#asdflkdjf dineli wouldn't have introspected enough for a concrete answer without taki forgive me for sprinkling npcs in

[flockrest]

thoughts on... / always accepting / @sentinaels

thoughts on rauru and/or sonia, from dineli? 👀

     "So! Our new allies!"

     The rush of the Windlines dims. His pulse fades out of focus. He sighs, breath forming a cloud of condensed exasperation. Of course. Leave it to Taki to pursue a line of thought like this — even now, when it has nothing to do with anything.

     No — especially now, Dineli corrects, when the matter of the newfangled kingdom and its newfangled sovereigns is the last thing he wants finding him after he's left their stone walls and festooned pillars behind. When it's the last thing he wants following him back into these peaks he's truly missed in his time away like some incessant buzzard — or an opponent vying for the first sliver of an opening.

     "What," he begins, banking and dipping to avoid Taki's spear-tip. It's a twirling swoop that brings them talons-to-talons as they shoot further past him than intended without a solid target to brace against: he wastes nary a beat in catching them before they can rise out of his grasp, heavier weight stalling his flight for a second — then he's hauling them into a loop that ends with them flung aside and out of proper form, "about them?"

     They laugh as they right themself, a smooth recovery as always. "Come now, Elder. Your thoughts, your judgement, your verdict!"

     Again, the last thing he wants to discuss right now. He's petty enough to conspicuously nock an arrow and let them curve right around it when it's released, only to swiftly guide two more straight into their side. Padded though both his bolts and Taki may be, they still cough out a squawk that has mirth lining even his voice. "You know these."

     "That was before you nested with King Rauru and Queen Sonia," they counter, weaving between progressively straying shots and fighting against his touched Windlines in earnest now. The accent overlaying the Hylian words sounds how thickened snow feels — refreshing, if slightly odd after days of its absence. "Surely, you have something better to say about them now?"

     A mess of conflicting emotions sprouts within him. Anticipatory thrill for the coming attack, chagrin at the utter crassness of describing his sojourn as nesting ( of all things! ), a prickle of discomfort for the fresh set of memories he's been carefully leaving at the edges of his mind ever since carrying them home — now slipping to the forefront at Taki's insistence.

     He has something new to say about them, perhaps.

     Something better? Hardly.

     Taki dives at him, spear poised to wrench the gap they've no doubt spotted in his guard wide open. It's a good attempt, if one made in vain — Dineli casts away his preoccupations in the same second it takes to register this and ascends to meet them directly.

     The Windlines lead their aim leftwards. Just a feather's breadth more of it, but enough for him to follow through and knock the shaft of their spear clean aside as he spirals up, riding along that favoured-favouring current. They're too slow to react beyond spinning with the momentum to drift rather than outright fall: it's the perfect opportunity.

     —A perfectly crafted opportunity. Taki is never too slow to react to his winds unless they want to be.

     By the stars and skytrails. It wasn't just an attempt at distraction? Are they really so eager to hear him speak on this that they'd end their spar prematurely? Dineli backs off, a refusal in more ways than one.

     "Aw, Dineli!" Taki calls after him, in a pitch and tones better suited to one who hasn't gone through as many winters.

     He sought their company to smooth down ruffled feathers, not to get more inanely vexed. If they truly want his thoughts, they'll have to compromise. "Either leave it or fight."

     "...You're insufferable," the most insufferable Rito on this side of the Hebra Mountains tells him. But they rise to chase after him, clearly making the right choice, so Dineli indulges them — the way they're indulging him.

     "Strange," he discloses when they're locked by the talons once more.

     "You really don't have anything better or new to say about them?" they ask, incredulous, the split second before they're both wheeling a path downwards.

     "Accommodating," he tries again after they've taken off from an impromptu landing.

     Taki laughs, rolling to let an arrow soar past them. "You truly still don't like them!"

     Well...what point would there be in denying it?

     "I still don't like them," Dineli affirms.

     How can you like someone you don't honestly know? He knows of the king and queen — has admittedly gotten to know more of them in his recent stay, but through the same insignificant things that informed his first impression. Little glimpses from afar that might've meant something if he deigned to care, twittering from the rest of their court that he found sycophantic at best and disturbing at worst.

     Added together, here is how the queen is: she is kind, she is powerful, and she has something divine in her blood.

     Here is how the king is: he is kind, he is powerful, and he is either a god's descendant or a god descended.

     Perhaps if Dineli were anyone else, none of that would be unsettling. Yet as Elder, what else is he to think? When he doesn't know where this kindness begins and ends, or where this power leaves Peaks Among the Ripples in the scope of Hyrule's ambitions, or why divinity should have anything to do with leading — "ruling" — when all it does is place them another unnecessary height above the capacity for understanding their people?

     "Shame you can't just spar your way into liking them, huh?!" Taki jests, arcing high before swooping after his trail.

     He turns to meet them there too, a clash between a swung bow and a thrust spear. "Don't tempt me."

#sentinaels #* wisps / study. #( HI thank you for sending this in kim!! <3 #this. also ran away from me. but i think this time went a little better in terms of conveying thoughts! both verbally and nonverbally #asdflkdjf dineli wouldn't have introspected enough for a concrete answer without taki forgive me for sprinkling npcs in #this is....after the first time he really attends court for more than a day! i'm on a pre-canon roll with these prompts it looks like haha #this opinion definitely evolves into smth more positive in getting to know son.ia and rau.ru better #but it's not great rn. it's not great slfjdkl the culture shock doesn't help #i've been staring at this too long....take it before i hate it more than i tolerate it ) #* oratorio / ic. #* oratorio / answer. #* v / songs of yore. #long post cw #* ic / para.