#you know what all this Faron stuff is making me want to write?

[embyrinitalics]

An Inconvenience

Read the previous thread here, or jump down the rabbit hole 🕳🐇

Link lays awake that night, staring restlessly at stars.

She’d left, and he can’t for the life of him figure out how he’d let it happen.

The stories don’t help him sleep. He finds Farosh’s Tail and tells himself the story of the first thunderstorm and lifegiving rains it brought with it. He finds the Mighty Boar and the story of the first hunt, but he can’t imagine ever having an appetite again, so dwelling on that seems pointless. He finds the Great River, where the first woman stepped out of the waters and made herself a companion out of clay and animal bone and bits of dragon’s claws. When she pressed her mouth to his to give him breath, he was so grateful and awed by her that he kissed her again, trying to give it back.

His chest twists and cramps, and he rolls out of the hammock and feels his way down to the water in the dark.

The lake is still, the flagstones around the shrine are empty. But he can hear Mara humming at the pool, her song echoing out of the dragon’s mouth, lending it a voice. It’s not surprising. The old priestess never sleeps. He thinks he’s been quiet as he climbs the stairway beneath its teeth and drifts down its throat towards the light of the fire she keeps flickering at the goddess’s feet, but before he can make himself known she turns around and hands him a bowl of broth.

His lips move to form a question.

“I heard you not sleeping,” she says before he can ask, and when he opens his mouth again, “I know. But you need to eat something. This will keep you strong.”

He frowns, but takes it anyway, scenting the stock and taking a sip. He knows better than to argue with her. It tastes of porgy and thistle, and just a hint of banana. Her brow is arched at him when he chances a glance in her direction again.

“Did you really think she would stay? Leave everything and everyone she knows behind, just to be with you?”

“I didn’t think she would stay,” he argues, but quickly finds he has no where to go. “I just... never thought she would leave.”

“Typical,” she chides him, smiling, and turns to lower herself into the pool. “Leading with your heart, without thought for what might be. Without fear. You are a dragon through and through.”

He drinks, just so he can’t ask the question trying to squirm its way out of his mouth. He swallows and asks it anyway. “Was that wrong of me?”

She barks a laugh, so loud he hunches his shoulders and glances warily up into the colonnade, and wades out with her palms skimming the water’s surface.

“Oh, Link. What are we going to do with you? You are what you are.”

He downs the rest of his broth, folding his legs under him to sit at the water’s edge. He doesn’t dare dip his feet in, as inviting as Mara makes it seem. He knows better, even if he is so dragonlike.

“Have you been to the spires?” he asks, planting an elbow on his knee so he can drop his jaw against his fist, and she laughs again, more a puff of air than a bark.

“No, of course not. My place is here.” The water around her hums, glows gently, as though harboring lightning. She glances curiously up at the statue, and then turns with a knowing look in her eye. “Have you even thought about what you’ll do when you find her?”

“I wasn’t—”

Mara snorts at him before he can deny it and turns back to the goddess, humming as she sways her hips. The waters glows a little brighter, just a pulse, and then it’s fading again. He doesn’t understand the communion at all; but then, it really isn’t for him to understand.

His words at the edge of the plains echo in his head instead—too loud to be memory, too distinct. Trapped in him, shoved deep in his brain when they ricocheted meaninglessly off her ears. As infuriatingly unintelligible to her as Mara’s song is to him.

You can’t leave. I have too much I want to say. Too many things I don’t have the words for!

He remembers the rise of panic in his throat, the awful clench in his stomach when he realized he had no way to tell her and that she was mere seconds from disappearing forever. How frustrating it was to know useless words like rain and bird and banana, and none of the meaningful ones he needed, like fire or breathless or love.

If you go, I’ll only follow you, he’d tried to tell her. I’d follow you anywhere.

He feels stupid for it now. How futile that had been.

“They’re not like us,” Mara says—sighing, like she’s talking into the wind. “They lean towards the other balances. Far-sighted as an owl, single-minded as a boar. It’s makes them anxious. They’ll fear you because you’re different.”

He frowns. What a strange reason to fear something.

“Are there no dragons there at all?”

“A few,” she smirks. “But none so dragonlike as you.”

He stares up at the goddess, watching impassively over the world with powerful, unseeing eyes. For the first time he feels an unpleasant twinge of doubt. Maybe they’re too different. Maybe she’ll foresee too many problems (because there’s no doubting towards which of the balances she leans). Maybe it will take too much courage to love him.

He doesn’t like feeling doubt. He’s not used to it at all.

“They’re her children too, you know,” she hums, the water around her pulsing again with submerged light. “Though as I recall they believe she came from the sky, not the waters.”

He frowns harder. “Who’s right?”

She turns to smile at him over her shoulder. “Does it matter?”

Mara goes back to her humming. All at once he feels unwelcome—perhaps because the water gets darker the longer he looks, and brighter when it’s barely in his peripheral, like the goddess is urging him away. Perhaps because she’s humming much louder than before, like she’s trying to drown him out.

He’s getting to his feet and retreating from the spring before he can draw any more conclusions.

For a moment he feels in a fog. But then, beneath the row of stone teeth, watching an icy moon begin its slow descent, the old priestess’s words snap together like puzzle pieces, and the doubt melts from the heat sparking off them.

You are what you are.

He doesn’t know if she meant to chide him or encourage him, but either way, if a dragon is what he is, why does he pretend to be anything else?

He climbs back into the colonnade to gather a few necessities and heads out into the plains with the morning light.

#zelink #An Inconvenience #Tarzan AU #legend of zelda #fanfic #WHY IS THERE SO MUCH WORLD BUILDING IN THIS #do you hear that dull thudding sound in the distance? #that's me smacking my head against a table over and over again #I know this is short but #this is the natural break between this part and the next #you know what all this Faron stuff is making me want to write? #the Defiance longfic #but that baby's still brewing on the back burner lol #ANYWAYS THIS IS A TANGENT

[lemonlurkrr]

@aureateart​ ok. My favourite parts of twilight princess  (and some other random thoughts about TP sprinkled in there) taken from my monster TP word vomit google doc :

Link lmao

Ok but for real, I like this incarnation of Link :)

I love Ordon (it just seems like such a chill and cozy village)

ALSO love how easy it is to interpret Link as being a sort of older brother figure to the Ordon kiddos. It’s just,, super cute? AND GHHH nice nice good thanks nintendo for giving me characters to care about/characters that I can imagine Link caring about

He didn’t sign up for any of this (tbh, none of the Links really signed up for this jshdjsd). But I mean like, dude was just going to take a trip to castle town, drop a gift off for the royal family, and come back. But haHA oopsies he did get to castle town eventually but definitely not the way he expected hsjdhsd

He’s just a little dude?

AND FUCK. HE REALLY HAD NEVER BEEN OUTSIDE OF ORDON UNTIL ALL OF THAT

everything is new for the player AND Link

Midna

She’s cool :)

she really just

*teleports into your jail cell* hello whore.

I am no master at writing but AYYYY she do got a character arc!!!

She was actually pretty helpful sometimes, I ALWAYS checked in with her before turning to a game guide

Other NPCs

NICE

Love all of the TP character designs (ASHEI’S ARMOUR??? AOWOAOAOOAO)

Saving Zelda and all of Hyrule was important yea but thinking back maybe it was more like, the Ordonians and the kids were what was pushing Link to keep on going

I like the Resistance members :) Very video gamey of them to have one NPC assigned to each dungeon but hey!!! Kinda cool getting to see a little glimpse of each of em

Idk, it’s just fun to imagine Link popping into Telma’s bar after each dungeon and taking a little rest :) (or to celebrate? maybe just chat, idk, give this man some downtime!!)

Honestly it was just kind of nice that Link wasn’t entirely alone. I mean, I know Midna was there the whole time, but I am always for giving Link a big group of friends (see my love for hyrule warriors, age of calamity, and LU LMAO)

Hero’s shade, very very cool, kinda sad he died with regrets but HEY. He got to pass on his knowledge eventually

AND the connection to OoT?? AND assumed to be related by blood too????? GOOD SHIT

Ilia, I REALLY really wanted to like her (er, it’s not like I dislike her, she’s just,,, kinda there for me).

It definitely seems like Nintendo was pushing to make her the romantic interest, but GHHHHH they really threw that out of the window for me by having her lose her memories

I saw a text post a while ago that said it would have been interesting if Ilia was Link’s sister instead and YES!! That would have been cool too :0

Wish we got to know Zelda a little more

I feel like we barely know anything about her

Idk man, like I said earlier, I never really had any sort of drive to save Zelda during my playthroughs

She obviously knows Midna, so maybe if they gave us just a little bit more of that relationship I’d be more interested in her?

TP WORLD BUILDINGGGG

Botw has good world building too, but each race felt kinda,,, isolated? I absolutely love the different architecture and vibe each town has (and all the the weapons too) but ghhh yea everyone felt so separated. As far as I can remember, we don’t see tooo much of the races interacting with each other? Now that I’m typing that out maybe that’s to be expected because of the calamity but KLSJDKJFD ANYWAYS THIS IS ABOUT TP

The world feels nice and alive, love how populated everything is

Castle town I like castle town a lot, it feels dense and busy and I really like how you can’t talk to every NPC you see

Very cool very fun that we got to see the Gorons hanging out in multiple spots

kinda wish we got to see the Zoras a little more (I guess they are a bit limited since they need water but GHHHH the tp zoras are so prebby,,)

BUT HEY, I do remember seeing a zora or two hanging out in the hot springs around death mountain after beating the lakebed temple (I think, might have been a different dungeon) 

but aaaa would have been nice to see them in at least a couple of other places. I think it would have really added to the “congrats Link!! You’re restoring peace to Hyrule” feeling you get from seeing the Gorons hanging out in Kakariko and Castle Town

ORDON

Love how chill it is and how it’s kind of separate from Hyrule proper

They really do seem to be doing their own thing apart from the rest of Hyrule

Just kinda adds onto the “he’s just a regular dude minding his own business” kind of vibes I get from TP Link

Also I like Ordona :)

THE LIGHT SPIRITS,,

Love their design

And love how they’re not exactly like a pure white?

Different spirit representing each aspect of the triforce my beloved

But yes hi I think Ordona is very cool

Who are you, how did you get here, which goddess do you represent? Do you even represent one of the three golden goddesses? Do the Ordonians know about you? Have any of them ever SEEN you??? Do they worship you? Does anybody even know about the existence of the light spirits?? FUCK so many questions but ghhh I like how they broke the status quo a bit by throwing in a fourth spirit :)

I feel like this one is kinda weird but I like that voice sample they used in the light spirit music. It’s spooky and pretty at the same time :)  

cutscenes mmmmm

Ok ok, the spooky lanayru cutscene is very good

BUT THE “Link, Chosen Hero! Lend us the last of your power!” CUTSCENE MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM LOVE IT SO MUCH

IT just

Idk man

It just hit different

I like the music

And seeing the light spirits swimming around in the light juice water whatever it is

Summoning the light arrows?

AND HHHHH “Lend us the last of your power!” THIS IS IT. This is the final battle.

Seeing Zelda bow down, and then Link putting his hand out 👌👌👌

Link: ok bud, let’s do this together :)

Connection to OoT (did I already mention this? Maybe., Whatever)

Very cool nintendo :)

I love seeing connections between all the diff zelda games.

Because like, on one hand, they’re all separate from each other because of yknow, individual hero stuff. BUT ALSO, they’re all connected because of the reincarnation stuff

Grrrr walking through the sacred grove and going “The Hero of Time walked around here a long time ago” FUCK THATS SO COOL

Is the Hero’s Shade watching me? What does he think of me? DIsappointed? Proud? The Hero of Time went through HELL so this timeline didn’t have to deal with any of the shit Ganon was gonna pull with the triforce, better not fuck this UP Link!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Midlink is cute

Kinda hurts that she smashed the mirror but that was probably so Nintendo didn’t have to worry about people going “but what about the twili??????” for any of the other games LMAO

BUT ALSO LIKE SKJDKLJFJ There are some pretty massive plot holes in TP anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ whatever it’s fine we’ll just use this for angst because GOD do y’all like angst

So is Shadlink

Honestly don’t know where this ship came from but it’s cute so whatever

THE MUSIC??

Love Midna’s theme and how they referenced the dark world theme from ALttP (I remember trying to learn the dark world theme on the piano and doing the Leonardo DiCaprio point meme at the little jingle I recognized from Midna’s theme)

Hyrule field theme SLAPS.

Apparently references a couple of the other over-world themes from the previous zelda games (I got this from 8-bit Music theory’s video on the over-world zelda themes, he talks about TP at around 11:40 but def recommend watching the whole video if you’re into music analysis stuff)

So there’s this bit of the Hyrule Field theme, I don’t know the official name for it but I remember seeing somewhere it being called the “at an advantage theme” since yeah, you hear it during the boss music whenever you expose their weak points. FUCKINGGG LOVE THAT. Didn’t notice it during my first playthrough, but hearing it during my second was like a little easter egg for my ears every time :)

Midna’s lament is very pretty (and fun to play on the piano)

COURAGE THEME.

I didn’t care for it too much when I started playing the game but hearing it in ZREO’s arrangement of the Hyrule Field theme literally makes me turn into a puddle of emotions. Also hearing it around and of the Ordon kids (I think it plays after Link saves Colin) AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Orchestra piece #1 and #2 HOLY SHIT???????????????? 

Literally, the first time I listened to those I just,,,, plugged in my headphones, volume 100, layed on the floor/against my desk and silently vibed. I don’t know what the hell it is, but those two just fit so well with TP?? I still avoid listening to them nowadays cause if I DO I definitely will get overwhelmed with the “god I love this game so FUCKING MUCH” kind of feels.

Wolf link sucks at singing

the first time I heard him howling Zelda’s Lullaby I lost my shit because LKSJLDKSGLKJFSKG god that was.,, Bad. Anyways, hearing him howl some of the songs from OoT was cute :)

TP STAFF ROLL??? 

VERY GOOD. IT’s like 10 minutes long and GOD do I love every single second of it. It doesn’t have the same energy as the skyward sword staff roll or the orchestra pieces but GOD does it hit good??

Nice and calm after that big exciting adventure. Maybe it would have been more fun or emotional to have a higher energy piece but it was really nice getting to sit back and watch the camera fly around Hyrule. Seeing like, the Gorons and the Zoras having a good time, the kids returning to Ordon? GOOD SHIT.

and AAAAA that end, when you hear the main Zelda theme and see Link riding off out of Faron woods on Epona… good shit. It gets you thinking, where the hell is he going? What is he doing? Off ot do more adventuring? Going to help out the resistance or something? Going to help Zelda? Or maybe he’s trying to figure out a way to restore the mirror of twilight? Whoooo knows.

hhHHHHhhh it’s just that final reminder that YES!!! YOU JUST PLAYED A ZELDA GAME. JUST ANOTHER STORY APART OF THE WHOLE EPIC OF THE ZELDA SERIES AS A WHOLE

I also want to acknowledge the instrument/samples they used for all the twili stuff.

They’re all just so unique and contrast SO well with the rest of the TP OST. LIKE FUCK!! Anytime I hear the screech from the Twilit Kargarok? Sends a shiver down my spine. I associate those sounds SO strongly with the twili realm. (Like, the same way you associate the BSHEWW VVWWMMM sounds with light sabers)

I love it so god damn much

literally any time there’s a certain sound or motif associated with something I lose my shit

Sacred grove sacred grove sacred gro-

lovely lovely lovely so much fun playing that on the piano. AND again, I did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme when I heard the theme from the lost woods come in GHHHHHHHH

shoutout to TP Faron Woods for helping me study and get through all of my schoolwork

BLEGUUHHH can you tell that I really love music?

and also yea I guess TP is kinda cool too :\

IF YOU READ ALL OF THAT THANKS I GUESS

#lemonspeakrr #LEMON SPEAKS 2K WORDS ABOUT TWILIGHT PRINCESS BECAUSE THEY ARE INSANE.

[shadow-and-purgatory]

For a fic request: how about a full on prank war between all of the Links?

Here it is!!! I hope you like how it turned out, I had a lot of fun writing it!

Bedrolls, Blobs, and Birdseed

read it here on ao3!

Word count: 3844

————

It all started with Wind and Sky, but if you wanted to get technical about it, the whole thing really started with Wind.

The chain had been traveling through the Faron region of Wild’s Hyrule, and stopped at the Lakeside Stable. Wild was off showing Hyrule some surprise he was excited about. Warriors, Time, and Twilight were grooming Epona. Four had gone off on his own, which wasn’t that uncommon. Legend was inside the stable, talking to one of the other patrons about some mountain in the nearby area.

“What are you doing?” Sky asks the youngest hero of the bunch. The sailor is crouched next to Legend’s bedroll, doing something with palm fronds. Wind jumps at the sound of Sky’s voice, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Nothing!” His voice goes up an octave as he tries and fails to hide the palm fronds behind his back. “What um… What are you doing? Huh?” Wind asks, trying his best to sound accusatory.

Sky chuckles as he walks to his own bedroll and bag. He starts looking through it. “Well I was just coming over to get my carving stuff,” He holds up for Wind to see, “but now I’m wondering what’s going on with the leaves.”

Wind squirms in silence for a moment, but when it’s clear Sky isn’t giving in, he sighs. “Okay so you can’t tell anyone, but I was going to prank Legend,” he whispers, his eyes darting back and forth to see if the veteran was nearby.

Sky’s eyebrows go up. “Oh?” He gestures for the sailor to go on.

“Well, back on Outset Island, I would sometimes prank the other kids by poking the dead pointy bits of the palm leaves through their bedding. They lay down, and it’s all itchy and pokey,” Wind explains.

Sky makes a face. “That’s it? That’s all you’re planning on doing?”

Wind’s face scrunches up. “…yes?”

The Chosen Hero shakes his head slowly. He starts inspecting Legend’s bedroll. “No no no, sailor. That’s small pumpkins. Sun and I used to prank each other all the time. Your heart’s in the right place, but the vet probably wouldn’t even notice.” He nods decisively and starts digging around in his bag again. “If you’re going to do a prank, it needs to be more... just, more.”

“What do you mean?” Wind asks, peering over Sky’s shoulder.

“Found it!” Sky holds up a needle and thread.

Wind’s eyes go wide. “You’re gonna put a needle in his bedding?” he asks, horrified.

Sky laughs. “No, don’t worry. And pipe down, someone could hear you.”

Wind chuckles sheepishly. “Sorry,” he whispers. “So what are you gonna do?”

“What we’re going to do, Wind.” Sky puts an arm around the younger hero’s shoulders and smiles conspiratorially. Wind grins back at him.

“Right!”

Sky stands up. “Now, help me find some smallish rocks.”

That evening is fairly normal, if calm. Wild cooks dinner, they eat around the campfire, they talk and banter. But as Legend starts to settle down for the night, he feels a prickling feeling on the back of his neck.

Like he’s being watched.

He looks around, but there’s only the others. Twilight and Hyrule help Wild clean as they tell Twilight about the dragon Wild showed Hyrule. Four sits with his back against a tree, reading a book. Warriors asks the others at the stable about infected monsters, while Time settles in for the first watch.

Wind and Sky though… Those two are acting weird. They’ve set up their bedrolls close to each other. When Legend first turns around, it seems like they’re staring at him, but they look away so quickly that he can’t be sure.

Legend doesn’t know what it is they’re whispering about, but if their giggles are anything to go off of, whatever it is is obviously hilarious.

He rolls his eyes. Whatever. As he straightens out his bedroll, he can’t help but think that it feels heavier, somehow. He peeks inside of the bedroll, and nope, there’s nothing inside.

He shakes his head, trying to ignore another burst of giggles from Sky and Wind.

Legend goes to lie down and what the fuck is that? Did he set his bedroll on rocks? He looks underneath the bedding. Nothing.

And yet! When he pats his bedroll, it’s distinctly bumpy. “What the fuck?” he mutters, feeling the bedding up and down.

Out of the corner of his eye, Legend can see that Wind and Sky are now shaking with quiet laughter, getting some weird looks from the rest of the Chain.

Sky manages to collect himself enough to wheeze out a few words. “H-hey Legend, is- is s-” is all he can croak out before needing to take a few deep breaths. “Is something wr-wrong? You seem-” The Chosen Hero’s breath starts to quicken again and his voice goes up in pitch. “-distressed?” Then he dissolves back into a fit of laughter alongside Wind, who’s laughing so hard he might actually be crying.

Those two are responsible for Legend’s bedroll situation. Whatever that actually is. He’s about to go over to ask what they did and demand that they fix it immediately, when Hyrule speaks up.

“Legend, why’s your bedroll coming apart like that?”

Legend looks at where the traveler is pointing, and sure enough, the seam along the inner lining of his bedroll appears to have been very carefully cut, and then very sloppily sewn back together.

“That’s a good question, ‘Rule.”

Now that he’s noticed them, the large gaps in the cloth seem obvious. They’re big enough for him to fit his hand in, if he scrunches his hand up. He does so, feeling around in the lining. He isn’t sure exactly what he’s feeling around for, but he is sure that he’ll know it when he finds it. He brushes against something solid and cold. His fist closes around it, and he pulls his hand out to see what it is.

In his hand, Legend holds a smallish, smooth rock. And then he knows exactly what happened.

As Wind and Sky try and fail to quiet their laughter, Legend starts cutting at the shoddy seamwork. Later on, he can resew it better, so that’s not an issue. What is an issue is the rocks in his bedroll.

Seven. There were seven rocks inside the lining of his bedroll.

The duo that Legend knows are responsible just hold their sides, no longer making any effort to hide their staring, or their mad laughter.

Legend stares right back at them. Part of him wants to confront them right here, right now. But he won’t. He can be patient.

Three days later, when Sky sleepily pulls on his boots, there is an unpleasant squelch. His face scrunches up and he squeaks in surprise. He takes the boots off to find that his socks, and the insides of his shoes, are covered in bright blue goop. Chu jelly.

Gross. He makes a face, and sets to the unpleasant task of cleaning out his shoes.

Why was there Chu jelly in his boots? It definitely wasn’t there by accident, so who put it there? Wind probably wouldn’t have thought of something like this, but maybe the veteran? Legend had seemed pretty pissed about the rocks in his bedroll the other night, but he never actually did anything. He didn���t even mention it.

Sky looks at the veteran, who is staring right at him. He has a small smile, and he raises his eyebrows. Legend looks at Wind, reaching for his own boots. The vet’s smile grows as Wind starts to put on the boots.

Then it shifts to something more like confusion, and when Sky looks at Wind, he can see that the sailor isn’t reacting at all. He notices Sky looking at him and waves.

Legend looks between Sky and Wind with growing confusion. Not even a flicker of surprise on the kid’s face! He knows Wind’s poker face isn’t that good, especially this early in the morning.

While the veteran puzzles this out, he doesn’t notice the smithy, whose bedroll is next to the young sailor’s, cringing in disgust and removing a handful of Chu jelly from his boots.

Things only escalated after Four put large insects in all of their bedrolls. What had started as two pranks had turned into an all out prank war. Wind mismatched all of the smithy’s socks and turned all his clothes inside out. Four sprinkled pepper on Wind’s face while he was sleeping. Legend stole the laces for Sky’s boots and Sky, assuming that Four had been the one to do it, filled the smithy’s bag with pine cones.

Things continued like this, with just the four of them pranking each other, and the rest of the Chain being mostly just confused.

For a while.

“Is that… milk?”

Hyrule looks up from dumping the water out of Legend’s canteen. Four stares at him, puzzled. He looks at the bottle of milk in his other hand. “Yes.”

The smith’s brow furrows. “Why are you putting milk in Legend’s canteen?”

The traveler smiles. “Probably… because it’d be funny without being too mean.”

“But why?”

Hyrule makes a face as he very carefully empties the milk into the canteen. “I just said that it’d be funny. Can I join your ‘prank war?’”

Four laughs, surprised. “Of course, of course!” He smiles at the traveler. “Just a bit surprised, that’s all.”

Hyrule screws the lid back on. “I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.”

Later that day, Legend takes a great big drink of water, and immediately spits it out, because that is not water.

“What is this?” He looks inside the canteen, and “IS THIS MILK?”

Sky, Four, and Wind all laugh, and he glares at them. What he isn’t expecting is for Hyrule to laugh along with them, harder than any of the others. His jaw drops. “‘Rule? Did you do this to me, Hyrule?”

The traveler nods, still laughing a bit too hard to speak.

“How could you?”

“Th-this,” Hyrule gets out between laughs. “This is-” Deep breaths. “-so damn f-funny.”

And yes, Legend has to admit, it is kind of funny. It’d be funnier if it weren’t him, but he smiles anyways.

Really, it was only a matter of time before the captain was pranked. All five of them knew it. It was never a question of if, but when.

Wind was the one who tied Warriors’ shoes together. Four put the jelly blob inside one of his greaves. Sky put a rhino beetle on his pillow. And Legend and Hyrule mixed the powdered peppers in with his water.

In hindsight, it may have been a bit much.

Because now, all five of them are in a lecture with the captain. It's unclear if his face is red because of the spice, or because he fell flat on his face. Wind suspects it's a bit of both.

“-nd if there were a monster attack, we would have been in serious trouble!” he says. The pranksters look at each other, a bit ashamed. Warriors sighs. “So. If this ‘prank war’ is to continue,” he says, “then there need to be rules.”

Wind grins. “You mean we can keep doing it?”

Warriors nods. “Yes.” There are various cheers. “But. We need to make sure that these pranks don’t become dangerous. They need to stay safe, and in good faith.” He thinks for a moment. “And, we’re heroes of Hyrule. We need to conduct ourselves as such. So… we don’t tell Time about this either.”

“Don’t tell me about what?”

Dead silence, as six heads swivel to where Time leans against a tree. The old man’s one eye stares them down, his expression stern.

“We- well, we- It’s-” Warriors is at a loss for words.

“Your surprise birthday party!” Sky blurts out. Legend, Warriors, Four, Wind, and Hyrule all look at the Chosen Hero incredulously. What.

“My… surprise birthday party,” Time repeats, slowly. He raises an eyebrow, equally slowly.

“Yeah!” Wind chimes in, nodding so vigorously that it looks like his head might pop off.

Time’s other eyebrow goes up. “Do any of you know when my birthday is?”

Shit.

“Well uh,” Hyrule flounders for a moment, “no-”

“-But that’s why it’s a surprise birthday party!” Legend interjects. “Because… we don’t know!” he finishes weakly.

Time stares at each of them in turn, his expression basically unreadable, though Warriors thinks he sees a hint of amusement in the old man’s eye.

“Let me get this straight,” he says. “You six are planning my surprise birthday party. The Captain needed to explicitly tell you all not to tell me about these plans, which should go without saying, since that’s the main feature of a surprise party. None of you know my birthdate, which is apparently also a part of the surprise.” He counts on his fingers as he picks apart each aspect of their truly terrible lie. “Is that really the story you’re going with?”

They all look at each other, embarrassed. Warriors sighs, running his fingers through his hair. “We were laying down rules of engagement.”

“For…?”

“Their-” He sighs again before correcting himself. “Our prank war.” The Captain fiddles with his scarf, not making eye contact with Time.

Time closes his good eye, crossing his arms. “A prank war, huh?” His tone is something that Wind interprets as a sort of neutral disappointment. The old man shakes his head with a chuckle. “You all are something else, you know that?” He turns and starts walking away. “Something else…”

The older hero pauses and looks over his shoulder. “Oh, I will be looking forward to my surprise birthday party though, so I hope one of you figures out the date before it rolls around!” And then he walks away, leaving them all very confused as to what just happened.

Time laughs to himself once he’s out of earshot. Surprise birthday party. Time didn’t actually know what his birthday was either, since he’d been raised by the Kokiri. Not that they needed to know that.

It had been hilarious to watch them all squirm and come up with what might have been the worst lie he’d ever heard. The lying was especially funny, given that he’d known about the prank war since Sky and Wind damn near choked on their laughter the night Legend found rocks in his bedroll.

Again though, they didn’t need to know that part.

No, it was much funnier to let them think that he was stoic and inept where pranks were concerned. That was their mistake.

Time had been raised by forest spirits. Very mischievous forest spirits. And because he was Link, the boy without a fairy, he’d been the victim of many of Mido’s pranks. But he’d pulled some pranks too. Quite a lot, actually.

Which is why he knows exactly what prank to pull on his Pup and the Cub, and how he’s going to do it.

All throughout dinner that evening, Time does an excellent job of maintaining his poker face. This is a feat in and of itself, especially when the six heroes he spoke with earlier keep whispering to each other and pointing at him. He thinks he catches the word “calendar.” But years of practice means that he manages to keep the smirk off his face.

Wild and Twilight both wear similar expressions of confusion on their faces. “What’s up with them?” the cook asks.

Time glances over at them and they all scramble to try and look busy with nothing. He shrugs. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Seems like something’s got them all riled up,” Twilight notices. He frowns, clearly a bit concerned.

Time lays a hand on his protégé’s shoulder. “Don’t trouble yourself too much, Pup,” he advises. “They’ve been whispering with each other for days now.”

The ranch hand relaxes, but doesn’t lose the frown on his face. “I guess so.”

The three of them spend the rest of the meal speculating about what the other six heroes might be whispering about. As the evening wears on, the theories get more and more outlandish.

Slowly, the Chain starts to shift to quieter, more relaxed conversations, and they all start settling in for the night. Time offers to take the third and final watch. Nobody objects to this, because they all agree that it’s objectively the worst shift to take.

Eventually, the time comes for the old man to take over from Four, who stumbles off to bed. For a while, Time just sits there, staring out into the night. Then it’s time for a perimeter check, and he stands, ignoring the creak of his joints. He can practically hear the others teasing him about it. Ah well, there was nothing to be done about it.

Only once he’s sure that all is well does he allow himself to put his plan into action. First, he walks silently over to where his Pup and the Cub are asleep. Twilight’s fur pelt is draped over his mentee, and the rancher’s breathing is soft and regular.

They look so peaceful that Time feels a little guilty about very gently sprinkling half a sack of birdseed on them and their immediate surroundings. Not guilty enough to stop doing it, but guilty nonetheless.

Once his work is complete, he heads back to the fire and settles in to finish his watch, and wait for morning.

Something is poking at Twilight’s foot. He mumbles something that doesn’t pass for words, even in his own brain, and then he rolls over to drift back to sleep. Except it’s also poking at his torso. And his arm. And his shoulders. Then he feels something hard and sharp peck against his forehead, and he’s suddenly awake.

His eyes open, and staring down at him is a bird, pecking at his hair. He raises an arm to shoo it away, but as he does so, a few chickadees flap off his arm and start pecking at his side.

He blinks, and raises himself to his elbows to see what the hell is going on. He is covered in birds. Ravens, sparrows, chickadees, and several that the rancher can’t recognize. They peck at everything, though Twilight can’t for the life of him figure out why.

Next to him, Wild is sitting up, similarly swarmed by birds. His cub shakes his head as though to clear it, and Twilight is showered in a lot of tiny somethings. He looks closer.

Birdseed? Why were they covered in birdseed? He tries brushing it off, but Hylia, there’s just so much. How did it even get here?

With all the commotion, the rest of the camp is starting to wake up. Four stares at the two of them, besieged by birds. “What happened to you two?” he asks, trying to hold back laughter.

“No idea,” Wild says. By now, the champion is standing and trying to shoo the birds off of his head and shoulders. “They weren’t here when we went to bed, but we woke up, and birds! Everywhere!”

Wind sits up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The second his eyes focus on the rancher and cook though, his eyes go as wide as dinner plates, and he starts shaking Sky by the shoulder. “Wake up wake up Sky, you’ve got to see this, c’mon!” he says excitedly.

“Wuzzat?” The Skyloftian cracks open his eyes. He’s not sure what he expects Wind to show him, but it certainly isn’t Twilight and Wild covered head to toe in dozens of birds. He leans closer to the sailor. “Did you do this?” he asks, impressed.

But Wind shakes his head no. “And the smith doesn’t seem to know either, so it’s probably not him.” Wind’s eyes widen and he starts digging around in his bag. “Most of the birds have already left Wild, but…” He finds what he’s looking for and holds it up. “I can still use my picto box to capture the moment with Twilight!”

“Take two pictographs, yeah?” Legend isn’t even fully awake, but there’s already a great deal of snark in his voice. “I’d like to remember it too.”

Wind stands up, and Twilight sees what he’s doing. He brings bird covered arms up to cover his face. “Wait, Sailor-”

“Say cheese!” And then the pictures have been taken.

Twilight stands up as well, glaring at the others without any real vitriol. He whispers something in Wild’s ear, who nods.

“Vet? Did you do this?”

Legend laughs. “I wish I’d thought of this,” he says. “But no. I don’t think it was ‘Rule either.”

The traveler shakes his head, making a very small attempt to not laugh. And failing. “Nope. Not me.”

Wild thinks as he prepares breakfast for the Chain. “…Warriors?”

Seven pairs of eyes go to the Captain, who shakes his head. “No way. Props to whoever did, though.”

“Then… who?” Wild asks.

From next to the fire, there’s the sound of laughter. Slowly, disbelievingly, they all turn to see Time, laughing heartily. “Really?” he asks with a smile. “Not even a passing guess that it might be me?”

Twilight’s jaw drops. “Time? You did this? You covered us in birdseed?” His eyes widen as the old man laughs even harder. He looks around and sees that the rest of the Chain looks just as shocked as he does.

Time holds up his hands as his laughter dies down. “What can I say, Pup? Guilty as charged.”

The camp erupts into incredulous chaos.

“I didn’t know the old man had it in him!”

“He got Twi and Wild? That’s cold.”

“He’s just full of surprises, huh?”

“Where did you even get the idea?”

“Maybe it was on one of his quests.”

“Where did you get the birdseed?”

Wild’s voice rises above the chaos. “Breakfast is done!” He starts taking out plates and serving the food. The chatter quiets down in volume, but everyone is still buzzing about how Time, their stoic leader, had covered two members of the Chain in birdseed.

Once everybody’s been served, Wild sits down next to Twilight. The ranch hand looks at his Cub, a sly smile on his face. Neither one of them has touched their food yet. “So. How much did you put in?” he asks.

Time makes a strange face. There’s something in the omelet’s taste that’s… different. Sharp, almost. His eye widens as he recognizes the taste, but it’s too late.

Wild smiles back at his mentor, the grin equally mischievous. “Whole bottle.”

And all around the camp, the Goron Spice in the food hits the Links like a horse at full gallop.

Twilight puts an arm around Wild, and speaks loud enough for the whole group to hear, though with all the scrambling around they’re doing for water, he doubts they’re actually listening. “Let this be a lesson to all of you. Cub, what can they take away from today?”

Wild smiles. “Don’t fuck with the cook.”

#God in my head i was like ‘this will be pretty short’ #And then i was at 1.7k words and only had four links involved #Anyways i do love banter!!! #Thanks for the ask!!! #FlorianFics #linked universe #lu #lu time #lu twilight #lu wild #lu legend #lu warriors #lu four #lu wind #lu hyrule #lu sky

[an-angel-in-the-garden]

An Unexpected Meeting Part 1

Sidon x GN Reader Soulmate au

Ok this was gonna be a full fic but I couldn't figure out how I wanted to write it so instead its going to be two parts this opening part and then a long set of headcanons that follow. I'm not really sure how I feel about this part so some feedback would be nice its been a while since I wrote first person! With that this is a soulmate au call Distance where each pair gets a compass that points to each other. Credit to whoever made it as I couldn't find the original thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy~ Rose

Today began a part of my life I had been preparing for since I was young, today I would finally set out on my own journey. For as long as I could remember my biggest wish was to travel through Hyrule and now I finally could. I had said my goodbyes, packed my things and gotten my horse ready for the long trip I was hoping to make and as I thought of the compass that sat in my pack I couldn't help but smile not only would I see more of the world I longed for I might even meet the person I was most connected to on the way.

As it turns out traveling was even harder then I had thought but the fun I was having and the sights I saw made it worth the struggle. For a good week I had been traveling south moving through the lush forest of the Faron lands and now I was making way to Lurelin village a place my parents had recommended before I left. Having always been fond of the sea it didn't take long for me to get why my family wanted me to come here and looking over the vast ocean near the village I thought this was be a nice place I could rest for a few days.

After unpacking on the bed I had rented out I counted the things I would need to buy, glad that it wasn't to much. I could hear the sounds of heavy rain from outside figuring it would be better to wait till morning before getting anything. While putting away the rest of my stuff I couldn't help but stop at the small bag holding my compass that I had only opened once, years ago after I woke up to see it on my bed and was disappointed to see it pointing out of the village but now here I was away from home with nothing stopping me from trying to find them. The velvet bag soft in my hand opened easily and the compass inside shined like stars. I turned it over a few times feeling the cool metal on my hands before looking upon the front face it spun for a few moments then stopped pointing north I smiled taking out my map and seeing all the places to go and decided I would start north in a few days. The trip had been hard several weeks having passed and I was nearing Zora’s Domain when the rain fall became hash I knew I would have to hurry in hopes of making it to shelter but the winding path was not an easy one. All to quickly thing changed the sound of a voice calling from below to watch out and the feeling of being hit was sudden my body slipping and falling to the water was all I could remember before things went dark...To be continued 

Okay that's all for now Ill get the next part up as soon as I can and I hope you look forward to it please tell me what you thought Id love to know what I could do better on for next time if I try this again ~Rose 

#botw imagine #botw x reader #sidon x reader #sidon imagine #x reader #reader insert #reader imagine

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Idk if you do ship ask but I've always hc that most ritos are affraid of thunder, since that could very easily harm/kill something flying (like a rito), so do you have any headcanons about link comforting revali during a thunderstorm?

Heya! Thanks for sending this ask, I had so much fun writing it! If you wanna know why it took so long, it’s because I accidentally keep making these essentially oneshots instead of headcanons...I get too wrapped up in the atmosphere lmao. 

Anyhow, please enjoy, and thanks for your patience! :P

Revalink during a thunderstorm: 

2553 words

Revali always thought green was a decent color, it paired well with his evening blue feathers and eyes after all

But this trip was really challenging his beliefs…

“Tree. Tree. Large tree. Giant tree. Leaf. Bush. Greenery. Tree. Giant leaf. A verdant green. Emerald green. Fern green…” He listed off his observations rhythmically

Revali suddenly stopped walking, patting Link on the back. 

“Why Link, you won’t believe this, but if you look up now, you can experience this rare sight of a tree. Impressive isn’t it?”

Link turned his head to see Revali gesture grandly at the Faron scenery, before rolling his eyes. ‘You’re such an ass…’

The Rito smirked, content with the annoyance he was causing Link, before continuing to walk beside him, pointing out the “variety” of nature. 

He had been traveling with Link across the jungles of Faron, helping him fly over the waterfalls and rivers for...reasons he had forgotten. Something ordered by the Princess? Checking Shrines? Updating ruin locations? Something, something, Zonai, Sheikah, database...and other nonsense words that Revali didn’t really care for, point was, “this expedition would run all the more smoothly with your skill set,” so, here he was. 

In hindsight that was probably only said to flatter him into coming, but it’s not like Revali was going to complain. One on one time with Link wasn’t an opportunity he would have passed up on, anyway

Walking under the lush forest canopy, Revali picked at the 700th vine tangled in Link’s hair. “This exploration stuff sure is paying off...I’m experiencing so many new things. Like plants, and water, and bugs. Never could have experienced this anywhere else.”

Link raised an eyebrow, holding up his hands to sign, ‘Come on now, don’t be like that. We’ll be done with this soon, so quit being pretentious for two seconds and enjoy the beauty of nature!’

Right, because the beauty of the sweltering, sickly green, claustrophobic jungle crawling with insects and slimy creatures, dwelling in a sticky, sappy, foliage that seemed to tie your wings down to the earth with it’s grasping vines and prickly leaves… THAT was just the thing for a Rito from Tabantha to enjoy

Revali clicked his tongue. “You think I’m the pretentious one? That one leaf is the size of a Hinox’s arse. What’s even the point of that?? Do the lizards hate the sky that much?” He gestured towards the thick canopy above once again

Link’s expression suddenly changed as he peered through the leaves, noting how the sky’s sunset colors had started to darken with greying clouds. He spoke bluntly

‘There’s a storm coming.’

“Oh? Wonderful…”

‘I think there’s a cave we can use for shelter near the northernmost waterfall.’

“Think? My ability of flight, and overall state of being, is not suited for moisture, so I’d really prefer if you were a bit more certain than, ‘think!’”

‘Well we can always sleep out here if you want… We’ll have to stay overnight judging by the size of those storm clouds.’

Revali shuddered as another sapphire blue lizard crawled across the forest floor near his talons, much too close for comfort. The image of laying down in the dirt, being mocked by the infectious green that covered the sky, for over eight hours, he audibly groaned. 

Fine, hypothetical cave it is. 

“Get on my back already. The sooner the day is done, the better, I suppose.”

Flying through the air, Revali feathers rustled in the growing wind, he could start to smell the storm in the air. Thankfully, Link’s cave turned out to be real, providing dry shelter from the oncoming, feather-drenching rain, thank Hylia. If he had to do his braids and ribbons again after he spent all morning just—

BOOM!

Not two seconds after Revali had landed them both in the cave, a deafening sound shook the ground and carried Revali’s soul to hell, heaven, and back. The sound that escaped his beak was none short of a shrill squeak you might hear come out of a thousand baby birds.

Behind them, green sparks fizzed against the earth, starting a small fire, before it was quickly extinguished by the now pouring rain. 

Revali shuddered, shaking off the few droplets on his wing. His feathers seemed to tremble from the charge in the air, and his mind was racing with thoughts of what would have happened if he was two seconds slower in his descent, but he concealed it all with a neutral frown.

“This forest is lucky the rain started, that bright explosion of death nearly made me think we were under attack, I’d have nocked a bomb arrow or two.” 

‘The...thunder and lightning, you mean?’

“Shut up I know what lightning is.”

‘I guess it makes sense you’re not that familiar...the most action you’ll see in Rito Village is cold winds and snow.’

“I said I know what lightning is.”

‘Oh, don’t worry, I heard you. I heard you very clearly a few seconds ago…’

Revali let out a few “hmphs” before sitting down on the cave floor. Link started to chuckle to himself before starting a fire, the cave was wide enough for the smoke to escape and not suffocate them, and it’s warmth was welcomed wholeheartedly by the Rito Champion.

Link thought that would be the end of it, Revali volunteered to take the first night watch, and the Hylian thought nothing of it. Before either of them knew it, Link had somehow drifted off into a peaceful sleep 

BOOM!

Another crack of thunder. Sure, thunder had been roaring in air for the last two or three hours, but this time the lightning struck close enough to the cave that Link could feel the vibration against the earth. 

He rose with a yawn, stretching his arms as if he had been woken by chirping birds, and not the midnight sky’s roars

Glancing towards Revali’s direction, concern started to creep onto Link’s face, as he watched the Rito with furrowed eyebrows and a frown

As far as he could tell, Revali hadn’t moved an ant’s inch from when Link had last seen him before he dozed off. His jade eyes were fixed on the jungle, and the feathers on his neck seemed to raise everything the sky glowed a shocking flash of green. 

Despite having sat up from the fire, Revali didn’t seem to notice that Link had woken. 

Link waved his arm in front of him, trying to catch the Rito’s gaze. 

‘Hey? You ok?’

Link’s actions cut into Revali’s tumbling thoughts, but he quickly recovered from his initial shock with a click of his tongue

“I’m fine. Just watching to make sure your tired person doesn’t get ambushed by some crafty lizalfo. You’re welcome, by the way.”

Link paused, but in the end, he nodded his head in acceptance. ‘Alrighty then. Well, you go ahead and get some rest. I can take the next watch.’

“...ah. Right.” 

Revali awkwardly shuffled closer to the fire, pinning his back a bit deeper into the shallow cave. 

He didn’t bother to lie down

‘Are you sure you’re ok?’

“I’m fine. I’m just not tired yet is all”

‘Well you should try to get some sleep, cause tomorro—’

“Yes, I’m well aware, I don’t need the reminder of our schedule.”

‘It would probably help to not face the forest, cause the movement and noises can be distracting when you’re trying to sl—’

“Yes. I understand, thank you. As I said I’m not tired so—”

‘But Revali, I just said—’

“Look! I’m fine, stop pestering me about it, OK? All I want is to just be able to—” 

BOOM!

Comically— or perhaps in this atmosphere, un-comically— a lizard fell off the side of a tree near the cave’s mouth, visibly fried and very much dead

Link, ever the survivalist, grew excited at the prospect of a free elixir ingredient, but as he turned to Revali to share this good news, he was greeted with a very still Rito, his feathers pressed stiffly against himself as he seemed to be holding down his other wing, presumably because it was shivering. 

That was strange, considering Link had taken care to keep the firewood stocked. He looked at Revali again, his green eyes seemed to be swirling with racing thoughts and fears  

......fears…

Hylia he was an idiot

Although in fairness, it works both ways

‘I’m sorry...I should have realized you had a greater fear of lightning given the circumstances…’

The Rito suddenly jerked his head, his voice rising in pitch by the second. “W-What?! I don’t know where you got that idea from. Circumstances?? I’ll have you know I’ve trained for years to be quite fearless.”

A sudden flash of light came from the corner of his eye, and Revali had to clamp his tongue to keep silent. If it weren’t for his feathers, he’d be as white as a dove.

‘Are you sure? I’d imagine the thought of thunderstorms are a lot worse for you Rito..’

‘You know, given all the rain, and the chance of being electrocuted, and shot out of the sky by a bolt of lightning, and the loud sounds that probably remind you of an avalanche or a bomb, and also falling out of the sk—’

Link suddenly cut himself off, realizing a bit too late that the explanation of the factors involved with thunder and lightning wouldn’t exactly help Revali’s attitude.

The Rito only stared at Link, his beak clamped shut. Finally, he let out a sigh.

“I’m fine.”

Silence, then a scoff from Link.

Yeah, right. 

He started pulling out an assortment of items from his small pouch—how Link magically managed to fit cart-fulls of apples, armour, and weapons in there was beyond him. Link joked that it was because of magic tree children, at least, Revali thought he was joking

‘Ah-ha! This should make you feel better!’

Link pulled out a golden helmet, it looked Gerudo in style, and it was covered in green, red, and blue gemstones 

‘This thing absorbs lightning, and disperses it, so you don’t get hurt!’

Revali raised an eyebrow, hesitant

‘No! Seriously! This thing has saved me dozens of times, it’s seen hundreds of storms, and it’s taken on countless lightning strikes directly on this part!!’ 

He pointed excitedly to the bright green gemstone’s at the helm’s crest.

Revali could only shift his weight in discomfort, and Link finally got the hint.

‘Ah right. Maybe the lightning prone object isn’t for you...but…’

Link pulled out a weird, flexible hat, in the shape of a fish. It’s giant eyes stared askew at the cave’s walls, and when Link put it on for demonstration purposes, it basically looked like an octorok had spat a starving fish on his hair

‘This little guy is called Lucky. He’s made out of this thing called rubber, and it’s supposed to help keep electricity from touching you. Pretty nifty fashion choice too, right?’

“I will be plucked dry and drowned before you catch me wearing that hideous thing.”

‘Lucky doesn’t appreciate your unkind words…’

A few more minutes pass by, Link unloading the items in his satchel in an attempt to ease Revali’s mind. But most suggestions failed to truly convince him. Occasionally, the storm would boom again, and Link would rub Revali’s wing gently, if only to keep his attention on the weird yellow mushrooms in his hand. Nonetheless, it was a small thing that the Rito appreciated.

After a few more rounds of talking, Revali finally sighed in defeat. “I appreciate your gesture Link, I truly do. But I’d really prefer to just, not think about lightning at all, rather than be surrounded by your cluster of trinkets and tools.”

“So again, it’s fine. I can just sit here and wait it out. Don’t torment me any further with your...endless basket of comfort foods. I do hope that you donate some of those to the needy, I can’t be seen walking around with a selfish, hoarding hero after all.”

Link ignored the quip and Revali’s attempt to deflect the conversation. 

‘Are you sure there’s nothing else I can offer you?’

Revali opened his beak to say no, before closing it. He looked Link up and down, from his fuzzy golden head, to his pathetic and dirty blue tunic, to his brimming, sky blue eyes. 

Revali opened and closed his beak again, before saying, “no, it’s OK.”

Link frowned, tapping his fingers to his chin. 

Then, he swiftly grabbed at the blue scarf around Revali’s neck.

“W-Wha—hey!”

‘Just borrowing this for a sec!’

Despite Revali’s attempts to retrieve it, Link was already unfurling the scarf to its full length and width. Surprisingly, it was long enough, long enough for Link’s plan, anyhow

He turned back to Revali. ‘Snuggle up closer to the fire. If we’re gonna sleep towards the back of the cave like this I’d prefer to be as warm as possible

Revali’s expression was indescribable, at least verbally. Through the power of writing I can only describe the expression as something that conveyed feelings such as:

?!?!?!!?!!??!?!?!?!!!??!?!?!!?!!? 

‘We’re gonna hug, you dense bastard’

Revali started to sputter out questions, and list of logical reasons as to why that suggestion was absurd. But suggestion turned to action as Link wordlessly wrapped the scarf around the two of them, before snuggling into Revali’s feathers.

On the brightside, Revali was stiff for different reasons, other than lightning. 

In hindsight that was probably part of his plan

The Rito was silent, as he struggled with the decision of either allowing himself to be comfortable, nestled with his favourite soft scarf, and his favourite (he would never admit it) Champion

Or to put up his usual quips and walls

Was Link annoyed about this? Happy?? 

Spirits above he was so embarrassed, Link was probably doing this out of pity, like some mother tending to an infant...

Or maybe it wasn’t like that...? Was it something else?? Some other feeling that had cause him to take such a drastic action to—

‘What’cha thinking about?’

Revali felt Link’s arms move under his wing, and he looked over at the Hylian. He looked so...tranquil, and relaxed...and...stunning....despite his terribly kept hair

“Nothing.”

Link raised his eyebrow, ‘Yeah?’

Revali narrowed his eyes in confusion, but nodded, to which Link turned back and nestly his face into his soft feathers.

What kind of a question is that? What am I thinking about? This situation that came out of no where of course!! 

What else would he be thinking abo—

...

Oh

The Rito could only smirk to himself finally putting together the pieces of Link’s scheme

Another moment of silence. At least, to Revali it was silent. The only sounds he could hear were of Link’s breathing, and his own heartbeat. 

The thunder whispered in the background

Revali smiled, while resting his beak on Link’s soft hair

Then finally, thoughts turned to dreams turned to peace; Revali slept sound as the rain pattered to the sound of his beating heart

HA god what a loser it’s so corny I could die. Who would even right such a thing ahahaahha— oh wait

[If you enjoyed this content, a like and a reblog is greatly appreciated! Let’s me know that I should make more, while also giving me that extra serotonin.]

#botw #breath of the wild #legend of zelda botw #loz botw #botw headcanons #fuck it i might just tag this as fanfiction #botw fanfiction #revalink #revali #link #link botw

[spiritmaiden23]

PASTEL WITCH!!!! BUT ALRIGHT FOLKS!! NEW VERSE IN COMING or well, old verse in coming but I never really talked about in length! BUT WITCH VERSE AKA where I can throw Sky Zel into generic fantasy verse for those who don’t know LOZ lore too well or put her in other verses such as Genshin or Rune Factory!! Not much to say about her design, other than what tiny me is saying in the corner I really wanted cute pastel vibes :’) at first I thought about putting in her goddess dress designs too in her dress but decided to go with the dress we see in the beginning because it’s really god tier design!! Either way let’s get into the main points of this verse 

So basics! She’s the apprentice of the grand witch, Hylia, and one of her few apprentices that stuck around since Hylia is infamous for being strict and a very hard teacher. As such she doesn’t have too many fellow students she can bond with but due to Hylia’s incredibly hard teaching, Zel is a more than competent witch with vast knowledge on many spells and hexes. Hylia had a unique teaching style where she doesn’t really use a wand, using a wand is the recommended way of using magic for witches as it acts as a conductor of sorts for all that mana to flow out. Wandless magic is possible but very, very hard to control. That said in her lessons she more or less expected her students to preform magical spells with no wands and well you see why she doesn’t have too many students because that shit is hard!! And while Zelda can perform certain spells without wands, she prefers to use tomes and books as a makeshift wand of sorts due to the magic latent in the pages. It’s far more powerful than wand all while giving her just enough control over spells compared to wandless magic. She has pointed ears which... is not typical of witches really though not super rare as Hylia also has pointed ears as do several other witches. But without her hat, many would mistake her to be an elf. Which is why she’s always seen with it when out and about!   

Witches, also known as spell casters or mages, are beings born with a great source of supernatural and arcane magic latent in their bodiesin that regard they can be seen as incredibly OP but they do have limits to their magical abilities as mana exhaustion is something to be wary of should one use spells repeatedly with no stop to it. Mana blockage is the result of using magical powers too much, and it’s where the mage has a tough time using their magic with spells backfiring on them. It’s usually painful to try and use the magic in their bodies and it’s best to just let the blockage clear itself up. Certain spells require certain sacrifices and should one use too much of the Dark Arts they are at the risk of turning into an enchanter/enchantress and that’s no good since while very OP are pretty much mindless because dark magic has turned their minds into a blank space, the corruption of the spells corrupting their minds and souls more or less. Magic is a very unpredictable force and without skill or knowledge can do lethal and catastrophic damages to either the user or the world itself. And it’s best to keep in mind that with magic, there’s always a price when using it. Using up mana for spells is considered an insignificant and super minor price to the witches, so keep that in mind. Also, there is such thing as magical immunity/resistance to witch spells so :’) 

So with that little bit of world building out of the way it’s time for focus on Sky once again! So her familiar is a species known as Loftwings where they can shape shift to the size of a barn owl all the way to giant bird beasts we see in SS. The feathers in her design are from her Loftwing, Indigo as a small charm since their feathers carry luck in them! The feather we see in her hair is actually charmed to turn into one roughly the size of a broom where she uses it to fly if Indigo is nowhere to be found (probably like Kagura rides the feather in Inuyasha bc it looks mad cool). She has a close companionship with him and sees Indigo as her best friend. She summoned him during a summoning exam that all witches must go through since familiars are very important to a witch! She has the same familiar as Hylia. In fact, many regard Zel as a mini Hylia in the making since she’s an accomplished witch at such a young age and one of the few students who actually passed Hylia’s classes!

She’s all done with schooling and is now just trying to make it out on her own through her small potions business! She excelled in potions and mostly relies on her skills and talents to make the best of the best! She lives in a hut all the way out in the enchanting Faron Woods. It’s a small space that’s a bit of a mess, filled with books, loose papers with lots of writing on them, cauldrons of varying size piled up in the corner, a table with plants and bottles.... the only clean place of the house is her bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen really haha!! Her workspace is in the basement and is filled with plants of all sorts even eating mortals, and lots of potions bottles on the workbench! She likes to live away from people due to witches not having the best rep around thanks to many enchanters being around and many indulging in dark arts to get to that level but has a really high friendship with mortals!! She’s known for being a more outgoing than Hylia. She’s often gathering ingredients all over the place so you’re more than likely going to come across her forging for the weirdest stuff for whatever orders of potions come in. There’s no potion she can’t make! That’s her motto! 

Whispers: is actually the daughter of Hylia here but Hylia being World’s Best Mom abandoned her long ago due to circumstances which resulted in her becoming immortal by mistake whoops as such she was adopted by a wise old man named Gaepora. While Zelda is unaware of the fact Hylia Is Not. But welp, it’s not like she’ll be saying anything anytime soon. That said that doesn’t mean her treatment of her as a student was any kinder just because she’s her daughter, she’s still just as much as hard ass on anyone haha!! But being the daughter of Hylia, who’s said to have goddess blood running through her veins and now Zelda too, well... it makes sense why she’s so proficient at magic, no? But just because they both have goddess blood doesn’t mean that they aren’t just as suspectible to corruption should they turn to dark arts if either Hylia or Zelda were to turn enchantress the world would be super FUCKED!! Hylia is well aware of the fact while Zelda is not so ;v; 

CRIES HERE’S WHERE I’D PUT LINK’S ROLE IF I HAD A MAIN LINK TO CONVERSE WITH BUT ALAS!! So I’ll leave Link’s role open for any Sky Link rpers who wanna have fun at this verse!! If you wanna rp in this verse, I’m always open to plotting!! So far, I’ve got three threads going and I’m always down for more! That’s it for now with witch verse Zelda!! 

#phew!! now verse name!! #| binds of hex and magic. #amber's crap crap art. #verses.

[lozheadcanonsandmore]

So, I’m cracking the surface and finally dishing up some botw 2 stuff!

This isn't necessarily headcanons or theories, just some ideas I sprung up from a convo in a discord server I'm in. 

It basically started by someone asking if we think they will do dungeons as apposed to the stuff the in botw, divine beasts, etc. So I'll start with that.

I personally would like some sort of Sheikah related thing and some dungeons, (cause dungeons are really cool). 

Based on what we know there is a good chance that there will be dungeons, considering the fact that based on the botw 2 trailer we know that the Sheikah tech seems to be gone. So, there most likely will not be a lot of that in the game. 

The thing about dungeons however is since they have been in Zelda games is that there is always a item you get in each one, a boomerang, hookshot, etc. This can make the game more linear. There are ways to combat this, as Wind Waker I find overall really fun, as there are Islands that don’t matter to the story, a bunch of side quests, treasure charts, etc. 

But Botw has a completely different feel, it is so much more open world, considering the fact you can go beat Ganon right after finishing the Great Plateau. This game is open world, so how does one combat this with dungeons. 

The first thing would be the fact that there is no order to the dungeons, like how you need the one item to even start a different dungeon in some Zelda games.

Now that I have chattered on about the way it would work, how about a few dungeon ideas. 

A Zonai dungeon. This dungeon could be played out two ways, a sort of tutorial or a way to increase your power. This is running off the assumption that the the green arm magic in the trailer is Zonai magic. 

A great way to think about this dungeon is like Hyrule Castle in botw. Most people weren’t eager to rush right to it as it was a dangerous place and looked very scary with Ganon there. But if you did get to the Castle there were all sorts of goodies, like really good weapons. On my first playthrough In never even went into the Central region, I was terrified of Guardians, I couldn’t kill them.  On my second playthrough I immediately went there to pick up a few go weapons. So, the Castle more or less, is extremely helpful, scary at first, and mandatory (if you wanna beat the game)

So the dungeon itself would be like that. In the Faron region which has gotten filled with monsters or something else that is dangerous, stopping someone from traveling over there. Not the whole of Faron just the little part of the Zonai Ruins, so it wouldn’t disrupt your playthrough. Faron might have slightly more monsters than other regions, like Central did. 

So the dungeon itself. 

You would enter the dungeon through a Zonai ruin. You enter and collect your information on the dungeon via a stalactite (the one coming from the ceiling). The floating letters/language (from the trailer )come in and the info about the dungeon map is given to the player. You go through the dungeon use your array of Zonai Magic and combat tricks, eventually getting to the place where there would normally be a boss. But here there isn’t one. Just a Zonai. You are actually seeing one. And then cutscene that explains some stuff about Link’s role, the Zonai, or something. The old zonai sticks his hand forward and sort of fades into green specks. They swirl around Link and then are gone. He feels stronger and a voice speaks to him, telling him he is at his strongest now. A door opens and we go into a new section that has us work on the new power.  A strong power that makes malice fade into nothing, (I’ll have to work out the specifics later) At the end there is key, and Link places it in the lock to open to a vast room and the boss appears. A three-head monster, the heads of a boar, dragon, and owl. The eyes are closed and then one head awakens. You beat each head for three phases Link gets his heart container and walk out through the door and exit from where you came in.  Then you realize, it’s all a circle a cycle. Everything is.

--

During the course of writing this up I had a lot of fun so I will save other dungeons for different times If you want me to elaborate on any of this, feel free to ask. This includes the boss or any info. This is really cool, so I will definitely cover a lot more in the future for botw 2

#botw #loz botw #botw 2 theory #botw 2 zelda #theories

[nerdiests]

would that be enough? (i don’t know if it would)

sup lads, i haven’t... put stuff i’ve written on here in a while, but i thought there’s no time like the present! so here’s what i wrote for the @linkeduniverse weekly prompt over on the discord - warriors week (again). i love my lad, that’s all. 

check it out on ao3 under the same name! 

(chapter 1: ready set... not yet)

Anyways, as I write this last paragraph, we’ve been in our Hyrule for two days. Right now, Wild’s making some sort of dish with salmon, though I’m not sure what it is. In all honesty, I’m upset we ended up on the exact opposite side of the country. We’re in the Faron Woods, when I wish we were just right outside the village. It feels like it’s been too long since I’ve seen you, and I hope that I’ll be able to see you soon. I miss you. 

Love, Link.

With a flourish, Warriors signed his name on the letter for Thom, drawing a small heart next to both his and Thom’s names. Goddesses, he was being sappy. But he missed his boyfriend. 

“Finished writing another love letter, Warriors?” Legend snarked. Warriors brushed off Legend’s usual snark in favor of grabbing his pack, putting it on his lap, and rummaging through it to find his envelopes. 

“Why do you call them love letters? I doubt Warriors is spending the entire letter waxing poetic about Thom anyways,” Twilight said, attempting and failing to give Warriors a subtle thumbs up. Considering everyone else could see Twilight’s thumbs up, it wasn’t all that subtle. Twilight wouldn’t know subtlety if it hit him in the face. Several times. 

“I think it’s sweet!” Sky said, a sappy smile on his face. 

“It’s practical too, especially if he’s not getting to see Thom all that often,” Four added, a grin on his own face. Goddesses, they all knew he was a sap, didn’t they? Ignoring that thought, Warriors carefully folded the letter to fit into the envelope he had grabbed and put the folded letter inside. 

“Why not just tell Thom about everything when you see him again, though?” Wind asked, his voice a lot closer than Warriors was expecting. Turning towards the youngest hero of the bunch that had apparently taken the space on the log next to him, Warriors pulled out his bundle of letters from his pack sitting on his lap. The letters had amassed over the last month and a half, and after a quick movement of Warriors’ pencil, he slid the envelope with Thom’s name on it into the stack. 

“There might be something that I really think is important in the moment when I’m writing that I’ll forget about when I see him again,” Warriors said, slipping the bundle back into his pack and placing it on the ground. 

“True…” Wind replied, putting his chin on one of his hands. Warriors chuckled at the sight - he looked like a little philosopher. 

“It’s also a tradition back from when we first got together. I was off at war and I couldn’t see him as often as I would’ve liked when the war got in full swing, so I started writing letters that I’d deliver whenever I saw him. Typically it was every month, sometimes less, so he’d usually get five letters every time I visited,” Warriors explained. Legend laughed from across the campfire.

“I knew you were a sap!” Legend said triumphantly. Warriors only rolled his eyes. He knew that Legend was just trying to get a rise out of him. 

“Leave Warriors alone, Legend. We’ve all got people back home we care about,” Time said, with both Sky and Wind nodding. 

“Coming from the married man,” Legend shot back, although it was fairly obvious that he wasn’t being serious. Warriors laughed, right as Wild turned around with a flourish. 

“Dinner’s ready!” Wild said, lifting up his spoon and accidentally flinging a bit of whatever he made onto Hyrule’s tunic. For a moment, they all went quiet, until Hyrule reached down and swept up the bit of food with a finger and ate it. 

“Wh-” Four started to speak, but Hyrule quickly cut him off. 

“Delicious!” 

“I… Guess you like the risotto then?” Wild asked, getting a series of nods from Hyrule. Time raised an eyebrow from across the camp and cleared his throat.

“So… Are we all going to be served like that or was it just a Hyrule thing?” Time asked teasingly. Wild’s face went red, before reaching for the bowls he’d set down near the campfire. 

Dinner was quickly passed around, compliments were given to their wild chef, and everyone started wrapping everything up for the evening. As they did so, there was a rustling sound in the forest around them. Warriors straightened up from where he sat, scarf wrapped partially around Wind as he read an interesting novel about a Hyrule that had harnessed electricity without magic and created a functioning society around it. It was intriguing, which was why Warriors was loath to put it down in favor of reaching for his sword. 

Warriors and Twilight shared a glance across camp as the rustling grew louder and everyone grew quieter. Right as Twilight lifted up his sword and took a step forward, a figure stepped out from the bushes. The postman, his hat and banner slightly askew, walked out with a small bundle of letters in hand. 

“I have some letters for a Link Ellanher? They’re from one Thom-” Before the postman could finish speaking, Warriors cut him off. 

“That would be me. And I’ve got a few letters to deliver back, if you wouldn’t mind,” Warriors said, stepping forward to trade bundles of letters. The postman looked a bit affronted at Warriors cutting him off, but he couldn’t care much at the moment. He wanted his letters from his boyfriend! 

After the postman made his hasty departure, Warriors sat back down and ignored the curious looks from the rest of the group. 

“Why’d you cut the postman off like that?” Wind asked curiously. Warriors shrugged, not actively saying anything in favor of opening up the letter at the bottom of the stack of three - Thom wrote twice a month, unlike his own weekly letters. No matter what, though, they both put the oldest letters on the bottom. And as everyone started to wind down from their surprise visitor, Warriors started to read. 

As Warriors scanned over the first two letters, he smiled softly. Thom’s alright. He’s safe, no one’s coming after him, he’s safe. All Thom’s been up to is experimenting with some new combinations of fruit for fruit tarts and taking Zelda on her biannual veterinary visit. Everything was calm. He had nothing to worry about. And with that, he moved onto the third and final letter, which appeared to have been written rather recently. The ink looked the freshest. 

Warriors’ soft smile persisted as he started to read this newest letter in more detail. 

Dearest Link,

This is the third letter I’ve penned for you, and I find myself growing more and more anxious for your return. I know that you must miss me as much as I miss you, but still. Some days, the longing feels like too much. I want to hold you, I want to see you, and I long for some quality time once you do arrive again. I miss you so much, pumpkin. The day where you walk through the front door of the bakery can’t come fast enough. 

But I do have news! Something important happened a few days past, something that I can’t necessarily talk about in detail. All you need to know is that once you get home again, we’ll be going out to dinner at the nicest place in town and then you’ll know. I can’t wait!

There was more to the letter, but Warriors’ eyes glazed over near the end of the second paragraph. Dinner at the nicest place in town, and he’ll know then… That. That sounded. Wait. 

Is Thom going to propose?

Oh goddesses, Warriors can’t have that. He really can’t. He didn’t know how it got into Thom’s head that a proposal was a good idea. Sure, the two of them had been together for almost three years at this rate, but that wasn’t a long enough time to date to know that they would want to spend the rest of their lives together! They should date for at least another three years, if not another five! If Thom was really dedicated to their relationship then he could wait that long, couldn’t he? 

“Warriors? Are you alright?” Warriors heard a familiar voice somewhere nearby. But he didn’t focus on it. Thom was going to propose. Golden Goddesses above, he was not ready for this! He wouldn’t be able to treat Thom the way he should, especially if he was away all the time like this! A husband shouldn’t be away from his husband all the time! And a boyfriend shouldn’t be away from his boyfriend all the time like he was now! He was being a bad boyfriend, and he’d be a bad husband too!

“Warriors!” A different voice yelled. He still continued to catastrophize. About all the things that would go wrong when Thom proposed. Because that’s what Warriors knew he was going to do. His vision was a blur, his ears were ringing, and-! Someone was touching him.

Without thinking, Warriors swung out a fist wildly, hearing a satisfying smack not even seconds after. His vision cleared, and Twilight was hunched over, one hand over his middle as he tried to breathe in. Everyone else was either looking at him with concern or anger or a mixture of the two. 

“What the fuck Warriors?” Wild said, tone accusatory as he started to walk forward, a knife in hand. Time tried to grab Wild, because it would not be good if Warriors got stabbed. Time didn’t need to do that, though, as Warriors yanked his scarf and unravelled it from around Wind, before running into the woods. 

-

Warriors didn’t know what he’d been thinking. He didn’t know what he was thinking now, even. All he knew is that he had to get away. Away from the campfire and the accusing looks. Away from the letter Thom had written. Away from… Everything. Why had he punched Twilight? Why had he panicked like that? Warriors was fine! Thom proposing would be fine! It would be! He would make it fine! It didn’t matter if the idea made him quake in his boots like nothing ever had before, or if it made him feel a bit queasy, but Warriors would manage it. He had to! For Thom!

“Who am I kidding,” Warriors muttered to himself, bringing himself to a stop. His panicked sprinting had gradually slowed to a jog, and as he stopped, he glanced around. There wasn’t a path to be found, and he knew he was nowhere near anywhere he’d been in the past. Despite spending excessive time in Faron Woods during the war, Warriors hadn’t seen every nook and cranny of the woods. And this spot was an unfamiliar one to him. At least there was a tree nearby. 

Sighing quietly to himself, Warriors plopped himself down with his back against the tree, immediately reaching to fiddle with his scarf. His scarf that he’d had ever since that first battle back at the beginning of all things. Before he even knew Thom. Goddesses, he. Really needed to stop bringing everything back to Thom, because that would only get his mind racing again. He’d run from everyone else to get away from that line of thinking, not immediately bring himself back to it! Warriors tightened his grip on the scarf, trying to ground himself. He was sitting in a forest, leaning against a tree, and he was fine. 

Except he knew he wasn’t. 

Warriors sighed to himself, hunching over as he started to fiddle with the embroidered end of his scarf. He’d have to go back eventually, considering he left everything there. Though Warriors didn’t fancy having to explain what happened to everyone else. He wasn’t even sure he could really explain what happened. 

The bushes around him rustled. Sitting up straight, Warriors looked around. He didn’t have any of his items with him - all he had was the dagger that he kept on his person at all times. If it was a monster or any other sort of enemy, Warriors would be screwed. Right as Warriors reached to grab the dagger, the rustling grew louder and Twilight walked out of the bushes. Huh?

“Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you,” Twilight said, sounding a lot calmer than someone who had recently been sucker punched in the stomach had any right to be. 

“What are you doing here?” Warriors asked. Why would Twilight follow him? If he had any sense at all, Twilight would’ve stayed back at the camp and left Warriors to panic by himself! Wait. Warriors wasn’t panicking. He wasn’t. 

“When you started reading that last letter, you looked… Really out of it. Everyone got concerned, and I was the unlucky one that decided to try and shake you out of it. Bad idea, in hindsight, heh,” Twilight replied, before moving over and sitting down next to Warriors. Warriors tensed up, prepared for Twilight to do something. What it’d be, he wasn’t sure of. But Warriors fully expected for Twilight to do something.

“...And now you’re tenser than one of the strings on Wild’s bows. What’re you afraid of, Warriors?” Twilight asked. Warriors, to his credit, tried to not be as tense. It didn’t work as well as he hoped, but he tried. But Twilight was still there, in the corner of his eye. Probably raising a brow and expecting an answer. 

“I’m not afraid!” Warriors replied, unable to stop the slight crack in his voice. That hadn’t happened since he was fourteen. A slight pink coloring his cheeks, Warriors turned away from Twilight, keeping his eyes locked on the ground. 

“Alright. If you say so,” Twilight said. 

Their shared space was quiet, for a while. Neither of them said a word, whether it was from sheer stubbornness or patience. All that could be heard were birds chirping and the occasional sound of a branch moving in the trees above them. 

“I’m sorry for punching you, Twilight,” Warriors muttered, breaking the silence. Twilight reached out for a moment, hesitating. Eventually, he decided against what he was going to do, and put his hand back where it was. 

“It’s fine, Warriors. I get it,” Twilight said, catching Warriors off-guard. His head jerked up and he whirled around to look at Twilight.

“How can you get it? You haven’t felt anxious at the idea of marrying someone because you’re afraid of losing them! I-!” Warriors cut himself off. That is not what he wanted to say. Oh beans. 

“Is… Is that what happened earlier? You normally look so happy when you read over Thom’s letters to you,” Twilight said. Warriors looked away, his eyes locked onto his boots. He didn’t want to… To talk about it.

“Heroes are… Are supposed to be strong, not… Not be a farce! I can’t even think about Thom proposing without panicking!” Warriors’ voice rose as he spoke, throwing his arms up in frustration. 

“Warriors.”

“I want to marry Thom one day, but! I just can’t think about the idea without feeling some level of nausea!”

“Warriors.”

“It’s not like I don’t love my boyfriend, because I do-!”

“Warriors!” 

Warriors blinked. Huh.

“I understand what you’re going through, Warriors,” Twilight continued. Now that Warriors was skeptical of.

“You remember that we talked of our journeys in some detail when we first met one another, yeah?” Twilight paused for a moment, allowing Warriors to nod. “And you remember that I went on my adventure because some of the children in my village went missing, right?” 

Oh. Right. 

“I’m guessing you forgot that, then?” Twilight asked. Sheepishly, Warriors nodded. Twilight put a hand on his shoulder and grinned. 

“Don’t worry, it’s not like everyone would remember that detail. I can guarantee that most of the group’s forgotten about that at this rate.” Now that comment got Warriors to laugh, if only a little bit. 

“And besides, you know Midna. You know she was with me on my adventure,” Twilight said as he took his hand off Warriors’ shoulder. 

“Yeah. What about it?” Warriors said, finally voicing a reply. Twilight was quiet for a moment.

“After my adventure, she left,” Twilight said, and goddesses his voice sounded so raw. Tentatively, Warriors put one of his hands on Twilight’s shoulder, which got a slightly shaky grin from him. Taking a deep breath, Twilight continued talking. 

“She was there for my entire adventure, and I know she had a kingdom to rule, but! We didn’t really get a proper goodbye!” Twilight’s head fell into his hands, while Warriors awkwardly patted his shoulder. Warriors was… Not as good as he should be at comforting people, so the only thing Warriors could do was let Twilight talk it out. 

“She closed the only way for her to come back, and goddesses I miss her,” Twilight said, lifting his head up slightly. 

“Is it bad? That I wish she hadn’t done that? That she could’ve stayed, that I could’ve told her the one thing I regret leaving unsaid?” Twilight said, turning towards Warriors, who let his hand slide back into his lap. Before Warriors could reply to Twilight’s question, he continued to speak. 

“And that’s not to mention that I’m so afraid that anyone that I grow close to is going to disappear! I already lost the children back in Ordon, who’s to say that it won’t happen again?” Warriors ducked as Twilight threw his arms up again, turning away from Warriors as he spoke. 

“I… I get that,” Warriors said quietly, catching Twilight’s attention. 

“When I was fifteen, my mom got really sick, and she passed away. She was the only person I was really close to for most of my life, and it took another two years for me to get close to anyone else. I thought they’d leave like my mom, even if she didn’t choose to leave,” Warriors explained, his voice not raising above a murmur the entire time he spoke. The duo was quiet for a moment, the birds filling the silence between the two. 

“That… Must’ve been hard,” Twilight broke the silence between the two. Warriors nodded slightly, not wanting to continue his train of thought. There was only one way it was going, and he didn’t like the conclusion it would bring. 

Unluckily for him, Twilight knew where that was headed, and knew Warriors needed to talk about it. 

“Is that why you’re afraid to get married to Thom?” Warriors flinched as Twilight spoke. Twilight blanched himself, shaking his head slightly. 

“That is… Not how I wanted to say that.”

“Oh I can tell,” Warriors replied, chuckling. Twilight rolled his eyes.

“I meant… Your mom’s death had a very large effect on you. You’re afraid of people leaving because the most important person in your life at that time left. But do you really think Thom will leave you? How long have you two been dating?” Twilight asked, quirking an eyebrow as Warriors averted his eyes. 

“Over two years, almost three,” he replied quietly, eyes focused on a bird in the trees. 

“If Thom was going to end a relationship that’s lasted this long, wouldn’t he have to have a valid reason for it?” Twilight said. 

“I mean, yes, but I’ve spent more of our relationship away from him than with him, and isn’t that a shitty thing to do?” Warriors said, turning back towards Twilight. As interesting as that bird was, it was better to at least have eye contact during a discussion. 

“Warriors, I doubt you’ve spent that much time away from him. You said that the two of you met about a quarter of the way through the war, and got together officially about halfway through, right?” Twilight asked. Warriors nodded, glancing down at his lap. 

“And you visited as much as you could during the times when you couldn’t stay?” Twilight continued. Warriors nodded again. 

“We moved in together after the war ended, and I spent as much time with him as I could, but! What if it’s not enough?” Warriors said, worry creeping into his words. Twilight paused for just a moment, before putting a hand on Warriors’ shoulder. 

“Warriors. Thom loves you, and if he had any problems with you being gone, he would say so, wouldn’t he?” Hesitantly, Warriors nodded at Twilight’s words. It… It made sense, but. 

“I…”

“Warriors. If Thom has problems, he will tell you. And you can always ask the next time he sees you,” Twilight said. Oh. Right. He could do that. 

“It’s just… In the most recent letter, he said we’d be going to the nicest place in town and he’d have news for me, and I can’t imagine that as anything but a proposal!” Warriors exclaimed, smacking one of his hands on the tree trunk. Oops. 

“Would you be okay with a proposal?” Twilight asked in reply. Warriors blinked. He hadn’t thought about if he would be okay. He’d thought about what would happen when he inevitably freaked out at the words “will you marry me?” Thinking about a proposal in a purely objective view made it seem like a good idea, yes, but the idea of something more permanent… Scared him. The perks of calling Thom his husband were high (mainly just being able to say he had a husband), but Warriors wasn’t sure if he could deal with that level of commitment just yet. One day, absolutely, but… 

“Not yet,” Warriors said, voice soft. 

“Then that’s the answer you’ll give,” Twilight said. Warriors nodded.

“Yeah. I suppose it is.” 

-

When Warriors and Twilight walked back into the campsite after a bit of finagling to find the path again, Warriors nearly got tackled to the ground by a very angry Wild. 

“What the fuck Warriors?” Wild asked, grabbing Warriors’ tunic collar. Which was a bit amusing, but also? Warriors did Not like that. 

“Wild!” Twilight snapped, and almost immediately Wild turned to look at Twilight. He didn’t let go of Warriors’ collar, though, which. 

“Do you mind?” Warriors asked. Wild ignored him. 

“Let go of Warriors, Wild. It’s fine,” Twilight said, locking eyes with Warriors for a moment. Warriors was going to be a bit agitated if… Wild let go of the collar of his shirt. Warriors sighed as he walked over to the log he had been sitting at. The last letter from Thom sat on top of his pack, and as he picked it back up, Warriors looked around camp.

“I put the letter on your pack,” Hyrule said, answering the question that Warriors hadn’t even asked. 

“And before you ask, I didn’t read it. I know you really cherish those letters, and reading them would be rude,” Hyrule continued. Warriors nodded.

“Thanks,” he replied, getting a smile from Hyrule in reply. 

“What was that even about, Warriors? Wouldn’t expect you to punch someone in the stomach,” Legend said as Warriors tucked the letter away. He could read over the rest of it later. 

“Hm…” As Warriors thought to himself, Twilight cut in.

“He was having a gay panic.” For a few seconds after Twilight spoke, the group was silent. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Legend asked as he started wheezing. Warriors blinked a few times as the group devolved into laughter. From across the campfire, Twilight locked eyes with him and winked. 

“Thanks,” Warriors whispered, his voice unheard among the raucous laughter of the rest of the group. Twilight only shrugged, and Warriors had to smile at that. Leave it to Twilight to use what technically counted as the truth to mask what actually happened. 

#linked universe #loz #nerdiwrites #hi yes i write warriors/thom content and even if thom isn't in this first chapter he still exists thanks #warriors! has! commitment! issues! #and! twilight! likely (read probably)! has! abandonment! issues! #and i Will address that thanks

[neko-shinigxmi]

ALRIGHT, Hit me up with your LoZ theories!!

   OKAY, this is going to be a MAJOR DOOZY, so hear me out-! Buckle in, get snacks, a drink or two, cause whenever LoZ and I lock eyes, I write like a novelist who’s final draft is due Monday of next week…and it’s Friday.

   First off, I’d like to introduce my building block to all of my subsequent theories involving this series: There’s a fourth goddess that would complete the Triforce.

   This theory has…typically died out, but I won’t let it. I keep mine alive and kicking, because while most people try to nudge someone else into that empty slot (Goddess of Time, Goddess of Deserts (of the Gerudo), Hylia, etc), there’s a FAR more convincing, prior unknown option… One of darkness.

   Four themes are actually more prevalent in LoZ despite threes being the sign of the goddesses and- you would think- be more common compared to fours, but… Hey, there’s a lot to work with when you have four, especially when you look at it from the perspective of the Japanese.

   Anyways… Under the cut go the shorthand of my extensive notes.

We’ll start with four, the first basis for this theory I think of a lot: “Four” in Japanese can be read as “shi” [死 ]. This specific reading translates to “death” and is considered an unlucky number. If four goddesses could be unlucky….why not cast out for 3?

Though what’s interesting… I couldn’t find a source for it- so who knows, maybe the guy pulled it outta his ass- but there was a theory video involving Majora’s Mask that mentioned purple often being a color of death in Japan. Again, couldn’t find anything to back that claim up, but…. On the other hand…..

The image above is of the Shadow Medallion from Ocarina of Time. Not only is it in the color purple, but it’s found in the Shadow Temple (a place that seems to reek of death and horrors) and features…an upside down triangle, with three dots around it…… Hmm.

Equally baffling, the Four Poe Sisters from the Forest Temple in the same game. Four over three, again. Also, this is a trend we see repeat in ANY Four Sword adventure… Take a look.

Note how we can see the colors of the four goddesses represented here. Red for Din, of Power. Green for Farore, of Courage. Blue for Nayru, of Wisdom…and purple. The fourth, odd color out.

This is actually ANOTHER issue in Tri-Force Heroes. While on the surface, all Links would be accounted for…. There IS a fourth, forgotten Dopple…. Check it out.

Ditto for Minish Cap; four objects, purple the odd color out. Image link.

It’s suspicious, I tell you.

Four AGAIN shows up in Twilight Princess, wherein there are FOUR guardian Light spirits… Three helped the goddesses, while one was unaccounted for…. I believe this was Ordona, far removed in nearby Ordon Village.

Nintendo tries to state “Ordona” finishes Faron’s name (for Farore), but I personally find THAT a load of bologna.

Though not of four, Purple continues to be an important color in the LoZ franchise… Even when they remove it from the final product. See here, the removed Fairy Doors from Phantom Hourglass (Philos) and the almost-there sixth Lokomo of Shadow… See their art Here (Syda).

A theory persists Bryne might’ve still been the reincarnated “Shadow lokomo”, but it’s only a theory that’s never been confirmed. (Much like the stuff I do.)

As well… What purpose would there be for the goddesses to create flaws? Who would create Demise? Where did he come from? The darkness, the evil….and all the creatures that bloom from it…?

Having also learned of beings like the Horned Statue and looking more into Malanya (BotW)… There are beings who don’t fit the norm of most “godly” creations, but STILL fit into the role of such “gods.”

(Which, I should note now, I use loosely; as someone else pointed out during my binge-watching, “gods” are probably used in translation of “kami”… Which is more like “god or spirit” in Japanese. Kami are a complicated thing for our mindset of what gods are, but… Essentially, all things have a spirit and are alive. A worship of them can go from “spirit” to “god” as far as translation goes, but….. Y’know.)

I just personally don’t see a bunch of well-intentioned goddesses go a’slippin’ and spill out some evil, especially one as chaotically evil as Demise goes…

So I brought forth the idea of Orona. An exiled fourth goddess of Shadow. Chosen color purple. Creator of Demise and the evil within the hearts of Hyrule.

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   Oh, and the bit! About the Horned Statue and Malanya! That’s new!!! Which is what’s really gotten me jazzed about my theories involving LoZ… I just keep feeling like Nintendo is unintentionally validating me, even though it’d be a game-changer and probably would work TOO WELL for ending the series… Which is the last thing Nintendo would want to do.

   ….I mean, not that it’s going to stop me any. I can write out how my version of the series could end as Nintendo keeps making money and I keep giving it to them, too, LMAOOO. To be fair to them, don’t fix what ain’t broken….and I’ll sure keep buying Pokemon and Legend of Zelda long as the series keeps living up to the core of what they’ve always been, y’know?

   Anyways, wanna drop one more theory on ya before I set you free. :3c

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So… Remember Groose? Skyward Sword? Red hair, kinda tanned skin, golden eyes? Wanted the girl, lost out to MC, grew enough by that time that he wasn’t bitter about it, and flew off with friends to go be cool somewhere else?

Yeah, that guy. So…. Here me out.

Groose got cursed by Demise, too. It wasn’t ONLY Zelda/Hylia and Link who were dragged down into the reincarnation cycle.

Hear me out… Most people have made a fair guess that- by endgame- Groose and Co. flew off in the way of Lanayru Desert. (Once a populous ocean and with green fields… I’d joke about it being a downgrade, but I live in a desert, too, so… FML.) This location- deserts, specifically- have been KNOWN for housing the Gerudo race.

Now…. Please look at Groose compared to an OoT Gerudo.

They might not be the most similar people in existence….but you try to tell ME that a few who-knows-how-many-generations later, his kids could VERY WELL end up becoming the Gerudo race.

(Also not a flattering picture, but I don’t have a lot to work with premade…and I currently don’t have the ability to make one of these on my own.)

So what am I getting at? Groose was cursed to have his descendants bear his new host.

Theory goes like this: Groose is cursed. Never knows of it. He has kids normally… They have kids normally….for a few generations. As time goes on, more women are born, less men. Until no boys are born, only little girls who resemble their mothers. It never ceases.

Until the day the first boy in thousands of years is born. He is hailed a king of their people, in honor of such a rare, undocumented occasion.

Ganondorf, they name him. Unknowing that within the boy, is a demon, waiting for his time. Ganondorf shall grow up with a hatred unmatched, nobody will know why, but the goddesses will. They will do nothing unless called down with might.

Unwittingly, Groose continues a line of a people scorned nearly always by Hyrule, who’s king is ALWAYS destined to lose himself to the madness of the darkness that consumes his very being.

EDIT: BEFORE I FORGET, I also think it’s very telling of BotW to say there’s “not been another male Gerudo since the King who became the Calamity” that’s very HMM, isn’t it?? (Reference: Creating a Champion / Master Works)

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   My name is Aki, and I stan the LoZ franchise because I rebuilt it with my bare hands, how’ya doin’?

#thekingaboo #Aki answers #Legend of Zelda #idgaf if I put it in main tags #I fuss over this theory year by year #least I could do is have the bravery to put it in the main tags!!!! #anyways feel free to tell me whatcha think #cause OOP I'M STILL OBSESSED

[seven-oomen]

Hi, Ben!  Hope you’ve been doing okay.  Sending this as a submission since I noticed the last email I sent said something about sending to Google Docs or something?  And now I’m not sure if they’re going through?

Anyway, at least as of the last time I looked at it, you had a section where you were debating about how much Faron would casually notice about his sister when she’s introduced to the story?  If you’re worried, is there another POV character she’ll meet at some point that could be the one to provide a more in-depth description of her?  Like he might notice/internally comment on one or two small things (the look in her identical to his eyes, the way the light shimmers off her reverse ombre hair, etc) so the reader can immediately know who the other POV character is describing, even if she’s not been specifically introduced to them yet.  Also, if you think she’d be around/helpful for any of the forthcoming shenanigans, the fact that they don’t look much alike could be useful for having one (or both) of the other two being ABSOLUTELY NOT JEALOUS of this strange woman who seems super close to this obnoxious hunter dude that they are TOTALLY NOT INTERESTED IN, SHUT UP, YENA, only to have to pretend not to be relieved to find out she’s just his sister.

Also, on the discovering magic front:  If “magic” in the general sense is unknown to either world, then where did all the supernatural creatures come from?  Most of them are considered creatures of magic in some way, shape, or form, so if there’s no magic, then how did they come into being?  Is it that magic is truly unknown, or just that it was thought to have died out/gone away long ago, like some of the more extreme/larger supernatural creatures like dragons, and whatever the hell is all still in Australia?  Also now super curious who you’re planning to have be this new mage, how it happens, and why them.  (I have some theories, but don’t want to get too specific in case of spoilers. ;D )

And, as the included image shows (assuming it shared correctly), I also took the uquiz about TW parents, and wasn’t really trying to get this result, but here we are.  XD  Also, not sure how I feel about some of this (if, like me, you are unfamiliar with the slang term from the beginning, here’s an article about it.)  How exactly he could be considered the type to be desperate to throw himself into a relationship when he was single for at least six years after his wife died (depending how young you think Stiles was at the time) is somewhat baffling to me.  Oh well.  I’m mostly just amused that that’s who I got.  XD

Also, omg, I did NOT need that slap on the ass/kiss on the forehead post on a day where I’m FINALLY trying to get some writing done on the next chapter of IYWTD.  XD  I now have an endless cycle of “ho don’t do it…they ain’t that far yet…ho don’t do it…” running through my head as I fight off the urge to have one of them do that with everything I’ve got.  I can’t even decide who I’d rather have do it, because frankly I can see BOTH of them doing it depending on the situation.  Especially since I’m hoping to maybe (finally!) get to the rehearsal dinner this chapter.  (We’ll see.)

Anyway, I should probably try to actually write a little more while my energy levels are cooperating.  I hope your sleep has been better, and that both you and Mo are feeling well!  Good luck with the story, I’ll try to check in again later!  Take care!  *Hugs!*

Hey B!

Good to hear from you again, I was about to sit down to reply to this email which is the last one I got:

I finally got my body to cooperate long enough to read over the new stuff.  :D  Probably my biggest question is regarding Nate's last name being on the vampire's list (with no first name I note.)

I’ve been kinda struggling with myself the last few days and I haven’t done a lot of answering in general. I’m sorry about that, but I am answering a few things here. 

(Also my document of notes and questions is now longer than what I have written in actual story so far and it’s honestly amazing XD)

About the magic system, I guess there is magic in the world in the sense that it created mythological creatures who then either evolved/devolved into what they are today. Dragons for example used to be giant lizards with wings but due to losing their habitat/prey they devolved into smaller animals that are more like small/ mid-sized lizards (Bearded dragon/Komodo dragon/mini mythological dragon who’s scales make them invisible to the human eye. But the komodo dragon is as big as they get in modern times). Australia & the deep ocean are more rich in mythological creatures since it’s less touched by humans. And vampires/werewolves use a form of magic in the sense that they can morph their bodies/use it hunt/soothe humans around them. 

But no human has really been able to wield it. Even the ‘witches’ that were hung during the Salem witch trials were really just humans, most of whom just used an early form of science/chemistry/alchemy or a logic form. Instead of a more classical use of magic like in Supernatural/Harry Potter/any other magic story. 

That’s a skill that has been reserved for the mythological creatures. But that changes when one of the main characters is born. He’s able to sense the magic/energy in supernatural creatures and is sensitive to it but since no one else can feel that he doesn’t learn how to use it. He kind of just ignores it and chalks it up to his adhd/sensory overload.  Until somewhere in the story he accidentally sets something off and unleashes an energy he didn’t know he had and gets into trouble. And then it’s a struggle to develop the skill and find a way to control that while there’s also no one who can really teach him how to do it. I mean the vampires/werewolves can to some degree and they can teach him some stuff. But since it’s never been documented before nobody knows what he can do and what he can’t do.

So It’s kinda like what if there is an established magical world where the supernatural can wield magic that’s necessary for their survival, but what if a human suddenly gets that ability too, thousands of years after the first mythological creatures were born.

And yeah Nate is the next one we’ll be returning to and I was wondering if I could provide more in depth descriptions of the whole group from his POV. And then when I switch back to Faron I can then describe the other group a bit more clearly. I’m debating on how many POV I want to include. Right now I’m debating between those two, maybe Cas/Asher or Dichali, but that really depends on what I need the story to do. But that’s not a bad idea either. Will def write that down too.

Yeah I honestly don’t get how Noah is a simp. I mean dude didn’t date for years and it’s not like he just rolls over for people either... then again I also didn’t get how I got Peter based off my answers. XD But that’s funny that we all got someone else for a change, lol <3

And you’re very very welcome for that image XD I’m thinking of using that too for the first draft.

Hope you’re doing alright and I hope to get to read more of your fanfic this weekend if I can get my brain to cooperate. 

Mo and me are holding on and we’re giving you huge hugs right now XD <3

#ben says stuff #B #my convos with anon #submission

[timesorceror]

Fenhanders Week 2017 #6

Saturday, April 8th - Let’s Grow Old Together

What does the end look like? Where did the trio end up? This is a time for some angst and goodbyes. Tissues suggested.

Question of the Day: Did they have/adopt children? If so, what did they leave behind?

The trio spent their early years after Kirkwall in the isolation of the Amaranthine Forest, merely a few days’ ride from either Vigil’s Keep or Amaranthine itself. All were content in that isolation until it was disrupted by news from Varric about the Inquisition and the Wardens’ false Calling, and that was when they left that isolation for the first time.

Surviving Adamant and the Fade had been like going to the Void and back; with Anders and Fenris having to drag Hayden behind them as Stroud remained behind to hold off the Nightmare. But afterwards, seeing all of the devastation wrought by the Venatori and the Wardens still under their control, they could not bear to leave it. Alistair and Rashia elected to head to Wiesshaupt instead to seek answers from their higher ups, and of course Anders and Fenris remained with Hayden, helping the Inquisition where they could.

Fenris mostly helped on missions, though he rarely left without either of his healers. When not out with Fenris, Anders and Hayden tended to patients and refugees still displaced from the explosion at the Conclave, adult and child alike. Sometimes these children had parents, sometimes they did not. 

Hayden’s heart went out to all of the children without, because they knew the pain of losing a parent in their youth. However, it wasn’t until Fenris brought back a pair of nearly infant twins from an excursion to a dragon-ravaged home that Hayden was struck with a desire to do more than keep them warm and healthy until a place could be found for them.

So, after many long discussions and several battles fraught with danger, the trio returned home when Corypheus was defeated… with two small children in tow.

Anders breathed deeply of the still winter air, and then exhaled slowly, watching as his breath misted and danced before him, mesmerizing. His gaze wandered across the line of trees several yards away from the porch where he sat, seemingly fixed on a point in the distance through the gentle evening snowfall. The wooden chair beneath him creaked slightly as he rocked, but the sound was muffled by the great white expanse that surrounded the area.

“Papa?” A voice called from inside the cabin, making him turn to cock his head in the direction of the sound. 

“Yes darling?” He answered, and coughed once, twice. Wetness rattled in his chest, and he sighed, leaning back in the chair. Distant footsteps grew louder until the visage of an elven woman with dark hair and amber eyes came into view, brows pinched in concern. She held two steaming cups in her hands, offering one to him.

“You’ve been out here for awhile,” she said as he gingerly took one of the cups, and relishing the taste of warm liquid chocolate on his tongue. He hummed noncommittally. “Yes, I know,” he replied in a chiding tone, smirking softly. “Can’t an old man enjoy the peace and quiet of a winter’s evening once in awhile?” He flashed her a slight grin, but was interrupted when a series of small coughs escaped him, threatening to develop into a full fit.

“We’d let you be,” said a man’s voice from the doorway, equal parts teasing and stern, “if not for you being so quiet. Your cough’s getting worse, and when we hadn’t heard anything from you in awhile we feared that you’d just… well.” The man was elven, like the woman, and it was obvious they were related. His hair was dark, like hers, but his eyes were a bright jewel green instead of amber.

Anders smiled sadly at the man. “I’m sorry I can’t put your fears to rest, son. An illness like this can’t be cured with magic or potions, and I’m… not as young as I used to be.” 

“We know, papa,” said the woman as she reached out to take his free hand into her own from her place in one of the other two rocking chairs. “People don’t live forever. We’re not meant to. I just… I want to be there for you.” There were tears swimming in the woman’s eyes, and Anders set his drink aside to reach up and brush a few from here cheeks.

“You are here for me, sweetheart,” he whispered, “and I’m grateful, I am. Both of you came all this way to be with your old man, and you didn’t have to.”

“Course we did,” the man grunted. “I mean, we know you’re never really alone, but with Hayden gone and Father having passed last Harvestmere… Liesel and I figured someone should be here, to keep you comfortable at the very least.”

Liesel snorted. “Faron’s being too humble, as usual. He said to me while we were on our way here actually, “Sister, it’s more than a duty to care for a parent in their last days; it’s an honor.” I mean, really. He spends too much time with Uncle Varric, I think.”

Anders chuckled. “Varric’s still kicking? Huh. What’s he got you doing, that he’s keeping you around for so long, Faron?”

“Dictating a memoir,” Faron grumbled. “The pain in his joints’d made it hard for him to write for years, so I’ve been transcribing everything for him.” He shrugged. “He wasn’t nearly so poetic when we were working on the last installment of Hard in Hightown. I think that thinking about the past has made him wistful. He even said he might tell me the story of Bianca if I ask him at the right time.”

“Bianca? As in the crossbow?”

“Nah, the woman. I mean, I’m pretty sure the crossbow’s involved, but he meant the woman. I’m sure of it.”

“I still say he’s gonna leave you hanging,” Liesel teased. Faron huffed, shurgging as he closed the door behind him and leaned against it. “Never said he wouldn’t. Anyway, his way of speaking gets stuck in my head sometimes and I say stuff weird.” Liesel grinned.

“You meant what you said though. I could tell.”

Anders smiled, picking up his cup and sipping it as he watched his adult children bicker with one another like they were small again. Warmth bloomed in his chest at the memories of raising them with Hayden and Fenris in this very cabin. He was glad to have them here with him during what could potentially be his last days. Hayden had been sick like this a few times before they’d eventually passed. Losing Hayden had hurt deeply, but at least he’d still had Fenris for several more years after that.

This past year on his own had been harder still, and he’d leaned heavily on Justice to keep him motivated to get out of bed each morning. He’d been so caught up in grief that he hadn’t noticed the onset of illness until nearly too late. He couldn’t bear to leave the home he’d built with his lovers, so he’d written to their children in Kirkwall instead, asking them to come if they could spare the time away from their own spouses and children to keep him company.

“Alright you two,” he chided them gently. “You know your father absolutely detested when you bickered without purpose. Why don’t you tell me how my grandchildren are doing? Liesel, isn’t your eldest getting married soon?”

“She is,” Liesel grumbled. “I feel so old, papa.” 

Anders chuffed. “But she’s marrying a good man, yes? Or lady?”

Liesel nodded, her features softening. “A fine young man. I was surprised to learn he has an apprenticeship with the Hightown surgeon, with him being elven like us. I hadn’t thought it possible.” 

“Varric’s done some good in that city, it seems,” Anders sighed, contentedly. “I mean, I doubt he’s erased elven prejudice entirely, but I know things are better there now, for a lot of people. Having all of those terrible Tevinter ruins cleansed of blood magic traces seemed to help a lot too, as I recall.”

“The Circle’s not in the Gallows anymore either,” Faron added. “And it’s not called a Circle. My two boys go there, and they tell me that their classes are quite pleasant. Just last month, Tamaris was showing me this thing he could do with these things he called fairy lights. It looked like the night sky was plastered all around us, without needing to go outside.”

“I used to do that, when I was young,” Anders remembered with fondness. “My first love, Karl, once charmed some to appear in the shapes of red carnations and crystal grace on my bed when I threw back the covers. I used to make some for your father when he would wake in the dark from his nightmares. They helped ground him.” 

Anders chucked, and added, “Hayden liked them too, but they were more like Karl. They’d take your father and I out into the forest during autumn in evenings and we’d watch a magic light show while sharing a picnic by the water.”

“I remember those,” Faron mumbled, lost in thought. Liesel sighed contentedly. “I do too. They were lovely. I had no idea they were Hayden’s way of being romantic.” Anders nodded, laughing. “Well, with small children in the house, the three of us had to get creative with how we flirted. There was a lot of suggestive eyebrows waggling and slightly not so innocent dancing and hugging that went on when you were young.”

“And then it all went out the window that one time I walked in on you and Father having sex,” Faron snorted, and Liesel burst in a fit of giggles. “Hayden was mortified, but they set you and I down while Father and Papa were… finishing up, and we had the sex talk right then and there.” 

A few more snickers escaped her as she held a hand to her mouth and wrapped the other around her side, clutching at her clothes while she tried to laugh silently.

Anders was laughing too, but he had to be careful not to laugh too hard in case he started to descend into a coughing fit instead. Everything ached these days, but the laughter his children brought him made him feel lighter than he had in months, and the ache was easier to ignore.

Eventually the twins coaxed him to come back inside to sit by the fire, and later that evening the three of them shared a hearty meal of steaming noodle broth with fresh vegetables and chunks of butter soft chicken. Shortly before Anders retired for bed, Liesel dug around in her packs, presenting him something wrapped in cheap brown parchment and tied with string.

“I’d almost forgotten this,” she muttered as he began meticulously opening the package. “We found this for you in the estate library before we left–Varric told Faron that it was one of your favorite trashy romance novels and that it was quite important to you.”

Anders gasped when he finished opening the package, pulling the parchment away to find a copy of Fang of the Dragonlord sitting inside. This was the same one that Hayden and Fenris had purchased for him when they’d still lived in Kirkwall, and several of the pages had been dog-eared in honor of the parts that had been Karl’s favorites from the copy he’d kept in the Circle.

“Thank you for being so thoughtful, dear,” he murmured as he pulled Liesel close and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. “This will be such lovely bedtime reading, for certain.”

“Oh, I’m sure it will be,” Faron snickered, and Anders just fixed his son with a dead-eyed stare. 

“Boy, I’m a widower well into my twilight years. I am more interested in keeping my plants pruned and my cat fed than getting it up. Besides, the story in this one’s actually good.” 

“Compared to Swords and Shields?”

“Anything’s better than that. The position he describes in the second installment on page 69 is physically impossible, unless you’re a contortionist, and even then it still sounds vastly uncomfortable.” Faron snorted. “True. Still, you know, it couldn’t hurt. Don’t orgasms help… something when you’re sick?”

“That’s headaches, son,” Anders chortled, “and that doesn’t always work.” 

“Whatever. Go get some rest, ok? And call for us, if… if you need us.”

“I will. I love you.” “We love you too, Papa.”

Anders leaned over and pressed a kiss to Faron’s forehead and slowly made his way to the bedroom he’d once shared with Hayden and Fenris. 

It no longer smelled like them, but the room itself was full of several books and trinkets that they’d collected, gifts from their children and their friends. A drawer in the desk by the window was ajar, and inside it Anders knew was a box full of letters from their friends and each other, detailing much of their lives together from their time in Kirkwall onward. Some of Hayden’s old robes still hung in the closet, and in the dresser, tucked behind a sachet of elfroot and rosemary were a few pairs of worn black leggings. 

Anders lit a candle and set it on one of the nightstands, laying the book on the bed. He moved to dress for sleep, but was struck with the sudden desire to wear one of the silk robes Hayden had gifted him, along with a pair of woolen socks that Fenris had knitted for him a long, long time ago.

He paused in front of the small mirror that had been hung on a nearby wall, reaching back to pull out his hair tie. His hair had gone full white in the last year, and a pang of sadness beat deep in his chest at the thought Fenris hadn’t been around to see it.

“We match now,” he whispered, sighing. 

He would’ve laughed, Justice muttered quietly over their shared connection.

Anders chuffed as he brushed his hair and got into bed, skipping straight to the bits that he preferred, instead of the steamy scenes. “He would have, yes. He had teased me about it when we first found those early white strands. I wish… I, I wish…” He sniffed, tears forming in his eyes.

Hush now, Justice soothed. It’ll be alright. 

Anders felt the spirit’s comfort in the core of him, and it helped as he breathed deeply, for once uninhibited by his illness. As his reading came to a close and exhaustion began creeping in, Anders found himself pausing at the last page, unwilling to turn it and close the book.

“Justice, I’m… I’m scared. Are you scared?”

Of what?

“Dying.”

Anders could practically feel the wheels of Justice’s mind turn as he thought, but the spirit’s answer surprised him when it finally came.

Strangely, I am not. In the Fade, there is no life and death. Spirits and demons simply… are. And while I know you hope that your death will return me to that state of existence, I have long hoped that it would not. Should I return as I am now, I would want. I would desire. These are dangerous things for a spirit.

But, in death, in whatever it means to fade from this existence into the next, I would not be a danger. In death, I could keep you company until we are separate beings once more. Our memories combined span more than your lifetime, a life that is well-lived at that. I would be content to retire my existence with you, knowing that good came from our being in this world.

So… no. I am not afraid. But do not feel shame that you are. It is normal, as I understand. Our children understand it. 

Anders felt his breath leave him in a rush as a kind of peace stole over him. 

“Thank you, Justice.”

The response that filled him was not words, per se, but Anders knew it to be a gesture of gratitude nonetheless. He shifted in bed, glancing out the window to see a glimpse of the clear, starry sky. It filled him with nostalgia as he thought on the many nights he’d spent staring at those stars with his lovers, and he wondered if, wherever they were, they missed him as much as he missed them.

After a few more moments, he closed the book and set it aside. He blew out the candle and settled under the covers, feeling the aches and pains from earlier return. Strangely, he welcomed the deep weariness in his bones, one of the signs of that life well lived.

The call of the Fade swelled, and he noted with some amusement that it was different tonight. He closed his eyes, and breathed deeply.

When next he opened them, it was to a familiar voice, saying, “So, mage. We did get to match after all,” while a peal of long forgotten laughter filled the air around them.

A distance away, a shimmering knight smiled, still unafraid as they winked out of existence.

#anders #fenris #hawke #non binary hawke #hayden hawke #fenhanders #papa!anders #papa!fenris #cw: death #justice #timesorcerorwrites #fenhanders week 2017

[diveronarpg]

Congratulations, SIDNEY! You’ve been accepted for the role of ROMEO. Admin Kaitlin: Whew... getting to this point has been such a whirlwind experience, but man Sid reading over the in-character portion of this app (and the out of character stuff, but especially the in) just makes me feel so all over the place, and I think that speaks volumes to just how all over the place Roman is himself at the moment. We’ve just witnessed on the dash his further devolution from the man he wants to be into the man his father wants him to be, and you play with his side of this scene so beautiful, showing all the little facets of his thought process that make him as soft as he is sharp. I know you know this, but I literally cannot wait to see your Roman on the dash, and I can’t wait to write against him. It’s going to be magical. Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Alias | Scooter Age | 22 Preferred Pronouns | She/her Activity Level | I’m here all the time, yo Timezone | EST Current/Past RP Accounts | *points at lucrezia and katarina*

IN CHARACTER

Character | Romeo / Roman Montague

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? EAT YOUR HEART: Love is a large part of the recipe of Roman Montague. He was bathed in it as a baby, weaned on it as a child, thrusted into it as a young man. Your heart is your greatest virtue. His mother said that to him once, arms wrapped tightly around his torso as she scooped him up into a towel after a bath. And for so long, he believed her. He cherished everything he touched, handled others with such care, cracked open his chest and offered up his heart like it belonged to the people. To the ones generous enough to pledge their lives to his family, to those down on their luck and less fortunate than he. Your heart is your biggest weakness. His father said that to him once, hand clasped tightly on his shoulder as tears streamed down his only son’s face. Such disappointment made a home within Damiano’s features in that moment; Roman will never forget it. And never will his actions garner such a look ever again, not if he can help it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is a constant struggle for him by any means. He made a clear decision, nearly a decade ago, to never let his heart rule him any longer. Charity remains high on his priority list, still wanting to reach out to those around him in need and lend a helping hand where he can actually make a real day-to-day difference, but with the recent destruction of To Tame A Soup, he’s disheartened by all that effort gone to waste—the safe haven he created with his bare hands now just a pile of ash and rubble. This is where I see the real struggle. What’s the point of good deeds if they can be so easily burnt away? I’m interested in whether or not Roman can find his way back to love, to generosity, to goodness, or if it’s lost forever. And what it would mean if the latter is true.

WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE: redacted

THIS IS HOW LEGENDS ARE MADE: redacted

*in the effort of not revealing the bigger group plot, I’ve taken out the last two! I’ll fill them in later on as things are discovered. :) Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | Yes.

IN DEPTH

In-Character Para Sample:

“When will you get your head out of the clouds?” His father’s tone is cruel, features twisted in the disappointment Roman knows so well. Only worn by Damiano when his son makes a decision with his heart instead of his head.

“Wanting to rebuild isn’t me having my head in the clouds. It’s strategic. The press have questions so why not give them answers? Answers we carefully construct. This terrible act was committed by one family and one family alone. Their soldier is dead—” he almost winces at the self-reminder, a flash in his mind sending him back to that night with Faron by his side, matching gun in hand. The Capulet had dropped so quickly, fell to the cobblestone like he was nothing, as if he hadn’t just been a living, breathing man. Are you next? The words echo and Roman can practically feel Faron’s hand on his shoulder, urging him to get outta there. Why had he listened to him? Why did he turn and run? He should have finished off Tiberius himself. “—but what the people don’t know won’t hurt them.“ It’s a truth he swallows uneasily, and it tastes like poison as it coats his tongue. Their ignorance will always be their saving grace, but abusing it like this will always make Roman feel like a tyrant—like he’s no better than his father. “Isn’t that what you always tell me?”

He lays his plan out, gestures wildly from where he sits on the other side of the wooden desk if only to try and make his point hit home, to make his idea seem like the good one he knows it to be. “And if it helps them at the same time, then isn’t that good? We want their favor. We’ll need them on our side.”

“And what of Measure by Measure? Can you explain to me how that is an asset? A pit of fools beating one another to death. Assurdo.“

“It was his,” is all Roman says, averting his gaze down to the floor.

“The Capulet you ki—”

“Yes.“

“Fine, then,” Damiano clears his throat as he reaches into his breast pocket, cigar appearing within his grasp as his hand fades back into view. “As long as it makes a profit, I don’t care.“

Roman is silent, lips set into a straight line as his mind wanders, drifting off to the place—the person—he was that night. What would his mother say if she could have seen him? Gun in hand as he pulled the trigger, smile curling across his face as he shifted targets. She’d be ashamed, of this he’s positive. His father had been so proud, though, clapping a hand to his son’s back approvingly the moment the news hit his ears, and dio, he’d do anything for that rush again. The silken pleasure of a father’s ever elusive praise.  

A loud crash comes from across the room, slicing through the tense silence as the door clattered against the wall behind it and a body was thrown to the floor at their feet. A familiar one. Faron Vasiliev. With a bullet in his leg, it would seen.

“What is the meaning of this, Laertes?” Damiano asks calmly, assessing the situation with a cool head, brows raised at the problem Lawrence felt the necessity to bring to his Don’s figurative doorstep.

“You want to know who put me in prison? I found him.” Gun cocked, Roman watches as his best friend aims the barrel right at one of their newest emissaries heads.

“He did what?” Blinking hard a few times, the sight before him feels unreal. Like a nightmare brought to life just to mess with the still-pliable mind of a boy king; his worst fears come true. Loyalty taken for granted, spit on by someone his father had assured him would be a profitable alliance. All he can do is listen, head in his hands as Lawrence explains. Talks about how Faron had his own idea of justice, personal feelings ruling his traitorous actions.

Roman doesn’t look back up until a question is asked, until their brand of justice is asked for.

“I’ll do whatever you think is just,” the lion says. So brave of heart it almost breaks Roman’s to see Lawrence this hungry for it. So full of bloodlust, so sure a debt is owed.

“It’s your call, Roman. One of your soldiers turned on their own. What does that heart of yours tell you now? What is just?” His father goads him, smoke billowing from his mouth as he exhales in the direction of the bloody heap on the floor. Resentment is all he feels. Toward Faron for behaving so foolishly and taking matters that aren’t his into his own hands, for pretending to have his family’s and their allies’ best interests in mind. Toward Lawrence for forcing him into this situation, for making Roman to be the judge, jury, and executioner in every way but one. Perhaps the most important.

Let me carry it out.

But it was still his order to give.  

“You,” he says, voice wavering ever so slightly, head turned toward his father. “You did this.” Roman stands, points a finger accusingly at Damiano. “You brought him here,” then points again at Faron for emphasis. “You let him get this close. This is on you."

He looks to Lawrence now, fists clenched as an all too familiar sense of betrayal consumes him, wreaking havoc on his insides, cinching his heart and wringing out any mercy left within.

"Do it. Now. Or I will.”

BANG.

Extras: Playlist

#accepted #accepted: romeo #:)

[inkwatch-blog]

Twilight Princess: A Game Stuck in Time

(AN: The following is an unproduced script for a proposed video series called BKLG (pronounced Backlog), which I unfortunately had to put on hold for the time being. It has been slightly modified to read as an article, but the writing below is perhaps a bit more conversational than it otherwise would be.)

Allow me a bold statement upfront: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess would not exist as it does today without a demo reel shown at Nintendo’s defunct trade show Spaceworld. At Spaceworld 2000, a demo reel for the upcoming Gamecube was shown to attendees to represent the graphical power of Nintendo’s new console. Twelve seconds of an unannounced Zelda game were shown and the fanbase lost it’s collective mind. IGN wrote a five paragraph essay about the clip, writing, “There's far too much detail to believe that Nintendo would scrap the models and make new ones. So, we think it's safe to say the new Link will look a lot like this. Overall, we're very happy with his new immaculate hero look.” Right.

IGN might’ve lost their minds, but behind the scenes, director Eiji Aonuma wasn’t pleased; in fact, he actually hated the design. A decade later, he told IGN it wasn’t the game he wanted to make at all. To him, it wasn’t Zelda.

So a year later, at Spaceworld 2001, Nintendo announced The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The internet revolted. This wasn’t their Zelda, they said. This was Cel-da. This was kid stuff. Where was their mature, grounded take on the series? I do wonder if that sounds like any other fanbase out there today.

Wind Waker was released in North America in 2003 to critical praise. Wikipedia has it listed on twenty-three separate Best Of lists. The HD re-release on the Wii U only gained the game further acclaim. The visuals have stood the test of the time, aging far better than similar games released around the same era.

But all of that didn’t matter. To fans, the cartoonish visuals meant the game was meant for children. As a follow up to Ocarina, its sales were disappointing, selling less than half of what the first 3D Zelda had sold. Nintendo directly attributed this slump to the reaction of fans in North America after the graphics were first shown in 2001. So, despite accidentally announcing in 2004 that an upcoming GameCube Zelda game had the working title of The Wind Waker 2, Aonuma became concerned that the game wouldn’t sell well in North America. After the game was announced at E3 2004, Shigeru Miyamoto told IGN that the art style of the new Zelda adventure was created to fulfill that customer demand created six years before Twilight Princess was even released.

So why spend a massive amount of time detailing the history of a decade old game? Because in a lot of ways, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and its HD remake, feel beholden to the demand of its fan base in a way not a lot of Zelda games are. Despite the preceding two games in the series, Wind Waker and Majora’s Mask, featuring spectacularly different play styles, Twilight Princess feels like a reimagining of 1998’s Ocarina of Time, and while this doesn’t make Twilight Princess a bad game by any means, it certainly makes it feel more derivative than any adventure game starring the Hero of Time deserves to feel.

So, in the honor of Zelda, let’s divide this into two needlessly convoluted timelines. There’s also one where I die while writing this, and it never comes out, so if you’re reading this now, please assume you aren’t in this timeline.

One.

Twilight Princess is a good game doing weird things.

Yeah, really, it is. All the fun of Zelda, right there, baked into it. It’s got some dark, goofy undertones and the game is weird as hell. The wolf segments are mostly fun, especially once you gain the freedom to turn into a wolf whenever you please. The characters are all really memorable in a way that I think is underplayed when people talk about Zelda. The Snow Yeti couple who are secretly possessed. Zant is a weird Twilight villain who is being played by Ganondorf. Colin’s storyline of overcoming the bullying and taunting of the rest of his friends makes him my favorite of the four children by far. And Midna is the best - the best - Zelda assistant ever. That’s a really low bar to clear, sorry Navi and Fi, and Tatl. Y’all can buzz off, because Midna has you beat for days. She is excellent, and never really a bother, even when she tells you something you already know.

The swordfighting in this game, particularly when fighting the Darknuts throughout the last chunk of the game, feels spectacular. I’m assuming this is less true with waggle controls on the Wii, but playing through the HD remake felt pretty spectacular. Some of the dungeon design is the best in the series - Snowpeak, for all its flaws and played out ice block puzzles, is perfectly built, and the Temple of Time’s reversal after the miniboss felt really refreshing. It also, and I cannot overstate this enough, had my favorite minigame in all of Zelda: snowboarding.

That’s not to say Twilight Princess is a perfect game. There’s plenty to nitpick - the puzzles don’t feel like puzzles! Why are half of the puzzles just shooting objects on a wall with an item! Why aren’t there more snowboarding levels! Why do half the items have almost no use outside the dungeon! Why aren’t there more snowboarding levels! Why can’t I ride the Spinner everywhere! Why aren’t there more snowboarding levels!

So instead of nitpicking on small things like, why aren’t there more snowboarding levels, let me go ahead and lay out the biggest flaw in this game, the one that everyone probably saw coming before you even clicked on this article: the opening.

Here’s how the opening tutorial for 1992’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past plays out: There’s a short cutscene before you gain control of Link. You leave bed and you grab the Lamp from the nearby chest. The guards don’t let you into the castle, so you head around to the right and you move a bush to let yourself into the dungeon of the castle. Your uncle, who has been defeated, gives you a sword and shield. Then you begin your journey through the first dungeon of the game, Hyrule Castle.

Cool. Easy. Done. Now here’s the opening tutorial for Twilight Princess: You talk to Rusl, you watch a cutscene, you run to the Ordon Spring, you talk to Ilia, you get Epona, you run through Ordon, you get to the ranch, you herd some goats in what is one of my least favorite mini-games in all of Zelda, you run back to Ordon, you talk to the kids, you talk to Uli, who can’t give you the fishing rod because she lost her cradle, then you talk to Jaggle, you summon a hawk, you shoot the hawk at a monkey, you bring the cradle back to Uli, and you get the fishing rod. From there, you go fishing, you catch a fish for the cat, you watch the cat run around town and back into the shop, where you can now get a free bottle. If you haven’t already, you run around collecting rupees until you reach the magical number of 30, in which you buy the slingshot and you show the children that you’ve bought it. Now you can re-enter your house and, would you look at that, the sword is there. The kids teach you how to use a sword. Then the kids chase a monkey into the woods. So, you summon Epona, you get the lantern, and you enter the North Faron woods on your quest to find Talo. You make your way through the woods in what is sort of similar to a dungeon, you free Talo and the monkey using your sword, and Rusl thanks you for saving Talo. Then you herd more goats - 20 this time, thanks Fado. Ilia claims that you hurt Epona or something, and she steals your horse. She’s also locked you out of the spring where she’s hidden Epona, so you sneak into the spring in a crawlspace, which triggers a cutscene, and boom, you’re a wolf stuck in prison.Technically, the wolf section is also a bit of a tutorial, but I think the point’s been made.

The opening of this game is terrible. It slows progress in the game down to a crawl right when the game should be trying to get you to sink yourself in. It takes hours to complete, and even longer if you haven’t played the game before and don’t know what you’re doing. And, in some ways, it’s indicative of a larger problem in the more modern era of Zelda games - not trusting the player to figure the game out on their own.

A quick note on the other divisive aspect of this game: tear collecting. I won’t comment much on it because it’s been talked to death and, to me, the tutorial is far more problematic in terms of game structure, but the tears fetch quest isn’t a whole lot of fun. At best, it’s inoffensive; at worst, it’s boring and yet another way to get players to put the controller down before the game reaches its second half. The HD remaster fixes the quest somewhat, lowering the required tear count from 16 to 12. It’s still cumbersome, but ending 25 percent sooner helps alleviate the negative feeling each section leaves on the player.

Two.

Twilight Princess is a good game unable to move beyond its past and its fanbase.

Majora’s Mask was released to critical acclaim, but it sold about half of Ocarina’s numbers two years earlier. Perhaps, Nintendo probably thought at the time, this had to do not with the quality of the game or what the fanbase wanted, but the required usage of the Expansion Pak and the impending launch of the GameCube.

As mentioned earlier, it was Wind Waker’s sales that scared the creative team into redirecting their efforts from a sequel to Wind Waker to an entirely new game with a new, more realistic design.

But Wind Waker’s struggles didn’t just change the art design of the new game. It ensured that the next Zelda game would be more like Ocarina of Time than both Wind Waker and Majora’s Mask, a direct sequel, ever would.

And they did it. Twilight Princess, more than any other game in the series, plays like a reimagining of a former game, in this case, Ocarina of Time. Especially in the first half of the game, both play out in incredibly similar ways, from your humble beginnings in a small village to your travels to Hyrule Castle, to the similarly themed opening dungeons, to your new companion following you around, offering advice. Majora’s Mask was a game that took chances, shook the Zelda formula up in ways no one had seen since Zelda II. Wind Waker stayed more true to the classic Zelda road, while still thinking up new ideas, from its presentation to its high seas setting. Twilight Princess is a good, safe game, seemingly designed to make sure that everyone who owned a copy of Ocarina of Time and had seen the Spaceworld 2000 demo would no longer feel disappointed about the cartoon stylings of Wind Waker.

And it worked. That feeling of nostalgia for Ocarina, combined with the success of the Wii, ensured the game would become the best-selling title in Zelda’s history, assuming you don’t include the 3DS remake of Ocarina into Ocarina’s N64 sales.

Of course, unlike Ocarina, nostalgia for Twilight Princess hasn’t fared quite as well. The game received an HD remaster in 2016, both as a 30th anniversary celebration of the series and as a pseudo-apology from Nintendo for delaying Breath of the Wild to 2017 in order to simultaneously release on the Wii U and the Switch. The HD remaster of Twilight Princess sold a little more than a million copies globally, a similar number to 2015’s forgotten spin-off, TriForce Heroes.

It took nearly another decade to get Nintendo to take more chances on changing up the Zelda formula. Ignoring the portable titles for a moment, 2011’s Twilight Princess follow up, Skyward Sword, was critically acclaimed at launch, but has, for the most part, been largely forgotten about in the five-plus years since its release. Skyward Sword often appears near the bottom of best-Zelda lists, and often doesn’t appear at all when the list is limited to ten games. That game has similar flaws to Twilight Princess, with a drawn out opening section and frustrating collect-a-thons like the music note section late into the game.

All of this is to say, I think we’re about to entire a new era of Zelda, or at least, a return to classic, pre-Ocarina of Time adventuring. Next week’s Breath of the Wild promises an open world with plenty to explore. The opening of the game seems to draw from the original and from Link to the Past far more than from Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword. What we’re looking at isn’t the end of Zelda, but the first of a new chapter.