balladetto

[balladetto]

I see myself in him

[balladetto]

you ever think about how often "night fury! GET DOWN!" would've been announcing toothless' presence amongst berkians pre-httyd and how hard that habit must've been to break even after hiccup wakes from his coma. it comes back pretty much as a joke by the time the movie ends, and i have to wonder if it really does become a running one, at least in those years where dragons and vikings were adjusting to living in the same space without constantly antagonising each other. anyway this is why gehdouun ( "get down" ) is listed as one of many humanspeak Chitterings that toothless comes to associate as a nickname,

[balladetto]

not the body sabotaging me when i finally have the time to sit and write

[balladetto]

How I miss Toothless' baby wing spots

[balladetto]

they’re besties

[balladetto]

i can appreciate toothless' development from lone dragon who was constantly out of reach and most likely felt like he had to fend for himself first even amongst his flock to dragon who values companionship from both fellow dragons and trusted humans and has grown to actively care for his flock for how it parallels ( even if only somewhat ) hiccup's own journey throughout the series, but his design going from the Inspired Reptile we see with hiccup when they first meet and bond to the extremely smooth, extremely glossy, squished-face guy thw spits out is actually unforgivable

[balladetto]

now that i've finally — if briefly — talked about how i see dragons using and understanding names, i present: compilation of the names toothless has for the most relevant people in his life ( and his threads flksdj ) including his clutchmates, troopmates, aeriemates, human companions, etc.

all names listed have legitimately been how toothless knows and refers to these people at some point in their lives, though the ones with strikethroughs are no longer used and italicised names are the most commonly used ( distinct from actual common names unless stated otherwise ). whichever name is used really depends on what the situation calls for re: what particular quality is being emphasised and/or what feeling toothless is Going Through the most at that given moment. e.g. toothless defaults to Half Of Me with hiccup, but will not hesitate to call him Stupid Thing for a time when he does something that unnecessarily risks his life for no perceived gain ( or a gain that he deems unworthy sldfkfj ).

DRAGONS

Papa → his sire.

Mama / Mama-No-More / Dam ( when met again ) → his dam.

Steals Everything / Stupid-Brave / Stupid-Scared Too / Talks Big ( when met again ) → his clutchmate.

Faster / Stupid-Scared / Talks Small ( when met again ) → his clutchmate.

Bigger / Loud / Shut Up ( when met again ) → his clutchmate.

Gem-Crowned / Vain / Loyal / Friend / Heart-Strong → troopmate known as "Stormfly".

Rock-Spewer / Soft / Kind-Witted → troopmate known as "Meatlug".

Flameskin / Reckless / Seeks Glory → troopmate known as "Hookfang".

Two-Who-Are-One / Thinks-Too-Much-and-Thinks-Too-Little / Quiet Please / Steady-and-Calm → troopmate known as "Barf and Belch".

Fourwing / Admired / Friend / Companion / Confidant → aeriemate known as "Cloudjumper".

Sea-King / Not-Alpha / Monster-King / Heartsick ( actual common name ) → flockling that used to be known as "Drago's Bewilderbeast".

New-Surprise-Wonder / Dawnrisen / Interesting / Bad Thing / Maybe-Not-Bad Thing / Mist-Weaver ( actual common name ) / Mate → mate* known as "[the] Light Fury".

Little One → sired offspring.

Calm Down → sired offspring.

Bold-Wings → sired offspring.

*categorised as such because that's what she is in the hidden world ( plus because i'm pulling this straight from an extremely old post ) but this is not and would not be blog-canon unless extensively plotted.

HUMANS

Monster / Not-Monster / Stupid-Brave / Stupid-Kind / Stupid Thing / Confusing Thing / Mischief-Threat / Interesting Thing / Tiny Wings / Friend / Companion / Trusted / Loved / Precious Thing / Mine-Wings / Half Of Me / Nest-Leader / Consort → his heart-in-another known as "Hiccup".

Monster / Not-Monster / Sun-Furred / Sun-Heart → troopmate known as "Astrid".

Not-Monster / Loud Boast / Seeks Attention / Struts Always → troopmate known as "Snotlout".

Not-Monster / Chatter / Long Chatter / Gentle Paws → troopmate known as "Fishlegs".

Not-Monster / Annoying / ANNOYING / Breathes Mischief → troopmate known as "Ruffnut".

Not-Monster / Annoying Too / ANNOYING TOO / Breathes Trouble → troopmate known as "Tuffnut".

Monster / Not-Monster / Human-King ( actual common name ) / Half's Sire → aeriemate known as "Dad".

Not-Monster / Bark-Paws ( actual common name ) → Half Of Him's flockmate/ling known as "Gobber".

Not-Monster / Dragonkin / Half's Dam → aeriemate known as "Mum/Valka".

[balladetto]

im curious can you ramble to me about toothless’s names? pretty pls with a cherry on top? - 👼

hello beloved anon whom i definitely did not ask for, of course i can! thank you for giving me the opportunity to ♡

bit of background for why toothless has so many in the first place before i begin: for dragons ( as i interpret them sldfkjf ), names are understood more as complementary titles rather than permanent identifiers because of how little sound actually matters compared to smell and ( sometimes ) even taste when it comes to "knowing" another dragon — all of which can be fluidly interchanged depending on social and situational context. no matter what name a dragon is given, their base scent will never drastically deviate from the foundation that others build their recognition on. this is obv different from soundnames, which are understood as denominations that don't change with most circumstances, though this is a concept that dragons in the wild won't appreciate as solidly as human-bonded ones do.

the more or less "casual" nature of dragon names makes it such that they are deeply rooted in sentiments and experiences of the present. don't get me wrong sldkjfd names are still important, but dragon culture operates such that unless you are a fixture in a flock or troop the way alphas, queens, and leaders are, a dragon will:

unless they live in total and utter isolation from others, always have more than one name in cycle to be referenced as. one will be a common name used by the general population to avoid confusion, the rest will be names used by those who are much more familiar with them.

not really have a choice to discard past names or refuse present names the way humans might.

usually decide on a name for another based on three factors — physical characteristics, notable achievements or personality traits, and. literally their own feelings.

i feel like i have more to say about dragons and names, but we're here for toothless', so i'll stop there sldfkdjf and even then, toothless has acquired so many over his life that i'll just. limit myself to speaking on the common names listed in his dossier!

Runt: short for "One With Smallest Everything". given by his dam upon hatching because he was the weakest of the clutch, and she wasn't really expecting him to survive past hatchling-hood. his sire named him Little One out of a lot more affection but was the only one of the nest to call him that up until he was killed, so "Runt" stuck around until he fully fledged. he hates this name.

No Teeth: short for "One With No Teeth". given by his dam when he proved her and his clutchmates wrong by surviving until fledgling-hood, though it wasn't much better than Runt given how it still emphasised a lag in his development compared to his siblings. he hates this name too, at least, before it's recontextualised as a profusion of love and trust with hiccup's soundname for him ♡

No Fear: short for "One Who Has No Fear". given collectively by the berkian flock, back when they were still under the red death's thrall. this is the name he's known by in the period immediately after he's forced to pledge to her, as the only one brave ( reckless ) enough to actively defy their queen without being completely suicidal — i.e. he still brings her food at this point because he is, ironically, still scared of her, but he also screams at her, feints shooting at her, and is a general nuisance to her whenever she deigns to rise from her roost. he's too fast, sneaky, and pitifully amusing for her to try eating him for real.

this is a name he likes because of what it stands for, but it doesn't fair much better than his previous in terms of what it means for everyone's general opinion of him.

toothless' addition to nightly raids begins making an impact on how many dragons are making it back to the nest with how he figures out which human structures to take out to minimise the strength of berk's retaliation. while this is great for survivability, it's not something a lot of dragons understand at first when their main priority is to get food and get out.

he's also half of a pair of night furies during this time — "One Who Has No Fear" and "One Who Takes Much Risk" — the other of which he names Protected. they're not quite friends in toothless' eyes because he's too damn furious ( and awkward lmao the last night fury he could truly let his guard down with was his sire, who, y'know, died years ago ) to connect, but that doesn't stop him from getting some level of attached!

Courts Danger: short for "One Who Courts Danger". also given collectively by the berkian-flock-under-the-red-death's-thrall. turns out that while one night fury who vainly defies her is amusing, two night furies bonding over defying her is something their queen can't tolerate, because Protected is eaten not too long into toothless' stay. she does it while they're both giving tributes to add extra insult, and toothless' defiance is at once tempered and shot beyond cautious into i don't care what happens to me anymore territory. he is indifferent to this name.

he is no longer in the red death's face about how much he hates her, but he also no longer pretends he respects her or her power. toothless becomes the only dragon who does not bring back food for her at this point.

where Protected might have watched his back during raids, he now refuses anyone's aid when they descend on berk and so doggedly keeps himself alone at all times that if everyone wasn't so disturbed by his lack of self-preservation, his name would have been Alone.

Human-Half: short for "One Who Has a Human For His Other Half". given collectively by the berkian flock post-hiccup liberating them but pre-hiccup becoming nest leader. it's also the common name friends and acquaintances outside of the flock will known him by. he loves this one the most, which is not surprising.

Consort: not short for anything because this is a status name! when the flock decides hiccup is Nest-Leader, as his other half, toothless is automatically upgraded to Consort. obviously hiccup and toothless don't share a usual queen/alpha-consort relationship, but nobody cares because hiccup is not a usual queen/alpha anyway. he is proud of this name mostly because of what it means for hiccup.

once he learns the more human-defined concept of "brother", he'd specify the role as consort-brother to outsiders. which doesn't make them any less confused, mind slfkdjfd

Alpha: also a status name, so not short for anything. i think it's fairly obvious how and why he's come to be known by this amongst his flock asdlkjjk not super keen on this name because he doesn't think he's fit for leading a flock, much less one as big as berk's post-httyd2, but he won't let anyone try stealing it from him when he doesn't trust anyone else to be so fit either.

if you made it this far, congrats! i can't see this meta being super relevant or important to any sort of threads i might have, but it was super delightful to finally be able to ramble about these names ♡ thank you for indulging me!!

[balladetto]

[balladetto]

#toothless: i will name you Little One because you are so cute and little #toothless: and i will name you Bold-Wings because you are very brave but you need to stop trying to follow me out of the aerie #toothless: and you...........Calm Down™ #toothless is that person who sneers at the general idea of children but in the face of his own?? :heart_eyes: [when no one's looking] #he is also :heart_eyes: [when no one's looking /too/ hard] at hiccup’s children but that’s more out of “half of me sired these!!” rather than “wow i love these children” [at first]

thinking about toothless and hatchlings again had me scouring the old blog for this post and these tags specifically because he is such the polar opposite of hiccup in this aspect, i love it flsdkfjl

human who is most likely to receive spontaneous babysitting jobs from dragons because he's proven his worth not only as a good person but also a good pretend-mama soulmated with the dragon who would be THE MOST upset at being approached with more than 0 hatchlings to look after but not being able to say no because Half Of Him said yes already ugh is so deliciously ironic

take it up a notch with human who is most likely to adopt orphaned dragon eggs and raise them to their full potential because he is such a good pretend-mama that he may as well be a real mama in name soulmated with the dragon who is even MORE THE MOST UPSET about this turn of events because THEY CAN'T EVEN GIVE THE BABIES BACK NOW but not being able to say no or stay out of the Situation™ because Half Of Him is his half so he HAS to participate as some form of pretend-papa UGHHH, and there is sitcom potential right there sfkjdl

does toothless love children / hatchlings? nO NONONO NO. does he love his own offspring? hrrrnnn no-maybe-okay-MAYBE-KIND OF DEFINITELY-yes. does he play favourites with his offspring? yes, absolutely.

[balladetto]

     Mama may be the first person he sees when he finally leaves his egg, but Papa is the first one he really hears.

     Hello, hatchling!

     Looking back on the moment when he is older, he will know to say that it is a kind voice. In all his memories, Papa always sounds warm and gentle and happier to see him than anybody in their nest — but as a just-hatched baby, it is simply the noise that makes him feel the most best. It is the voice that he crawls towards first when he pulls his paws out of shell pieces, eyes still stuck shut with egg-slime, even when Mama speaks up before he can take his second step.

     Come here, Runt.

     Little One, Papa corrects, then insists again when Mama picks him up in her jaws and puts him where the rest of her clutch has gathered to clean and mark him.

     This one is Little One.

     No Teeth~ Stupid-Brave trills for the too many-est time, and he again wants — for the too many-est time — to be able to leave this very so STUPID-bad clutch behind forever.

     NOT No Teeth, he snarls, tired of trying to outfly this teasing from his teasing-teasing-ALWAYS teasing clutchmate, and loops up high to slam into Stupid-Brave's back.

     It doesn't work. Stupid-Brave is still too much bigger than him to be hurt for real, and the failure only makes him more smug-amused-teasing. You are No Teeth because you have no teeth~!

     No!

     Yes!

     I HAVE teeth, they are HIDING.

     Hiding so good that they are not there~

     NO!

     You are No Teeth because you have no teeth~

     STOP IT!

     You are No Teeth because Mama said so~!

     UGH.

     ...Admired?

     Siiiigh. What.

     Who were you before No Fear?

     He stills. He turns from where he was cleaning himself to look at Protected strangely, because this is a weird question to ask — even for him.

     People in this nest don't seem to like thinking about things like that. Everyone is too busy trying to survive Her for another night or too sad over remembering there even WAS a before, but Protected is weird to this always-scared flock the same way HE is weird to this always-scared flock, so he doesn't get too upset about it.

     Not important who I was before, he snorts, licking a paw to rub over his head. I like being No Fear.

     Protected barks something pleased and amused. Yes! He moves closer to nuzzle into his side, so desperate to mark him with "this one that I like-like-LIKE" that he has to let him even though he doesn't want to mark him back. Yes yes good yes, Admired likes being No Fear, I like being Much Risk! No Fear and Much Risk, I like being Much Risk with No Fear~

     Protected is younger than him. He has lost more than him — and they are the only nightfallens in this monster-queen's nest. These are the only-ONLY reasons why he feels what he feels in his heart-soul as Protected crows on and on and on about being together.

     What! the gem-crowned squawks, more worried-upset-distressed for nothing than a flockmate who barely knows him should be. Do you want to DIE?

     He dives, wanting to leave. She just dives after him. Leave me alone, he hisses: half-because he finds her very so much annoying, half-because he doesn't know what the real answer would be.

     She is kind enough to not be mad about this rudeness, but not so much that she actually does what he tells her to. You are crazy!

     Leave me ALONE.

     STILL, she doesn't go. Her quills rattle in the wind as she croaks, anxious and tiny-bit-hopeful, It's okay, not too late, She will not know. Courts Danger, go back fast for food—

     No.

     No?? Go BACK—

     NO, he screams.

     WHY? she screams back. No food on purpose, no tribute on purpose, this crazy-crazy Courts Danger, She will KILL YOU!

     It is a warning that has enough weight to be a threat. Maybe even enough to be a monster: the monster that can chase him out here in the skies while the monster-queen stays rooted in Her rotten mountain. He should be scared — he knows the gem-crowned expects him to be scared — but all he can feel burning in his heart-soul now is RAGERAGERAGE. All he can think about ( and think about, and think about— ) is how loudly Protected wailed before She crushed him in Her throat.

     They are in the fog now, and the RAGERAGERAGE concentrates into a bolt he spits into the sea below them. She can TRY.

     The snapping-venoms stare at him. Then they stare at Half Of Him, then back again. Him, Half Of Him, back to him.

     THAT'S your other half? the smallest one asks. He is very confused but not very scared, because Half Of Him gave him food instead of making him steal from Him and has paws that are so good for scratching.

     Yes yes, my best Half Of Me.

     It's a MONSTER, the biggest one squeaks.

     NOT-monster, he immediately snaps. Not not NOT-monster. Human, yes, but SPECIAL. He is a person.

     They are disbelieving. They are very so much disbelieving, but it smells like good "this is amazing" disbelief rather than "you are wrong" disbelief. What! What! This human is not-monster and a person, really?!

     He chuffs, content-smug-pleased that they are so interested, and licks a "You that are mine-protected-PRECIOUS-MY Half Of Me" mark onto His head-fur. Half Of Him whines as He always does when he loves on Him like this, but He does not fight his touch in real rejection. Of course, He is Half Of ME.

     The snapping-venoms get so excited-amazed-curious that they have to crowd Him to satisfy the feeling. Half Of Him is too kind to not welcome their snouts and paws and scales ( even when some of them are not gentle enough, stupid snapping-venoms! ), but HE is perfectly NOT too kind to not immediately regret encouraging these annoying younglings.

     You not-monster human, I like you!

     You smell strange, why is your fur burnt?

     Oooh, that feels nice, yes yes yes there there—

     Human-Half, why is its fur burnt?

     Human-Half, tell him to scratch ME now!

     Get off, GET OFF you bad things, you are hurting Half Of Me, GET OFF—!

[balladetto]

showing affection / accepting / @dragetunge

CHEEK, sender kisses receiver's cheek face.

     He is nearing sleep when the touch comes, so familiar a feeling upon his scales that he can trace its shape even with his eyes closed and senses dulled with almost-rest. It looks, he is sure, like this: Half Of Him is that good warmth leaning against his neck; His paws, the strokes that know just where to go to soothe and not alarm; and that gentle pressure — special because he receives this from no one else and because He gives this to no one else — is His mouth pressed onto his snout, silly and loving and very so much human in how it means what it means.

     I love You, Half Of Him tells him with that very strange, very good pressing-of-mouth-to-scales.

     Tired, he rumbles instead of his usual response, teasing, and refuses to move beyond an ear-flap twitch in pretend-annoyance.

     Half Of Him hums, teasing as well, and does it again. Higher along the ridge of his eye, louder and pushed firmer against his head as if He is trying to mark I love You!! into even the seams of his scales. It is impossible to hold all of the joy-peace-love-Half Of Me, You are so precious that it sparks in his heart-soul this time, and it spills out of his chest in a low, long purr.

     Eyes still closed, he stirs enough to shift his hindlegs and tail, moving them to curl around his precious thing so that his flight-tail lays right over Him. It is he who says I love You then, the way a normal person would: he licks it into His paws, lets all his muscles melt into complete, relaxed trust, and warbles the warble he only gives — will only ever give — to his cherished heart-in-another.

[balladetto]

hello...! what if i said...return of the little guys mutual

[balladetto]

so! dragon nests / flocks! they’re probably super important for dragons because of all the mutual benefits they provide for all the individuals involved — ensured food, shelter, claimed + protected territory, reproductive partner, etc. — but if what valka said in httyd2 ( “every nest has [a] queen” ) and the implications of that statement are true, i think a dragon nest only forms / continues to exist in the presence of a leader.

i.e. dragons only come together as a flock if + when there’s someone willing to lead them.

i.e. berk’s newly-moved dragon nest post-httyd absolutely gets a new “queen” after its old one dies.

the dragons are probably too busy settling down and trying to peacefully interact with humans to really think about getting a new one pre-hiccup waking up from his coma but like. when everything is sort of resolved and they’re sort of settled in this very old environment with very new contexts, there comes that startling realisation of “oh fuck our old queen died what do we do now”. because even though their queen was the Absolute Worst and definitely had her fate coming, it was only under her ( forced ) rulership that they were able to nest together and now that she’s gone, they don’t??? need to do that anymore??

they don’t…need to share any territory or provide food for someone other than themself or offer care and protection to someone who isn’t their -mate or -ling. and it’s great because it’s so liberating to finally NOT have an obligation to do so but it’s also really. confusing?? nobody…wants to leave this island where food and shelter and many Nice™ accommodations are freely given to them, but they can’t all stay there together if they aren’t a nest / flock.

they could try being a really big troop together because that wouldn’t require the existence of any “official” leader ( queen / alpha ), but not all of them know or like each other enough for that and several distinct troops have already been established anyway.

so like. they’re at this weird impasse. they want to stay together as a nest but they can’t if nobody’s going to step up and bear the responsibility of leading it. and yeah — the position of queen is empty and totally up for grabs by any willing dragon, but nobody actually wants to take it because they know that after everything that went down with their old one, there is no way their flock-members will accept a queen who is anything less than perfect. i.e. the new queen will Die™ the moment they mess up and they will mess up because while everyone knows how to be a not bad queen ( just don’t be like their old one ), nobody actually knows how to be a good queen.

( the position of alpha / king is also empty but nobody even considers filling it because none of them have the strength or capacity to protect them all as they are right now and they know it. )

naturally, they all turn to the dragon who actually killed their old queen for guidance first. and toothless…toothless is a good person. he helps them in so many ways on so many levels but he. doesn’t love them. he likes them but he won’t give himself to an entire nest. the thought honestly kind of terrifies him. so yeah nah, toothless isn’t the one who answers their call.

it’s hiccup who does.

hiccup, who said I WANT TO HELP YOU where others said I WANT TO HURT YOU. hiccup, who continues defending them where others continue blaming them. hiccup, who works on making berk dragon-friendly posthaste. hiccup, who creates things and takes apart others so that they can live a little ( a lot ) easier. hiccup, who believes in them so much he helped end a war for them.

they don’t know what to make him at first because he fills the role of a queen pretty much perfectly but he’s also a human male so?? and they can’t make him their alpha until he proves he won’t immediately be crushed in the face of an actual one so??? like the decision is made and they’re all happy to pledge to hiccup as flock-subjects ( he probably just. leaves the house one day only for literally All the dragons to swarm him and pay obeisance to him and mark him with “this is our very good not-queen-nest-thing” scent-marks. when they can’t all reach him at the same time, they form many lines and he has to sit through an entire day of rubbing snouts and being nuzzled and “hey just wanna know if you guys are gonna let me go now? no, not now? no, we can’t no matter how much you want us to? okay okay okay, just checking” ) but what do they call him if not queen or alpha???

toothless jokingly licks a “this is my nest-not-troop-leader” mark onto hiccup at the end of the day and the term coined from that, “nest-leader”, sticks. the dragons now have an “official” nest-leader ( a really good one, too! ) and they can all stay together as a flock and it’s GREAT.

( non-berkian — “wild” — dragons won’t acknowledge the term because it’s not “official” like queen or alpha, which is why they act like hiccup is any other normal human when they encounter him. )

none of the vikings know about this, ofc. that becomes problematic whenever hiccup, who is a good nest-leader by accident, needs to be a good nest-leader on purpose; i.e. complete and fulfil his duties and responsibilities as nest-leader, which is kind of hard to do when he doesn’t actually know he’s the hecking nest-leader lmao.

this is where toothless comes in! as the acknowledged and respected half of hiccup, toothless is his consort(-brother) when it comes to leading the nest and acts as hiccup’s “representative”, so to say. he’s the one who deals with the small issues and brings any ones he can’t handle by himself to hiccup’s attention. there’s a lot more depth to both of their statuses than just that but i’m so tired rn and this post is getting too long so tl;dr:

hiccup is unwittingly made the new ruler of berk’s dragon nest post-httyd ( at least until toothless takes over post-httyd2 )

toothless helps hiccup with leadership duties and shit but he’s not the one the dragons ultimately defer to and love Very Much

[balladetto]

ʏᴏᴜ'ᴅ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʜᴜʀᴛ ᴍᴇ 𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 🇾​​🇴​​🇺​❜​🇷​​🇪​ ​🇲​​🇾​ ​🇧​​🇪​​🇸​​🇹​ ​🇫​​🇷​​🇮​​🇪​​🇳​​🇩​ ​🇧​​🇺​​🇩​ 𝙈𝙮 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 CANON DIVERGENT HICCUP & TOOTHLESS FLOWN TOGETHER BY: KRIS (@dragetunge) && RAY (@balladetto )

[balladetto]

     He doesn't realise how long it's been since he's seen his reflection in full until it happens.

     Link catches glimpses, sometimes. Has been catching more of them the less hard it becomes to connect a thought to an act: in the cups of tea he's beginning to hold again, along the polished edges of Granny Thera's plates when she guides his fingers around spoon handles, outlined by the fixed shadow he casts when Verley sits the both of them down by the hearth. On the days where Link's head doesn't feel so much like a sheet of glass all fogged up, he can see these flashes of what must be him in everyone's eyes, too. It's an image he's been trying to piece together longer than anyone knows.

     Peering back at him from the sun-washed waters of the village pond, marred by endless ripples, it's an image he finds he can't recognise.

     This should bother him, some faded, isolated part of him thinks. Then the idea twists into something that feels easier to touch: should this bother him? Link traces the blank face coloured paler than he thinks he's ever remembered it, observes the dull flatness of the overgrown hair. There are hollows in the water where those eyes have sunken in. Those narrow shoulders are hunched lower than he feels they are. Beside this mess of pieces stands Granny Thera's reflection, gently holding its hand.

     Something within his chest aches, suddenly; sharp, and cold, and distantly familiar.

     It knocks him back into her side with a choked gasp, fingers squeezing tight and eyes snapping shut. The shape lingers on his eyelids, warping at the seams, and he compulsively pushes a palm against them in an attempt to chase it away. A whimper rolls in his throat because it hurts, and it keeps hurting even when Granny Thera tugs that hand off to pull him into a hug.

     "Oh, dearie," she frets. "Dearie, what's the matter?"

     Link shakes his head against her collarbone and grabs fistfuls of her shawl. Nothing. Everything. I don't know. I don't know who that is. The awful feeling beneath his sternum builds and builds and builds: the words sit somewhere he can't reach them, somewhere he can't reach any of them, the way memories of the experienced Before have been slipping through his grasp. I don't know who that is. I don't know who that is.

     Suspended as he is, he doesn't register moving. Isn't aware of stumbling along Granny Thera's shuffling steps as she leads him back the way they came. He is following a thread his body can't remember how to put down, afloat in that crushing current — then the quiet of his home, thick and stagnant, cuts through the echo of the pond's purling. The sun leaves. The smell of something staler than everything beyond these walls returns. Link swallows, and feels the work that takes.

     The thread snaps.

     Here, where he can only see himself mirrored in half-fractions, the calm is muffling. Thoughts of things lost, of things taken, of things he can't comprehend — the overwhelming too much of it all wanes against the soft comfort of apathy that blankets him once more.

     "We'll try again next time," Granny Thera murmurs as she runs a tender hand through his hair, patting a rhythm that he breathes to on his back. She carefully sits them on his bed.

     Link leans his head on her shoulder. He closes his eyes.

     He wants, with all that is still able to want, to apologise.

[balladetto]

briefly mentioned this before, but had this tidbit written down elsewhere and wanted to place it here as well for clarification: linh was born half-hylian and half-komo, of whom are a portion of the Indigenous Peoples of new hyrule. he has smaller ears and more spiritual ( rather than magical ) ability than most hylians because of this

while not a complete stranger to komo customs or knowledge, he was raised by niko from a young age, so he's more familiar with hylian culture

named linh at birth, given "link" when taken in by niko due to the language barrier at the time

his spirit sight is such that he can perceive the otherworldly without needing specialised magic or an enchanted item. this includes spirits, deities ( a little more authentically than most mortals might perceive them ), auras if they're particularly bright, and right through some veiling spells if he concentrates hard enough!