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Drafts that were cut from my posted stories ---

“Okay, everyone! Training Day!” Warriors announced gleefully as soon as Time gave him the go-ahead.

“Noo!”

“Are we still doing those?”

“Ugh! I just managed to forget we did this!”

“Whoever does the best will earn a week off of midnight watches.” Time offered almost too quietly to catch.

“Hah! I have just the thing to work on!” Legend bragged, throwing a grin to everyone in challenge. Warriors simply scoffed, daring him with his own grin.

“I call Linkle as my partner!” Four called out, already looping an arm into hers. She seemed a little intimidated by everyone’s responses, taking Four’s hold without a firm grip for comfort.

“No way, you had her for your own almost the entire time we were in your era!” Hyrule laughed back, offering a polite hand for her to take. She smiled back easily, but her eyes flickered to everyone in her nerves. Warriors hoped she didn’t feel unsafe. It was a good thing they could afford time to spar, so hopefully she could get comfortable with them.

“Warriors and I will be partnering with Linkle.” Time announced before anyone else could add themselves to that argument. “We need to see for ourselves the sort of skills she has and then we’ll run through some drills with everyone.”

“Honestly, we should have done this a while ago.” Warriors admitted as he stretched his arms out and began to warm up.

“Why didn’t you?” Linkle asked, arm still holding onto Four’s as he made faces to Time.

“I, er, may have been a bit more sore from my last spar to be able to participate.” He said sheepishly while rolled said muscles.

Linkle looked surprised, her eyes flicking to his exact aches almost too quick to notice.

Warriors knew all too well that his spar with Wild had left his shoulders and neck a little more tender than he let the others think. After all, the man had all but forced him to use his shield to take on more weight than he was used to blocking. Not to mention the frantic flailing he had done near the end that ended up stretching out his arms more than he normally did. Queen Zelda may have offered him fantastic healing services, but waking up the next day had felt horrible. The lingering soreness was settled so deeply in his joints that it lasted longer than he expected.

Time had been quick to notice. It seemed Linkle may have caught on too from the time she joined them. He knew she was pretty clever.

“Alright, sounds fun.” She tried to smile, but still looked rather nervous. “Just so you know though, I don’t know how to, um, spar? With, people?”

Other than Wind’s quiet scoff, everyone else made sounds of encouragement. Warriors decided that she had to be lying. The fun part would be figuring out what exactly she was lying about.

“That’s alright. The main point is that none of this is supposed to leave us injured. It’s practice. Since we don’t have any dulled weapons, we normally just avoid aiming at each other and work on footwork, grip, or practice forms.” Sky soothed. Linkle’s ears still flickered a little lower as she looked at them.

“A nice definition, and accurate enough.” Time hummed as he shooed Four away. He left with a pout, but let Hyrule claim him as his partner without any fuss.

“Go on, guys. Time and I will call teams after you guys get warmed up.” Warriors added before fixing his attention on the girl that could be his cousin in another time. He noted her loose stance, and the ease she had with the crossbows clipped onto her sides in a similar fashion to his own Linkle’s. “You’re pretty accurate with those crossbows, but you’ve never used them before we met, right? What sort of weapons do you normally keep on you?”

Linkle’s expression lit up, glowing in a way he wasn’t expecting.

“Oh, I had so many things!” She laughed with pride. “I’ve used Zora swords and Goron hammers! There are so many shields that monsters make, and Rito are expert craftsmen of all sorts of bows and arrows! I love how the Gerudo create accessories I can use to help with terrain disadvantages, and you wouldn’t believe how much stuff the Hylians themselves forged that could be taken into battle! Anything from the humble ladle to the royal weapons of the Crown, I’ve used in battle. Even the ancient weaponry of long lost Sheikah tech were scrounged up and used in fights I’ve gotten into. I love all sorts of weapons, and there’s hardly anything I haven’t used before!”

No wonder her and Four were so close. She was a weapon connoisseur. How did she keep that many weapons on her? Or was losing things something she did regularly?

“Oh yeah? What about a stick?” Wind threw out before Legend pushed his head down with a heavy hand. Warriors was getting really annoyed by the kid’s poor attitude. He had half a mind to ask Time if he could throw him into a pseudo boot camp as an attitude adjustment, but Linkle usually just laughed. Like now.

“Oh, yeah! That’s gotta be one of the first things I’ve ever used! Haha! Barely outside for the first time on my own, and I’ve got a stick as soon as I could find one and I stumble upon a bokoblin not even ten minutes later. Hah!”

“Oh, your poor parents.” Twilight hummed in sympathy. Linkle snorted, but didn’t deny the implication that she was most likely a mess of a child. Warriors grinned, unable to help but see Wild in Linkle. As well as his own Linkle. They were all pretty similar, actually. He was willing to bet Time was even more of a headache before he had met him as a child.

“What are you best with?” Warriors asked, trying to get her back to where he was trying to learn about her specialties.

“I’d say, er, projectiles I suppose. I have the most control of those, as well as accuracy. When I’m using other weapons, especially short ranged ones, I tend to react on instinct rather than intent.”

“That explains your teeth gnashing. Sometimes I wonder if you would go so far as to bite any monsters with your teeth if you were close enough.” Legend called out as he wrangled Wind further away.

“Oh, hey, that’s an idea.” Linkle grinned widely at Legend. The other man grimaced, eyes flat as he pointed at her in reprimand.

“Oh, hey, how about not.”

“Anything you feel you’re not good at?” Time wondered, subtly placing himself between her and the others as they spread out to find space for their warm ups.

“Hm… Magic. I’ve seen you and Hyrule, and I don’t think I have any affinity for it at all.”

“Not even if it’s from items?” Time wondered.

“I can’t say I’ve ever had the opportunity.”

“Who trained you?” Warriors wondered, doing his best to not sound so overbearing. Linkle didn’t seem uncomfortable with the interrogation, but she was glancing at the others every so often as they started to take out their weapons.

“Oh,uh, no one? I just, picked stuff up in my travels.” Time and Warriors both stared at her, shared a glance between themselves, and looked back at her.

“What.” Time deadpanned.

“You mean there just happens to be random Zora swords and monster shields lying all around Hyrule Field for you to just pick up?”

“Yes.” She nodded, looking at him like he was the strange one for questioning her.

“Are you saying you have never had any formal training for any of your weapons?” Time added, looking more pained by the idea than Warriors had ever seen him.

“Have you?”

“Yes.” Warriors answered heartfully.

“...I suppose, some of them I may not have.” Time admitted.

“You both hurt me.” Warriors groaned. “Linkle, that’s a very wide array of weapons for you to not have sought out professional instruction. I can’t even imagine how much time you need to take out for maintenance, let alone just the time it takes to dedicate for even a fraction of proficiency to your-“

Wild often broke his weapons. He scavenged them from monsters, of all things, and used them for fight after fight without showing a hint of checking for wear or strain before they broke on him and he simply abandoned them for the next one he picked up off the road.

Linkle didn’t pick up monster weapons. She was very dedicated to following Twilight’s instruction on how to clean and check her crossbows after he showed her how to do so. But, with how intently she had watched him, it was like the very process of after use care for a weapon was new to her, rather than just the nomenclature of a crossbow being serviced.

Warriors was reminded that Linkle was from an era similar to Wild’s, possibly right after.

Was it possible that an era as thoroughly ravaged by a calamity of rage to have forgotten not only history, but the simple things as knowing and respecting the very weapons that save your life?

He coughed into his palm, cutting himself off in voice and thought.

“Well, anyway. I’m glad your crossbows are a good fit.” None of this was Linkle’s, or Wild’s, fault. He didn’t want to give her the impression that it was. “Other than bows and the like, what else do you gravitate to?”

“Hm...” Linkle tried to think, and so missed Time’s curious expression to him. Warriors shook his head, knowing the other man would bother him about it later regardless. Nosey brat. “Probably... Poles? Like spears, or tridents? Things I can swing, if I can’t throw them.”

“Alright...” Warriors hummed as he knelt down to dig through his pack. It was mostly tidied, but he was certain he had kept some things he meant to use the next time he saw the blacksmith. “Aha!” The Dragonbone Pike was taken out and presented to Linkle without delay.

She took it with wide eyes, slowly lifting it higher to inspect.

“How long have you been holding onto that?” Time wondered.

“Eh.” He shrugged before realizing that Linkle was still staring at the weapon. “You alright? It can’t be too different than the normal staff weapons you use, is it?”

“What bone is this made from?” She whispered.

“Bone?” Time echoed with slight alarm.

“Er, dragon, presumably? It’s called the Dragonbone Pike.”

“It’s glorious.” She breathed in awe, spinning it around as she looked at the binding.

Warriors snorted, making a mental note to not include Linkle or Four in his inventory checks. Or Wild. Didn’t that one start out with a large bone of a weapon when he joined them? It hadn’t seemed refined in any way, looking more like a club than a blade of any type.

Maybe it was a Calamity Era thing.

“Come on, Linkle, show me your stuff.” Linkle blinked, eyeing him and Time before twirling the spear in her hands with a graceful ease  that he hadn’t seen before.

“I suppose that’s what you want, right?” She spun her weapon into a blur, flicking it up into the air as she crouched down and catching it without looking into a ready position. “I don’t know what exactly you want me to show you, but I’ll fight you the way I’ve learned with this monster weapon.”

“Hm...” Time stepped up, reaching out to keep him where he was when he tried to step away to let him have at her first. “Think you can track both of us at once?” Warriors would have argued, not wanting to go too hard on her so early, but Linkle’s eyes lit up at the challenge.

“Let me know if I hit you too hard!” She grinned before giving out a familiar sounding bark and hopping back to land with her feet too wide and her arms spread out. She shifted her body with slight twitches, her head turning so that she kept more of one eye on the then both. Her weapon was held loosely, but before each little hop she made she would twirl it with deft speed.

Time charged at her while Warriors was too taken aback by the sudden shift of her stance. With croaks and barks, Linkle blocked Time and retaliated. She dodged and was quick to slip into different areas of Time’s focus. She kept lower than necessary, and stared with a smile that showed just a little too many teeth.

She was imitating a lizalfos.

Warriors was taken off guard when she decided to change her focus from Time to him, but that was entirely his own fault.

Linkle fought like Wild, in the sense that different weapons gave her a different mindset depending on what it was. There were fighting styles, and then there was this. What sort of people were there in Wild’s time? What sort of survivors were they? Were they all able to hold their own against the monsters of their lands? Were they all as capable as Wild?

Was... Was his instruction even necessary to her?

“Warriors!” Time warned just before Linkle pushed him off her weapon they had been locked.

Attention snapping back, Warriors shifted his sword in hand and barely blocked the swing towards his hips. The power behind Linkle’s swing rang through his hand to his shoulder as well as in the air with a loud clack. He regretted the hasty shift in his grip as his arm warned him of strain and numbness.

He still went in for a flurry that made Linkle back up even though her coarse laughter was more amused than worried.

Still, Linkle stared, posture never faltering as she kept on the balls of her feet and seemed to slide between him and Time with teasing monster cries. In one moment, she was next to them, as if trying to slip into their guard. In the next, she was right in front of them, spinning herself as she stuck out her pike to trip them with the butt end; using it as if she had a tail.

Time backflipped out of the way easily, arm coming up as if he had his shield and ready for a sneak attack. Warriors was a fraction too slow, and ended up getting the heel of his boot caught

It was a good thing Linkle understood how to be nonlethal. Warriors could feel his back throbbing as he landed, fully aware that if she used the spear tip as intended he and Time would be grievously injured. He groaned as his back muscles locked up and angrily told him that he had not been properly warmed up for this spar.

“Linkle, I think you hit me too hard.” He croaked as he relaxed his grip on his sword with difficulty.

One would think he would learn his lesson after Wild.

“Are you alright?”

“Can you stand?”

Warriors offered a pained grin as Linkle and Time stood over him. Linkle looked sorry and guilty in her approach before she settled the borrowed pole arm next to him in return. Time looked worried enough that Warriors could already guess he was going to be sitting out the rest of the training day.

Dammit.

He had just convinced the man that he was fine, too.

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BotW Tulin deserves his own adventure

I love little baby Rito, and I was struck once again by an idea

Rito Village is heartbreakingly small, but after Calamity Ganon is defeated and the borders of Hyrule finally being open to their neighbors once again, Rito from far away have begun to travel again to find any remaining family

Since the defeat of Calamity Ganon, rumors have spread of the Queen of Hyrule being the one to finally return to free her people from their oppression after a lifetime of prayer. A counter rumor has begun that says the Champion of Hyrule, once fallen 100 years ago, has in fact returned to succeed where he had failed before. Further rumors of the other Champion have also evolved, but nothing has come out of any of them

Tulin is mostly worried for Link, who hasn't been by in months

A new flock of Rito have arrived to the village, a cause of celebration. With this flock is a 'feral' Rito who grew up without a flock but is otherwise kind and willing to engage with everyone as he learns about not only the customs of the flock that found and adopted him, but also these new customs to Hyrule's Rito Village

Tulin is curious but also intimidated by the influx of new Rito

Kass is most intrigued because this feral Rito actually breaks a few different traditions with his mixed interest in not only warrior training but also music. Not because these traditions are usually gender oriented, but because of the way he knows them. - when singing, this Rito dances in unusual and moving ways that are less about flashing his plumage for enforced or hidden meanings related to traditional emotions, but as a way to let his entire body tell a tale that strengthens his words. At a glance, it's amateurish, but looking deeper into his actions reveals so much more truth, almost sage-like clairvoyance - when fighting, this Rito is frighteningly proficient in not only weapon capability, but also in ways that use a terrain usually reserved for greater generals or strategists the likes of which was last known in Revali and historical figures

Molli is offended that all of his skills do not translate to instrumental skills in any way

Usually bright in color, all of the Rito are unsure what to make of this dull feathered Rito, though his character and mannerism are more than bright enough to make one forget his brown and simple speckled plumage until startled by the realization once again. He is, thankfully, unbothered, easily pointing out Teba and Harth even though his feathers camouflage him all too easily

Then the Feral Rito, name going between Apple, which he has chosen, and Kweiru, which was more properly Rito chosen by the flock that found him, makes a comment that makes Tulin wonder if he could just go find Link if his Hylian brother wasn't going to come to him

This causes the entirety of the Rito Village and the New Flock to panic as the Feral Rito disappears with the entirety of the younger rito fledglings

Tulin and the other kids all bring the Feral Rito out to play, or so they say. Once they leave the village, they keep walking further and further away, until they finally reveal their plan to have this new Rito protect them as they search for Tulin's missing brother

The Feral Rito is distressed. Very very distressed and impressed by the ingenuity that pretty much kidnapped him, but also completely worried about retribution against him because even though he has been kidnapped, literally no one would believe him over the 7+ kids forcing him to act as their bodyguard as they run away in solidarity to find their honorary Flock Mate

(The Feral Rito is extra distressed, because he had no idea about this brother of Tulin's, and he fears the missing Rito was not actually missing and Tulin was only told as much because of the finality of death being hard for kids to understand)

The fledglings are rendered speechless to realize their new wild guide can find diamonds and throw them away in the span of 5 minutes

Food cooked by this Feral Rito is either mouthwateringly delicious or nauseatingly scary because apparently the guy has no dependable taste buds

During their road trip, the fledglings learn Rito history with each prophetic song or dance their guide offers as a bedtime ritual, and then they have to teach him something about Everyday Rito Facts, because he just doesn't know

It takes a week before the Feral Rito gives up on being caught and then he really starts to teach the fledglings how to travel the wild land of Hyrule

By some point, none of the fledglings are surprised to realize they have all learned the beginnings of Revali's Gale, and by the end of their journey, all of them are confident in the name they call their Feral Rito, because turns out he has been cursed until his name was given back to him

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Harry Potter Story Themes

If I were to get back into HP, it would mostly be for the sake of Naruto Crossovers

Harry would be an Animagus

Naruto would def be demanding to learn how to become an Animagus

Summoning Animals would be witch/wizard familiars

(The traditional types of animals being a cat, rat, or toad, would be a very recent developments with the rest of the Contracts from the Summoning Realm being faded into myth)

Familiars do not die, so much as get banished to the Summoning Realm unable to return to the Wizarding World again

Hedwig Lives. She is on her way to becoming the next Monarch of her Parliament

Wizard World and Ninja World coexist on different planes, but Harry would of course stumble into it because of Shenanigans

CRA (Clan Restoration Act) is such a convenient fan concept, I love it and the idea of absolutely no one agreeing with it in the Ninja Community but no one can quite manage to get rid of it because of bureaucracy

A few other thoughts on Harry Potter

the boy would absolutely have a messed up occlumency shield because of his nontraditional introduction and training

this can easily lead to memory problems

If Harry finds himself suddenly in the Elemental Nations, Hermione and Ron would 1000% be hunting down a way to break down magical laws and Laws to reunite with him

And Luna too, just because I think she'd like the chance to see what Harry has found

A few more thoughts on Naruto

I love this kid, and because he is a 'Chosen One' magic would absolutely not be allowed to mess with this kid unless one wanted CONSEQUENCES

Ages are so weird. Can I find Itachi a friend outside of the Uchiha? Like, say, Hana (Kiba's older sister)

Clans are so weird. Wouldn't there be more cooperation not just between clans but actual families because of the way teams are raised? I wanna see more of that

Oh no, what do I do if I never watched past the first few episodes of Shippuden?

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Sidon woke with alarm, the barest thread of control preventing him from calling out in panic. A dream. A nightmare. Untrue, no matter the content. Sidon, took a few more deep centering breaths before he could feel himself unflex his jaws. Link, a Zora? A fanciful wish, of course. Not even a new one for him to imagine, guiltily. Even if he were a Zora, Sidon certainly wouldn't fail to prevent the man from drowning. Not that quickly, nor when that close. Link was prone to disappearing for long bouts of time. He often changed his appearance to suit his needs and frequently involved himself in the problems of any who needed aid. Qualities to be proud of, but still cause for worry all the same. Sidon hoped, shaking the strange dream away as he stood, that Link would visit soon. If only so he could see with his own eyes, that the man he cherished was well and happy.

-unedited excerpt from my untitled fic

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Zelda Story themes

Been on a binge of LinkxSidon, and now I'm just thinking about Zora Culture

Baby Zoras are called Tadpoles, and nothing will change my mind about this

Zora are not mammals that need milk, but Tadpoes do need to suckle like little vampires that chew on the edges of scales until they can taste blood. This is done to take on the traits of their parents, and usually not something meant to be seen in public because family bonding time is sacred. Also, the longer tadpoles suckle, the more delayed their aging; the price of family likeness

Common Zora do not tend to let their tadpoles suckle past the first family trait to develop such as eye color or scale pattern. Royal Zora usually allow their children to suckle until they feel like stopping, which can take two or three years, an obnoxiously long time compared to the traditional First Week

In acknowledging SS, Zora didn't always suckle, but they started to track family likeness with the royal family, chosen by Faron, and further continued until they began to show more bipedal forms. Then common Zora also began to adopt this tradition as a means of tracking their own family lines. This is the reason for having so many different types of fish attributes

Ocean and River Zoras still exist in the same timeline for BotW. They are not aware of each other because of the perilous history of the Great Sea forcing them to either adapt, relocate, or die. Some adapted (into Rito), the others relocated in various pods that either lived in freshwater or salt water, and this difference led them to think the other groups died off because they had seen what not relocating had done to their families

Affection is both freely given as well as culturally rationed for Very Specific Circumstances

Sidon showers Link with enough affection that he may as well be declaring his wish to marry, but because Link neither seems to recognize nor say no thanks, he is left in this nebulous place of not quite rejection where he is free to continue to love his Most Dearest of Friends even though said friend has never and does not seem to ever be able to reciprocate

The Windfish was the same type of guardian as Lord Jabu Jabu, Jabun, Oshus, and Levius. I declare them Jalevaiya, for reasons I forget but I'm sure was a mashspelling of Jabu and Vale in Latin (as Goodbye) mixed with Laviathan. I guess?

Jalevaiya are meant to guide the Royal Family by offering holy attributes for their tadpoles to take on, gifting them with their large size, proficiency in magic, and strong charisma. They would have no other connection to Hylia otherwise, as well.

Sidon and the rest of the Zora in Hyrule are River Zora and therefore limited to living in fresh water spaces. The species they are most genetically alike to help with their ability to stand salt water, but they ultimately can not live in the ocean. This makes them slightly inbred with most of their distinct scale patterns blurred and faded. Ocean Zora, on the other hand, have retained their scale stripes and spots, as well as the slightest of bioluminescence due to the very nature of needing to use such traits in the depths of the ocean

I want Link to be an Ocean Zora

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Pokemon Story themes

Just letting it known that these are a few of my most sticky of story ideas:

Akari as MC in PLA

Akari is Dawn, through a confusing mistranslation of her name Hikari with nonfluent Professor Laventon reading her written name wrong. Still, the mistake just remains an affectionate truth rather than an embarrassing error to be corrected

Ingo as dad, not just uncle

Ingo remembering actual faces and events, compared to Akari's feelings and background scents to the impressions of people or pokemon or places

Arceus is pronounced 'Are See Us' not 'Are Key Us' -- Therefore, a lovely nickname for Them would be Cece ^.^

Angst is a favorite flavor in any of my stories, so

I have a story in the works, but I just needed to share it somewhere