waiting for me. I was apologizing when she raised a hand and said that it wasn’t needed, after all, she was the one who requested that I get the helm back. She thanked me for saving that one guard. She then said that I must have noticed that she is a child. She said that people only look on her kindly but that in of itself hurts a little. She’d tried so much to prove to be worthy of her role to her people and herself. When the Thunder Helm was stolen she felt as if a shadow had fallen over her. She then said that my arrival amongst this chaos must have been the work of Lady Urbosa, the Champion of the Gerudo and a chief too. She then placed the helm on. It was a bit big, so she had to hold it up.

That helm… It lay by their sides on a few pillows. They sat on a blanket, looking out at the marvelous view of the night desert from so high up. Princess Zelda had fallen asleep on her shoulder. She said that I certainly gotten there fast. She told me Zelda was out surveying all day. Then she asked if we were getting along. After a few moments she said that it was okay, my silence spoke volumes. She told me that Princess Zelda gets frustrated every time she sees me with the legendary sword on my back. She feels like a failure when it came to her own destiny. She told me to not worry, none of it was my fault. She said that for her whole life the princess had gone through rigorous daily routines to show her dedication, there was even a time when she had passed out in freezing waters trying to gain her spiritual powers. Yet she has nothing to show for it. She said that’s what motivates her to do so much research. She then added that if she were in her place, she’d do the exact same thing. She said the princess was quite special as she placed some stray hairs behind the princess’ ear. She told me to make sure to protect her with my life, it was an honor to do so. She said that the nights here are freezing so it was time to take the princess in. She paused for a moment, smirking before snapping her fingers causing lightning to strike, startling the princess awake. Seeing her reaction, she couldn’t hold in that hearty laughter.

Chief Riju asked if something was wrong for I had been staring for a while. But then said that it didn’t really matter. She asked how it looked on her. I said it was a tad big. Then in that moment it slid off her a little. She swiftly adjusted it and started to speak of Vah Naboris. She said that within the time it took me to get back it’s reach had already grown exponentially. We could both see a massive sandstorm brewing not far off in the distance. The town, and the rest of Hyrule would very soon be in danger.  She told me that as chief it was her duty to protect her people and asked me for help. I obviously agreed. She commented on how funny it was that right before such a dangerous battle ‘hearing a simple, confident pledge of support from you would be what puts me at ease.’ Hearing that gave me a kind of joy I hadn’t felt before.

We left for a place called the ‘Lookout Post’ It was near the storm, but not quite caught up in it yet. There was her personal Sandseal, Patricia waiting for us. Sandseals are the creature used as transportation here since horses can’t run on sand. The rider stands on a large shield or something similar. You use straps to control the Sandseal. They swim though in the sand so a person can’t exactly ride on their backs. The plan was for me to shoot at Vah Naboris’ feet with bomb arrows. It draws it’s power from the ground so if we damaged those enough we’d probably get an opening to the inside. Chief Riju controlled the Sandseal and provided protection from the lightning by wearing the helm. The helm can provide some protection to the area around her so by both of us riding on the same shield I should not get hit by lightning.

Before the fight I changed into my Champion’s tunic since it’s my best armor. I at least wore some ruby jewelry since the sun was setting and it was about to get cold. Chief Riju was surprised to see me. She rarely gets to see voe since they’re not allowed in town. Yet though I certainly look different I wasn’t that different. Though I’m a guy I really liked being a woman for a while. Honestly, I’ll probably wear my Gerudo clothing when traveling even though I don’t need to.

We looked out into the storm and could just barely see the Divine Beast lurking within. It was pretty intimidating. When she asked once more if I was sure I was prepared I said of course. She really liked my confidence. She also told me that if I got too injured or struck by lightning even once she promised that we’d retreat to the lookout post. Though we were going into battle she didn’t want us to do anything reckless under any circumstances. It was then that we finally set off.

The wind was ferocious, and with sand being kicked up aiming and firing was nearly impossible. I was only able to get any shots in if we got extremely close. Lightning exploded all around us, and the crashing noises it caused was defining. I had to focus all of my effort into simply drawing my bow let alone shooting. I have no idea what would have happened should Chief Riju not have been there. Vah Naboris quickly became more aggressive, moving faster and making the storm more like a tornado. The Divine Beast even kicked out one of its legs which got me to fall off the shield. The Chief tried to come back for me, but the Sandseal was scared off and she too fell off the shield. It was about to stamp one of its feet on her when I tossed myself holding a Sheikah bomb at it. My head was ringing, and my body felt numb. Thankfully Sheika bombs don’t use fire or gunpower so all that hit me was just the force of the explosion which is much more powerful than a regular bomb arrow, but I had the sand to cushion my fall, so I was relatively fine. I tried explaining that to the chief, but she was furious with me for doing something to dangerous. Though this did not last long because we realized that Vah Naboris was now falling on us. I swiftly took her under my arm and booked it out of there. We just made it in time to not get crushed. The storm quickly subsided, and the lightning had completely stopped. But I knew that like the other Divine Beasts it wouldn’t stay down long so I went searching for an entrance. I told her that it would be best to return to town given the fact that going in there meant you’d have to fight a living nightmare but she refused saying that it’s her duty to protect her people, and if I continued to throw myself into danger then I’d die before appeasing Vah Naboris.

As we found an entrance it was already getting back up on it’s feet. Once we were inside, though our footing was steady we could still feel ourselves bobbing up and down with the Divine Beast which was such a strange feeling. A voice echoed about in my mind leading us to the guidance stone. This beast seemed to be much more open. There were so many places where I could see the outside from inside.

Whenever I had to fight, I had the Chief stay back. At one point she asked that when she was a little older if I could teach her. The Gerudo are known for being amazing warriors but she could be even greater if she could learn more than just the traditional Gerudo style. I wasn’t sure what to say. I believe learning different styles of fighting is important, but… The battle against the Calamity will be unlike anything I’ve faced before in memory, and last I faced it, I failed. So, how was I to say that I would even still be around to teach her? But I couldn’t bring myself to say ‘no’, so I agreed. I just feel awful now.

Each time we took back a terminal I heard confident words of affirmation and praise in my mind.

Soon all that remained was a control panel. Before placing the Sheikah Slate on it I told the chief that she needed to stay close to me. After placing down the slate for a moment I took the chief’s hand and ran as a mucked black and purple mist exploded forth from the control panel, then taking the shape of a disgusting creature wielding a sword and shield. With that same damned bright blue eye. The thing that had killed Urbosa a hundred years ago. It moved so fast it was simply a blur. Next thing I knew I was clutching the chief against my chest as that thing’s sword was swiftly pulled out of my side. I swung at it as much as I could before it disappeared. I was able to jump out of the way of its next attack while still holding the chief. It soon used lightning attacks which thanks to the chief we were unaffected by. It soon threw down metal rods. Lightning bounced across them, using the magnet ability I threw one of the rods at it, electrifying and shocking it. It was then I was able to land the final attack, finishing it off.

I asked her if she was alright to which she said she was, thanks to me. But she was extremely concerned about the wound I had in my side. I told her that as long as I ate something, I’d be fine. I quickly got back to the control panel and apologized to the chief for her having to deal with my body after I fainted. I then placed the slate on the panel. I heard foot falls behind me. She thanked me for freeing Naboris, and her. We could finally do what we set out to a hundred years ago which was a relief since Gerudo have no tolerance for unfinished business. She said that she’s been waiting for so long for me to rush Hyrule Castle, and for her to use Naboris’ full power against the Calamity. She knew how the princess and I both greatly suffered due to the after math of the Champions falling but that just was how things had to happen. No one need carry the blame. She asked me that I make sure that the princess understood that without a single doubt. To tell her to shed any worries. And to let her know that she couldn’t be more proud of her. Then she told me to take good care of her and Hyrule.

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[aion-rsa]

15 Underrated Game Boy Advance Games

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When the Game Boy Advance hit shelves in Japan on March 21, 2001, Nintendo was still riding the incredible success of the original Game Boy. After more than a decade of the Game Boy’s handheld dominance, though, gamers eagerly awaited the next evolution in portable gaming. The GBA delivered that evolution.

In fact, many features we now take for granted in portables like the Switch can be traced back to the GBA. The addition of shoulder buttons, full 32-bit color graphics, and eventually even built-in backlighting with the 2003 release of the Game Boy Advance SP were all lauded as welcome innovations and improvements. Sadly, the GBA’s time in the sun was remarkably short. Pressured by the upcoming release of the Sony PSP, Nintendo released the GBA’s successor, the Nintendo DS, less than four years after the launch of the GBA.

Yet, GBA games continued to be released all the way into 2008. The GBA is still fondly remembered for its excellent ports of games like Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and for helping launch new franchises like Mega Man Zero and Golden Sun, but its library was much more than just those major titles. Dig a little deeper into it and you’ll find that the GBA was also home to some truly excellent hidden gems that are still worth checking out 20 years later.

15. Urban Yeti!

2002 | Cave Barn Studios

Keep in mind that in the early 2000s, developing games for the GBA was much cheaper than making a console game. Steam wasn’t a thing yet, and cell phones could barely run Snake. So, if you were an ambitious young developer with a goofy idea and a dream, your best bet for making it happen was to put it on Nintendo’s handheld. 

Urban Yeti! is the type of weird, charming experience that typically only finds a cult audience on PCs nowadays. You play from a top-down perspective as the titular Yeti who is looking for his mate in a small city. Most of the time, the game plays like the first two Grand Theft Auto games with even more chances to punch random pedestrians. More importantly, finding a boombox starts a dancing freak out that clears the screen of enemies, and “missions” take the form of minigames inspired by titles like Toobin’ and Root Beer Tapper.

It’s weird and short, but always hilarious, and it’s unfortunately become increasingly obscure since its release.

14. Lady Sia 

2001 | RFX Interactive

Most of the platformers on the GBA were either fantastic SNES ports or dreadful licensed fare, but a few original titles do stand out. The first thing you’ll probably notice about Lady Sia is that it looks great. Its big, bright graphics were a perfect fit for the GBA’s small screen. The gameplay is also surprisingly deep and utilizes combos, magic attacks, and even the ability to shape shift into a sasquatch during boss fights. Yes, this is the second game on the list to feature a playable Bigfoot, but we promise it’s the last.

Lady Sia was fairly well received at the time of its release, and a sequel was even planned in 2003. Sadly, it was canceled due to a lack of funding. 

13. V-Rally 3

2002 | Velez & Dubail

The GBA was released at a time when the vast majority of console games were going full 3D. The GBA, however, was obviously built with 2D pixel games in mind. Those perceived limitations didn’t stop some developers from pushing the limits of what the handheld was capable of, though, as evidenced by the V-Rally 3 team managing to cram fully polygonal cars into the GBA.

Graphically, V-Rally 3 is undoubtedly the best-looking game on the system. Its surprisingly detailed outdoor tracks could easily be mistaken for an N64 game. You can even play the entire career mode in first-person. Thanks to some surprisingly smooth handling, though, V-Rally 3 proves to be much more than just great visuals. It may not look like much compared to modern racers, but it’s still the undisputed pinnacle of racing on the GBA.

12. Car Battler Joe

2002 | Ancient

Car Battler Joe is a decent RPG mixed with awesome car battling sections that elevate it above most of the GBA’s library. The story isn’t great (your father is missing and you have to find him), but the hook is that in this world, cars are a rarity. As such, you have to build your own Mad Max-style vehicle from spare parts found around the world and eventually battle other vehicles as you work to finish your quest.

That concept alone is begging for a sequel or spiritual successor. Sadly, most people have long forgotten about Joe, and even its re-release on the Wii U eShop in 2015 didn’t garner much attention.

11. Kuru Kuru Kururin

2001 | Eighting

Kuru Kuru Kururin is one of those puzzle games that sounds so simple in theory but ends up being surprisingly complex and a lot of fun. You play as a rotating stick (or “helicopter” in the North American version) that must make it to the goal at the end of a series of mazes. You control how quickly the stick rotates, and you’ll need to master that mechanic as the difficulty ramps up significantly in the later levels. This game remains a remarkably addictive experience until the end.

Though Kuru Kuru Kururin‘s core concept boasts nearly universal appeal, the game was only released on the GBA in Japan and Europe. A localized version finally made its way to North America in 2016 through the Wii U eShop, but Nintendo of America seems oddly stubborn about acknowledging the series. Neither of its two sequels ever made it out of Japan. 

10. Sabre Wulf

2004 | Rare

Most gamers say that Rare peaked during the N64 era with a string of successful platformers and shooters, but old-school Rare still managed to squeeze out a handful of classic games for the GBA after the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. Everything gamers love about classic Rare games is on full display in Sabre Wulf: the cutting-edge graphics, tight controls, and the trademark offbeat British sense of humor.

Unfortunately, Sabre Wulf didn’t find much of an audience. Prior to the release of this title, the Sabreman character hadn’t starred in a game in almost 20 years. The updated gameplay apparently didn’t appeal to older fans, and wasn’t innovative enough to attract younger gamers. It’s aged better than many other GBA games, though, and it’s certainly well worth a playthrough now.

9. Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars

2002 | Konami

While it was never as successful as Hideo Kojima’s other games, the Zone of the Enders series is still fondly remembered for some of the better action games of the PS2 era. Their unique mecha combat and Kojima’s flair for cinematic storytelling helped those games stand out from a competitive pack.

Unlike its console brethren, The Fist of Mars is a turn-based strategy game. That means it’s not nearly as fast-paced as the other Zone of the Enders games, but there is an aiming reticle for targeting enemies, so this is more action-oriented than the typical strategy game.

While Kojima wasn’t directly involved in the development of The Fist of Mars, the writing is surprisingly strong, hitting all the right dramatic and philosophical notes that mecha fans have come to expect from the genre.

8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2003 | Griptonite Games

EA released a couple of solid beat ‘em ups for consoles to coincide with the release of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the GBA versions are actually even better than those largely beloved adaptations. Like The Two Towers tie-in released a year prior, The Return of the King is basically Diablo in Middle Earth.

There are a whopping eight different playable characters pulled from the movie. Despite the technical constraints of the GBA, each of those characters plays completely differently. Aragorn is the classic warrior, Legolas is the able-bodied archer, and Gandalf uses magic to fell waves of orcs. They’re even all completely customizable with their own weapons and equipment.

Read more

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25 Best Game Boy Advance Games

By Chris Freiberg

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By Chris Freiberg

The GBA version of Return of the King still stands out as one of the best Lord of the Rings games ever made, and future games inspired by Tolkien’s books would do well take a few cues from it. 

7. Summon Night: Swordcraft Story

2006 | Flight-Plan

Thanks to lower development costs, the GBA featured many experiments that led to unusual combinations of genres. For instance, whereas many dungeon crawlers are typically slow, plodding affairs, Summon Night: Swordcraft Story sped things up through fast-paced, real-time battles inspired by the Tales of series. Battles in Swordcraft Story story are an absolute joy since you’re doing more than just scrolling through menus.

The sequel, released just a few months later on the GBA, is also worth checking out. Sadly, while the Summon Night main series is still chugging along, the Swordcraft Story subseries looks to be abandoned at this point. 

6. Klonoa: Empire of Dreams

2001 | Namco

For a brief period in the early 2000s, the Klonoa series felt like it was on the verge of becoming a household name. All of the games were praised for their tight, diverse platforming, and the series’ word of mouth was generally strong, but the games just never seemed to reach a large audience.

Empire of Dreams is a side-story set between the events of the two console Klonoa games. It features the same use of the “wind bullet” to capture enemies and the same creative level design as its console big brothers. While it can’t pull off the 3D effects featured in those games, impressive multiplane backgrounds and advanced rotation effects do help it stand out among the GBA’s crowded library of platformers. 

5. Rebelstar: Tactical Command

2005 | Codo Technologies

Don’t be fooled by the Rebelstar name: this is actually an X-Com game through and through. While there’s no base building or resource management in this GBA title, that classic tactical combat against an alien threat that defines the X-Com series can be found here in all its glory. Then again, what else would you expect? Rebelstar was created by the same guy behind X-Com, Julian Gollop.

Of course, this being a GBA game, Rebelstar’s visuals aren’t quite up to par with an X-Com title. In fact, some may find its more cartoony style jarring when paired with this style of gameplay, but Rebelstar certainly makes for a unique experience compared to the other tactics games out there.

4. Yggdra Union

2006 | Sting Entertainment

The final days of any gaming platform are a dark time typically defined by sporadic releases and shovelware. Yet, every now and then, a bright spot appears for those gamers who haven’t yet moved on to the next generation. As a deep mix of tactical RPG mechanics and card battles bolstered by some of the best 2D graphics on the portable, Yggdra Union is one of the better games released in the GBA’s post-DS era.

While the game’s story isn’t great, the regular banter between party members is charming, and there is a lot of content to keep you busy if the gameplay manages to hook you. A Switch port was even released in Japan last year, so keep your fingers crossed that it makes its way stateside. 

3. Drill Dozer

2006 | Game Freak

Game Freak will always be known for the massively successful Pokemon franchise, but the developer has occasionally dabbled in other genres. The best of those experiments has to be Drill Dozer: a game about drilling. Need to go forward? Try drilling. Backward? Also drilling. What about jumping? Yeah, that actually involves drilling, too. It sounds repetitive, but there are so many different ways use to Jill’s Drill Dozer that the mechanic actually never wears out its welcome.

It might be tempting to check out Drill Dozer via emulation, but it’s actually worth tracking down the original cartridge for this one since it’s one of only two GBA games to feature a rumble back in the cart. It adds quite a lot to the experience.

2. Astro Boy: Omega Factor

2004 | Treasure

A handheld game based on an anime that hasn’t been popular in the United States since the ‘60s sounds like a recipe for disaster, but legendary Japanese developer Treasure could do no wrong in the ‘90s and early 2000s. Like most of the games in the Treasure catalog, Astro Boy: Omega Factor features fast arcade gameplay, massive screen-filling special attacks, and some of the most beautiful sprites the GBA could produce.

Though Treasure was once a prolific developer, responsible for classics like Ikaruga and Sin & Punishment, the company has gone quiet in recent years. The studio hasn’t even released a game stateside in the last decade. However, a re-release of this gem could mark a great comeback for the legendary developer if the licensing could be worked out.

1. Ninja Five-O

2003 | Hudson Soft

Ninja Five-O should have been a system seller for the GBA. The game feels like a lost classic from the 16-bit era. It’s a beautiful combination of Ninja Gaiden and Bionic Commando bolstered by tight controls and an over-the-top story about a magic-wielding ninja who is also a cop. Anyone who has managed to track down a copy swears up and down that it’s one of the very best experiences on the handheld.

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Yet, Ninja Five-O was set up to fail from the start. It’s unknown how many copies were made, but it was nearly impossible to find one at the time of its release. Even though the game was developed in Japan, it was never even released there. Media outlets also barely covered it. Yet, the legend of Joe Osugi has only grown over the years, with complete copies of this game regularly selling on eBay for around $1,000. Even an authentic standalone cartridge will set you back several hundred dollars. You know what, though? It’s actually one of the few rare games that may be worth the price. It really is as good as you’ve heard.

The post 15 Underrated Game Boy Advance Games appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[jinmukangwrites]

(Don’t) Remember

Prompt

Summary: Wild was completely content going the rest of his life not remembering the past.

-o-o-o-o-

The first time Link has ever gained a memory, he vowed it would be the last. He climbed up to the base of Mount Lanayru and oh so innocently opened his Sheikah Slate to look at the picture, the memory. He remembers being excited. He had nothing back then, nothing but the few days he had gained since waking up at the shrine. There was a odd feeling that took over him as he compared the scenery to the picture, then he blinked and he found himself one hundred years in the past.

The memory was only a minute or two, but the moment he was back to reality, back in his own body, he kneeled over the vomited. He remembers feeling useless and terrified. He was that hero? He was supposed to stop that evil? It made him sick to his stomach, it made him tremble and shake and sob into the the cool dirt beneath him. He panicked and cried and stayed there for a very long time, trying to get ahold of himself. It was by luck the Lynel on the other side of the wall didn't hear him. He wouldn't have been able to defend himself.

He went back to Kakariko when he had finally gotten himself under some sort of control. He marched into Impa's house and told her he will save the princess, he will destroy ganon, but he does not need his memories to do so. Impa looked surprised, shocked even, that Link would refuse to remember any of the past, though she probably knew that there would be no changing his mind, so she simply nodded and told him to go free the Divine Beasts.

That too became difficult for Link to do. He remembers standing at a Zora girls stature and falling unwillingly into a memory about her healing him, about the hope she had that Calamity Ganon would be a simple story to tell to the future generations. Link tumbled back into his body and panicked right there in front of Sidon and that Muzu. He doesn't know if he lost respect that day, but he still was able to go to Vah Ruta and free it.

Then he was looking at a beautiful helmet sitting on the head of Riju and he could feel the memory coming. He couldn't prepare himself for when it smashed into him. He was forced inside the memory, forced to watch Urbosa and Zelda bond as he, the unwanted soldier, stood by. Urbosa had faith in him. She shouldn't have. He was just barely able to control himself when he returned to the present. After agreeing with Riju that they should head over to free Vah Naboris as soon as possible, he stumbled over to a quiet alleyway and let out the contents of his stomach and stayed there a long time, dry heaving and just barely managing to hold back tears.

And it was the same when he went to the Gorons and he saw that statue of Daruk. The same when he visited the Rito and looked at the landing pad. He was dragged into memories and he came out terrified and trembling and wishing he could forget. The memories were all too painful. They weren't worth it. He could swing a sword, the Master Sword even, just fine without them. He avoided the spots where his other memories laid and he continued his journey, his quest to get stronger, and finally he went to defeat Ganon.

He did it just fine without his memories.

"Tell me, do you really remember me?" She asked, and Link replied no, he didn't.

She seemed sad at that, but Link tried to comfort her to the best of his abilities. The old hero from a hundred years ago was dead, but Link now is alive and he would like to get to know her on his own terms.

And he did, and he never regretted it.

But, little did he know, there was another surprise memory waiting to be stumbled upon. The worst one.

The one of how he died.

-o-o-o-o-

They are at the Dueling Peaks Stable. After traveling for so long, the simple stable seems like such a blessing. Wild certainly is relieved to see it. Everyone are in low moods from the large amount of traveling they have just suffered through, most of them are starting to get snappy and full of complaint. Thankfully, just a few minutes of sitting and resting at the stable improves the spirits of the group dramatically.

Wild sits down at the campfire and happily begins to set up for dinner. Wind, Sky, and Hyrule follow after the stable master where he shows them how to care for the sheep. Four is laying in the grass, smiling joyfully as his eyes close contently. Warrior and Legend are enjoying a passive aggressive game of cards. Twilight and Time are inside the stable, setting it up with the second stable master of how to arrange beds and blankets with the sudden amount of guests, or more like trying to discuss how to pay for that. They're being demanded to pay more money because of their excessive amount of numbers. The stable isn't even relenting to Wild being there.

"Did you think you'd get a discount just because you have Link with you! Hah!"

Wild isn't surprised by it at all, in fact, he expected that to happen. Hyrule now is ran by survivors, if they see an opportunity to make a quick rupee, they'll take it. Time and the others aren't used to that. They're used to order, to something having a set value, and Wild will admit that even though they are going to get cheated, he still finds it amusing how much the dirty methods of his Hyrule throw everyone off.

The day passes lazily, yet no one complains about it. Soon enough, Wild has finished a rather large batch of smoked Hyrule bass for everyone in the stable (except for the stable masters of course, they'll have to give them a fair price if they want food). Since there are not enough tables for everyone, Twilight, Time, and Warrior all dragged large pieces of firewood out into the field and set them up around a campfire. The group sat in a circle together as a cool breeze began to blow across the land, as the blue sky began to turn darker and the first stars dare to show.

Wild stuffed a bite of fish in his mouth and sighed in content. It's hard being the cook because you get to smell the food while it's cooking and not get to eat it.

"So, Hyrule and I were walking around," Sky says suddenly and everyone looks up to him except for Hyrule himself; he's a bit busy taking large bites of his fish, so he just nods, "and we saw a herd of wild horses."

"There's a lot of them here," Wild replies. "They're rather tame here too, easy to catch."

"That's why Hyrule and I were thinking we try to catch a few, it would make traveling quicker."

"And easier," Wind mumbled and took a bite of his meal.

"That's a good idea," Time says as he wipes his mouth of the miniscule amount of grease that got on his lip.

"It's going to cost us some more rupees," Wild points out, "the stable can harness the ones we catch."

"We can afford it, you're fish saved us a lot of rupees," Twilight says, grinning. Wild grins back and looks back at the stable where the two stable masters are begrudgingly eating their own meals inside with the rest of the stable dwellers.

They talk a bit more about their plans for the next day and how much time they will need to capture nine horses, Wild says he can catch one per minute and no one believes him. They decide to head to Kakariko Village, it is the closest bit of civilization to them and Kakariko is something most of them have in common. The sun is completely gone now and the moon is beginning to rise as they chat.

They call it a night and gather into the stable. The stable masters have pulled out extra mattresses and every blanket they had so they could make enough sleeping spaces for everyone. Wild lets the stable dwellers get the beds and the group of heroes fall asleep, content, on the absurd amount of blankets on the floor. Well, except Warrior and Wind, they were hoping for beds. Time also is a bit grumbly about it, but that's just because he played the price for nine beds, not nine blanket nests.

-o-o-o-o-

"HYLIA, CURSE IT!" Legend screams as a beautiful blue and white stallion notices him sneaking up on it before running away.

Wild chuckles as he pets the nose of the black mare he had just tamed. In under a minute even. Twilight also managed to tame a horse, though his method was a bit barbaric. He wasn't expecting Twilight to full on wrestle with a horse while wearing iron boots. The mad man. Time at least had the decency to tame his horse normally.

"This place is creepy," Twilight says as he looks around the field around them. His newly captured brown and white spotted horse flicks its ear and he pats it's shoulder.

Wild hums in agreement and glances at their surroundings as well. The field itself is beautiful, it is large and filled with lovely and healthy green grass and hundreds of colorful wildflowers. What made it creepy is the maybe hundreds of lifeless guardian corpses that littered the land. They have no explanation, none of the stable dwellers know how they got there or what has killed them all. Wild didn't really care about it, whatever happened occurred a hundred years ago. Before his time.

The sound of Legend's cursing breaks through the air as Warrior gallops past on a beautiful white steed. He's grinning smugly, as if he's already planning how to rub it in Legend's face that he caught a horse first. Another Horse gallops up and Wild can see Hyrule riding on it with Wind sitting behind him. Wild hopes that their plan to get Wind a horse wasn't to launch Wind off the back of a running one, but judging by their determined looks as they got ever closer to a horse innocently munching on some wild flowers... It is clear that that is their plan exactly.

Four walks up to Wild and sits down next to him breathing hard. "I'm too small," he says, panting. Sky joins them, chest heaving as well.

"They're.… Too fast…." He says between breaths.

Wild rolls his eyes. "You guys aren't doing it right." He walks his horse over to where Time is grooming out the tangles of his horses mane. "I'll show you how it's done," he says.

Time agrees to watch Wild's horse as Wild takes off towards where a beautiful cream colored horse was nipping at the grass. Sky and Four follow along.

Legend swears again and the mare he's been chasing for the past hour streaks further away. "Legend!" Four calls out, "Wild's going to help us! You should come too!"

Legend shoots a glare over to Four and Four wears a satisfied smirk. Wild scoffs at the banter and tries not to laugh.

"Go!" Time calls out, smirking just a little.

Legend looks like he's about to refuse, but then he looks back at his runaway horse and his shoulders sink. Just like that Legend, Four, and Sky are following Wild over to the next hose.

Wild stops a small distance from the horse and crouches down ever so slightly. "Okay, first you have to make sure the horse isn't facing you."

Four elbows Legend in the stomach playfully and Legend mumbles curses under his breath. "Make sure you remember that," Four snarks.

Legend looks like he's about to argue, but then Wild hushes him with a raised eyebrow. Once it was quiet, Wild continues.

"Now, you would sneak slowly up to them, and when you're close enough you jump on. Then, comfort it so it doesn't buck you off. It's easy. Watch-"

He begins to move slowly and silently through the grass, but the horse snaps its neck behind it when Sky accidentally steps on a twig. The horse makes a distressed neigh and sprints off in the opposite direction.

"Sorry," Sky mumbles.

Wild smiles and stands up. "C'mon, let's go find it."

He runs off over to where the horse disappeared to. With the others following behind, he runs over a hill and is about to run down it when he sees the horse still again as it sniffs the flowers, but… something suddenly feels off about the area. More off than normal.

He looks down to where two guardian husks are innocently enough lying toppled on the ground and he finds himself breaking off from the others.

"Wild, the horse is that way," Legend grumbles but Wild is now ignoring them. Something… something was off. Very, very off.

He stops at the bottom of the small hill and looks at the two guardians and his mind starts to go blank. He panics when he realizes what's happening. How has he stumbled upon a memory? He has pictures of them all, and they're all places he had found so he can purposely avoid running into them. This one isn't in there.

He wants out. He wants to scream and scramble backwards because he doesn't want to know what happened here. He doesn't want to know what happened one hundred years ago. He doesn't want to know but his body is stuck, his eyes are staring at the husks and grass is tickling at his shins and Four is asking if he's alright. He would cry no, he's far from okay, if he could find his tongue. The edges of his vision is turning white and he has one final thought of terror before he's plunged into a world of fire.

-o-o-o-o-

He aches. That's the plainest way to say it. His whole body just aches. It aches as he deflects another Guardian from hitting Zelda behind him. It aches as his shield shatters. It aches as a deadly laser explodes along his side and sends him tumbling to the ground.

"Link!" Zelda screams. He can't... He can't fail her now. Not after all they have worked for. "Link, run! Get away from here, I'll be fine…"

He coughs blood into the ground but forces himself to his feet once again with his sword held out. The fire licks at his legs and his whole left side is burning like it's on fire. He can't feel his left ear. He vaguely realizes that it's been melted off.

"Link," Zelda says again, probably through tears, but he can't turn and look because there's another Guardian climbing on top of two dead ones and it's glaring it them.

He can feel his heart jump to his throat and he desperately tries to blink blood out from his eyes as the Guardian rears up and activates it's laser. Link will take this, he will take this blow for Zelda so she can run. She's too important, so important. So, so very important.

The guardian is about to fire and Link is about to close his eyes to accept his fate, but Zelda pushes him out of the way, screaming. The world tips below him and he desperately tries to find his footing. Everything explodes into beautiful golden and Link stares wide eyes at Zelda who has a glowing mark on her hand, who is killing every guardian with each pulse of golden light that erupts from her palm. He sees the guardian flicker sadly before it collapses. Zelda relaxes her posture and looks at her hand like she's surprised.

Link has just a second to think how proud of her he is, how he's not surprised, before he collapses too.

"Link? Link!"

He can feel his body being shaken and it takes all of his strength to keep his eyes open long enough to see her face, begging him not to go. To stay. To help her. "You're going to be okay, Link, we'll get help, we'll-"

Link can only smile a fraction at her before his consciousness is ripped away from him with the sound of her horrified gasp. Everything goes black.

-o-o-o-o-

"Wild?"

He's forced back into the present and he can feel every last scar on his body burn. He stumbles back, looking at the fallen Guardians in a new light that he did not want.

A hand touches his shoulder and he flinches back violently as the realization of what has happened hits him. He's just remembered something, he remembers his death. He bends over and pukes.

"Woah! Wild?!"

He tries to take a deep breath but he can't. His scars are on fire, he can feel each tendril of scarred tissue along his whole body painfully clear. He forgets to stand, and he falls to his knees and bends forward so he's leaning on his elbows, his forehead touching the ground. He's heaving for breaths and everything is so quiet but so loud at the same time.

For a second, he thinks it's like the first time, but then his stomach rebels again and a whimper is forced from his throat as his whole body twinges in agony. The air is too thick, he can't take any in, but he's desperately trying to. He hacks acid from his throat, his breakfast already out of his stomach, and he's about to continue to dry heave until he feels something touch his shoulder.

He flinches. Danger. There's danger. He has to fight- he's always fighting-

He scrambles onto his feet and pulls out his sword, facing the blurry figures in from of him. He blinks and they're Guardians, he blinks again and it's Calamity Ganon, then is Bokoblins and with each breath the enemy shifts and Wild... Link is terrified.

He swings his sword when a figure gets to close, but his weapon is instantly blocked. He can hear yelling through the ringing in his ears and he continues to fight. He has to fight. Protect Zelda. Don't die don't die don't die.

Arms wrap his arms and chest from behind and he's forced to drop his sword. He's locked against the chest of the surprise attacker and it sends his fear through the roof. He screams and kicks his legs back desperately but the restraining hold doesn't relent, it just gets tighter.

Everything is spinning and his body feels so heavy. He unwillingly slumps against his captor. He tries and fails to keep tears at bay. He can feel himself losing consciousness and he wants to fight it, he really does, but… the blackness sounds more comforting than reality.

-o-o-o-o-

Wild wakes up slowly, likes he's trying to swim through mud. Everything hurts, his chest, his head, his arms, and he almost wants to give back into sleep, but there's someone holding onto his hand.

"Wild? Are you awake, cub?"

Wild opens his eyes and blinks at the stable ceiling. He doesn't recall falling asleep here. He groans and lifts his hands to his eyes, rubbing at them until he could see clearly.

"Wild?"

"Hmm?"

He turns his head and sees Twilight sitting at the side of the bed, worry pulling his eyebrows together.

"What happened?" Wild asks. He holds back a hiss of pain as he begins to pull himself up so he's sitting.

"You tell me," Twilight says through a half-hearted chuckle. Wild gives him a look and Twilight clears his throat, sadness overtaking his features. "You… were attacking Legend, Sky, and Wind."

"W-what."

Twilight sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. "Wild… do you remember what happened at all?"

Wild remains silent for a few seconds, wracking his brain, until he does remember.

He remembers everything.

"Oh," he chokes. "Oh."

"No- cub, don't cry-"

But Wild is. He can feel the tears running down his cheeks as he his whole body loses strength. He slumps back down so he's lying and he brings his hands to his face. He silently let's his tears fall.

"Cub, it's okay, you're okay-" Twilight's hand goes down gently on Wild's shoulder but Wild flinches. He hates that he flinches, especially to a touch from Twilight, but the thought of touch sends nausea bubbling into his stomach. Twilight's hand whips back like he's been burned. Wild doesn't know why that hurts him so much.

"What happened?" Twilight whispers.

Wild shakes his head against the back of the pillow.

"I'm sorry."

[supercilium-sulcos]

Fragile Peace

[ Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. ] Chapter 1/5 Words: 1204 Rating: T (for canon-typical action and violence in later chapters, romance) Warnings: spoilers for the entirety of BotW. Link/Zelda eventually. >> AO3 << Summary At last, the storm has passed. The time has come to rebuild what was lost. Zelda takes the future of her kingdom into her own hands, but there are some who still linger who wish to see her mission fail. The princess and her knight find that, even with Ganon gone, evil still lurks in Hyrule. [ Post-BotW ] Chapter 1: Stability Darkness. Putrid and chaotic, it swirls around her. She fights against it with all she has but it seeps into her pores. Corruption. It’s spreading – it always is, but it’s spreading to her now, too. She bats it away like it’s a leech. It burrows deeper. Darkness is not the absence of light, her mother’s journal had said. It is a testament to the existence of light. Know this, and you can conquer any shadow. Never had the light felt so far away. How is she supposed to believe in what she cannot see? How can she fight the embodiment of evil when it exists in everything around her? It is not water. It is not tangible. But the darkness rises to her chin, and she knows it will drown her. She takes in a deep breath, just barely remembering to close her eyes, the darkness rises – rises -- Zelda snaps upright. 

Chest heaving, cold sweat soaking her clothes and sheets. Numb hands feel her arms and face for any signs of corruption. All she feels is her own clammy skin. Where am I? she nearly asks aloud. It’s dark, but not the kind from her nightmares. Starlight and torches illuminate a bit of the large, circular tent. Zelda shakes when she holds her breath again. Anxious eyes comb through the entirety of the tent. It seems there are no other occupants but for one Hylian – the stable master, who has fallen asleep in his chair at the desk. From the open tent flaps comes a faint orange glow. Zelda fumbles with the covers and follows the light. He sits with his back to a woodpile in front of a fire, twiddling a charred stick in the flames. Just seeing him there, relaxed as he is, keeps her panic from building. If Link senses no danger, then she is safe. Perhaps someday her subconscious will understand that. “You can’t sleep?” she wonders. Link lifts his head to see her. He shakes his head. “Neither can I,” Zelda says unnecessarily. She finds a patch of grass to settle down on beside him, cradling herself in her own arms. Eyes close. She is exhausted. It’s been weeks now and she has yet to sleep through the night. At first, it was from the relief. She was alive, Link was alive, Ganon was gone forever. Order had been restored. She had so much to see, so much to learn from her century-long absence. But relief flickered away into nothingness. Ganon’s destruction had not rid Hyrule of its scars, it had not brought back her loved ones, it had not cleansed her of her hundred-year fight. Zelda left the ruins of her home believing that it was all over and she could rest at last. But night after night, she finds herself back in the bowels of the castle, fighting. And failing. A whoosh hits her ears and a warm fabric sweeps around her shoulders. At first, she thinks it’s a blanket. She peeks out, touches the cloth, and she realizes it’s Link’s travelling cloak. It’s worn and frayed at the edges, but the material is thick. It smells like Epona. It probably smells a bit like sweat and dirt too, but it’s been a while she since had a proper bath herself; she’s acclimated to it. Zelda huddles up and tugs it around her for warmth. Only once it envelops her does she realize how much she’d been shivering. She shuts her eyes again, hoping she might feel rested without giving herself to slumber. “Aren’t you cold now?” she murmurs. Link reaches for her hand beneath the cloak. His thumb swipes the back of her hand, parallel to her knuckles. It’s one of his tracing signs that he taught her so very long ago. A horizontal line for no. A cross for yes. She’s not sure if he plans to pull his hand away; Zelda squeezes it between both of her own, and he lets her. Somewhere out in the plains, crickets hum and the grasses sway. Fire crackles, logs splitting and charring to keep the night at bay. A restless horse snorts in its stall. Zelda rests her head on his shoulder. He breathes, his heart beats. The wind blows his hair against her cheek. All these things, she thought she appreciated. Zelda knows better now. Because now she knows how easily this serene night could be shattered. Once, this could have lulled her to sleep. Now she is afraid that she may wake to find it’s slipped through her fingers again. “Is Kakariko far from here?” No, he swipes again. “Let’s go, then,” she says. “We’re awake. The weather’s fair. Why not ride?” A swipe back and forth – a very firm no. Zelda lifts her head, hoping she is not too delirious to be indignant. Link frees his hand from hers to speak freely. You need rest. Epona, too, he signs. “I’m fine, I’m…” She rubs at her eyes. Bites back the yawn building in her throat. Warmth has stolen her sense and made her drowsy. If she had the energy left, she would fight it. “I’ll rest once we reach Kakariko.” Link only looks at her. He is not one for smiles, and he has none for her tonight. He nudges her drooping head with the corner of one knuckle. She makes a tiny noise of discontent… and realizes how much she sounds like a child. When he throws a bucket of water over the fire, she does not protest. She does not complain when he picks her up, or lies her atop the sheets of her cot, or tucks her under the covers. For a moment, only a moment, she thinks his fingertips might linger on her hair. She hears a footstep, and knows he’s turning away. Leaving her. She grabs his sleeve. The sound that leaves her is… anguished. Zelda wishes it were not so – it ill befits a princess to show so much weakness. She has lived through worse than this. Yet the thought of him leaving now, just when she is about to be consumed by her night terrors in Ganon’s maw once more… her courage fails her. “Please,” she begs weakly, “don’t go.” Link carefully pries her hand from his arm and sets it down on the bed. He walks away. Tears well up in her eyes. She is so exhausted, her strength is sapped, and all she has left is this weakness and terror. Zelda has never felt so alone in her life. From the corner, she hears… rummaging? The waking world is fast fading, but Zelda opens her eyes to peer out at the tent. Link has closed the flaps and secured them. He walks towards her with a wooden chair under one arm. The chair falls to her bedside, and Link sits down. His hand closes around her wrist. The touch is gentle, but it calms her. He gazes into her eyes, and she needs no words – verbal or not – to know what he’s thinking. I’m here. You can rest now. And it brings her some comfort to know – even if she’s plagued with another night of twisted dreams, she will wake with Link by her side.

[ashleyswrittenwords]

How To Be A Queen [Part 13]

Summary: Princess Zelda is at a loss. Her handed royal responsibilities have begun to weigh heavily on her and she is eventually backed into a corner. Live a life she loathes or run away from everything she’s ever known? Navigating life is hard, and Link forces her to learn that she doesn’t have to do it alone.

Warning: Mentions of PTSD. Fluff.

Previous

Next

Part 1

How To Be A Queen

We had walked through the night in mostly silence. There were times where we would stop because I felt lightheaded; other times he would loop an arm around me to hold me up. Link suspected I had lost more blood than I previously described. I didn’t stray far from his side nor do I think he would let me. When we reached the stable not much was said. We parted at the innkeeper’s desk where I wandered towards the back. He didn’t leave for long and when he came back his hand lightly touched my forearm to guide me to wherever the bed we had rented for the night.

There wasn’t much said between us. The exchanges we did have were short and pointed like when we opted for a partially hidden trail instead of the main road. When my body did hit the bed, I shut down. The noise of the inn quickly faded in the background and I dreamt of nothing. It wasn’t a sound sleep either and when I did stir awake my muscles ached as a cruel reminder of my eventful night.

Daylight filtered in through the window at the side of the bed and I could hear the dull chattering of the innkeeper at the front. My wrist pulsed, but as I brought it up to my face I noticed the wrappings were fresh. An attempted to wiggle my fingers was mostly for naught. They were numb and the tightness of the bandages held them steadfast. The sheets melted to my waist as I sat up, careful to be easy on myself.

A snore brought my attention to the edge of the bed. Slumped over with crossed arms, Link leaned onto the bedframe. His entire body moved upward and I stifled a laugh. The night must have taken a toll on him as well, I had never heard such deep snoring from him until now. Swinging my feet over the bed, I sat next to where Link sat and brought a hand to his hair. I gently ran my fingers through the blond locks.

My memory of last night was still fresh and I knew there had to be a discussion about it. It would happen sometime and someday, but that wasn’t now. Right now, I wasn’t going to dwell on it. All I wanted to do at that moment was live in it.

His hair tangled around my fingers and I found blue eyes staring up at me.

“I’m sorry,” It came out as a whisper, my voice was scratchy and hoarse. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Link shook his head slightly to negate my apology. Birds were chirping outside, and he sighed, “I think this is the first time we’ve slept in.”

“Oh, yeah? I believe we should do it more often.”

His laugh was breathy as he stood, tugging at the waistband of his pants. “How do you feel?”

“Actually,” I wiggled the fingers of my numbed hand. “Not horrible.”

He quirked an eyebrow, “Good enough to start crossing the country?”

My face must have given away my concerns because he grinned. Even if I didn’t feel as bad, I felt like I had been trampled by a horse with how sore I was. As much as I hated to say it, I wasn’t ready to start walking miles through Hyrule. Link sat next to me on the bed, procuring a blue coat. He was probably sitting on it.

“I had woken up earlier and a fur trader had come by. I didn’t think you’d want to be walking around with a bloodied coat,” he spoke, handing it over. I took it gingerly; the texture was a rough colored leather on the outside. The inside, however, was a soft brunette fur that felt warm to the touch. Touched, I smiled softly at him.

“Thank you.”

I wrapped my arms around him suddenly. Admittedly, it was an awkwardly positioned hug with an effort to keep my wrist unbent. Despite that, he reciprocated, bringing me closer. Warmth engulfed me and I felt content against all odds of the recent events. His breath was hot on my ear, “You’re welcome.”

My face flushed, but I stayed put. The embrace was more healing than any bandages in the world. An unsaid sentiment hung in the air. There was so much I wanted to say, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to verbalize it. The captain and I had grown closer whether we consciously realized it or not.

 We had mutually decided to pay for a horse from the stables. According to the keeper, there was a network of sister-stables the entire route to Gerudo Town. That suited us perfectly. We could switch out horses and have a free stay at the inns for as long as we were paying for the service. My wrist prevented me from being able to properly ride a horse and it was questionable what the temperament it would have.

“Are you cold?” Link asked behind me. The brown mare trotted along the path without needing too much guidance from Link, so we had switched positions where I had the reigns instead.

“No. Only my cheeks are cold,” I replied. He made a noise saying he understood, and we slipped into a comfortable silence that was filled with the sound of hooves on dirt. Familiarity crept in. I had always loved horses and I think Link knew the same. He was forced to follow me on short horseback rides whenever I could force them in. The area where we could ride at the castle paled in comparison to what was around us now. The air wasn’t as piercingly cold as it was last night. I dare say it was even nice. It was hard to be too cold when there was a human heater right behind you. I smiled at my thoughts, mulling over how better this was versus traveling alone. After not too long, I zoned out with the motion of the mare’s steady jostling movements.

In my mind’s eye I was alone.

Walking along the same path with a darkened sky in the same grey coat. Then there was the sound of hooves behind me. I couldn’t run fast enough because my legs weren’t moving. Nerissa was there. She was laughing and taunting me.

It hurt to breathe.

It hurt to move.

It was like the galloping horse was on my heels.

I jolted awake and whipped my head around to find her. I could hear Link saying my name, but it didn’t register. My heart was pounding and my bloodstream was full of adrenaline. I looked behind us to find – nothing.

Nothing but an empty road.

“Zelda!” Link repeated my name except this time my eyes snapped to his blue ones which were staring down at me with alarm.

“They-They were following us and,” I swallowed, realizing I had been hyperventilating.

“No one’s following us,” he said with his arms around me to keep me from falling off the saddle.

I shook my head fervently, “But, the woman! She was there and… and…” Words seemed to come out in short spirts, but they died down in due time for Link to slowly take to reigns from my hands.

“Do you trust me?”

I almost turned around to look at him incredulously. “I- yes, I do.”

“They aren’t following us. No one is, Zel,” he insisted.

I let out an unsteady breath, forcing myself to trust his words. With a tired wave wash over me, I leaned back into him, “I think I’m going crazy.”

“Not crazy,” I watched as his hands tighten around the reigns. “Those people assaulted you when you were vulnerable for no reason other than avenging their politics.”

He paused and I looked up to see why. Link seemed angry, not unlike the unfortunate night before. I didn’t like him like that. His brow smoothed and he spoke again, “Sometimes when people experience… very shocking things, they aren’t equipped to handle the side effects. Like when a child first loses their family pet. They’re parents are supposed to prepare them for situations like that so they can learn to process those experiences before they happen. That doesn’t completely prepare them for when it happens, but it helps them process why. Does that make sense?”

I nodded, watching him as he watched me. He spoke slowly, trying to formulate his thoughts coherently. Something in his speech told me he was just as shaken as I was. Link looked back towards the road and continued. “Sometimes there isn’t a ‘why’ that makes sense to us. Like… when someone important dies in front of you. There are rational reasons that we look towards. Sickness, age, and so on. But when those reasons end up being more complex, like war, they begin to break down. The questions start to multiply, and we end up making up own whys. When you want to process things, you just end up shutting down.”

Link stopped to look at me. “What did you go through to sound like such a wise old man?”

The corners of his lips quirked upward, “I got the privilege to be around old fools for the last few years. It’s inevitable that I’ll turn into them.” His eyebrows raised, “Although, I didn’t expect it to be so soon.”

A smile brimmed my cheeks and I laughed.

Link shrugged, “I had to learn things like that quick. If I didn’t, I would have been left behind.”

“When?”

He didn’t respond immediately, “When my battalion reached the Gerudo region. We were ambushed. By then, we hadn’t adjusted to the guerilla tactics the rebels were using. I had seen people die, but I hadn’t seen anyone be killed before that.”

“I’m sorry,” my voice sounded meek compared to his. Link pulled at the reigns softly and the mare slowed. He then dismounted by swinging his leg over, holding onto my hips for a small moment. I knew in my head he only meant to steady the saddle, but I wanted to believe he did by choice.

“You know,” he chuckled lightly, “You should learn to stop apologizing for things that aren’t your fault.” The horse started following Link’s lead and with the extra room I scooched back on the leather.

“Well,” I started defensively, “I was doing nothing then! Father was only delegating people around. There might have been more diplomatic means.”

“First of all, you were what? 14? You can’t be hard on yourself at that age. Everything was out of your control. And though your ability to talk situations into going your way is what I admire about you, it wouldn’t have worked then. The Gerudo rebels were,” he sounded uncomfortable, “immune to diplomacy. They had been convinced the Hyrulean crown was stifling the Gerudo race from prospering again and their own rulers were puppets. They wanted to devolve back into a fascist war state.”

Embarrassment struck me. “Why don’t I know about this?”

“I think your uncle likes to sugar coat issues like this,” he said, “It’s one of the few things I disagree with him on.”

I felt frustrated, “So what is he going to do when I’m queen? Give me a crash course on modern world issues and throw me into the thick of it?”

“I don’t disagree.”

There was a moment filled with quiet.

“But Zelda,” Link spoke up, looked directly at me suddenly. His eyes looked to be a mixture of sadness and resolve.

I hummed back, snapping out of my thoughts.

“Whatever happened back there,” he began, seeming to put emphasis on each word as if he had recited it. “Whatever unforgivable thing they did to you, I need you to talk about it.”

I swallowed harshly and looked away. The piercing eyes of the woman flashed in my head.

“It doesn’t have to be to me, nor does it have to be now. But please,” my eyes found his. His forehead was creased, and I felt tears prick at my eyes. “Please promise me you’ll do it eventually.”

My nodding seemed to satisfy him. I could see the amount of pressure he felt about what had happened, but he didn’t pry further and the topic withered away.

 The last of the sunset flickered away and the shadows engulfed everything around us but our humble campfire. The mare was tied to a barren tree branch and had a long blanket draped over her per my request. Next to our fire, Link laid out a makeshift sleeping bag. It was dubious just looking at it, but the fire crackled on promising warmth and a small escape from the night’s frost.

Link motioned towards it, “You can sleep, I’ll keep watch.”

“No, I think I’ll be doing the watching,” I said, apparently much to his dismay. He wasn’t the most rested man in the world to say the least. Dark circles hung under his eyes and when he didn’t think I was watching, he changed into a dead man walking with the exhausted expression on his face. As expected, Link denied my own rejection. “But I want to keep watch. I’ll wake you up when I’m done.”

I rolled my eyes, “At dawn? You look like you just crawled out of a grave. Please go to sleep, Link.”

He gave me a look that said he wouldn’t let up. “As your princess and future queen, go to sleep.”

“Are you serious?”

I held in a laugh; the soldier appeared more like a pouting toddler. I crossed my arms, “As serious as sin.”

From my seat on the ground, I gazed up at Link. He waited several moments to see if I was going to budge on the matter, but I was indignant and soon his shoulders dropped in (what I hoped was) defeat. He mumbled something about waking him if anything strange happens. As he shed off the sheath buckled onto his belt and his boots, I looked away suddenly feeling perverted.

“Zel?”

My heart lept in my chest and I looked his way. He was pulling the covers back.

“Wake me up if-“

“Go to sleep, Link. A zombie can’t protect me.”

He made a face and I grinned, looking at the flames instead. Time went by steadily and I fed the fire with a stray patch of sticks. It was difficult to find ones that the melting snow hadn’t reached yet. Link was evidently a deep sleeper because my walking around had left him unbothered. At one point I had tried picking up his sword, but I couldn’t manage to unsheathe the blade. There was a small latch that held it steadfast and my numb fingertips were useless. Not to mention that I couldn’t lift it up without using both hands.

With a tinge of frustration, I opted for an abnormally large stick and sat back down by the fire at the foot of where Link slept. The covers moved up and down with his breathing. The stars above took on a different glow tonight and I traced their shapes with my eyes. I found the brightest trio of stars that represented Hylia and reminisced on what Impa had told me and a child. Just to the right of the last star was where the ancient hero was supposed to be immortalized.

It was one of my favorite tales in my childhood, I think I made Impa and Mother tell it a hundred times over before my bedtime. A smile crept onto my face; it was such a preposterous legend. Centuries upon centuries ago, the goddess and a hero fought valiantly against a formidable demon king. Hylia had bestowed upon to the hero her sword. They fought valiantly side by side, but in the final moments the hero was fatally wounded. The goddess wept and for the first time felt what it meant to be mortal. In a desperate attempt to save the remnants of the kingdom she suspended Hyrule in the skies. In order to vanquish the demon king, Hylia tied the hero’s fate to hers in the hopes of returning in a different lifetime. By doing that, she gave up her immortality. As time crawled on, the people of this place forgot about the ground below.

My craning neck felt cramped, so I rested it on the mat and prayed Link wouldn’t kick my head in his sleep. The story felt hazy as I recounted it in my head, maybe Impa had it written down somewhere. Nonetheless, somehow the goddess’s incarnate was captured and the hero had to return to the ground. With the power of Hylia unveiled once more, they defeated the enemy together. Amidst this, Hylia realized her love for the hero. My mother recounted that they live together in the heavens, watching Hyrule from above. Impa, however, says that with the hero’s fate tied to the goddess’s mortality they would live countless lives together until the end of time.

I decided long ago that I liked mum’s ending better. It didn’t matter though. The story was just that – a story and nothing more. Father had always detested those tales. He said they filled my head with fantasies. Yet he listened adamantly to Impa’s prophecies like gospel.

There was a low whisper coming from Link, “Zelda?”

I propped myself up with my elbows and looked at Link, who was sitting up and looking at the moon. Worry casted over me, “Did I wake you?”

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, “No, but we should switch. Sunrise isn’t far away.”

I wrangled with my boots, but the ending to the tale gnawed at me. It must have shown because when I was peeling off my coat and he had sat next to me, Link inquired about the inquisitive look on my face.

“Do you know the story about the goddess and the hero?” I yawned, crawling to the head of the blankets. He watched me with an eyebrow raised, “The one with the flying island?”

A chill snuck under my layers and I eagerly pulled the covers over me, reveling in the warmth from Link. “Do you remember how it ends?”

“The guy and the goddess get married or whatever,” he said it haphazardly and arranged another log onto the fire. I sat up, disgruntled, “I thought you were more eloquent than that.”

His fingers combed through his hair as he scoffed, “That’s more of my sister’s forte. I never had the patience to sit through the songs the bards played.”

“You don’t think it’s romantic?” I smiled sleepily, “Hylia gave up her immortality for him. It was one of my mother’s favorite stories.”

Link laughed softly at me. His smile reached his eyes, “As your escort, sure. As me, I think the hero should have defeated the evil king the first time around. Go to sleep, Zelda.”

“You know, the lords have escorts for other reasons in Castle Town.”

“Go to sleep, Zelda.”

[bunnybbomb]

Trying Tie Tie Loose Ends (Catharsis Continuation): Chapter 8: Trust and Doubt

SUMMARY: Princess Zelda leads a group of Zora to Kakariko Village, with the intention of helping the Oracle Knight find a cure for his deformed eyes and gain better control of his ability to see the future. Brivere’s newfound trust with Link has been shaken, and neither are sure if they can recover from it. Problems arise when Brivere has a troubling vision and later a nightmare, both hinting at something ominous to come.

(A fic for the sidlink fic Coma Baby, a continuation of the other one I made called Catharsis!)

This is a fanfiction for a fanfiction called Coma Baby by BanishedOne on AO3 (tumblr: @banishfics / @banishedone), and a continuation of the other one I wrote called Catharsis. If you like a grumpy Link and really well developed, deep characters and an amazing take on the political structure of the Zora Domain, then definitely check out Coma Baby! It’s a long read and still going on, but the writing and descriptions are superb and it just means more great content. This fic in particular is focused on my favorite character in the series, the OC Brivere. You don’t need to read the whole series to get what’s going on in this fic though, since a lot is explained in here.

I post memes and fics for Coma Baby on my tumblr, you can chat with me any time about anything! I also post all chapters on my AO3 account BunnyBob!

Huge thank you to my amazing beta reader Alina! Her tumblr and ff.net is @ipromiseitsnotanobsession. She actually does editing shit for a living and she is the one that makes sure these things aren’t trash, so

Disclaimer: In no way does this have any true ties or canon to Coma Baby unless stated otherwise. It’s really just an indulgence AU to feed my obsession for Brivere drama.

Brivere tensely glided through the water with the Hylian Champion sitting on his back, legs clenched around his chest. No one was saying anything, not Link, not the other Zora guards ordered to accompany them, not even Princess Zelda as she followed them along the river on top of Crazy Girl. And although his younger brother was mute, even Estuu was unusually on edge as he swam next to Brivere.

It was obvious as to why everyone was so restless. All of them had been there when the usually gentle Prince Sidon had harshly ordered that Brivere was to go to Kakariko Village for treatment. And while none of them had personally witnessed the fight that had occurred between the Prince and the Hylian Champion when Link had dragged him off afterwards, it was obvious from the way the two of them glared at each other from across the throne room before Brivere’s departure.

Link technically wasn’t supposed to be with them anyways. Apparently, he had tried to talk Sidon out of sending the golden knight away. But because he couldn’t provide any real explanation as to why and refused to tell his secrets, Prince Sidon had quickly gotten frustrated and had ordered the Hylian off of the entourage.

He was only on Brivere’s back at the moment because he had met them near the river and claimed that he needed a ride to Kakariko Village completely by coincidence. Zelda was too tired to argue.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, Princess Zelda slowed Crazy Girl down and signaled for the Zora in the water to stop. Apparently, aside from Link, Zelda was the only other person to have some control over the psychotic horse. Perhaps even Crazy Girl could sense the authoritative and holy aura that the princess always gave off.

Bazz nodded at her and quickly stopped, treading water. “Alright! On the command of the Princess we will stop here for the night!”

“Yes sir!” the soldiers chanted back. Noticeably, Estuu, Link, and Brivere were the only ones in the river who didn’t respond. One of them was mute, the other one was a Hylian and technically not under Bazz’s command, and the other was pissed.

Admittedly, Brivere was less than amused that the Guard Captain had been put in charge of the expedition along with Zelda, instead of himself. The two of them still had an awkward relationship thanks to their past interactions, with Brivere and Estuu not giving medical aid to Bazz’s now dead friend and Bazz not giving proper rations for Estuu’s sensitive dietary needs. So technically, their dickish moves evened out.

But that had been a long time ago, and they had now settled into a more professional persona when around each other. Also, Bazz was apparently a childhood friend of Link and the two of them were very close as a result.

No, the irritation lay more with Prince Sidon.

While he appreciated Sidon’s concern, Brivere was annoyed that the prince had suddenly pulled a power move and used his position to force him to go to Kakariko Village against his wishes. Prince Sidon also wasn’t listening to him or Link, absolutely stubborn and stuck on his decision. Sure, maybe they weren’t exactly providing the most precise answers, but he could at least try and sense that something wrong was going on.

“Do you need help, Oracle Knight?” one of the soldiers asked, holding a clawed hand out to Brivere. He remembered her always working in the palace, coincidentally being everywhere he was. They often had polite conversation, so he remembered her name: Alon.

He shook his head. “No, but I appreciate the offer.” he grunted as he pulled himself out of the water. That was the other thing that bothered him. When Prince Sidon had told the other guards to follow them to Kakariko Village, apparently he had made Brivere’s condition seem much worse than it actually was.

It was clear when Alon nodded but still held her arms out, hovering around Brivere as if she was afraid that he would collapse any second. He almost lashed out and smacked her hands away but then he remembered that it wasn’t her fault.

Looking over at Link, he didn’t know whose fault it was.

Sure, maybe the prince was being a bit too cautious for his liking. But they wouldn’t have even been in this mess if Link had just come forward and told Sidon about his immortality and skepticism towards the Sheikah and Princess Zelda.

Link raised an eyebrow, catching the golden knight’s stare. “Something wrong?”

“…No.” Brivere said curtly, turning to walk over to a nearby tree. He slumped up against the rough bark and slid down to sit on the dirt ground, trying to ignore how the other soldiers were glancing over at him in concern. Estuu plopped down right next to him, already cracking open his copy of The Cursed Girl.

Shrugging, the Hylian sauntered over to sit down in front of the brothers. “You know,” he said, absentmindedly dragging his fingers through the dirt, “we’d already be there by now if someone wouldn’t be so stuck up and pretentious about our transportation methods.”

Brivere sighed. He still didn’t understand the tension between Link and Zelda, and while he wanted to trust his friend, he also didn’t want to have preconceived notions about the princess without getting to know her and her side first. “It is alright. While Zora can swim fast we still tire out. Having a rest stop for the night will recover our strength to continue our journey tomorrow.”

“Yeah, but you guys are literally fish people made for the water!” Link cried out, throwing his hands into the air. “We could be resting for the night in Kakariko Village if you guys were just allowed to swim as fast as you usually do!”

“Yes, but we must accommodate for Princess Zelda.”

“She can just ride on your backs like I do! I sat on Sidon’s back while taking out Vah Ruta, for Hylia’s sake, she could easily go down a river!” Link looked back over at the Princess, who was trying to tie Crazy Girl to a tree and failing miserably. “She won’t even let Crazy Girl go wild! My lady could probably get there even before you guys could.”

Brivere tittered, trying to ease his friend’s anger. “I have no doubts of that. She nearly trampled Prince Sidon when I asked you to battle him so long ago.”

A wide smile stretched across Link’s face at the memory. “Wish she could do it again, really. Wipe the smug look off of his face.”

“Are you two going to be alright?” Brivere asked. “I heard you had quite the argument and I would hate for your side of the relationship to be in ruins because of me.”

Link sighed and aggressively raked his fingers through his blond hair. “It’s fine, you’re not the one in the wrong. I guess it’s my fault. After all, this whole situation is because of me. I still haven’t told him about the whole immortality thing yet.”

Brivere stiffened up and glanced over at his younger brother, who didn’t even look up from his book. Catching onto his apprehension, Link leaned in. “It’s fine. Estuu knows. I told him way before I told you, when you made me follow him around to see where he went when he skipped class.”

“That was years ago!” Brivere exclaimed, ogling his younger brother. Estuu flicked his golden eyes up and shrugged before returning his focus to the book in his hands.

Link laughed. “Yup. I also asked him to shoot me in the head with an arrow to test it out.” Brivere’s jaw dropped open as he scanned the Hylian’s rugged face for a scar or any trace of evidence.

“It’s fine, he didn’t actually do it.” Link admitted.

Brivere shook off the Hylian’s casual display of recklessness and silently thanked his brother for not partaking in it. He supposed that he could understand. If Link was actually immortal, there would be no harm in trying to test out its limits.

But as the three of them continued to silently sit there, doubt began to creep into his mind. He glanced over Link’s body, trying to see if there was any hint of past brushes with death. It didn’t help that the Hylian’s muscled body was covered with wounds, some of them so old that they were already faded, while others were fresh and still bleeding a little. But this was to be expected, as the Hylian was a fearsome warrior that picked a fight with anything that happened to move and sometimes even things that didn’t.

Although he had promised to trust Link, Brivere wished that he at least had some sort of undeniable proof to back up the Hylian’s claims of immortality. He did find it suspicious that he kept having visions of the Hylian dying, and unlike similar visions of watching others perish, Link would somehow just reappear and continue along the web of fate. But Brivere wasn’t certain if this was actually a sign of immortality or just a mistake due to a lack of control over his ability to see the future. And not only did Link insist that he couldn’t die, but it was also a power forced on him by crazed Sheikah scientists. Apparently it had damaged his friend both physically and psychologically until he nearly went insane.

And now they were headed to Kakariko Village to ask for help from said crazy scientists, who would be given full medical control of the golden knight’s body.

As much as Brivere wanted to believe in his Hylian friend, he silently hoped that this would be one thing that Link was wrong about.

;

Nighttime had fallen by the time they had finished setting up camp, which was really just two shoddily set up tents for the Hylians near the river where the Zora soldiers would sleep. Brivere sat by the edge of the water, silently watching his younger brother’s scarlet body bob gently beneath the surface.

It was fairly quiet at this point of the night. Most of the soldiers were already sleeping in the water, their black and blue scales shining in the moonlight. Guard Captain Bazz and a couple other guards were on the first watch shift. Princess Zelda had turned in early, and Link was not far away as he talked to Crazy Girl, which made him seem crazy as well since he was casually chatting with an angry horse.

Yet even in the calm lull, Brivere couldn’t help but feel the scales on the back of his neck prickle, as if a hand was closing around his throat. He quickly whipped around, aggressively pointing his longsword at a shadowy form approaching him from behind.

“Oracle Knight!” Alon yelped, holding up her clawed hands. “I am so sorry to disturb your peace!”

Brivere frowned and quickly retracted his blade. “No, I should be the one to apologize. You have done nothing wrong, Alon.”

A shy smile stretched across the black Zora’s face. “Ah! You remembered my name! I am so honored!”

“Of course. You have always been a dedicated soldier and you were even polite enough to hold casual conversation with me back at the palace when many others would not.”

Alon’s head tail wagged excitedly in response. “I am so honored to receive such praise from the Oracle Knight! Please, may I sit next to you if it is no trouble?”

Brivere nodded, patting the ground next to him. She quickly plopped down into the dirt, putting her legs in the water and eagerly kicking them around. Nothing about Alon stood out except for her energetic personality, which clashed against the serious way that most Zora soldiers carried themselves. Other than that, she easily blended into the crowd being of average height and body width. Even her black scales were a common color amongst most soldiers her rank.

Both of them quietly sat there for a few moments, letting the sound of gentle currents hold a conversation in their place. Finally, Alon spoke up, turning to Brivere with her golden eyes shining with curiosity.

“So!” she said. “I do not intend to be rude, but can you truly see the future?”

Brivere stared back at her in confusion. “Yes?” he replied hesitantly. “I would not have this position otherwise.”

“Sorry, sorry!” she yelped, quickly smacking a hand to her face. “I apologize! Of course, that is so obvious!” They fell into an awkward silence before she tilted her head back up again, peering at him from the corner of her eye. “I suppose that I just worded it wrong. Forgive my rudeness, I was actually just trying to ask how the process works.”

Humming, Brivere relaxed his shoulders. “It is quite hard to explain. I do not believe that I am the best person to speak of it, as I do not have full control of my ability yet.”

Her head snapped to look directly at him. “Nonsense! While you may not have full control yet, I am confident that you will eventually! In the meantime, may you tell me what it feels like?”

Brivere hesitated before giving in and responding. It was hard not to get caught up in Alon’s infectious excitement. “I suppose… the closest I can compare it to is the water, but perhaps that is due to me being a Zora and so I am be biased.” Alon giggled at this, making him ease up a little more. “It depends on how much control I have. Images will crash around in my mind, and I can either allow them to drown me or gently carry me around. Those images melt into scenes of the future. But it becomes overwhelming when they all play at the same time, lapping over each other. I am working on becoming more focused.”

Alon nodded thoughtfully, humming as her legs continued to kick in the water. “If it is not too much to ask, may you give me a demonstration?” Alon politely asked.

If it were anyone else, Brivere would have been fed up and annoyed with the conversation at this point. But Alon’s genuinely pure curiosity swayed him, and he found himself nodding slightly. “I cannot guarantee that it will immediately work. But I will try.”

The black Zora quickly nodded her head, retracting her legs from the river and curling into a ball as she quietly stared at Brivere with wide eyes. He chuckled at her childlike wonder before closing his own.

He reached a clawed hand to touch his father’s choker. Technically, any physical touch with the silver collar would send him into a downward spiral of overwhelming visions, but he wore normal armor underneath to allow him to wear it without having a mental breakdown. Brivere didn’t necessarily wear the choker to show off his title as Oracle Knight but rather because he wanted to have a piece of his father with him at all times.

As expected, the usual flurry of images crashed into his mind. No matter how many times he had done this, it never lessened in its intensity. He quickly focused on the first scene he could find, trying to soak in the information before he collapsed from the effort.

Alon flinched when Brivere’s hand suddenly shot down from the collar and his head flew back. “Are you alright?!” she exclaimed, grabbing onto his shoulders. “I am so sorry! This is my fault!” He waved her away, blinking his eyes to adjust to the darkness inside of his visor.

Pointing a clawed finger out to the river, Brivere grunted. “A red fish is going to jump out of the water over there.”

Snapping her head to where he was gesturing at, Alon stared wide-eyed at the water, waiting for something to pop out. Several moments passed as an awkward silence fell over them. She opened her mouth to ask something, but the words were caught in her throat as a bright red fish gracefully leaped out of the water and splashed back in.

“Amazing!” she cried out. “You are a gift from Hylia herself!”

Brivere flushed, unused to such praise. “…Thank you.”

She quickly turned back to him with a wide grin stretched across her face. Something about it seemed unsettling. “This is simply a miracle! Your gift will prove to be very useful! I do not understand why you waste your talents on the royal family and those Hylians!”

Brivere scowled and abruptly stood up. “Do not speak of my lord like that.” he spat, turning to walk away. Alon shot up onto her feet and ran in front of him, a crazed look in her eyes that made the smile across her face seem extremely disturbing. “You are wasting your time here! You literally have the power to predict the future, yet you continue to bow to a useless royal line because of their blood?! Princess Zelda and the rest of those Hylians have deeply mislead you!”

“I will not tolerate such slander!” Brivere snapped back. “Alon, what has gotten into-!”

The words were cut off when images suddenly slammed into his mind the second that Alon grabbed onto his wrist. “You must simply come with me!” she cried, tightening her grip. “We can show you your true potential!”

Panic. Darkness. Bananas. Pain. Shock.

Brivere roared, whipping out his sword and randomly slicing it through the air. He didn’t realize what he had done until Bazz ran over, covering the open wound on Alon’s arm with a cloth.

“What in Hylia’s name happened?!” the Guard Captain cried out.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Alon cut him off. “It is my fault, Guard Captain! I startled the Oracle Knight while he was having a vision and he accidentally lashed out!”

Bazz looked over at the golden knight with disgust. “No Alon, you are not at fault.”

Brivere stared back at the Guard Captain. “That is not what happened.”

“Then do you care to explain yourself?”

Brivere grunted, trying to keep his usual straight face. “Alon asked me to demonstrate my ability, and I obliged. Out of nowhere, she began to slander the royal family and Princess Zelda, then tried to grab me and pull me away. But when she touched me, I had a vision and…”

Bazz’s brow shot up. “And? What was the vision of?”

He cringed. “It is hard to explain. But I do know that Alon is not to be trusted.”

The Guard Captain let out a long sigh and rubbed his temple. “Oracle Knight,” he said, exasperated. “I have known Alon ever since we were children. While we were not exactly close friends, she was a pleasant acquaintance that went through the same military training as I did. She is as dedicated to the Royal Family as the rest of us.”

Brivere stepped forward, trying to convince him of the truth. “No, but she-!”

Bazz held a hand up. “It is alright, Oracle Knight. Prince Sidon warned us that this may happen. We were all well aware of your condition when we signed up for this.”

He let out an incredulous laugh. “Oh? And what is that condition?”

“The eyes, for one thing. Mental breakdowns, passing out, aggression, hallucinations, the like. You most likely just imagined the whole thing and accidentally attacked the first person who came near you, which is why we must get you to Kakariko Village immediately. Not just for your safety but for everyone else around you as well.”

Brivere glared at the other Zora. “I. Did. Not. Imagine. It.” he spat. Bazz glared back and stepped closer, making their brows nearly touch. A growl hummed in their chests as they stared directly into each other’s golden eyes, daring the other Zora to make the first retort. Alon glanced at both of them, trying to come up with something to diffuse the situation.

“What’s going on here?”

The three Zora turned to look at Link, who had suddenly appeared by their side, brow raised. “Master Link,” Bazz said, kneeling down on one knee to come to eye level. “The Oracle Knight has had an episode due to his powers and accidentally lashed out at one of our soldiers.”

“I told you that was not what occurred!” Brivere snapped. “I used my ability, yes, but she started babbling about nonsense and insulting the royal family. When she grabbed me, I had a vision. She is not to be trusted.”

Bazz rolled his golden eyes. “Yet he will not share exactly what the vision entailed, so you can see why I am a bit skeptical, Master Link.”

Link looked at both of them, and Brivere’s heart sank at the thought that his Hylian friend didn’t believe him. “Bazz, make a medical tent for her and heal her wounds.” Link said, pointing to a clearing off to the side. The Guard Captain nodded and gently led Alon away, eyeing Brivere as he left.

“Hylian Champion…” Brivere said, hesitantly. “You believe me, don’t you?

He hated how long it took for Link to barely nod his head. “Come back to my tent for tonight, Brivere.” he urged.

Anger flared up in his chest. “No. I refuse. Why did you not defend me when the Guard Captain accused me of being insane?”

“Because I knew that it wouldn’t do anything!” Link hissed back. “No one is going to believe us if we don’t have concrete evidence! I should know, Sidon would barely listen to me when I tried to get us out of this mess!”

Brivere’s mask was as cold as ever. “And what good that did. You didn’t even tell my lord about your immortality or suspicions of the Sheikah scientists! Do you not trust your own lover with such crucial information?”

Link grunted. “That’s not it. I trust Sidon whole-heartedly. He was the first person I could ever open up to and actually care about after I woke up from my coma.”

“Then why am I the only one who knows about your immortality aside from my younger brother and the Sheikah scientists who gave it to you?!” Brivere spat back.

The Hylian glanced down, suddenly interested in the mud clinging to his boots. “Look,” he said quietly. “The problem isn’t my trust in Sidon. It’s Sidon’s reckless trust in everyone else.”

Brivere arched his brow, forgetting that the gesture would be obscured by his visor. “What do you mean?”

“Admittedly, it’s one of the few flaws that I absolutely despise about him.” Link said. “He is way too trusting and nice for his own good. All you have to do is simply exist and that idiot is willing to put everything on the line just for you.”

The golden Zora nodded. It certainly was one of the more infuriating aspects of being Prince Sidon’s personal knight. He was forced to watch his beloved prince get taken advantage of by too many people who just wanted to abuse his kindness. The large red dork once even tried to get rid of a Lynel by peacefully negotiating with it.

But they both knew that they couldn’t hold that trait against the prince. If it wasn’t for Sidon’s patience and boundless love then neither of them would have ever been given the time of day, or even be dating him at the same time, no less.  

“And that’s just the problem.” the Hylian continued. “I know that if I tell him, he will believe me. But then he will believe Zelda, and then King Dorephan, and everyone else who tells him otherwise. He is too gentle to say no and too naïve to believe that there are more sinister things lurking within those you least expect. Sidon just took the offer for medical help at face value and didn’t even investigate into it further.”

Both of them stared at each other as the question that had been blazing inside of Brivere for days finally came to a roaring crescendo, becoming an inferno that threatened to burn him alive if he didn’t set it free.

“Link.” he said carefully. “What exactly made you decide to trust me so much in the first place? What makes me so different from my lord?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question and the rare use of his name from the golden knight, Link hummed as he racked his brain for answers. Finally, a shuddering sigh deflated his small form as he looked back up at Brivere. “I guess it’s just because I know that you’re just like me.”

“…How so?” Brivere asked. “May you please elaborate?”

Link grunted, raking his dirty fingers through tangles of blond hair. “You and I aren’t like Sidon. We are broken beyond repair and can barely show genuine kindness like he can.”

The golden knight tittered. “Am I supposed to take this as a compliment or something?”

A smirk stretched across the Hylian’s face. “No, asshole. I’m just trying to say that we have been fucked over so many times that we have built up a wall to keep everyone out. To stop them from hurting us and leaving our bloody corpses out for the bokoblins.”

Brivere nodded. He couldn’t argue against the truth. His own infamous emotionless mask was already all of the evidence that he needed.

“I know that we didn’t have the best start.” Link admitted. “I punched you straight off a bridge once for Hylia’s sake. But after that, I watched us slowly take down each other’s walls, brick by brick. And I like the Brivere that I found hiding underneath all of the fancy silver jewelry and armor.”

He had always waited for the perfect moment to quote Betaal’s favorite comeback. “Are you going to finish sucking my dick first or are you going to get to your point?” Brivere asked, trying to keep a straight face.

His indifferent mask cracked when Link’s blue eyes flew wide open as he gawked at the usually stern golden knight, jaw agape. Both of them let out low, muffled chuckles that exploded into full-on laughter that shook their bodies and nearly toppled them onto the ground.

“Look!” Link wheezed between gasps for air. “I’m just trying to say that trust doesn’t come easily to either of us. So I knew that if I told you my suspicions, your trust would be genuine. Your trust just like mine. It takes a lot to earn it, but once you do, it’s the strongest damn thing in the world.”

As both of them settled down, Brivere repeated his friend’s words over and over again in his mind. He couldn’t help but agree with the Hylian’s statements. The golden knight could easily count the number of people he completely trusted on Estuu’s only hand, but he knew that he would do anything for each and every one of them.

And the Hylian Champion was included in that count.

Link was the first to recover from his fit of giggles, straightening up as he patted Brivere on the arm. “Do you trust me enough to not stab you in your sleep if you sleep in my tent tonight?”

Chuckling, Brivere nodded. “I trust you.”

;

           A sickeningly white mask.

           A blood red symbol branded into its surface.

           An upside down eye.

           A single tear falling upwards.

           A shining blade, plunging into bright blue eyes.

Brivere shot up into a sitting position, breaking out into a cold sweat as he gasped for breath. A lightning bolt of pain shot through his back, as if someone had sliced into his skin along his spine. His eyes were burning in his skull as they frantically searched the inside of the canvas tent for something.

Someone.

His sudden movement woke instantly woke up Link, who grabbed onto the golden knight’s shoulder. “Brivere!” he exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

Without responding, Brivere smacked the Hylian’s hand away, scrambling to grab his silver scale longsword before bolting out of the tent. Link sat paralyzed on the cot, staring after him in confusion before his senses caught up to reality.

“Brivere!” he screamed, tossing aside the sheets to run after him.

The golden knight didn’t hear the Hylian’s shouts behind him, his senses completely taken over by something else. It felt the same as when he was asleep. His body was out of his control and it felt like he was just watching himself from afar, as if he wasn’t the golden Zora that was desperately running through the woods. He didn’t know what exactly he was looking for, but all he knew was that it needed to reveal itself immediately.

Zora soldiers that were sleeping in the river shot up at the Hylian’s shouts, ogling Brivere as he sprinted past them. Bazz’s eyes went wide as he realized where exactly the Oracle Knight was heading. “He’s going to Alon’s medical tent!” he shouted as he pulled himself out of the water. “Restrain him before he hurts her again!”

“Yes sir!” they shouted, following after the Guard Captain.

Everyone was now chasing the hysterical Oracle Knight, who was running towards the medical tent like his life depended on it. And as far as he knew, it really did.

Alon jumped in her makeshift bed as Brivere tore the feeble tent down from the trees, exposing her to the open night air. “Oracle Knight!” she yelped. “Please, what are you-!”

Brivere cut her off as he pointed his longsword to her throat, pressing its sharp edge into her scales until a little bit of blood trickled out from under them.

“I will not hesitate to kill if you do not immediately reveal yourself.” he growled.

His distorted eyes pierced into her golden ones from the slits of his visor, seeing the eerie calm that hid beneath her mask of faked fear. He was so focused on it that he completely ignored the Zora soldiers that were still rushing towards him from behind.

“Oracle Knight Brivere!” the Guard Captain shouted. “Cease this at once!”

Bazz would have tackled the wild golden knight to the ground if his Hylian friend hadn’t done that exact same thing to the black Zora first. Both of them slammed into the dirt with Link on top of him, and before Bazz could say anything, a hand was roughly pressed onto his shoulder, pinning him down. The other guards ran around them, still charging at Brivere.

“Call off the other soldiers Bazz!” Link screamed in his face.

“But the Oracle Kni-!”

Link smashed his fist into the ground next to the Guard Captain’s head. “Now, Bazz!”

The black Zora gulped. “All soldiers stand down!” he hesitantly shouted.

They all immediately stopped, looking back at the Hylian Champion, who was still holding their Guard Captain down. Even Brivere looked over his shoulder, trying to see what was going on. “But sir!” one of them yelled back. “The Oracle Knight is not in his right mind! His condition has only worsened and has corrupted him!”

Link got up from Bazz’s chest with a blazing glare, making them all flinch. “Have more faith in him!” he scowled at them. “He is one of the strongest warriors in the Zora Domain, with the ability to see the future, for Hylia’s sake!”

He then turned to focus on the golden knight ahead of them, whose sword was still drawn to the cowering woman beneath its sharp point. “Brivere!” he yelled. “Do what you believe is right! I’ll back you up!” Gratitude blossomed in the golden knight’s chest at his friend’s absolute trust.

Alon gaped at the other soldiers, who were all hesitantly twitching in place. "You guys!" she cried out, eyes wide. "The Oracle Knight has gone insane! Prince Sidon warned us of this, you have to help me! He's going to kill me!"

None of them moved, save for their eyes glancing back at the infuriated Hylian Champion that glared them all down, effectively anchoring them into the dirt. Even Bazz slowly got up, nodding at Brivere to continue.

Confidence soared through the golden knight's body as he nodded back, turning to glare down the blade at the cowering woman trapped beneath it. "Last chance." he said in a frighteningly steady voice, pushing the sword a little deeper into her throat, not enough to cause too much damage but just enough to make the threat clear as day.

He could feel the weapon in his hands tremble from how hard Alon was shaking. It almost made him reconsider his brash actions, but the way that her golden eyes were completely calm made him all the more sure that he was doing the right thing.

"Oracle Knight!" she yelped, holding her hands up. "Please, it's just me, Alon! Snap out of it!"

"I had a vision. You are not Alon."

At this, her face contorted, quickly switching from fear to amusement. "Oh." she said in a sickeningly sweet voice. It felt like syrup, disgustingly slithering around in his head. "I suppose I should have anticipated that. Then again, isn’t that your whole thing?"

Alon slowly stood up, still allowing Brivere's sword to pierce her neck as she rose. She smirked at him, staring down the blade at him as if it was just a minor inconvenience. "You think you are the one to make demands here?" she purred. "I think I'm the one in charge, really. I'll even give you a choice: either you come with me willingly or I take you by force. No matter your reply I still intend to bring you to the rest of my clan."

Brivere reeled his sword back before harshly slashing at Alon. She disappeared into a puff of smoke and reappeared behind him.

"BRIVERE!" Link screamed. The other Zora soldiers all stared in shock as Alon's body suddenly transformed into that of a smaller warrior covered in black cloth, with a white mask bearing the red symbol of an upside-down crying eye obscuring their face.

The golden Zora quickly whipped around, slicing at the imposter who simply danced away, forcing Brivere to follow them as they nimbly dodged his attacks.

"All soldiers assist and protect the Oracle Knight!" Bazz shouted.

"Yes sir!" The guards yelled back in unison, rushing forward with their silver spears pointed at the new threat. Link charged as well, drawing out his sword and screaming a ferocious battle cry.

The imposter looked back at the stampeding soldiers, and although the mask covered their face, it was obvious that they were amused. They looked back at Brivere and continued to weave between his attacks.

"Will you come with me or not?!" they gleefully shouted, ducking under his sword.

He scowled back, swinging his weapon even harder. "Never! My life lies with the royal family and Prince Sidon of the Zora Domain!"

"Then don't say I didn't warn you!"

Before Brivere could process their words, the other warrior had whipped out a shock arrow from behind their back and stabbed it into his arm.

As he felt his body seize from the electric currents, fire blazing through his veins, he could see Link and the other Zora soldiers still running at them with panic branded into their faces.

“Brivere!"

The golden knight tried to stay standing for as long as he could, but eventually lost control of his body and felt himself begin to collapse. Before he could hit the ground, the imposter reeled back and launched onto Brivere’s stomach, knocking all the air out of his lungs as they both disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

[ask-the-swapfell-crew]

the real 666 follower special (aka a trollpasta reading by swapfell sans and papyrus)

(have 2 trollpasta stories kids :D)

SF!sans:DO I REALLY HAVE TO DO THIS

(yes)

SF!sans:ALRIGHT JUST GIVE ME THE PAPER

*they throw the paper for him*

SF!sans:THE STORY IS CALLED ZELDA’S DEATH...................................................................... *he just stares at bunny mun and then he reads*

I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO FINISH THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME, BUT I COULD NEVER FIND THE KOKIRI SWORD WHEN PLAYING ON MY DAD'S WII. BECAUSE OF THIS, I DIDN'T PLAY THE GAME FOR ABOUT 2 YEARS.

WHEN MY 13TH BIRTHDAY FINALLY CAME AROUND, I ASKED MY DAD TO GET ME THE GAME FOR MY 3DS. AS SOON AS I DISCOVERED THE SHIEKAH STONE AND FOUND THE SWORD, I LOVED THE GAME.

I BEAT THE GAME WITH 16 HEARTS, 3 BOTTLES, AND MOST OF THE GOLD SKULLTULAS. I UNLOCKED MASTER QUEST, AND IMMEDIATELY STARTED PLAYING IT. I GOT TO THE POINT WHERE ZELDA AND IMPA ARE ESCAPING ON A HORSE AND ZELDA THROWS ME THE OCARINA OF TIME. I DIDN'T NOTICED IT THEN, BUT GANONDORF DIDN'T RIDE BY ON HIS HORSE. I WALKED OVER TO THE WATER, DOVE DOWN TO GET THE OCARINA, AND GOT ON THE DRAWBRIDGE.

THAT'S WHEN IT HAPPENED:

GANONDORF RAN BY ON HIS HORSE, TAKING THE OCARINA OF TIME AND THE THREE SPIRITUAL STONES FROM ME. HE SENT A BOLT OF ENERGY AT ME, SENDING ME FLYING BACKWARDS. IT SHOWED LINK LYING THERE, CLOTHES TORN AND HIS MOUTH DRIPPING BLOOD. I KNOW MASTER QUEST IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT THAN THE REGULAR QUEST, BUT I KNEW THAT THE ONLY BLOOD EVER SHOWN IS GANONDORF'S. THE NEXT SCENE WAS GANON (I'LL JUST CALL HIM THAT FROM NOW ON) BLASTING ZELDA'S HORSE, TURNING IT TO BONES. GANON GRABBED ZELDA, KILLED IMPA, AND BROUGHT ZELDA BACK OVER TO ME.

SHE WAS CRYING HER EYES OUT. GANON HELD HER BY THE THROAT, AND SAID TO BOTH OF US,"YOU WILL NOT THWART MY PLANS AGAIN, CHILDREN. I LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES. THE MIRRORING OF THIS LAND HAS GIVEN ME A SECOND CHANCE - AND NOW I WILL DESTROY HYRULE."

HE TIED A ROPE AROUND ZELDA'S NECK, AND DRAGGED HER INTO HYRULE TOWN BEHIND HIS HORSE, HER SCREAMING AND LEAVING A TRAIL OF BLOOD BEHIND.

I WAS FINALLY ABLE TO CONTROL LINK AGAIN, BUT IT WAS STUCK IN FIRST-PERSON VIEW AND THERE WAS BLOOD ON THE SCREEN LIKE IN CALL OF DUTY. I WAS ABLE TO WALK SLOWLY, SO I TRIED TO GET AWAY, BUT NAVI JUST SAID, "WE NEED TO SAVE THE PRINCESS FROM THAT HORRIBLE MAN! WE CAN'T JUST LEAVE HER!"

I KNOW BY NOW I SHOULD HAVE ALREADY TAKEN THE GAME OUT, MELTED IT, AND THROWN THE REMAINS IN A FIRE, BUT I WENT INTO HYRULE TOWN.

AS SOON AS I ENTERED THE PLACE WITH THE ONE GUARD, I LOOKED OVER AT WHERE THE GUARD SHOULD BE. ALL THAT WAS LEFT WAS A ROTTING CORPSE. I TRIED TO GO INTO THE ROOM, BUT TEXT POPPED UP SAYING, "THERE IS THE SMELL OF DEATH COMING FROM THE ROOM. YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T OPEN IT. GO IN ANYWAY?" IT GAVE ME THE OPTIONS "YES" AND "NO". I STUPIDLY SAID YES.

I WALKED IN THE ROOM, AND THERE WERE THE ROTTING CORPSES OF GUARDS EVERYWHERE. I THOUGHT I COULD SMELL THEM, AND THEN I REALIZED SOMETHING - I COULD SMELL THEM? I IMMEDIATELY LEFT THE ROOM, AND HEADED INTO THE MARKETPLACE. EVERYONE WAS DEAD - THE MOB OF PEOPLE, THE OLD LADY, THE LATE GUY, EVEN THE COUPLE THAT REALLY NEED TO GET A ROOM (AT LEAST NOW THEY CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER). I RAN TO THE TEMPLE OF TIME.

I WENT INSIDE, AND I SAW ZELDA'S BODY - DECAPITATED, AND BURNT TO A CRISP. LINK AUTOMATICALLY RAN OVER TO HER, TEARS STREAMING ACROSS HIS FACE. HE LOOKED UP AND THE DOORS OF TIME WERE OPEN. HE RAN IN, AND SAW GANON HOLDING THE TRIFORCE - THE WHOLE THING. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SPLIT UP AS SOON AS HE TOUCHED IT. LINK RAN UP, BUT THERE WAS A FORCE FIELD AROUND GANON.

"FOOLISH BOY," HE SAID,"NOW, NOTHING CAN STOP ME!"

HE GRABBED THE MASTER SWORD, RIPPED IT FROM ITS PEDESTAL (WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE), AND SHATTERED IT. HE TURNED TOWARD ME, AND HE PULLED NAVI TO HIM. HE HELD HER, AND THEN CRUSHED HER, BLOOD AND GOLDEN LIGHT SPILLING ON THE FLOOR. I THREW UP. HE THEN PULLED LINK TOWARDS HIM, AND BLASTED HIS HEAD OFF HIS BODY. THE SCREEN CUT TO SAYING, "GAME OVER - GANON DESTROYED HYRULE"

IT THEN SHOWED THE KOKIRI FOREST BURNING. EVERYBODY WAS DEAD. I REALIZED THAT MY 3DS WAS HEATING UP. IT THEN OCCURRED TO ME TO TURN IT OFF. I TOOK THE GAME OUT, BUT WHEN I LOOKED AT IT, THE COVER WAS GONE.

I JUST STARED AT IT. WHEN I PUT IT BACK IN, IT SAID THERE WAS NOTHING IN THE SLOT. I IMMEDIATELY THREW IT AWAY. A FEW DAYS LATER, I WENT TO PLAY MAJORA'S MASK ON MY WII. I LOADED IT UP, BUT WHEN I WENT INTO MY FILE, AN ERROR POPPED UP SAYING, "DUE TO GANONDORF DESTROYING HYRULE, AND LINK DYING, THE EVENTS OF THIS GAME NEVER HAPPENED. THE GAME WILL BE DELETED FROM YOUR SYSTEM."

I WAS BROUGHT BACK TO THE WII MENU. I WENT OVER TO FIND MAJORA'S MASK, BUT IT WAS GONE.

I HAVEN'T PLAYED ANOTHER ZELDA GAME SINCE. I TRIED TO TELL MY FRIENDS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED, BUT THEY DIDN'T BELIEVED ME. I TOLD MY PARENTS, BUT MY DAD SAID HE NEVER GOT ME OCARINA OF TIME OR MAJORA'S MASK. I LAY AWAKE AT NIGHT, WONDERING WHAT HAD HAPPENED THAT DAY, WHY AND - MORE IMPORTANTLY - HOW THIS HAPPENED. I DON'T THINK I'LL EVER KNOW.

SF!sans:OK I READ THE STORY CAN I SLEEP

(yes and now time for papyrus turn)

we all love our famous italian plumber icon of nintendo, correct? mario saves princess peach multiple times from bowser and has a closely-identical brother named luigi. he is from a rated e game series and all, but the truth will have you shiver that nintendo could come up with ideas based on eerie horrific experiences that happened to a victim back the 1970s.

lets start from the beginning. july 12th, 1974 in cherkassy (ukraine) a 23 year old white woman was looking for a job. her name was pavla florence and she had blonde wavy hair, blue eyes, two freckles on her left cheek, and skinny. she often dated men just for their money, yet she had the body of a model. pavla never intended on going to college after graduation because the only hobby she loved was painting. she lived with her friend after graduation, but then was forced to be kicked out to support herself (since all she did from age 18-23 was drink, smoke, socialize, and paint). pavla traveled around ukraine for a job, and when she arrived at kharkiv she finally found a job. her job involved painting for a company.

in october 4th, 1974 a 25 year old italian migrant man named mario siro lombardi worked with pavla in the company. mario developed feelings for pavla as they worked on a project for an advertisement poster, but no one knew how pavla felt. pavla was a little flirty to most men she met so it is hard to tell if she liked mario.

as they spent times together working, all they developed together was just friendship (since mario had trouble dating woman). pavla could have had interest for another man during the time. pavla usually rode public transportation (bus, trains) before and after work because she did not make enough money to afford a car. she lived in an apartment fourteen minutes away from work.

around february 8th, pavla was waiting for the bus around 10pm (she attended a late night meeting) but then a normal-looking man convinced her that the bus schedule changed and guided her to his car. stalking yet thankfully, lombardi observed what was going on because he usually follows pavla after work to see where she goes (in case he wants to coincidentally meet up with her and talk to her more).

the man took pavla to his car, she denied his request to go into his car because the man was acting a little creepy. lombardi did not do anything in the situation because he thought "...it was some typical husband-wife argument...". the man grabbed pavla's arm, then she tried to hit the man with her umbrella using the other hand while screaming for help. her umbrella swings hit the man twice on the head, which aggravated him. pavla was then unexpectedly whacked multiple times on the head with a stick in an attempt to make her unconscious. lombardi watched in horror as the man stuffed her into the car.

since it was easier to hijack a car in those times, lombardi tried to think of a fast solution, so he had no other choice but to steal the nearest automobile (without the man seeing him) and drive after the man. lombardi did not have a phone to call the police, nor any quick emergency techniques (especially since he recently moved into ukraine). the man was driving for 49 minutes until he reached a house in the middle of a large forest nearby the seversky donets river, surprisingly lombardi attempted to catch up to him.

the man grabbed pavla's unconscious body and ran towards his door as soon as as he spotted lombardi driving into his driveway. lombardi went in front of his doorstep and kept screaming questions. (he was too scared to enter the dim house). the man's house had multiple candles lit inside the house (light bulbs couldn't function properly in that setting). the guy resisted to respond to anything lombardi asked, so lombardi had no other choice but to run into his house.

lombardi ran into the house, only to be held at a gunpoint. the man threatened that if lombardi does not enter the animal cage inside the kitchen, he would shoot him. lombardi went inside the cage and then the man locked him up. the man grabbed the cage and pushed it downstairs into the basement. lombardi almost injured his left shoulder and spine, but his elbow was bleeding. the basement was the only room in the house with only one candle lit because the man secretly kept a wild, un-domesticated chimpanzee in his basement. the animal was identified as a 14-15 year old common chimpanzee (pan troglodytes). lombardi's crash onto the basement floor frightened the chimpanzee, which caused it scream.

the chimpanzee's scream woke up pavla, and when she woke up, her wrists and ankles were tied onto the floor of the man's bedroom. the man shut the basement door so that the chimpanzee's screams can be muted, while pavla was screaming and crying in fear. lombardi's cage was not locked up anymore because the crash screwed up the lock on the cage door, so he got out, but then was partly mauled on the legs when the chimpanzee attacked him. the dim candle made it extremely hard to see where lombardi was going and extremely scary, but he kept trying to find an object to kill the chimpanzee with. (he was crawling because his legs were mauled).

lombardi found a small fatmax company hammer, then swung it multiple times at the chimpanzee until all of it's blood squirted out. after that, lombardi quietly cried in fear because he didn't want the man to hear anything from him. lombardi's legs were completely mauled, so he could not walk at all. all he could do is hear the events that happened upstairs.

pavla was threatened to get tortured in numerous ways if she did not remain in silence. so she stayed quiet, yet with the look of traumatized fear on her face. in her form of bondage, she was raped. the psychopathic man had a fetish in which arousal occurs from the idea of eating another person by an animal, known as vorarephilia. he did not rely on cannibalism, but he had reptiles in storage.

the reptiles he had were mostly from the ukraine region, but he had one small central american caiman (most likely imported). the man went downstairs to the kitchen to get the stored reptiles, lombardi heard his footsteps, so he crawled back into his cage immediately. the man opened the basement door and laughed as he walked away into the kitchen, surprisingly he did not realize the absence of the chimpanzee. he did not see the chimpanzee's carcass because the basement was too dark (the candle was wearing out).

moments later, the man walked back to his bedroom. lombardi grabbed the hammer and crawled upstairs slowly. palva saw the container of reptiles, and cried asking questions. the man told her it was nothing. the man grabbed her left arm and carved off 4 inches of skin, she screamed. the man grabbed a small hungry snake and made it consume the meat off her left arm. she was then raped again, and the man was even more driven to do more. the man carved off several more skin from her left arm and continued the rape.

the man wanted pavla to stop screaming, so he grabbed one of his dead turtles and stuffed it inside her mouth. pavla was puking while the man forcefully kept the turtle inside her mouth. her puke was mixed with her saliva and the turtle's blood which dripped constantly on the sides of her mouth, which attracted other reptiles/insects. the psychopathic man did numerous unusual activities on palva, while lombardi was crawling towards the bedroom.

the man disemboweled palva (she was still a little conscious) and then the man made his caiman eat palva's organs. when lombardi finally made it to the man's room, he pegged the hammer at the man's cranium, yet the reptiles that were eating palva's body were in lombardi's way towards the injured man. the caiman was walking towards lombardi until lombardi quickly stabbed the caiman on the back with a sharp object, resulting in it's death.

the other reptiles were not to worry because they were scavengers (animals that only eat dead animals). lombardi grabbed another object nearby and kept whacking the injured man's body until he was dead. lombardi then grabbed the hammer and smashed the man's head with all the leftover anger and hatred he had. lombardi pukes and sobs as he looked at palva's body, all but leftover meat and skin. lombardi crawls downstairs and leaves the house immediately.

lombardi could not function his legs properly for driving, but with what he had left over he tried to see how far he could get. lombardi drove 1-2 miles onto the road and just stopped and gave up. he wanted his life to end at this point, but he just sat in the car crying. 6 hours later, a man named delbert met lombardi on the road and immediately took him to a police station and then was hospitalized.

the ukraine police reported to the forest, and after 3-4 hours of searching, they finally found the crime scene. they were utterly disgusted, they found 5 small snakes and hundreds of insects (spiders, ants, flies, maggots) consuming palva's remains. they also reported a dead south american imported caiman, another dead human, and a dead west african chimpanzee.

the vorarephiliac man was identified as 31 year old devon bowyer, a college dropout of kiev polytechnic institute. the animals were illegally imported, and pavla florence and devon bowyer were officially declared dead on the next day. one week later, lombardi was taken out of the hospital and quit his job. lombardi soon lived with his older brother, lugi spartaco lombardi, back at san marino, italy. march 12th, 1975 a funeral was held nearby kharkiv for pavla florence. mario and luigi came to the funeral then left without much said.

mario was in deep depression and fear after the funeral and luigi constantly came to mario for help. mario did not like drinking, so he usually took hits of acid to make him stay out of reality once in a while. in mario's hallucinations, he would usually picture himself as a hero trying to save pavla from some evil man trying to destroy all of ukraine with evil forces of reptiles. it was also a constant nightmare for mario. he lived in never ending fear of picturing pavla's last moments before her tragedy. torture, rape, fear, violence, eaten alive, basically the worst things that can happen to someone in mario's opinion, and he was a witness of all of that.

one year later luigi was running short on money for supporting mario so he told mario that he needed a job, but mario was still upset. luigi worked as a plumber for more than 6 years, and he knew all mario liked to do was paint and exercise. luigi thought that if mario got the same job with his brother, it would be fun because they get to stay together more often. mario was later convinced and soon became a plumber after short training. mario still took minor hits of acid during the time though.

on june 17th, 1979 the newspaper about the tragedy of palva florence spread acrossed europe and asia and was read by a man who was going to work for nintendo. the time of video gaming was about to occur and the man wanted to think of really good ideas for a profitable game with a good technique. before the newspapers were published, mario siro lombardi was interviewed twice and some workers for nintendo watched the translated version of lombardi's interview.

they were amazed on mario's story and wanted to use his permission to make a video game partially based-off him and his story. mario said it was "okay" and luigi agreed as well. they wanted to create an antagonist for the video game, but mario did not want them to use devon bowyer because it will remind him and others in ukraine of the psychopathic murderer, so they based-off the giant monkey from king kong and the chimpanzee pet of the vorarephiliac man into one regular sized gorilla named "donkey kong". it was called "donkey" because the man who designed donkey kong thought "donkey" meant "stupid" in english and also mario siro lombardi told nintendo that he wants the monkey to be called "stupid" because of what the chimpanzee did to lombardi's legs.

in nintendo's best seller arcade game "donkey kong" in 1981. the protagonist carpenter heroic man is supposed to represent mario siro lombardi (fictional character only referred to as mario). the antagonist gorilla is supposed to represent the chimpanzee (fictional character referred to as donkey kong). the damsel in distress is not necessarily supposed to represent the actual palva florence, but someone else with the same characteristics. (no one wants to be reminded of palva's tragedy). mario showed a minorly happy reaction to the game, but luigi was excited that nintendo made a game based-off his own brother. luigi was inspired to be a secondary character in the 1983 arcade game "mario bros".

sadly, mario died from overdose of acid in 1983. luigi didn't stop working as a plumber because he was catholic and he believed that mario is happier dead than alive. luigi spartaco lombardi was interviewed in january 9th, 1984 and a nintendo worker wanted to use luigi to give ideas on the next mario game. luigi's story to the nintendo worker about mario's imagination and reality was leading into a creative game idea.

1985's famous platform video game "super mario bros" was released. donkey kong was replaced with a more deadly looking enemy, bowser. bowser was based-off the vorarephiliac and the turtle in palva's mouth mixed together. how? the murderer's name was "devon bowyer". the nintendo worker grabbed bowyer's last name and minorly changed it into "bowser".

yet the worker has to keep mario's word of not using a human character based-off the actual murderer, so they decided to use the turtle as the sign of evil in the story. they gave the turtle a huge size, spikes, and anthropomorphic traits.

they also decided to finally base-off palva florence into a damsel in distress female character, known as "peach". they wanted to maintain their connection with 5 letters in one name that starts with a "p". nintendo finally reunites mario and luigi into it's sequel as plumbers to save princess peach from the evil bowser. the "mushroom kingdom" and most of the plot of the story were all based from mario's hallucinations from acid. especially the mushroom parts because he took shrooms which made him constantly think about shrooms and the experience he had in devon bowyer's house which then made mario think about the whole story in a different setting with different elements.

the turtles (koopa troopas) were supposed to represent the reptiles that devon bowyer held captive. the bullet bills were supposed to represent the flashback of the time when mario was held at gunpoint (that was a moment that he would never forget; therefore having nightmares of it and even coming up with bullets with personification). peach's umbrella was based-off her self defense move against devon before she got stuffed into the car. king k. rool was based-off the caiman.

luigi spartaco lombardi died in may 14th, 1988 from a car accident. as time went on, nintendo used more of mario and luigi's interviews into making ideas for further games. for example, yoshi was a figment of mario lombardi's imagination as a transportation buddy. daisy was nintendo's own creation by thinking that luigi should have a girlfriend in the series. delfino plaza was brought up by the man who helped mario lombardi make it to the hospital (delbert). nintendo thought that delbert deserved to be based-off into the super mario series by having part of his name "del" convert into a happy resort called "delfino plaza".

there you have it, the truth behind super mario.

(now i hope you enjoyed it and should the trollpasta posts here be common like one character reading a story like they take turns each episode or something also support the admin ship contest)

[kaorei-endgame]

Who would have thought that it was the massive open world 3D zelda game that got you. How did that happen?

Who knew, right!

I had a cautiously optimistic feeling when people whose tastes tend to sync with mine started talking about how Breath of the Wild recalled original Zelda (versus I don’t think -nobody- whose tastes fall with mine said Resident Evil 7 was like Resident Evil 1). Everything after the first few 2D Zeldas ain’t may favorite, so that perked my ear up.

Turns out it’s a pretty good game. For my take on it: it systems are intuitive, discrete, and fun. There’s statistical variance, but it’s in a small enough band to be immediately apparent, no spreadsheets required. “Blue goblins are harder than red goblins” and “This spread does 13 damage and swings fast, this sword does 26 damage and swings slow,” versus “Level 47 Elite Goblin Crusher With Fire Resistance, Might Aura, Headshot Immunity” and “This spear is a Level 59 Spear of Striking with +20% mp regend on kill, +137 attack power, and +20% roll speed, this sword is a Level 59 Greater Broadsword of Maiming With +5 mp/second, +137 strength, +20% roll distance.”

It’s a game made out of discrete micro-experiences instead of bulk grinding: solving a tiny logic puzzle to get a korok seed with the knowledge that six more will get you another weapon slot (which is a big deal when you have like, eight weapon slots!) vs. killing enough Night Ogres that your “0/100 Night Ogres Killed” bar is filled and you now have the +10% Night Ogre Damage trait. 

That being said, it needed just a touch more depth. For example: cooking is fun! The jingle is cute, all the little food icons are adorable, it is totally rad how there are recipe posters all over the world–in our usual fashion, we wrote down every one we saw in our little notebook. Any game that has me writing stuff down is an okay game by me!

…but none of the food does anything interesting! 

Like why the hell am I going to go out of my way to cook Salmon Meuniere, where I have to sit there and remember what the ingredients are, when I could just throw anything with the world “Hearty” in front of it into a pot with anything else and get literally the same result. I like that there are a billion crafting ingredients because one of my primary weaknesses is nice menu icons&this got a ton of ‘em, but it’s a total letdown that it all amounts to nothing, because there are really only about six traits recipes can have (Attack Up, Fire Resist, etc) and the only difference otherwise is how many hearts they give back.

The dearth of permanent rewards–outside of armor sets–is a colossal bummer, and turns weapon durability into an annoying chore when otherwise it’s a perfectly fine system. Shrines are fun, I would do all the shrines for NO reward, but paradoxically that makes it all the more frustrating when you kick open a chest at the end and it’s like some “Knight’s Halberd” that’s half as strong as everything you’re carrying and even if it weren’t it’d break in two seconds, so who cares. I’m a Path of Least Resistance kind of game player, so the joy a rare ultra-strong chest weapon produces in me is completely lost in the brain suck of inventory management of all the other crap I had to shuffle around. This is also why I don’t like crafting systems pretty much ever: I’m not going to waste mental energy and time scrolling through menus to make a Sword +45 if it feels like my Sword +30 that I picked up a random barrel I broke will do the job until I find a Sword +50 in the next hour or two worth of barrels. 

Zelda is not THAT, but it’s still kind of a mess, bequeathing you these anti-nega-prizes as like, some kinda taunt or something. In lack of actual, substantive rewards I would’ve rathered 90% of the weapon chests in shrines be replaced with cash or gems. 

I can’t say exactly what these permanent rewards should’ve been, but it’s ridiculous that the best you can hope for at the end of any quest is money, and money is irrelevant almost immediately upon starting the game (especially if you don’t care about upgrading the few, mostly redundant, armor pieces that require precious gems). But I can’t believe we’re at the end of the game and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a way to upgrade the master sword, which even in its temporary buffed state is barely stronger than many of the random trash weapons you can get in two seconds from fighting any mini-boss. I guess it’s the strongest one-handed sword by a wide margin, but there’s a huge dearth of good one-handed weapons in that game and that super sucks, and that feels really super weird to me, coming from a series that popularized circle-strafing around a target with your shield out.

Even though Link to the Past is not my all-time fave (pieces of heaaaaartts 😦), one of my favorite things about that game is doing the sidequests to upgrade the master sword and watching the sprite change as it was tempered, and getting the little 1>2>3>4 numerals next it.

I guess you could count the faux pieces of heart (spirit peeps) you get from shrines as your permanent reward. Through the stamina (and the callback to Zelda 1 of needing X amount of hearts to get the master sword), I found upgrading my bars to be more interesting than any game SINCE Zelda 1. But that’s also a passive, expected reward from any Zelda game–basically: don’t you got anything new to show me? Really, I’m just saying: I shit a brick every time we opened a shrine chest and found a Climber’s Bandana. It would’ve been nice if the rest of the shrine chests were, like, the mild positive of more rupees (so we don’t have to more of our gems) versus the active negative of a pain-in-the-ass hit of inventory management where I waste thirty seconds throwing some random sword I was using, but might be almost broken, on the ground so I can pick up this NEW random sword I didn’t want in the first place out of this chest.

Considerably offended that you can’t board anything at stables but horses. Which is bullshit, and 50% because you can work up some p. good Ashitaka cosplay if you wanna. As a result, I have boycotted stables (but also because going out of your way to get a horse from the stables is just enough of a pain that I’d rather walk)

🎉You can ride a moose🎉 

(ED NOTE: WAIT NO YOU CAN’T DUMMY, YOU WERE CONFUSED BECAUSE OF THAT TIME GRAZ *EXPLODED* A MOOSE RUNNING INTO IT WITH A HORSE)

(thats a bear tho)

I do wish there were more dungeons. Having gone to Hyrule Castle for the first time last night, I was impressed at how they made this giant building with a bunch of different sub-challenges in it (I like “final exam” video game levels) but I was also disappointed that there was nothing else like it in the game. The four other dungeons were okay, but I liked their themeing much more than the actual puzzle solving (outside of the map manipulation, to a certain extent). Entering Hyrule Castle and feeling like you’re in an open world WITHIN the open world– where you have a ton of intersecting paths and shortcuts to unlock, and about a million different entrance points (lift a dungeon portcullis with an ice block, sneaking mission by swimming in through the underground port, full frontal assault on the gate)–I’m not sure I can think of a comparison. Maybe how the castle successively unlocked in Devil May Cry? 

But really, it’s like you’ve been dropped into someone’s living Dungeons and Dragons module, or how a fantasy novel or a manga present dungeon exploring, where everything seems impossibly expansive and dungeons are truly cavernous and intricate, and nothing at all like Dragon Age’s (or anything else) “go right for monsters, go left for treasure (and then go right because it’s the way forward).” In a way, it’s one of the main things I’ve craved from games in a long time–this ersatz D&D dungeon crawl experience that doesn’t require eight hours on a Sunday every month and someone to suffer being your DM.

What really tied the whole thing together for me (and seemingly everyone else, tbqh) was the traversal. My major complaint about open world games is how much of your time they waste on brainlessly parkouring through essentially featureless environments, it’s not really that much of a surprise that this Zelda worked for me, because you actually have to involve yourself in the getting around. Managing your stamina bar to go up mountains, wearing the right armor for the climate, all these things force you to consider what you’re about to do for five seconds before you actually do it. It’s not hard or brain taxing, but it does invest you in the process. “Okay it’s cold now, I should put on my winter gear” or “this mountain’s tall as hell, but there’s a ledge ¾ths of the way up I’m pretty sure I can take a break on” instead of Shadow of Mordor’s “hold the direction and a sprint button until you arrive at your destination” or Skyrim’s “I’m just going to shove myself against this hill and hope the physics engine doesn’t arbitrarily decide I’m not allowed to climb anymore.” It’s still an open game world game, which means you spend more of your time getting around than you do anything else; but what a surprise–getting around is actually a lot of the fun part???

It also just has a good art style. We probably generally understate/spend too little talk acknowledging how that works on you in ways that don’t factor into a score tally, or whatever. Aesthetic pleasure can be both substantive and difficult to quantify. For a long time I’ve been like “they should make an anime borderlands.” Because even if they left everything else about Borderland’s sorta-crappy mechanics the same, I crave that sort of co-op shooting experience enough that I’d be more willing to give it a shot if I didn’t feel like I was being constantly needled by its trash aesthetic and bad meme jokes. Well, they did that here with open world games. Instead of being dropped in some humdrum brown & gray world, things are actually super colorful and vivacious. That affects you almost on a subconscious level, makes trucking around the world less like a chore because it’s a pleasant world to truck around in.

Good game! I’m always happy to have my expectations defied! 😮👌😮👌😮👌😮👌

[thegeminisage]

more botw blogging, SUPER spoilery

this is a real long post sorry normally i break these up and this time i didn’t

and finally, off we go to a new province

this time im making its tower my first stop, since i can see it from here

i tried to paraglide across the river but i didn't have enough height so i landed on the cliffside and ITS RAINING!!!!! for fucks sake

i cant believe this game actually got me to hate rain..........

not only that but when i died in the water it didn't reload me back to where i started to glide from but a bit of cliff i stood on lol so #struggles right from the first minute

rain for the next 3 hours.......and i gotta climb it in the rain....jesus

i guess i could fast travel but i'd have to walk all the way back there :/

hmm. maybe the gae's throwing me the rain on purpose. an npc mentioned this river was notoriously difficult to cross :///

yep as soon as i turned away: it cleared. Great

well i see some bridge-like things further downstream i guess i'll check that out

lol jk i managed to glide across a different part and climb

like i saw my forecast change but then it changed back to sun so w/e i'll take it im up here now

aaaaah i can see so many cool things from here!!!!! i cant wait to explore them all!!!! that #new province feel

i hate like, feeling obligated to track down every last bit of stuff in the old ones when you're seeing new exciting stuff

but i love the feel of getting to a new one and not even knowing which cool thing to check out first

ohhh my god lol there's a big-ass bokoblin camp on the way to the tower i think i see a moblin but im not sure

aaaand im dead

at least there werernt any moblins!

tbh it isnt a difficult camp i just wasnt vigilant about healing

me every time i see something new: what the Fuck is that!?

in this case it was an ice wizzrobe which made it snow EVERYWHERE oh my god

That Was Difficult

if i didn't have my fire arrows and lynel bow it would have taken way longer

i died again!!!

those weird pattern bokoblins have SO much attack power ):

come on i have to clear out the camp AGAIN? and kill the wizzrobe?

naw dude i am skipping this nonsense i am going straight up the fucking cliff

HA i sniped them from above >:3

w

there's a zora on top of this tower!!!!!!!

omg poor thing he can't get back down i wish i could carry him on my paraglider

man i love the tower cutscenes and music and the way they unfold it's so cool

BIG SHINY NEW PROVINCE YYYYEAH!!!!

oh hey i found another zora down near these bridges

they all want me to go see their prince haha noooo i have too much to explore!!!

oooh it's so easy to get all turned around on these bridge thingies

man i love this province it's SO pretty

ah i found a goron on a sandbar!! how did you get out here with all this water...

nooo the blood moon again i knew it was coming the music has been funny all night >:(

lol jk the music faked me out its 2am and i warped to the stable for nothing (i was trying to get that one dude's reaction)

i came back and did the shrine and found another zora!! lol they all really want me to go see that dude

there's a thing i need to climb but ugh rain

while i was bored i chopped grass and attached octo balloons to things

now i am in the wetlands which are AWFUL to walk through i can practically feel the mud squishing between my toes and i want to die lmao

there are horses here!! i miss mine ):

ive done enough shrines now to get another upgrade but i dont feel like doing all that backtracking blegh

oh noooo i see a guardian out here, a moving one ;_;

ah it's been awhile since i failed to fight the still ones on the plateau...i wonder what the start screen meant by "the right tools" ive got a lot of damn tools!! did they mean arrows??

lol yet another zora telling me to meet with the prince.........dude

this prince must be either desperate or spoiled

uh

okay maybe its a glitch but i think?? i see?? a flying island in the distance? What The Fuck

wait no it looks kind of like a ship or giant bird??

my pins don't stick to it, it's definitely moving around

jesus fuck

AHAHAH FUCK THE GUARDIAN SAW ME

HAD TO TAKE REFUSE IN THE FUCKING SHRINE

jesus christ i hate those things!!!! you can't kill them!!!!!!!

NO oh my god there's a hinox over here too

why this Why This

lol the hinox fighting music is giving me trauma flashbacks

actually that wasnt so bad with a defense elixir on

maybe it's just me but this province feels kinda small? i feel like i could finish exploring it p quickly, which is nice

not that i'm not having fun but i know i'm going so slowly ):

me every five seconds: i miss my hooorse i want one to ride around to go faaaaster

i guess...i could catch...one of these

and like. not register it bc the stable is 10000 miles away but

a temp ride. let's see if i can. need to use up some of my sneak potions anyways

i caught one and rode it awhile, but my heart's not in training it...i want My Horse

oh my god wait i hear town music!! is this a stable right here!! AAAAAH

so i did catch a pretty black one and named it luna - had to let the first one i caught go lol but it didn't have great stats and i only rode it once so it'll be happier in the wild probably

KASS IS AT THIS STABLE IM SO HAPPY SO IS HESTU

he's playing epona's song i'm gonna CRY

I MISS EPONA IM DYING

oh my god he had a story for me!! the same one that impa told!!!!! man

the music is still so good. fuck.

lmao i was talking to one dude and he was like well might as well head back inside ugh that place is so filthy and the women so free you might as well call it a manfill

UM?? NINTENDO??

i can see hyrule castle super close from where i am and it looks super scary and i super want nothing to do with it rn

i get the feeling you can like, go in there whenever? maybe even do the endgame stuff early? but oh my god i Dont wanna

OMG i just mounted a bear

i read that you could ride things other than horses but holy shit lmao

i mean

it killed me after i got off, but man

sadly i must now board my horse and continue with The Story see i explored the non-story bits of that province SUPER quickly dang

oh no

this shrine is called a minor test of strength

Oh No

Why, God

oh. that was actually like SUPER easy compared to the other two haha phew

this lady at the crossroads said the prince was creepy omg i knew there was something, ahaha, excuse me, "fishy"

whoa i love his music theme!!

lmao i always get so SHOCKED when they talk!!! even still!!!!!

voice acted cutscenes of this game are like fmvs of final fantasy games in generations 5-7 lol

oh my god...the wink/sparkle thing...he's such a HAM

he's flattering me TOO much omg dude what do you want.......

ok, ok, i like him

he doesn't seem very trustworthy but since his people are in trouble i'll cut him some slack on that one

oh nooo i gotta climb this in the rain......

ah, it's sunshowering tho! that's kinda neat

i just got attacked by octoroks and my heart wept a little because traveling up zora's river dodging octoroks to get to and save zora's domain...I've Been Here Before

listen, i could write a book on this

(lol i did write 300k on this but shhh that was a long time ago)

like...if link is actually a reincarnation does he get flashes of memory

oot happened in every timeline but i know wind waker didn't

but do you think assuming this is in the same timeline as wind waker something in him feels at home the first time he sails a raft again

or hears kass play epona's song at the ranch

or ducks an octorok on his way to zora's domain

people treat the incarnation thing as a kind of tragedy - the world will never be free of evil so long as ganon/ganondorf exists

but maybe there's happiness in it too

no matter what happens, no matter how sad the ending - i mean hell, in this very game, link and zelda LOST

no matter what though, it's guaranteed that they'll see each other again

over and over and over without end, link and zelda are gonna meet and be together for awhile while they defend hyrule again

frankly if that's not a soulmate idk what is

and frankly i'm perpetually offended that they don't develop ganondorf the man more like they did in wind waker...that was the Peak tbqh

i would kill for something like that again

anyway

i love how present the current here is, like with the stuff floating down the river, thats a NICE touch

tbh it's actually really nice that he keeps uselessly checking on me on the way up the river

like, i've been so lonely

even now i miss my companion going "what's WITH that guy" like they probably would if i had one

so this is nice. tbh.

i know it was probably a deliberate choice and makes the game stronger but a companion for this game, someone to share it with...that would've been cool

even just zelda as the protag, she could do some internal narration

but the whole thing is just so quiet.

this place is so pretty tho?? in the distance i see these like, pink coral looking plant things, and the blue columns and bridges are gorgeous

OH NO LIGHTNING GOD WHY

i think its an area thing too i cant just wait it out lmao im gonna Die

oh jk it's just rain now

idk why my entire forcecast changes to a particular type of weather and its only like that a few seconds...super weird and annoying

lol sidon all "you're almost halfway there i believe in you!!" and not helping fight and link's little "k" wave

i love link as a silent protag even if i did have him talk in my writing like it's so endearing

i wonder if link is like sgr like "i am 100 years old what is this zora kid even doing. what is he EVEN DOING."

lol just had to dodge some rocks rollin down a hill

you see this is what i mean. there's a weird sense of familiarity and nostalgia if you've played the games a lot. i wonder if the spirit of the hero feels that way with each new adventure, too

like if he's okay doomed to an eternity of fighting and parting with zelda over and over

because in the end he always gets to do this again

like i can see the spirit of the princess/goddess being high key miserable about those circumstances but i wonder if the spirit of the hero is maybe secretly glad

because part of him will always yearn for the next adventure

he never COULD be happy settling because this is what he was born for

WE love doing this again and again and again, maybe it's not such a stretch to think the spirit of the hero does too

or maybe i'm projecting so hard onto him because undertale has so successfully blurred the line between the player and the game for me LMAO

oh man i just noticed all the names on this map

lulu, mikau ;_;

i miss them!!!!

just once i wish zelda games would feature the same side characters in two or three titles

we never got to see saria or darunia or lulu again

we get to come back to the world but every friend we've ever made has been gone

like some narnia shit i swear to god

lol this is why i should never do story all i do is rant about My Zelda Feels, which are literally endless

oh NICE battle with a blue moblin on the bridge!!!!

ah i like the zora history here too please give me all the worldbuilding i wanna know everything about this world that i can bc rn all i know is "we got Fucked"

i guess i also know about the automans but i need More

i say, while procrastinating on getting to the story

in other news i have an ice and lightning rod which i havent bothered trying to use

bc when i tried to use the boomerang i failed utterly lol

but these? holy shit dude these are Powerful when you actually land a magic hit like Dang

i Love them im never avoiding another wizzrobe again (thats where they drop from)

oh wow

i finally made it, and

man. oh man. it's so beautiful

i wish i could see if better

jesus the zoras always had the prettiest parts of the games imo

OH NO THE MUSIC

OH NO!!! im gonna cry omg

it's the same melody from oot i think!! oh my god!!!!!!

omg there's a zora here named rivan who says he knows me?!?!

omg no he's listing some of link's old pals from Before im so sad why can't he remember

OOOH i shouldn't speak to the elderly bc apparently i am "guilty" of something?? i love this development PLEASE tell me more

i love that they all age so slowly #nice

am i walking into a fucking execution lmao sidon don't play me......

omg the little zora kids are adorable!!!

omg there's a statue of the zora champion ;_;

man this is all so cool i wanna know EVERYTHING about what happened back then!!!!

lol the shrine here was SUPER nerve wracking god you had to like, roll the giant ball down a hill and stop time at JUST the right moment skjghf

oh my gosh ANOTHER zora who knows me (lol "linny")

im so ;w; they all know me!!!!!!

i slept on the blissful water bed at the inn and was mystified and alarmed by the sound effects but i got an extra stamina wheel and 3 extra hearts!!! god damn you can't beat that shit

im so amazed at how many people knew link and like, blame him? i wanna know so bad what happened, i wanna know more about mipha

ten bucks says she's still alive and like trapped in the divine beast but corrupted

or a ghost or something like the old man ;_;

aww zoras sleep in the water aw aw :3

i'm loving this theme of link sleeping for so long like at first i thought of sgr but i just realized it's also like oot (and i can't believe i didn't make that connection first...)

like in oot the people who knew him Before are so happy to see him again and are sure he can help them

but in this game it's a bit mixed

and in this game we don't know the details of 100 years ago yet ;_;

zora's domain here is like. so GLOWY. reminds me of waterfall from undertale tbh lol i wanna paint it

so i'm talking to the king and this one elderly zora goes "the hylians abused an ancient society's power to turn hyrule into what it is today" & like...tbh my dude you have a point. if they had never gotten those guardians out then they couldn't have turned on them

oh my GOD

i just got my first look at a divine beast and i can't believe i was calling them jaegers

my jaw dropped irl holy shit

like that thing truly looks both divine and beastly (this one is an elephant)

is mipha still in there as like a ghost ;_;

it's so clear how much everyone misses her

and she seemed so sweet in the one short memory i recovered

every time sidon does his sparkle smile i love him a little more

i didn't trust him at first bc he seemed a little too eager but now i see he's just doing his best!!!!

especially as someone who thinks radically and progressively in a society where elders stay around hundreds of years

YESSSSS I GOT ZORA ARMOR!!!! YES!!!!!!!!

SWIM SPEED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

omfg and it's an engagement thing just like the sapphire

MADE BY MIPHA?

thats right that other lady said link was supposed to choose between her and mipha

listen mipha seems cool and all but i've been shipping zelink for 19 years, so

oh NO, mipha had feelings for link

oh no poor mipha...oh my god

WAIT AM I ABOUT TO GET ANOTHER MEMORY??? OH MY GOD!!!!!

duuuuuude

"no matter how bad the wound i will ALWAYS" heal you and then link wakes up in water

did she do that!!! did she save him ;_; oh my god im going to cry

"you are quivering like a hatchling" PLEASE protect my poor son

muzu is making me sad dude he misses her so much and he hates this so much

ooooh i have to fight another lynel for shock arrows...good Lord im not looking forward to that

I KNEW IT

"calamity ganon took control of the beasts and trapped the champions inside" yep either she's still alive like link and zelda or her body is in there and so is her fucking ghost

DUDE!! i just swam up my first waterfall and it was AWESOME!!!!!

so im at shatterback point now hwere lynel is just bc i wanted to swim up a waterfall but probably he will kill me quickly lmao

apparently you can mount him too which. sick.

but idk i dont have any good food or elixirs or weapons ready im just up here for science im probably gonna knock off soon i gotta Draw

Oh Fuck There He Is ):

it's super tedious to have top go back and delete every fucking picture i take for my copendium one by one those shouldn't save in my album automatically come on dude im trying to take a picture of this lion centaur thing here

aaah there's a rainbow here too #nice

ah well got him about a quarter pf the way down before i died :/ not bad for being completely unprepared

tbh i only had one defense food?? had i had more i could have whittled him down eventually

anyway thats all for tonight!! i doubt i'll play anymore tonight bc i have drawing to do

lol this is a long post but it's all in one bc i'm typing them in notepad now and don't have to worry about them getting too long

[heartofhryule]

Heart of Wisdom - Chapter 13

WARNINGS: Contains Hyrule Warriors spoilers and story items. I highly recommend playing the game if you haven’t! It’s complete fluff, but fun fluff…. minus Lana.

______________________________________

Heart of Wisdom | Chatper 13 | Courage

Link rode as hard and fast as he had ever in his life pushed poor Epona. She rose to his challenge, and gave no signs of tiring or complaint despite her perspiration and labored breathing. He wasn’t sure, but it felt as though Epona knew, or at the very least understood the need for urgency.

Volga kept up, though at a short distance. Tactically it was sound. If something jumped them on the way, they agreed Link had to keep going. They rode all day and all night across Hyrule Field and into Faron Woods, only stopping when the horses had to. As it stood, they were making good time.

The Woods were quiet, and though there was a trail, they could not go quite as quickly as the field road allowed. Link was agitated, nervous, still very angry. He’d never been angry with Zelda, he’d parsed through those thoughts as the wind rushed by and only the sound of Epona’s hooves beating the ground filled his ears. He was angry with the situation, and murderous towards Ganon. It never got easier - not in this life or any before. The fate of Zelda to live again and again to sacrifice and put her life on the line in order to defeat Darkness chafed him beyond words.

He wanted to end it. For good.

That he could never seem to find a way fueled his anger even more. Times he recalled having the discussion that an end would mean that the cycle would be broken, and he may never get a chance at a real life with Zelda never phased him - she was the Goddess reborn. They were destined to be together. He had faith that whatever the end was when it came, they would be together.

If only it could be without Ganon. Without Darkness, or Demise, or whatever the demon wanted to call himself this time.

They reached the Sacred Grounds by mid morning the next day - having shaved half a day’s ride from the journey with their breakneck pace. However the moment he stepped foot off Epona, Link knew something was wrong.

Holding up a hand for Volga to stop, he crept forward silently, keeping a keen eye out around them. The first wave of moblins that came seemed to have only been on a kind of patrol, but during Link and Volga’s fighting with them, enough noise was made that it served to summon more.

The Sacred grounds were crawling with goblinkin of the North, and it did not take a Sage or Scholar to figure out that Ganon had anticipated this, their journey to reclaim the Master Sword. As Link fought, it was with every ounce of anger he had ever felt. They’d not slept the night before, but neither Hero nor Dragonknight seemed hampered in the least - their mission was dire, now more so than before.

Cutting a path across the ruins, Link could see the entrance to the temple, but knew it would take longer than his stamina might hold to carve a path through the sea of monsters attacking them. It seemed Ganon’s plan was either to have Link succeed and reclaim the sword, releasing the last of the Demon King’s power, or die trying.

Just as he was running out of options for a plan B, the Hero felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up as a blue flash streaked through the air in front of him. “Proxi?” he managed, thinking perhaps it was merely another rare blue fairy, as Proxi had left with Lana to her Sanctum. But the question was answered when 50 or more bobkins were rather suddenly encased in what for all the world looked like a magical glass box, killing them all when it shattered.

From overhead, in the center of the now cleared path landed a familiar figure with blue hair. Lana stood, her book clutched to her side, and turned to nod at Link and Volga. Her normal chipper demeanor was missing and she wore the white robes of the Guardian of time, but she was a welcome aid to the battle.

With Lana’s help, Link and Volga’s spirits were emboldened, and soon enough the majority of the goblinkin lay dead around them, the path to the temple entrance clear. Pausing long enough to catch his breath, Link gave Lana a small smile. “You know, I’m sure there’s some cosmic problem you’re going to have to face for this, but I have never been happier to see you than I am right now.”

Lana blushed and didn’t meet his eyes. It was no secret to anyone that Lana found feelings for the Hero. But she understood his bond to Zelda, to the Goddess she technically served, and had vowed to not interfere. Link also wasn’t going to treat her any differently than his other friends, as he considered her such. Finally looking at him with a wink, she said, “Well I couldn’t leave you guys to clean up my mess now, could I?”

Link gave her a nod and bemused smile and took off, jogging for the temple. Volga however came up behind Lana and rest a hand on her shoulder. “It is good to see you, and not merely in dreams this time.”

She smiled, warmed by his affection and covered her hand in his. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to invade your dreams - I had the stray thought that maybe you could help… and then there you were.”

“Do not apologize,” he assured her kindly, “I am glad you did.”

***

Inside, Link ran full force to the back of the temple where he knew the Sword rest. It seemed none of the goblinkin could make it past the doors - that was something. The last time he’d battled here they had been able to enter under Cia’s magic and it had been a mess.

What was there brought him to a sliding halt and twisted something in his gut, however. The doors to the Sacred Grove were open, Sheikah magic that Zelda had cast to ward them broken, and even the doors themselves seemed cracked in new places.

Not only had Ganon anticipated they would come here, but he had been here.

A cold hand gripped his heart as Link considered this all might have been in Ganon’s plan, and now he was two days from Zelda where Ganon was likely less than one. Moving forward cautiously, he was surprised to find there were no traps, magical or mundane set in the doorway or the grass covered grove - but then why would there be. This was clearly what the Demon King wanted.

Reaching forward, he gripped the hilt of the Master Sword and felt a touch of relief. Like the embrace of an old friend, The Master Sword slipped easily from the stone in his grip, and he held it skyward, feeling the magic course back into it. “Hey, Fi,” he whispered reverently, knowing that somewhere at the core of the steel and divine metals from which it was forged, lay the soul of his once very dear companion. “I know it’s been shorter time than usual between seeing me,” he said, resting the flat of the blade against the other hand, “But I need your help again. Think that will be okay?”

There was of course no response, but the blade sparkled in the noonday light, and he felt it was her way of accepting. “Thanks, Fi,” he added with the last, and sheathed the sword on his back, tucking his other into his belt before turning around. Volga and Lana stood in the doorway, Lana’s hands clutched over her book at her chest, and Volga smirking.

“He knows we’re coming,” Link said striding forward. “He was here. We have to hurry - Zelda is in danger.”

“I can help with that,” Lana said with a nod. “Get the horses and meet me by the Goddess shrine on the east wall.” With that, she turned sharply and darted off.

Volga and Link fetched their horses and did as Lana had asked, coming up the shrine to find Lana’s book floating in the air above her as she cast a spell… and opened a gate. Turning to face them with a sad smile. “I can only get you to the other side of Faron Woods, so you’ll still have a part day’s ride… but I don’t have the Triforce to extend past it.”

“Are you coming with us?” Volga asked, stepping forward.

“I’ll be around,” Lana nodded, face sincere. “You may not see me, but I’ll be helping.”

Link stepped up to the portal, tall as they very wall, and mounted Epona. Looking down with a grateful smirk, he nodded. “Thank you, Lana. I hope we meet again under better circumstances.”

Lana gave him a sad smile, and something told him they probably wouldn’t, since she wasn’t supposed to intervene, but he meant it. “Go,” she said with a tearful smile. “Beat him to our Goddess, yeah?” She didn’t have to tell him twice. Link nodded and urged Epona forward through the portal. With a turn of the stomach and a brief fall later, Epona was running full speed across Hyrule field once more.

On the other side of the portal, Volga turned to look Lana over as she longing watch Link gallop away. “You know, no one blames you.” She turned and looked up to him, her damp eyes now holding the smile on her lips.

“That’s kind, but it’s my fault.”

“Ganon is tricky, powerful, seductive… and it was not you. It was the weak part of you that is gone now.”

She shook her head and looked back after Link who was disappearing over the rise of a hill. “But I… she… has caused so much heartache. I was never supposed to be a part of this.”

Volga looked up as well, knowing he needed to catch up, but feeling this was important. “You cannot regret another’s actions. Only your own.”

“I love him. I regret he ever had to know that.”

“Do you love him, or the idea of him?”

Turning to look back up at him in wonder, Lana didn’t seem to understand. “What’s the difference?”

Volga smirked. “A soul that is reborn eternally when the one who loves him needs him?” Knowing Lana was immortal he looked down to the young looking sorceress. “For someone sworn to spend eternity alone, I could see where the idea might appeal.”

Realizing he’d hit the nail on the head, Lana’s eyes were brimming with tears, and the Dragonknight felt a swell of empathy, reaching out to tug her into a gentle hug despite his armor. “You know, I happen to have the ear of the incarnation of the Goddess and her Chosen Hero. Perhaps… I could find a way to come visit you occasionally.”

Lana wiped her eyes trying not to cry anymore, and gave him a weak laugh. “That you’d even want to means the world, Volga. Thank you.” Giving him a brighter smile now, she stepped back and jerked her head to the portal. “Go. Make sure he wins. And I can’t hold this thing all day…”

With one last smirk, having made up his mind, Volga nodded and mounted his horse, charging through without another word, but vowing silently to petition Hyla, Din, Nayru and Farore all for a way to make sure Lana and her second chance were not left lonely.

Soon enough, he caught up with Link mostly, and after hours of riding, Hyrule Castle was growing larger in the distance.

Catching Link’s attention, he slowed his pace and convinced Link to do the same, despite the Hero’s irritation to do so. “What?” Link said, trying not to snap.

“We need to get closer, but are not yet expected back. Perhaps dawning our disguises will give us an element of surprise.”

“If Ganon is already there…” he said and started moving Epona on again, yet still looked at Volga.

“Then all the more reason for trying to gain surprise, would you not think?” Link blinked and watched his friend a moment trying to cool his head. Considering for a moment, he reached out to take the disguise from the Baron, his thought process being that Zelda would have probably agreed with Volga. He valued the wisdom of his ally, and accepted that perhaps he was not thinking quite as clearly as he should have been.

Dismounting and dawning the disguises that Impa had given them, Link felt a magical charm settle over him with the clothing and grunted in approval. Yes, this was the right option. Nodding to Volga, he remounted Epona and didn’t wait for Volga before taking off again. Soon enough they were riding full speed across Hyrule Field once more, the Master Sword and their identities hidden, while the Hero repeated the mantra in his mind, “Please don’t be too late…”

[anotherlifefic]

Chapter 26: The Fortress

Princess Zelda and I didn‘t talk much as we made our way across Hyrule Field, towards Lake Hylia. The fight at LonLon Ranch had made us both tense, and we kept a close eye on our sorroundings, fearing to be attacked at any moment. However, nothing happened. And thus, with only one break to let our horses eat and drink, we spent the entire way to the lake in silence. However, as we reached it and followed the road around the edge, leading to the mountain pass that Hyrule‘s army had crossed not too long ago. My thoughts were going wild as I looked ahead. I would find Link, and I would make Ganondorf pay for whatever he had done to him. I spurred Glory on, making her fall into a fast canter. I could hear Zelda shout my name somewhere behind me, but I did not stop. I was way too fixated on getting to the fortress… to Link. After a while, she finally caught up to me, riding ahead and blocking the way. „Rebecca! What do you think you‘re doing?!“ „I‘m doing everything I can to make sure we get to Link as fast as possible“, I retorted perhaps a bit more aggressively than intended. „We have to preserve our strength. And the strength of our horses, too.“ I felt the familiar heat of anger in my veins. „Link could be tortured or killed at this moment! Why are you stalling?! Don‘t you care that-“ „Rebecca.“ The tone of her voice reminded me who I was talking to. Just a weeks ago I would have flinched at the mere thought of even disagreeing with her, and now I was so openly questioning her dedication. „I love Link just as much as you do. Never forget that.“ She turned her horse and rode ahead again, at a normal speed. My heart sank as the reality of the things I had just said caught up to me. Oh by the Goddesses…

After a few hours of uncomfortable silence, it was getting dark and Zelda decided that we should take shelter in a nearby cave to sleep. I had gathered some twigs and branches from the sturdy trees around the cave, so we could light a fire. Once that was done however, I retreated to the farthest corner of the cave, away from the light and warmth of the campfire, only occasionally looking over to Zelda, who was staring into the flames. Whatever feeble kind of friendship had connected us up until now was surely lost; destroyed by my stupidity. I quietly cursed myself and wrapped my coat tightly around me, trying to keep away the cold of the night without having to go closer to the fire and risk a confrontation with Zelda… no, Princess Zelda. I had lost the right to just call her by her first name. I stared at the dancing shadows on the wall, wallowing in self-pity, when I heard soft steps approach me. I turned my head to see Princess Zelda sit down next to me. She looked me over. „Why don‘t you come to the fire? It‘s cold tonight.“ I averted my gaze. „I wanted to give you some space.“ I wanted to apologize. To beg on my knees for her forgiveness. But all I managed to say was a soft, choked „I‘m sorry.“. She sighed, wrapping her coat around me. „Come. Sit at the fire with me. Then we can talk about this.“ We got up and she led me over to the fire, propping me up like I was sick or injured, and sat down again. My joints had already gone stiff from the cold, and I stretched out my hands to warm them. While I did so, I sighed. „I‘m sorry for saying these horrible things about you. I had no right to do that. I know that you are worried about Link, and that you love him, and…“ I broke off before I could say anymore. There was no way I would start the whole „He would be better off with you“ conversation again. „I understand“, she replied, wrapping one arm around my shoulder. „And I forgive you.“ I let out a sigh of relief. I did not know how I deserved a friend like her, but I thanked the Goddesses for her.

The next morning, we mounted our horses as soon as we woke up, having a quick breakfast consisting of dried meat and bread while riding. While I was still embarrassed about my outburst the previous day, Zelda seemed to have all but forgotten about it. She chatted with me as if nothing had happened, her chipper tone indicating that she was trying to lift the mood. „...and once all of this is over, I want to properly meet your little son.“ She smiled and leaned forward. „What do you think he will look like when he's older? Like you or like Link? Or maybe a bit of both?“ „That's how it usually is with children“, I replied, getting sucked in by her enthusiasm. She was so easy to get along with...

After a while, we saw the silhouette of a large building in the distance. Zelda turned to me. „That must be it. From here on out, we have to be prepared for anything.“ „Got it.“ I stared at the fortress with determination. Maybe my husband was somewhere in there... and by the Goddesses, I would find him. We were expecting to be assaulted any moment as we approached the fortress' blackened walls, and I felt my heart sink as we came across a field filled with freshly dug graves, a sword marking each one. This must have been where the battle took place. How many of the dead resting in these graves did I know? I felt a chill run down my spine. Best not think about that quite yet; Ganondorf would get what was coming for him soon enough. It was eerily quiet. The wind was whistleing in between the walls and rooms of this place, and that was all we heard. „We should probably leave our horses here and continue on foot“, Zelda told me as she dismounted. „That would probably be for the best“, I agreed and did the same, giving Glory a calming pat on the neck before following the Princess.

The gate was wide open and the courtyard was empty, still we stayed close to the walls and kept ourselves in the shadows as much as we could. We entered a door on the right side of the main building, which turned out to lead us to a kitchen not unlike the one back at Hyrule Castle. Like the courtyard, this kitchen was empty. I dared to relax a little. But if this place was completely abandoned, then there was little hope of actually finding Link... or any information about his whereabouts here. Zelda looked around, tense with suspicion. „I don't trust this.“ „Do you think we should leave?“, I asked. „No.“ She strode forward. „But stay on guard.“

As we exited the kitchen, a stairway deep down into the bowels of the fortress caught my eye. I tugged at Zelda's sleeve and pointed to it. „This looks like it would lead to a dungeon.“ She eyed the stairway, then nodded. „Looks like it. Maybe we'll find something there.“

It did indeed lead us to a dungeon. It was cold and humid, and the sickly-sweet stench of decay thickened the air to the point where it was hard to breathe. The silence was occasionally interrupted by the quiet rattle of chains. „Do you hear that?“, I asked. There was someone down there, and chained up from the way it sounded! „Don't get ahead of yourself, Rebecca“, Zelda hissed, grabbing my arm so I couldn't rush down the rest of the stairs. „This might be a trap.“ I looked over to her, only able to guess her features in the dark. „Shouldn't we light a torch or something?“, I asked. „We can barely see anything here.“ „Too risky“, she told me. „Probing about in absolute darkness isn't the safest thing, either“, I replied dryly. „And don't monsters have a heightened sense of smell? Or better nightvision than Hylians?“ Zelda remained quiet for a moment, then sighed. „I suppose you're right. Just a moment...“ The unmistakable sound of flints hitting each other rung through the thick air, and a second later, a torch that had been hanging in the wall lit up with fire. Zelda took it from its holder and nodded at me. „Let's go.“

We descended the rest of the stairs in silence. At the bottom was a long corridor lined with prison cells. We walked on, looking into each one, only to find them empty, save for a few cells containing bones. They were too old to be Link's, thank the Goddesses. At the end of the corridor was a heavy wooden door. The chain-rattle seemed to come from the other side of that door. Zelda and I looked at each other, grim determination in our faces... and pushed it open.

The room we found ourselves in seemed to be meant for solitary confinement. The first thing that met my eye was a bottle on a table, emanating a soft, blue glow. „Navi!“, I called out and ran over to the table, pulling the cork out of the bottle and letting the fairy out. She was so weakened she could barely fly, so I caught her in my hands. „Princess Zelda! Rebecca! Oh I'm so glad to see you! Link and I have been kept prisoner here for weeks now.“ „How did you survive that? The fortress is abandoned!“, I asked, frantically looking around until I saw him. He looked emaciated and dirty, but he was alive. I dropped the bottle, causing it to break on the ground, and ran over to Link. He was chained to the wall in a sitting position, his hands lifted above his head and legs stretched out. His eyes wandered from Zelda to me and back again. „Reb... Rebecca.“ „I'm here, love“, I said in a choked voice. „We came here to save you.“ „And come you did. Like moths to a flame“, said Link's voice, but it did not come from the Link sitting in front of me. I turned around, facing the disguised Ganondorf. „You“, I said, venom in my voice. He did not even acknowledge me. Instead, he turned to Zelda, still keeping up his disguise. „You disappoint me. I would expect a foolish peasant like her...“ He nodded in my general direction. „...to fall for such an obvious trap, but you? You should know better. Ah, but who am I to complain? Here I am, having both the Triforce of Courage and the Triforce of Wisdom at my mercy.“ Now he turned to me, his blue eyes turning the same sickening yellow they had been during our first meeting at the marketplace. „You have been a very useful puppet. It was almost too easy. I knew that if I just fed you the right information at the right time, you would go running to your darling little princess and lead her right into my arms.“ „No!“, I cried out. „What?“, he asked with a patronising smile. „Did you really believe that you exposed me? Foolish little thing. You only saw what I wanted you to see. But now, you have outlived your usefulness. Fare thee well... puppet.“ The last thing I saw was a flash of bright light, then everything went black.

When I regained my vision, I was laying in that tiny cell in the not-so-abandoned fortress. But Link, Zelda and Ganondorf were gone. The only one who was still here was Navi, who I was still clutching to my chest. My stomach lurched, and I felt like vomiting. With all energy I could muster at the moment, I turned to the side. „Navi?“, I asked weakly. „What happened? Where are Link and Zelda?“ „I... I don't know.“ The small fairy sounded faint. „Just that Ganondorf did... something to us.“ I bit my lip. „We have to get out of here. If they're not here anymore, Ganondorf probably took them to Hyrule City.“ It was easier said than done, though. My muscles were stiff and barely obeyed me, and my whole body was sore, like after a particularly long and hard day at work. Only that there was no satisfaction about a job well done, just the terrible knowledge that my actions probably doomed all of Hyrule. I let go of Navi, who crawled into the satchel on the belt of my armor, and pushed myself into a sitting position. It was so dark that I could barely see anything, though that also could have been from the bright light of the spell. Crawling along the walls of the room, I tried to feel for the door. Finding it seemed to take forever, but finally, my fingers hit the rough wood.

This time, the fortress was really abandoned. It seemed decrepit, as if it had aged by several years without maintenance while I had been unconcious. Once I found my way up the stairs, a process which was made much easier by Navi's light, I took a good look around, hoping to find Glory and Zelda's horse. But they were gone. I hissed a curse under my breath, hoping that Glory was alright. But there was no way for me to find her, so I would have to go on without her... and hope that she had found her way home.

The way back to Hyrule was long and tedious. Good thing that I had put some of our provisions into the satchel on my armor, so at least I didn't have to go hungry for too long. But that was about all luck fate could muster for me. When stepping foot onto Hylian soil again, I gasped in terror. Lake Hylia was gone, leaving only a massive, dried out hole in the landscape. The once so fertile land around the lake was also devoid of any life now; the grass was brown and crackled underneath my feet. The sky was covered in thick, dark clouds, shrouding the entire lake in gray. But despite the clouds, it looked like there had been no rain for months. Even the air was so dry that it made me cough. An unfamiliar sound made me grab my weapon, just in time to slice through the monster that had approached me. A tektite. A red one, like one would normally find on the path to Death Mountain. I cursed under my breath. How could all of this have happened in the few days I had been gone? Had it just been a few days? How long had I been unconcious? Either way, I had to go on. Had to get to Hyrule City, and save Link and Zelda... somehow. I knew that in my current state, there was little I could do. But there seemed to be no alternatives. No way to free them without a fight. My grip around the naginata tightened. Just as I approached Hyrule Field, someone grabbed my arm. „Wait.“ I turned around, startled, only to find a familiar Zora-woman. Her fins wrapped around her slender body, almost like a dress, and her deep-purple eyes looked at me in a way I could not quite describe. My eyes grew big. „Princess Ruto?“

[thegeminisage]

today’s zeldablogging, big big huge very much spoilers everywhere:

WHERE DO I EVEN GO FIRST there is. so Much

out towards the ocean, i suppose...i see a shrine, and something else glowing that could be a settlement or lava or even a great fairy, and there are those islands to think about

GOD IT'S A COMBAT SHRINE a minor test of strenth okay okay i can do this

oh pffft that was easy

and i got...a giant ancient core, which sounds nice but probably won't let me upgrade my rune

how come the bokoblins can use bomb arrows in the rain and i can't?!

OH MY GOD....

first skeleton bokoblins, then skeleton lizalfos, and now skeleton moblins?!?!

wish i had marked that other glowing thing with a pin...i can't find it now lol

and i am at the islands!! man these bridges sure are tiny and high up

all this climbing i want to do and its about to rain :/

oh good. more flying guardians :|im trapped on top of this island in the middle of a lightning storm in the night besieged by moblin skeletons and keese swarms and my only non-metallic weapon is a korok leaf smh

mkay i am All Done with the islands im gonna warp back to the tower and mark the glowy thing this time

oh they just look like mushrooms?? well i'll go pick them i guess

OH OMG IT'S A FAIRY FOUNTAIN SKDFGH YES!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!

only 500...but i know it gets worse :| im saving up

oh this one is blue!! how pretty

haha i still think they look more like mermaids...can't see their legs and they pop up outta water :3

OMG I SEE THE FIRE DRAGON

THE DIN ONE

IN THE DISTANCE AAAAH!!!!

so far away ;u;

i can't even take a good picture!!!!

oh no

oh NO

skeleton moblins...and now a skeleton hinox ;___;

...skeletons only take two hits. im gonna go fight it

omg the hinox fight music plays nooooo rip m having eventide flashbacks

oh my god! wow! okay! this one takes more than two hits!!

it's lightning too i can't even use my bomb arrows what did i get myself into........

OMFG HE IS TEARING OFF HIS OWN RIBS TO THROW AT ME LSKDJFHG

oh the lightning is a hinox thing. Great i only have metal weapons rn

aaaand he ran away with the dawn. ok

oh dude this shrine is cool you have to like play putt putt golf hahaha

OMG IM GOING TO CRY

i found another memory and it's of zelda saying she's prayed all her life like her father wanted and she still can't make the gods hear her......im so sad for her

there's nothing wrong with you my sweet daughter!!!!

this is cool tho the talk of her father and mother and grandmother and link's father

they have families and lives, it's so neat, i wish i knew more about them

tho ofc almost everyone who knew and loved link is long dead now......

ah. i paraglided her, but

to get out i have to bypass all these flying guardians. Great

NO SKDFGJH ONE SAW ME

so its laser grazed me and only took one heart and i was like thats it?! i'll fight you!!

then i got hit directly and it nearly killed me so now im running

NOOOO THERE'S A LYNEL HERE JESUS GOD

I JUST WANTED TO GET TO THE SHRINE AND I RAN RIGHT INTO HIM SDLFGJH

god and a blue hinox in the way too Why

omg i unlocked a monster shop lskjghf now i will see him in villages at night!!!

ah the shrine is on top of this huge rock pillar, how do i...?

maybe i can glide from a nearby cliff!!

okay...okay...it's not sheer rock, there must be resting places, if i glide form here maybe i can do it

i can't glide from where i'd like bc of the hinox (:

I MADE IT

they better not make me solve a fucking puzzle too

ah good they didn;t

FLAMEBLADE thats so badass

oh god another blue lynel

maybe it's even the same one

my dude i just wanna travel....i promise, i promise

FINALLY the akkala research lab!!!

dude better have some sick duds or something for me i swear to god

the music in here is lit i love it

uh

there's a...blue glowing statue

looks like something out of the tower of the gods awww

haha it's damaged! poor thing

this old man like "show me the wounds on your body you suffered" bro are you asking me to strip

oh my gOD his electric guitar pose thing

jesus chrkjrgh

EVERYONE IN THIS GAME IS A GIANT HAM

im doing a quest where you have to carry fire

AND IT STARTS RAINING

this game has made me LOATHE rain! i thought that was impossible and yet!!!!!

im running out of map stamps :/ why would you give me a world this big and limit me to only 100...?

aaaand it's raining

and my ONLY TORCH BROKE god i keep accidentally using it to hit things!!!

FINALLY i did it!!!!! god that was so tedious

oh my god this guy could make me such amazing gear, but i don't have the materials </3

now to check out this maze building it looks super weird and i can see a shrine in it......

how the fuck are you even supposed to get there i hope my glider can take me

lovely. the wind's blowing against me and i see flying guardians from here

noooo they're EVERYWHERE and i have to do a MAZE oh my god

i can solve it on my map and mark the dead end routes, fortunately

i still kind of want to explore those routes lol

oh they're so bare......maybe not

if i miss something like a korok seed or whatever a guide will direct me back here later

or...maybe not

i mean im next to the shrine but it's surrouned on all sides by wall?

bet it's too tall to climb even with potions and my gear

ooh or if it isn't those lfying guardians will fuck me up in a snap

YES i got lucky and found my way in from the top

or no i found...a sword, great, how do i get into the SHRINE

YES here it is

dude i got an ATK+ helmet!! i got GEAR!!!! YES

AAAAH I GOT ATTACKED AS SOON AS I GOT OUT

nope fuck this im fast traveling. goodbye forever, maze island

geez i guess that must be nearly it for this province then i got one shrine left i think and then i could........go to death mountain?

tbh kinda tempted to go back down to lake hylia but i'll pass for now, i want more Plot

i suppose i didn't do akkala beach but it's small and remote so i'm ok with that for now - i can clean up the endgame stuff later when better guides are out

there's a stable next to this shrine!! yay!!!!!!

omg there's a goron here!!!!! hi!!!!!!!!!!!!

finally hit 10k rupees

ooh this guy is talking about a legendary sword...GIMME MY MASTER SWORD

tbh i'll be disappointed if there's no special quest to get it tho like you just...find it? kinda weak

AAAH I CAN CHANGE MANES HERE........jemma has a floral mane now ;w;

too bad i didn't find this before, i can't ride her up death mountain, unfortunately - it's so much faster to fast travel, and she might get hurt, and i'll have to get on and off of her so much... ):

oh wait, i haven't explored the lake yet! i forgot! i can take her there <3

all the guardians here scared the shit out of me but they arent functional, thank god

NO FUCK THERE ABSOLUTELY IS A LIVE GUARDIAN HERE.....fuck fuck i can't KILL them

omg no i see TWO of them

if it was just one i might try my luck, but...no way

i'm sure in the future i'll be able to get more guardian arrows but right now i have, like, 4? so i can't waste them

and when i have the guardian armor that'll help too but. not Now

aaah i found somsone whose ancestors died at that tower...apparently the last stand was made there at what used to be the fortress after the castle fell ;_; and he wanted to pray there but it's too dangerous and i am AD oh my god

i can see the death mountain tower and a shrine from the akkala tower, but i can only reach the shrine by gliding. the tower is surrounded by (UGH) snow

lol the shrine is by a stable too

AAAH kass is here!!!!!!

AWWW he said the song he's playing was used by the ancient hero to call his horse!! gonna cry omg

bro lmao there's an ostrich running around here what kinda shenanigans

oh my god this dried lava under the tower is SO COOL it's so BIG and i feel so SMALL

ah, eldin tower - so this is the eldin province

wow the first stops are quite a ways up on this one! lucky i have so much stamina

ooooh my gosh the eldin map is HUGE and FULL OF LAVA im not sure im Prepared for this!!!

lol in a fun twist the temperature gets HOTTER as i gain altitude. ohhh man

i guess...i wanna do plot. i'll try to make it to goron city, and come back and explore later

when i have more fireproof elixirs lol rn my inventory is packed so i could only buy 3

oh my god i can't use wooden weapons, my arrows turn into fire arrows as soon as i get them out, even the loot will catch fire if you leave it too long, this is Intense

OH MY GOD A STONE TALUS BUT IT'S LIKE, MAGMA-Y

okay this is cool i wish i hadn't waited so long

lmao i accidentally drank a defense elixir and erased my fireproofness early OOPS

omg you can't use bomb arrows either dkgjhdfg the heat makes them explode instantly

unfortunately the only thing that makes a dent is ice arrows and i just don't have enough rn....BUT I WILL RETURN god that is so cool okay anyway

all right......i really like this region. normally i'm a water person, ESPECIALLY in zelda games, but rain and lightning have been nothing but a pain in my ass since i started playing. maybe i was ready for some #Heat

HA there's the fucking blood moon good thing i DIDN'T kill him it would have been erased right after

the blood moon looks kinda cool when the air is already like this tbh but i still hate it

like on a gameplay/story integration level it's a cool way to explain monsters coming back

but also im angry on behalf of hylians and everyone else like

no matter how hard they fight every month it comes back, it's all in vain

the music here is super cool, also

omg i found a little camp of gorons!!

ooh, a hylian...and he'll give me fireproof armor for lizards OOOO:

hahahaha...they can't dig up ore because of a lizard monster

my heart twisted, fondly

geez i wish i had time to catch some lizards...........

i caught a few but not 10, and i only have one elixir left, since i used one early. i guess if it comes to it i could try to make another but

YES okay i did it!! good

and armor i now have!!

altho i hope i don't run out of armor inventory space that would SUCK what with all the work that goes into collecting and upgrading it tbh

LOL i hit an emu or ostrich or whatever it is and the meat it dropped immediately became roasted oh my god

HOLY FUCK THE MOUNTAIN IS ERUPTING

NOW THIS SHIT BRINGS BACK MEMORIES OH MY GOD

running for cover!!!! almost dying!!!!!!!!! good times im so happy

it's like getting to do it the very first time all over again

oh my god i just got a divine beast cutscene as i got to goron city i am quaking in my boots it is SO BIG

and now i'm out almost 3k rupees but i have full fireproof armor!

oh my god you can get a goron massage at the inn

"it doesn't hurt a bit" yeah i bet

[cue lots of screaming]

omg theres a gerudo lady sleeping here!! are you not on fire?!?!

SO IS PAINTER DUDE...?

omg they must have elixirs ldfjkgh

"abandoned mine - do not stray from path! both literally and figuratively" slkdfjgh what does that MEAN...

aw, they sleep on beds of hoat coals

man this shrine im doing is so complex!! like many multiple rooms, it's neat

i got like 9 orbs now i need to find somehwere to trade them in

omg so im lookin for the goron who went to get the stuff out of the vault and HE'S TALKING IT'S SO WEIRD it still always shocks me

how do i..? my bombs don;t work, so

OH OMG I CAN USE THE CANONS i thought maybe you had to wait for permission lol

poor goron he's scared and trembling...haha just like the ones in the fire temple. bye

HE TALKED IN HIS OPENING CUTSCENE...IM SO GLAD

yunobo! aww he's precious i love him

i suspect this is the area where i'll have to get inside the divine beast tbh bc of all the cannons

lol almost yped it with one n. shh

the embers here are so pretty...next time i paint hotland i'll remember them

i wanna paint THIS, tbh

like, anything. from this game. god Damn

ooooh a daruk statue

omg IM GETTING A MEMORY YES!!!!!!

I LOVE HIM

I LOVE DARUK

WHO PATS BACKS TOO HARD AND PUNCHES OUT ROCKS

oh my god he had the same kind of barrier that yunobo put up around himself are they related!!!! im gonna cry i love them so much

yep hahahaha the next words out of boss's mouth!

oooh he has the blessing, that's what the barrier is

yunobo's at eldin bridge...? that's MILES away

OH!!! omg my brother reminded me there are two in tp hahahaha so i guess i got them mixed up

so where is eldin's bridge actually......

too bad i cant swim up lavafalls lol

i found a minecart and put it on the track but bombs dont make it go and i can't magnesis it when its under my feet??

AHA, STASIS

okay that was super fun but i hate beating up my weapons like that

there's a shrine here but the glowing orange blends right in with this lava, i nearly missed it

AWWW yunobo's gonna be the canonball! bless him

omg is he gonna follow me!!!! I HAVE A FRIEND

IM GONNA CRY FINALLY IM NOT ALONE <3333

oh god okay here we go i guess??? im so scared

like. its so big.i cant impress upon anyone who hasnt played it. how big it is. and the mountain is so much bigger and i am so small. i keep saying that but i'm like. DWARFED by this thing, it's truly incredible

ohhhhh an escort mission.......and stealth, which im Bad at. man, the elephant was a lot cooler so far

AWW omg we snuck past the first one and he went "hee hee!" and it was so cute i love him so much

he stands at attention so quick when i do the stop whistle please please i love him

also i feel like i recognize SO many voices in this...i gotta imdb it later

the voice acting isn't even anything extraordinary, it's like, not awful but nothing jaw dropping

but the fact that they speak blows my mind every time

i used to fantasize about that in a "fff yeah right the day after never" kinda way and here we are.....

omg i got stuck and talked to him and it's like. what he said was completely useless but it's like having a companion!!! oh god i've been so lonely

oh god i looked up too far and saw the beast and it is. so big. i know i keep saying this but it is gargantuan. it's HUGE. i can't believe how big it is

lol i couldnt figure out why the trail ended and spent half an hour wondering what i was supposed to do

turns out i should have been firing at the divine beast this entire time so i gotta go back and start over and walk up the trail again LMAO

at least you only have to clear the sentries once

ah FINALLY im inside!

DARUK IS TALKING TO ME ;_;

HE ALWAYS KNEW LINK WOULD BE BACK im so sad. i feel human emotion

oooh it's all dark in here

and blue flame!!

ohhhhh man i love these 3D maps

OH MY GOD YOU CAN TURN IT

it's so big. oh my god

wait it isn't hot in here! i can use any item i want!

god i forgot how the music becomes creepier the closer you get

i can't believe this...turning the whole dungeon...some stone tower temple shit

ooh okay still hot OUTSIDE of the divine beast...too bad

noooo i found the cockpit pod thingy...like are their skeletons just decaying in there or

ooh boy oooookay last one here we GOOOO...

"PAIN IN THE CRAG" LOL NINTENDO PLS

omg daruk cheering me on as i fight ;______;

awww that wasnt too bad ive fought WAY worse enemies just roaming around on the map

oh ew GROSS

DARUK ;_;

me after daruk sent link away: aaaww i love him but that wasn't as gut-wrenching as mipha's

me after daruk saw yunobo from a distance and they waved at each other: literally actually crying, there are tears really on my face

WHY COULDN'T MIPHA SEE HER FAMILY FROM A DISTANCE, HUH

if it doesn't happen i swear to god i will draw it if i have to

oooh boss is talkin about the master sword

it's in a forest - that's gotta be the lost woods or i'll eat my pointy green hat

but i mean. if you just find it. there's gotta be some kinda quest or build up

wow, i'm finally at the tippy-top opf death mountain...i feel like i could go anywhere from here

omg i flew to a shrine and i have to complete a training thing to get in??? oh my god

oh no. i have to climb the thing. #why

aww that wasn't too bad. did it on the first try

i found the end of the map on "land" ... it's a deep gorge and you die if you go too far down, probably even if you're on foot

but there's land beyond that, even on the map, so it doesn't feel as freaky as just MEGA WIND on the ocean

why is there a hinox EVERYWHERE i try to go. why.

dude theres a giant skeleton of some sort on my map...omg

probs a hinox there too tbh

...wait a second.

i'm at a HOT SPRING

i recover hearts by swimming, so maybe i could fight this hinox...

AND i have daruk's protection, three whole charges, two fairies, my hearty radish food, and mipha's grace.........i can do it!!

wow okay and i just used up the grace and one fairy on this bokoblin camp so nevermind

tbh i don't even like fighting them...i suck at combat and the rewards are almost never worth the fight

okay but i literally could get anywhere from death mountain i think and i do mean LITERALLY that isn't hyperbole, assuming i had infinite stamina. damn. thats a Big Mountain

gonna go investigate the skeleton

there's monsters under it! i am standing above them on the ribcage and cheesing it with bombs

also it says eldin great skeleton was this a dragon.........

was this in the trailers or was it somewhere else?

standing inside the skull of this thing 

i realize just how BIG the dragons are

like. damn

everything in this game makes me feel like an ant

lol this is the First Ever shrine i'll have to come back to not bc i can't figure it out but bc i ran out of fucking arrows. incredible

the problem is i can't really explore here bc my fire armor hasnt been improved at all, my defense SUCKS

i just died bc i found a talus lol and it two-shotted me and like. i have a pretty good amt of hearts, here

also next time im exploring first i feel like i'll never know if ive seen everything or not bc i'm all lost and don't know what i looked at and what i didn't :/

i hate to like, leave it and say i'll come back to it bc i know i probably won't, but games are supposed to be fun! and attempting to explore this area with all my armor at 3 defense is like. not fun. dying over and over: Not Fun

i feel like seeing or doing something new!!

what i need is my own copy of the map on the computer so i can just mark off the areas i wanna explore later

oooh i found an interactive map!! which i can't. screencap and annotate for myself, but

oh well, it's too much trouble to find one, and ps would be really slow rn anyway since i havent used it in awhile

however this map DOES have memory locations, so i'm gonna grab a few of those

okay NOW i found a shrine idk how to do. tbh i can't be fucked rn, i wanna go get memories

holy fuck the first memory i unlocked had like a PILE of dead monsters link just fucked up, including a silver maned lynel, which my ass has NOT killed yet, holy shit

ONWARD

HOLY SHIT the one i just got was in the trailers!! zelda crying on link ;_;

i'm glad tbh bc i was lowkey like...well i know you get her out of the castle bc she cries on you later

but no!!!!

also he strains of zelda's lullaby, them being covered in mud, and link's master sword! MAN

i can't get to anymore atm so i guess i decide where i go next...

tbh i wanna do gerudo next like my brother which means going thru lake hylia!! so it will be a long time before more plot, i guess

ah! the blood moon! gonna warp to the stable and watch it with that guy

lol he's all beautiful moon tonight, eh, finally the blood moon

UM HE'S FREAKING ME OUT HE JUST STARTED RUNNING AROUND AND SAID HIS BLOOD WAS BOILING???

"IT'S SO GLORIOUSLY RED, ARISE MONSTERS" WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

and he acted totally normal after!

"oh you were researching the blood moon too?" WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM YOU FREAK

yep goodbye im leaving

upgraded my armor as much as i could with the fairy, STILL can't afford anti-guardian tech, am actively dying without it, will attempt gerudo and/or lake hylia tomorrow

[thegeminisage]

i realized i had been typing up zelda blogging into notepad for like a week plus without posting, cause i didn’t wanna post everyday once i finished the main story? but then it got SUUUPER long. i waited for it to kinda taper down since now i’m mostly down to completionist stuff, and since it has, i’m gonna post it & just do small posts if i decide to blog abt anything else.

it feels rly weird not to zeldablog now

i ran into a blue? silver? lynel and got trapped fighting it on my way out of hyrule castle AND KILLED IT!! yay!!

also im going back to the mountain to check out that glow

i checked the shrine out next to it, since i was only activating them near the end and not DOING them

and they've gotten way more complex

now i understand when the monks commend your resourcefulness like before i was like, pls. that was way too easy. literally anyone could have done that

i went to the lake at night and it isn't glowing ): idgi did i see something else? does it only do that from a distance? on certain nights? i could see it from SO far away...

o my god theres a GOLF minigame the camera angles even do the thing

fucking fuck dinraal showed up WHILE I WAS PLAYING GOLF 

i MISSED him im so mad i couldnt fast travel away bc minigame!!!

WOW AND HERE COMES THE BLOOD MOON WHICH I WAS WAITING ON AT THE LAKE MOUNTAIN im so pissed i fuckin hate golf at this point its faster to finish than to run all the way back and quit :|

i finished golf but the blood moon just turned into?? a normal moon??

ah okay the glow is random and it's a rare mount!! thank god it wasn't just me losing my mind lol

haha i went to kill the shock arrow lynel just to see if i could and it only took like less than a minute with atk+ armor and decent weapons/shields

plus i'm just better at that special timing stuff now

figures it wouldn't happen til post-game

wtf another blood moon only a few nights later???

i read it was super glitchy but i never really realized until i was paying attention...

aww i bought a house!! maybe link and zelda can live there until the castle is restored YES THEY WILL BE MARRIED SOMEDAY

it's a cute quest i wish i had brought enough rupees to buy all the furniture in it

anyway like. it's super nice to have finally beaten this game's story?? i feel like now i don't have to Rush, i can stop and poke around and explore just like i want, tbh i kinda wish i had done it sooner

anyway im done for the night but i think i will rack up a bit more blogging before making a post i don't wanna be making one every day anymore

——

okay so im gonna wait for the blood moon at this shrine

ive been reading that its random and glitchy?? but had i never read any of that i would have been SURE it was just every full moon, like clockwork

so maybe i'm wrong or the internet is

anyway i have enough fire arrows and wood to camp for a full 10 nights, after which im bailing lol

OH FUCK CANCEL EVERYTHING A SHOOTING STAR

I WONDER IF I CAN FAST TRAVEL TO IT??

only one way to find out

I CAN!!!!!

tonight's a halfmoon...if it's waxing then only 2 more nights, if the blood moon is the fullmoon

waning - 6 more nights :/

and who even knows if the blood moon is the full moon...

i've been reading so much and there's so much i was aching to do while trapped in bed that i don't know where to begin...! yet i am waiting at this dumb shrine, haha

i think i wanna to the terrytown quests? tarrytown? where you build a town, those sound so fun, but ofc i need rupees

three-quarters moon! pleeease letthe next one be a blood moon, i say for once in my life lol

oh no...full moon but no blood moon ):

ugh i do not WANT to camp here for a hundred years

i suppose with the nearby shrine i can get to it fairly quicky but not quickly enough for my liking...once the moon rises you only have literally like two minutes before it leaves

so i have to notice it, get out there, and get naked in less than 2 minutes, without warning :/

ok yeah no this is stupid i'll just do something else while i wait

ah, but what! this is what i was talking about earlier, where do you even BEGIN

i could go back and solve shrines, but puzzles are only fun for so long, i wanna explore and there's so much left to see

i could also rupee farm hahahaha

and for better or worse i do eventually wanna get all the korok seeds...

actually i think i wanna fight minibosses?? which is so weird but i feel like i can take em

i know the silver lynels will kick my ass from reading tvtropes but i can take the others!!!

i also read about the lon lon ranch ruins, which i either missed or didn't realize what they were...i don't have a clue as to where they are, but i wanna see them, i know i'll be Sad

omg people startle when i get close to them wearing dark link armor

oooh i was wondering what this big circular tower was...man i havent seen ANYTHING in hyrule field

apparently there are monsters inside...i see a blue lynel? silver lynel? who knows

but i fought one before, so maybe i can take it

i WAS wanting to fight stuff

camera says it's silver, tvtropes says silvers are harder than calamity ganon himself

but the ones that aren't red all look alike to me, so i have no idea which kind i fought in hyrule castle...and my sword had superpowers then

the problem is all these OTHER monsters...no way could i take them on all at once

so i gotta go around and pick them off first without being noticed if i can

omg i cant drop the master sword when electrocuted ahaha nice

oops i dropped a lizalfos down there with the lynel....lmao maybe i better just go fight him before i fuck up anything else

ah no it's coming back on its own. well done

ok, got em

man, wouldn't it be just my luck if the blood moon rose NOW

tbh if it did i would have to abandon this entire thing, which i would, reluctantly, just so i wouldn't have to wait anymore

ooh god he saw me i was hopin for a sneak attack ;w;

ok here we go i guess!!

i did it!!!!

it actually wasn't that bad, tho it got a bit dicey a couple of times

so much of this game is like, your buffs and armor and weapons, i've had harder fights against weaker foes just bc i wasn't properly equipped

but learning to dodge and use my shield a bit better certainly didn't hurt

tbh it looks like most of what i wanna do requires rupees, so i should go farm some i guess!

boring, but you know

apparently i was wrong about the music in goron city and the gerudo areas and they ARE the classic tunes...i just didn't hear it??

AAAAH the satori mountains are glowing!!

;w; i caught him

what a freaky-lookin boy

i wish i could keep him!!

jesus fuck the blood moon came up and i idled at the screen without looking, god, the ONE TIME

i bet i'll never make it in time but i gotta try

dark link armor will make me move a BIT faster at night for what its worth but i dont even think i have revali's gale ready jfc

thank god i made it with just a few seconds to spare

yikes its lightning af outside so im gonna quit for now

——

aww tarreytown looks so cute so far!! i wanna build it up ;u;

lol i hate when you know a guardian is nearby and can't find it even tho i can fight them now my heartrate is still so jacked up

——

god the tarreytown sidequests are so pleasant and relaxing like

i havent felt so calm playing this game since...i don't think ever

and like, they talk about the yiga clan and the monsters outside

and if i were a person with more time i would write the cute genfic about how tarreytown gets put under seige but their location makes that hard and they fight off the bad guys

it's always sunny there!!! no matter the weather elsewhere :')

also i finally did break the hylian shield cleaning out the guardian room on maze island and i got a replacement there......for3k, but still

anyway im finding all the chests from the shrines i missed and one is in the plateau ): my heart

like, i can't believe i used to think this mountain was massive, this plateau was massive. it's so small compared to everything else. and so lonely ;_;

like, i miss it, weirdly, but i miss the version that had the easy enemies and the old man and where when i looked outside of the walls it was all very misty and i couldn't even comprehend the true size of this world

so: nostalgia, i guess

——

jesus FUCKING christ i went out to see the ranch ruins with epona and i got attacked by a guardian, a yiga clan member, and two silver bokoblins on horseback

FINALLY fought them off, terrified the entire time something would happen to epona, and i got attacked by three stal moblins

fought THEM off and there's a stal bokoblin on a stalhorse! but i can't catch it or ride it because of all times, the blood moon is rising!! j e s u s c h r i s t

now i've gotta get on my horse and get the hell out of dodge before those things come back to hurt her

i was thinking of a nice relaxing-if-sad trip before bed but no i gotta come back on FOOT to kill these guys AGAIN and then bring her back during the DAY so we can properly look around

who KNEW this would be so awful, jesus

okay update i did get on the stalhorse bc i have about 30 seconds to snap a cool pic (no way i can ride it out to whatever stable i need for the quest...even if i could leave epona here, it's much too long of a trip) but fucking hell dude

FUCK i took too long it rose epona and i are STILL HERE LMAO (((:

i didn't know if i should get on epona and ride for it or teleport to the stable and then board her

i teleported and it looks like she's still safe bc they boardered her ;_;

i took her back out and gave her a bunch of apples ;____; my poor brave girl

lol as if that wasnt enough its about to start lightning

ugh i'm coming back tomorrow and cleaning that place out good and fucking proper

i'd kinda like to do it tonight but it's already so late and i don't feel well and it would take a long time and also be a bit stressful probably

at least now i know where to find lots of stalhorses lol

although if you think about it they're there bc a lot of horses died

aaaaand i'm sad again

(super mad i didn't get pics on my in-game camera of the horse, but the snapchat pic i snapped of dark link riding it under the blood moon was still pretty damn cool)

——

w o w

i kinda wish i had been able to bring epona, but i couldn't—it's so dangerous here

but after clearing it out and actually getting to look around, uh

this is brick-for-brick the most faithful recreation of oot's lon lon ranch

and i am SO sad

ugh i just had to restart an entire shrine bc i dropped my korok leaf at the last second bc i was trying to open all the chests and i had to go back and get my good spear that i had to drop to get the korok leaf in the first room...but i needed the korok leaf to get back to the end!!!!!

i hate the weapons system in this game sometimes i won't lie like sometimes it's really good and sometimes it drives me bonkers

oh my fucking god lmao

i can't even RESTART the shrine bc the leaf was in a CHEST which is now empty. holy shit

like, that is NONFUNCTIONAL

they should have had a tools section for leaves and axes and shit i swear to fuck bc i always drop korok leaves as soon as i can bc i don't ever use them to sail and i have so little room and there's so many weapons...jesus christ

i made a huuuuuge list of everything i need to fully upgrade all my armor. it took hours but i think i did the math wrong

remember when i said i was never going back to eventide? well here i am! i'm farming bokoblin guts/general monster drops lol and i knew there were a bunch here :|

but i'm better armed now! so it should be a cakewalk

even red hinoxes don't give me much trouble these days. we'll see

sniped the upper camp no problem with some pretty basic bows. don't know WHY i sniped it, i could have fought them...

haha just kidding. yes i do

time to fight the hinox, i suppose

tbh this is giving me trauma flashbacks lol

duuuude theres a lil star by this hinox's name!!

does that mean the game keeps track of which i kill.......awhile ago the fang and bone guy said he wanted me to kill every hinox and i'm like "fffft yeah right like the blood moon wouldn't come up halfway through each and every try"

but maybe that doesn't matter O:

now i can use stamps to only mark hinoxes i HAVENT killed............interesting

unfortunately i've also been stamping lynels, and i'd hate to take stamps off just bc i'd killed something...man

i wish i had more kinds of stamps and the ability to USE more stamps, geez

i could kill all four moldugas first and see what he did before deciding if it was Worth It

this doesn't make me feel like a badass and i'm not actually getting any great drops. i just have war flashbacks and feel slightly creeped out and anxious. so i'm leaving

holy fuck i finally got the rubber armor and duuuuude it really is shock proof! i got struck by lightning and it knocked me off my feet but only took a quarter of a heart!!!

——

guess i should make a list of taluses, hinoxes, and moldugas i KNOW ive killed :|

it won't be comprehensive but i wanna keep track of it, sigh

i'm trying to farm bokoblin guts but this one area is like all these high up bridges and platforms and they ALWAYS fall so every time i have to fly down and climb back up :|

this place was from one of the coolest parts of the trailer though i really like it

i thought foolishly to knock them all off and then go down and get them. of course they'd despawned by then </3

——

I FOUND KASS IN THE RITO STABLE? HE HAS A WIFE AND KIDS BACK HOME??

like tvtropes spoiled that for me i'll admit but im still cryin...hes so homesick!! he fulfilled a promise!!!! kass buddy i'm gonna clear those shrines for you ;_;

also update i get medals for killing all the things so ofc i gotta do that if i want 100%

i Dread the getting of the korok seeds i just dont know if i am Capable especially knowing there's no reward

like, i'm trying to get all the shrines done before i finish off the sidequests bc once i finish off the sidequests i am not gonna wanna play anymore, the story stuff and exploration stuff will mostly be over, my drive to keep going will drop dramatically, so like

gotta do the shrines first so i actually have time to WEAR the super cool armor i get

otherwise it would be sidequests, shrines, armor, but then no more playing lmao

——

I GOT IT AND IT'S BEAUTIFUL

I MAY NEVER WEAR ANYTHING ELSE

(thats a lie i gotta wear other stuff until i can get this upgraded bc the stats are so low...but its BEAUTIFUL)

——

i did all the stables so why won’t kass come see his daughters? ;_;

oh ok i had to go get the cache

AWWW BUDDY

he finally knows it’s me!! furthermore zelink #confirmed thank u nintendo this is probably the most overt it’s ever been tbh

——

finally fully upgraded my armor & i never wanna see another dragon again

they kept failing to spawn where they were supposed to and the only one who spawns reliably/is easy to hit/doesn’t send scales flying 100000 miles away is farosh, naydra and dinraal are absolutely horrible, naydra in particular has nowhere you can fast-travel to, you have to fast-travel to a nearby shrine and then walk a good distance no matter where you drop in at. naydra was also the most finnicky about showing up when she was supposed to

at least i figured out i can use a flame sword instead of fire arrows to light campfires

getting honey was pretty easy there’s a fuckton next to those hinox brothers and acorns are kinda everywhere

the beetles were a little more tedious but once i put them on my sensor not too bad...the worst part was turning beedle down every time he wanted one because he does a LONG speech that is SUPER annoying after the 100th time and you’re just trying to buy arrows

anyway im gonna go test the defense

surprise! lynels and guardians can still kick my ass!

everything else seems to fly right off me tho so that’s something

it’s been ages since any hinox or talus was able to put up a fight against me

i’ve still only killed about half of each tho like :/ damn they are everywhere & there’s sooo many

——

i’m lowkey wondering if i will attempt to 100% this game like i do Not look forward to getting all those fucking korok seeds, at that point it is no longer fun, yk, and the reward is so stupid

also i saw a video about having to visit every major named place on the map as well

and both of those things obviously guarantee that you see EVERY INCH of this huge and exapansive and beautiful world, but i feel like if i forced myself to keep going and doing it i would learn to hate the game a little bit lmao. lowkey feel like that’s adding fake hours onto your game for something that stop being fun and turns into absolute tedium, but i guess i can understand wanting to give completionist players a reason to see EVERYTHING

we’ll just see how i feel - i still have quite a few sidequests left, and while i don’t wanna burn thru them too quickly (bc again, after they’re over my interest will drop dramatically) i also still wanna fight the minibosses and upgrade as much of my armor as i am able to

but like, who the fuck has time to farm 160ish star pieces...? not me my dude and that mmo-type drop rarity is like :/ i disapprove, that’s like...cheating. but anyway. we’ll see how far i get