#{ the way I can see the Zora using this to their advantage would be so cool }

[vahrutasgrace]

¯`°¤.¸.¤ ¯`°¤.-- ♕ II Water has memory.

Definition: Water memory is the purported ability of water to retain a memory of substances previously dissolved in it even after an arbitrary number of serial dilutions. With this in mind, water reacts to signals from its environment and stores information.

The Zora, especially ones as strong as the royal family or have meditated and trained for many years, can harness water's memory. Water is a powerful substance that allows its molecules to be used to heal wounds or can give clues to the wellness of the environment around them. For example, Sidon could sense the water's pain in Tears of the Kingdom, saying that the domain would suffer if the sludge managed to make its way down the waterfall. The water's wellbeing can affect the Zora directly.

Mipha can sense the age of water she touches and meditates in, and can often be found meditating in the local lakes so as to gain a stronger connection. It is the Zora's way of speaking with their ancestors, even if the water can not outright answer them. The magic coursing through a Zora's veins if they concentrate enough, can be enough to give them the guidance they need; something that Mipha strongly believes in.

When Mipha met her end, her body was submerged in water at the top of what later becomes Mipha's Court; her final resting place. If someone was practiced enough to understand water's properties and the memory it can hold, they may be able to sense her presence within its streams...

[bowandcurtsey]

Hi sweetheart thank you for requesting this! <3 I'm sorry it took so long but Merry Christmas!!

Also I love this request, it's kinda new for me although yes I do get turned on by voices and dirty talks („ಡωಡ„)

brb cause i'm feeling the heat writing this piece. Characters: Yami, Zora, Magna x f! reader tw: nsfw, dirty talking, maybe degrading, minors dni, unchecked works

Yami Sukehiro

This man is the king of dirty talking. Yea, all that man does is talk shit in his fucking sexy low gruffy voice.

But he knows he's good at it. He knows his effect one you. And boy is he going to use it to his advantage in bed all the time, he won't stop from the start till the end.

One moment he's taunting you, "oh, can't get enough of me, princess?" "you're clenching onto me so tightly" "I just got in and you're cumming? again?"

The next moment he's all praises like he's so drunk on you, "fuck, what a pretty angel." "good girl taking me so well now,"

But whatever he says he can feel your hungry and weeping cunt swallowing whatever he's thrusting into you. He loves it and absolutely gets on from it.

When Yami's mad at you, boy oh boy you gotta get ready for a little degrading, girl.

"does ____ know you get all wet like this for me? You pussy is leaking just from me touching you like this?"

"So you wanna show everyone how slutty you can be, princess? Better be able to take it."

The fact that he could make you a hot wet mess, and the fact that you want to hear him praise, tease or scold you, and how you cum oh so hard from all of this, he's fucking intoxicated with just the idea of it. And let's face it, he's a hot mess for you too. ;)

Zora Ideale

Can't say anything nice and sometimes it ticks you off but he's just so fucking good at it you can't help but just be a good girl for him.

"Cumming already? my girl so needy huh?"

Slows down just as you're reaching your high and just shrugs, "hmm? the nights still early babe."

Keeps you waiting because he loves it when you get annoyed but then your desires get over you and you whine just for him.

"wanna cum?" "you know i love it when you bite that lower lip,"

"tell me, what you want, in your big girl words,"

and then he finally lets you cum, and you jolt from the wave of euphoria, he loves watching you roll your eyes and curse at him.

"i got you baby, I got you,"

And that won't be the end.

Loves edging you on because he absolutely knows his power over you. His mission is to make you cum multiple times until you squirt.

"one more baby, one more for me, wanna see you squirt all over me," he would lick the shell of your ear while pounding into you.

he's just so annoying but yet your body just reacts to him and you just reach your high again and again.

Magna Swing

Doesn't look like it but he likes to whisper dirty things in your ear at random times of the day.

But oh his moans and groans are so fucking sexy. You make him feel so good and he doesn't hide the way you intoxicate him.

"fuck baby, you're so tight fr me..." his words would slur and his tone goes one tone lower.

he whimpers a little when you go down on him, "hngg.. my good girl.."

he loves being in a position that he can be close to your ears and he says all the filth because he knows how much you like it.

he would be behind you, thrusting into you, "moan louder baby, i love it when you moan for me."

"yea? that feels good huh? you want more?"

"go on, cum on my dick, milk me baby."

and whenever you cum, he goes into a frenzy.

"hnngg, so good huh? mhmm, so tight, so fucking tight, my good girl..." he would go into a low growl.

he has great stamina as well, and would keep asking you to go for rounds.

"you say you can't, but you're already clenching on me again, love." he would press kisses to your shoulders and neck.

"one more? you can do it baby, my good angel. one more."

of course you would, with the way his voice melts you, how can you not?

[l1ve-l4ugh-lov3craft]

HI I'M BACK WITH A RANT ON ZORA'S DOMAIN

By popular demand (and by "popular demand, I mean @justagirlsming asked a singular time and I took that personally), I am submitting my thoughts on Zora's Domain for the council's consideration! I hope you enjoy this madness, let's get into it:

STARTING OFF STRONG WITH THE PREFACE THAT THE DOMAIN WOULD NOT BE NEARLY AS IMMACULATE A DEFENSE IF ANY OTHER RACE BUT THE ZORA LIVED THERE. But it's okay cos the Zora DO live there, so it's all fine :) I just needed to make it known

Starting off strong with the actual location of the Domain cos *chef's kiss* fabulous

It's surrounded on two sides buy these massive freakin cliffs, and not only that, but they're made of that smooth, glassy blue rock that the Domain is made out of, making that SUPER hard to climb even if you did think you could try and come at the Zora from above. ALSO on the other side are yet more cliffs AND the East reservoir with almost the same problems for enemies as the other cliffs around the domain, except now you have the added issue of the MASSIVE BODY OF WATER to avoid XD

So really, the only feasible way to get to Zora's Domain would be through the main path Link takes in botw

BUT! This path is almost entirely in the Zora's favour and here's why:

First of all, ANYONE who has played the game knows how hard it is to get to the Domain on foot and how windy and confusing it is! The best option for a group of invaders would probably be to cut through here to make it just a bit easier

but even that poses an issue because it's all uphill, so really there's not many good options here.

I DID FORGET TO MENTION! Really, the Zora's only big enemies in Hyrule at present are the Lizalfos and they're pretty agile creatures, but luckily there's not many of them close enough to Zora's domain to pose much of a threat (at least, there's less Lizalfos than Zora I think)

Once the enemies get through that first part of the path to the domain to Oren Bridge though is when things begin to turn more in the Zora's favour.

If there ever were to be an attack on Zora's Domain, it most likely would not be very big purely because of the way you would have to try and get into the Domain in the first place. SO bottlenecking isn't a huge advantage, but it is definitely there nonetheless. ALSO, that entire path is just one huge mass of switchbacks and tight turns which would slow down enemies considerably.

Now, the bridges are where the Zora have the biggest advantage. We see in botw that they don't need those AT ALL cos of how Sidon follows Link in the river as he's travelling there. HOWEVER, the Lizalfos and anyone else trying to attack very much do.

"But the Lizalfos can swim, Nico! They don't need the bridges!!" You may be right, Theoretical Voice Of The People I Made Up For This Situation, BUT! Imagine you are an enemy on your way to invade Zora's Domain. If you see a perfectly working bridge, you're gonna use it rather than swim, aren't you?

This leaves the PERFECT opportunity for Zora forces to hide in the water and attack you from afar down in the water, or even (and this one's my favourite) destroy the bridge completely to knock anyone on it into the water to either be swept away in the current or picked off by Zora warriors in the water who, literally being in their element, are going to completely overpower you.

Aaaaaand if that doesn't work at Oren Bridge, the Zora can VERY easily swim upriver at Luto's Crossing (which is MUCH higher up and would deal a lot more damage if you fell from it), or even the Great Zora Bridge as a last ditch effort and just repeat the tactic over again :) Very devastating.

I'm ALWAYS here to give fair and unbiased assessments of defensible architecture though, so let's explore ALL sides and say the enemies made it past Luto's Crossing and went this way

What then???

Well, let's have a look at the Domain up close. It has this ring of walls around it that look very much like ramparts

and so, in the event that enemies did manage to come at them from around the domain, they have a relatively well covered spots to return fire. And in the event that the enemy destroys them (and, let's be honest, if it's the Lizalfos, they won't think that far ahead), oh noooooo they fall into water...How sad for absolutely no Zora ever. The walls also can be a liability though and we'll talk about that in a sec

SHOULD enemies make it into Zora's Domain, there are good things and there are bad things. I'll start with the bad things to get them out of the way first.

The BIGGEST one is that hell forsaken fish statue.

With just a bit of pre-planning, if enemies were able to keep the battle mostly down here

then that would leave room for a few people to sneak up here

and not only have a shot at killing the king if he's not below fighting already, but also destroy whatever supports are holding up that fish! And what's gonna happen???? It's going to fall and crush the throne room, the communal sleeping area, the infirmary, AND their food stores that they all have sitting under there, AS WELL AS anyone taking shelter underneath????? NOT good at all.

The second one is the aforementioned ring of walls which can provide just as much cover for enemies as it can the Zora depending on who gets to them first. So if the enemy gets to those parapets first, it provides them with the perfect cover to fire at the Zora from above :/

BUT! There is still a lot of good about the city itself as well :D

Now, the Zora are all very competent fighters, and so in a battle they should be able to hold their ground well enough, and anyone they can't kill, I'm sure King Dorephan can just flop on top of a crush lol XD There's ALSO the fabulous advantage of the waterfalls that drop off the Domain itself!

I couldn't find a good picture for the life of me, but with those, even if a fighter got knocked off the upper levels of Zora's Domain, they have an easy way to get back up by climbing those small waterfalls which is AWESOME

HOWEVER! Even if it ended up that the giant fish crushed people and everyone was dying and they needed to retreat, they have an easy way of doing that too!

Unlike literally anyone else the Zora would have to face, they have the ability to swim up freakin waterfalls and SO! If things go so dire that they couldn't save the Domain and needed to flee, they have FOUR exit routes they can take. Obviously they can just follow the Zora River back out to the Lanayru Wetlands and catch a river from there, but they also have three waterfall options

Any one of those would be a fast and easy escape for everyone in Zora's Domain, should they need to do that.

Overall, it's an EXTREMELY versatile and well fortified city for the Zora with how it 100% plays into their strengths and minimises advantages for any one else. It's honestly GENIUS and really, it's no wonder it has stayed so safe from monsters for so long before and after the calamity

[totkdaily]

Day 67: The Mark of the King

It takes me most of the day to find a small crack in the rock below Lulu Lake which seems to lead to the king's hideaway. This can't be how King Dorephan got in here - there's no way he'd fit. 

Muzu is angry with me for breathing near him, as always. It's good to see him.

Dorephan… does not look well.

Muzu suggests that I'm lying about Zelda's disappearance, and I resist reacting. He says he saw the Princess here right after the Upheaval. I have a bad feeling about this… 

Dorephan says Zelda came from the sky with a sludge monster - and attacked him?? I am hit with thundering certainty that I was right - there is an imposter. Zelda would never even dream of such a thing. In any case, whoever or whatever this is was seen in multiple places at once. Is it a network? A collection of… wait. Who do I know who can disguise themselves, and works to bring down Hyrule?

The Yiga.

Could they have done this? Maybe this isn't an effect of the Upheaval at all, maybe they're just taking advantage of it - or maybe they're somehow working with the Demon King?

I remember that map of their bases I found at Robbie's lab. Maybe I should seek them out once I'm finished here and find out what they're up to. 

King Dorephan, bless him, is in hiding to save both his own reputation and Zelda's. Wounded as he is, he's considering handing the crown over to Sidon. In the meantime, he gives me some of his scales, the Mark of the King, to help with the riddle. 

Before I leave I look for another entrance - I was right. There's a much larger entrance behind the large waterfall into Mikau Lake. That's how the king got in. 

I return to Sidon to tell him the truth about his father. He agrees we must look skyward for answers. Now we just need to find the land of the sky fish. 

On a hunch, I glide across to a nearby waterfall emerging from a sky island. Murky brown as it is, it's still swimmable.

Floating Scales Island is shaped like a fish on my map - good enough. Now, a droplet. Maybe I'm looking for something like the dragon tears? The island is just covered in sludge, but I'm loathe to use splash fruit unless I need it…

The glowing floating rocks around the island are unusual - are they anything? I climb to the centre for a good view… wait, there is something. From here, some of the floating rocks form a teardrop.

"Through this droplet, shoot an arrow with the mark of the King."

Here we go. 

The scale flies into the reservoir, and emits a green beacon.

Well, here goes nothing. I glide across into the golden sunset, and drop into the brown lakewater. 

Nothing happens. Hmm. I tread water for a moment, thinking. 

I wonder if it needs to be a Zora who does the dive? I should go and find Sidon.

I take the easy route - Purah Pad to the tower and glide - to reach Mipha's Court again. It's only then that I realise I could probably clear the sludge on the shrine with splash fruit. 

Anyway. Chroma and Khira have taken over purifying the water so Sidon and Yona can talk.

I join them, and Yona says Sidon should come with me to investigate the beacon of light. Sidon hesitates - is he reluctant to leave his people in this time of crisis? That's fair, but there really is no-one else.

Before he can say, we're ambushed by a monster- a sludge like. Is this what ambushed King Dorephan? 

The sludge makes movement difficult, and it's a tough battle even with Sidon's water shield. Twice, I think it's all over. But we defeat the beast together. 

Yona resumes her conversation with Sidon as if there had been no interruption, encouraging him to investigate the beacon with me. He's reluctant to leave her. She says: "You are yielding to the fear of losing someone you love again." 

Wow. She and him must trust each other very deeply. He's clearly shared much with her. I'm glad he has her support. He's so worried to lose her, but she argues she can protect herself - and I'm minded to agree. She's formidable. He heads to the beacon. 

But before I follow him, I must see to this shrine. 

[pastrydragon]

Fixing Yona from TOTK

We can redeem her in the DLC she just needs some tweaking

And by tweaking I mean I'm totally retconning her personality but in a way that makes sense so bare with me here:

I want to make Yona protagonistically and enjoyably Evil

What does that mean? you ask. It means I want her to be a ruthless, conniving bitch of the first degree but completely on Sidon and Link's side!

I want all that "I'm just here to help" "My Darling Sidon!" bullshit to have been an act. Not that she doesn't care about Sidon, she does, but more like "This is my pet Himbo, isn't he adorable?" than "Love of my life" kinda thing. How she acted in game was just, so saccharine and fake. Like this is a crafted person, not a real one. AND I CAN SPIN THAT INTO AN ADVANTAGE WITH THIS DLC.

Because the Zora are so used to their utterly benevolent and optimistic royal family that Yona slipping in even a little of her own personality could threaten her crown. The Zora are used to their prince and princess being helpful and likable so Yona needs to pretend to be those things too in order to earn enough approval to become queen.

And she's a good fucking choice for queen for them! I love Sidon, I do, he's best boy. The guy is honorable and kind and brave. That's the problem. He's too soft to what other people want and doesn't want to see the bad in people. He was obviously uncomfortable with the idea of marrying Yona but went along with it because it's what others wanted from him, and he was immediately trusting of link in BOTW and let the guy fire shock arrows from his back. shock arrows that could kill him almost immediately if he gets hit. Sidon isn't stupid, but he is undeniably a little naive to be king to a kingdom that will suddenly be reintroduced to international diplomacy and proper trade after 100ish years.

And while I think he's perfect for face to face diplomacy, the actual minutia of international dealings will probably be a bit too much for him. Yona, as his Evil Royal Advisor™ would be sitting there smiling sweetly while going over written trade proposals with a red pen. And I do think Evil Royal Advisor™ is the right dynamic here. They do NOT have chemistry, but she absolutely wants Sidon to succeed at any cost. And you need someone like that in your corner when you're made of marshmallow and want everyone else to succeed first.

Of course Sidon carries Yona through this just as much. Yona being in Queen mode is probably exhausting and Sidon would be able to spirit her away from any conversation or event with the excuse of needing her advice or attention and then stand in the hallway with her for ten minutes while she vents before she has to glide back in and put her game face back on. He tells her how well she's doing, how much she's improving things and how much he values her. Evil Royal Advisor™ unit requires regular feeding of ego to function properly.

And her being evil EXPLAINS WHY SIDON NEVER MENTIONED HER IN BOTW! Because she probably didn't pretend around him back then and he remembers her as a horrible little demon, fuck she probably bullied his ass a little(Out of affection) when they were babies. And Sidon wouldn't want to talk about her because he'd have to skip over too much stuff to still be honest. Or talk about the time Yona put frogs in his sleeping pond during the night and he was so surprised when he woke up to them that he shrieked like a banshee and everyone came running to find him freaking out over a damn frog. That shit is embarrassing.

Note: I'm writing this DLC quest to be like something I think Nintendo would seriously write, so dialogue might seem a little over the top or silly at times.

Stage 1:

For the DLC reveal I'd have the quest line "Bride In Black" start with her asking you during the day cycle to get her 15 thunderwing butterflies. She's stockpiling shock resistant potions for emergencies you see. Afterward she'll give you 100 rupees and tell you to go visit Sidon since "He's been stressed lately and would love to see his best friend!" how thoughtful!

Stage 2:

Speak to Sidon who will be searching for something by the big waterfall. He'll explain after some prodding that Yona has been disappearing at night and he's only been able to follow her as far as here before she seems to disappear. He's tried talking to her about it but she always manages to change the subject or be needed elsewhere when he brings it up. He's concerned for her safety and wellbeing as monsters still roam around the domain's borders. At the end of the dialogue he decides to let it go and trust she knows what she's doing. Link gets his quest updated anyway.

Stage 3:

If Link goes to the bottom of the big waterfall at the beginning of the night cycle and crouches in the bushes then Yona will appear mumbling to herself. Equip the stealth set and follow her as quietly as possible, making sure you don't get too loud or too close or she'll realize she's being followed and disappear, the player will then have to wait for the next night cycle to try again. this stage is very similar to the side quest where you follow Mila around in Zelda Windwaker. Except near the end of the following Yona is briefly attacked by a lazalfos, she calmly kills it by throwing a purple bottle at it that causes it to die in a puff of acrid smoke. Yona casually continues on with a "Fufufufu~" speech bubble above her head. Soon she approaches an odd tree which she pours a potion on, the tree shrivels away and a hidden cave is revealed! she enters.

Stage 4:

Link enters after her "Yona's Lair" appears on the screen announcing it as the area's name. inside the cave the player can hear Yona's new theme(Which is her old theme backwards and played on what sounds like a pipe organ and a synthesizer). there's a short hallway before the cave opens up into a big circular room with a cauldron in the middle, filled with suspicious purple ooze. the walls are decorated with what appear to be tacked up potion recipes and detailed drawings of dissected monster parts. Some recipes have the classic skull and crossbones on them for aesthetic. Link approaches Yona (who is writing at an oddly stained desk with another "Fufufufu~" speech bubble above her head.) Press A while close to start a cutscene.

Cutscene:

Yona turns around, shocked to see Link and begins to scream at him "HOW DID YOU FIND ME YOU DIRTY GOBLIN!?" she tries switching back to Queen mode for a few seconds "I-I mean how ever did you find me Link?" she sighs resignedly after a few moments and says "Oh, no point now. You've seen my hobby, there's no fooling you anymore." Yona's character animations change so she's standing with a hand on her hip and her mouth in a toothy grin as opposed to her old demure idle animation. Her green and purple aesthetic looks more at home among the dark and potion bottles, and her devil/parasite horns look much more natural with her head held high and teeth on display. "I almost wish I were dumb enough to try and fight you, but I know I'd lose once I ran out of ammo. And I can't bribe someone like you to stay quiet, so, I suppose this might be it for my little stint as queen. Just do me a favor? Give Sidon the yellow potions on the table for me? I do care about the dumb lummox, and I just know he's going to throw himself in front of some lightning shooting monster one of these days and get himself killed."

"I KNEW IT!" Sidon has appears seemingly angry at the entrance to the lair to shock animations from Link and Yona "I knew you were faking! I thought I was going crazy misremembering our friendship, but you've just gotten better at that act of yours." Sidon laughs "You have no idea how relieved I am, I felt like I was talking to a stranger all these months, it's wonderful you haven't actually changed. I think... Well I'm happy to have my old friend back, even if you do start throwing bugs at me again."

Yona returns to her new idle animation from her shocked one. "You CANNOT be serious Crydon, I knew you were sappy but letting someone like me stick around is just silly! You really are going to go and get yourself killed with all that blind optimism."

Sidon laughs again "I knew I remembered that nickname too! And why wouldn't I let you stick around? Sure, you're a bit... Abrasive at times, and we certainly don't always agree on how to do things, but you're my friend and I care for you! Just because you act in odd ways, or show your affection differently doesn't mean I'm going to get rid of you. You may have teased me when we were little, but you were always there for me when I needed someone to help me or tell me the truth. I remember you called me stupid for losing my favorite toy then you spent all night looking for it while I cried myself to sleep. And I remember you telling me Mipha needed to heal soldiers and couldn't spend time with me instead of telling me she'd be coming back any minute. Then you'd be the one to heal me when I got hurt and you tried to do all the other things I did with Mipha to cheer me up, even though you hated most of those games." Sidon now looks much sadder. "But I don't want you to be Mipha, I want my old friend back. The one that knew when to tell me I was being reckless and when I wasn't believing in myself enough. The one that would steal my sweets then give me her salty snacks later because she knew I liked those better anyway. The one that solved problems, and did the jobs no one else wanted to do but needed to be done. I miss that friend, and I would very much like her back."

Yona is silent for a moment before the player hears a "Fufufufu~" sound effect. "Fufufufu~ my new husband sure knows how to make a girl feel special." Sidon has a brief embarrassed animation before Yona starts speaking again "I'm just teasing you Crydon, I'll stay to keep you from from selling the kingdom for magic beans or whatever nonsense you'd have gotten up to without me." Yona turns to face Link "Assuming this silent menace can keep my hobby, and my charming personality, to himself?"

At this point the player gets the dialogue options of

"Of course!"

Or

"Fine, but I'm watching you!"

Depending on the players choice Yona will either comment on Link's similarity to Sidon, or commend him for being sensible about the situation.

"In any case, you need to buzz off for a while so I can finish my potion and so Crydon and I have a chance to catch up for real. But come back tomorrow night and I'll have something to help you on your little adventure."

At this the cutscene ends and the screen goes dark before Link is transported to the front of the cave at the beginning of the day cycle. Yona's Lair cannot be accessed during the day.

Stage 5:

Talking to Sidon during the day cycle after the cutscene will trigger some thankful flavor dialogue and Sidon will reveal he was following Link the entire time last night after seeing him follow Yona past the waterfall. Link wasn't focused on not being spotted from behind after all.

Talking to Yona during the day cycle will not get new dialogue and she will have changed back to her original animations during the day.

Going back to Yona's Lair at night will result in a short dialogue where Yona thanks Link for "Being a nosy little creep I guess." The player will then have access to Yona's potion shop. The shop sells some randomized normal potions that vary in duration every night. It will also have Poison Bottles. Poison bottles can be thrown at enemies or attached to arrows and will do damage over time to any enemy it hits for 60 seconds. low level monsters will be killed instantly and mid level will likely die on their own in the 60 seconds. But the potions best use is against high HP enemies that don't give the player a lot of opportunity to get a hit in. The poison bottle require both money and monster parts to make so they really should be saved for when Link is in a pinch.

[ivymyers]

Omg pretty please do a part two to broken. I need to knowwww, but I hope it ends in fluff bc my heart is fragile

Broken Part Two (Sidon x Reader)

Around 1,300 words so a little longer than part one.

(Link to part one: https://www.tumblr.com/ivymyers/719634738273452032/broken-part-one-sidon-x-reader )

Warnings: Physical injury, torture, Yiga Clan, sharks(?), tears

You sat Sidon down on your bed and took a few steps back. You didn’t want to witness his reaction to what you were about to tell him.

“I was behind the waterfall. The Yiga Clan held me captive there.”

A sharp inhale was heard from Sidon as you paused, barely getting the first words out. This was going to be a long night.

“They, well uh, had me tortured, I suppose.” You whispered this so quietly that Sidon hardly heard. When you looked over to see his reaction, you instantly regretted it. You could see his tears welling up. All this crying was new to you, Sidon has been so joyful for as long as you could remember, were you really this important to him?

“They started with the electricity.”

—---- (…)

You woke up with all your limbs bound behind your back. The last thing you could remember was leaving the stables and then…black.

Looking around at your surroundings you could see you were in a dimly lit room. The fire light was visible through the cracks of a wooden door across from you. You could feel the rope around your wrists as you felt the stone wall behind you.

You heard some whispers from behind the door.

“The girl, she’s the Zora prince’s lover?”

“Yes, I’m sure of it. I began following her after she departed from the domain.”

“Good. We need to use this chance to our best advantage. Is everything prepared?”

“Yes. This should work. We need to break her. It’s the only way to get through the prince’s cheery attitude.”

The door opened and with wide eyes you witnessed 3 Yiga members walk through.

“Why hello there little Hylian. When we finish with you, all of Hyrule will have heard your screams. The only way you are getting out of here is with an exchange, the Zora prince for yourself.” You shuddered at the thought of them getting a hold of Sidon.

“Tell us where he is and we’ll let you go. But if you don’t…” He grabbed your face and whispered close to your ear, “You’ll regret ever being with him in the first place.” he added “Better to quit while you're ahead.”

Without even considering your options for a moment you looked the Yiga member who had spoken to you dead in the eyes, “Not ever.” Sidon was literally your world. Not for a single second would you ever betray him.

“Have it your way then”

The Yiga Clan members began reading a list to you. “Electricity. Water. Sharks. Physical injury. We believe that these…weaknesses will affect Sidon the most. If we can get you to fear them, it would absolutely break the Zora Prince.”

So they started with the shock arrows. Zora’s fear electricity the most, therefore the Zora Prince would feel sick with what went down. One by one they rubbed them down your arms and back until burn marks and scars formed. They kept it going past your screams of terror and shed tears.

The water came next. Zora’s thrive in water, the thought of Sidon’s beloved fearing what he practically lives in would kill him. The Yiga members left you to drown over and over and over again. They continuously dragged you under until your vision went dark and blurry, until you were on the very edge of death itself.

It was now that they saw how broken you were. You didn’t fight back and you didn’t make anymore remarks in response to the insults they threw at you. You felt your heart crack a little more each day until the pieces all fell beyond repair. You couldn’t remember when you finally shattered, you just knew you had.

“Am I really going to die here?” How you longed for even a glance of your prince. The one you knew had already forgotten you with the amount of time that passed.

Then, as if your prayers had been answered, you saw him. A red Zora burst through the door. I had to be Sidon. You would recognize him with the blurry vision and how shaken up you were…Right?

—----

(…)

The reality of it hit Sidon so hard. You saw the fear in his eyes, tears threatening to make their way down his cheeks.

“My Pearl…wait- I found you though, on the road.” His eyes went wide as you confirmed his suspicions. “It wasn’t me was it.”

You looked away from his face, “No. It was fake. I’m not sure how but, they…faked a rescue four different times. To get my hopes up I suppose. I- don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Hey, you have every right to keep everything to yourself. I understand if you need a lifetime to recover, just know I will never stop being there for you-”

You cut him off by running into his arms. Despite your hesitance toward him, you knew he would never hurt you. The two of you stayed in an embrace for a long while.

“Love?” SIdon questioned softly. “How did you end up on the road?”

“Well. I’m not exactly done.”

—---- (…)

Sharks. Sidon was one, or resembled one you guess. So when they dangled you inches from the danger of real ones you knew the purpose of this attack. The scars from edges of teeth and near death from the sinister creatures would be there always as a reminder of the danger sharks pose. Or at least that’s what your captors said.

Last came the beatings. Over and over and over and over came the punches and kicks. The only thing you could do to prevent the pain was stay quiet, not let the tears flow. This was your only defense.

One night a storm hit, one so bad that rocks slid down blocking most of the cave's entrance. Without a clear way to continue, the mission was practically ruined and the Yiga left you there to die. You pushed and pushed until eventually the rubble fell a little faster and a little closer and broke your chains. Finally, after a day without food or water you pushed your way out from the small cave behind the waterfall and passed out on the path.

—---- (…)

You knew there was more, the little details, but you thought it best to spare Sidon more pain. This was a lot to take in, you knew he loved you, but you weren’t sure if any feelings left after you told him your tale of pain and torture.

“My love, my pearl. Please don’t hate me.” Sidon’s pained expression visible on his face.

“Why would I hate you? If anything I’m the one who should get the blame, it’s- Sidon I’m not worthy of you and everything you have given me. All these chances and how patient you are…why wait for me when you could have any of these Zora women?” “Stop y/n. You can’t put that weight on yourself. You matter to me more than anything ever has. During that time you were missing- it pains me to even think about what you went through- if anything at all the attack was targeted toward me. If it meant to frighten me then it definitely worked.” He glanced up at you, looking tired and pained by everything. Sidon knew he couldn’t change the past and it was eating him alive. Everything would be different now, how he wished he could get the old y/n back. He knew he would do anything in his power to help you for a fast recovery, whatever that meant.

“Y/n?”

“Yeah?”

“May I hold you?” after a pause he added “I totally understand if you need time and-”

“Always Sidon.”

You both spent the night clinging to each other, both getting the best sleep you had gotten in months.

---------

Hopefully that was something along the lines of what you wanted, thanks for the request!

lmk if you want some headcannons in the same general storyline for events that occur after this? Or I could do a part three not sure yet.

[plagueybirb]

More on TOTK/BOTW era Termina! This weeks news, mostly the Garo!

In all seriousness, I have thoughts about them, and it's all entirely made up based on literally the one/two lines we know about them. Zero canon here folks, all headcanon because they're literally the coolest and even more mysterious than the Yiga and Sheikah. First off, the Garo Masters.

We only see one in Majora's Mask, but I don't think there's just one. Instead, I think there's four. The one we see in game is simply one of those four. The four Garo Masters govern the Garo together as a team, each one with a different aspect of their culture and way of life. The one we saw in Majora's Mask was the one in charge of warfare in that era, and that Master is the one an outsider is most likely to meet at any given time.

Why are there four? Four Giants, four regions (+Clock Town), four temples, four transformation masks. Termina as a whole is a land very much connected to death, and I think the Garo, even as enemies of Ikana, would be very much more connected to death than most of the rest of Termina. The number four is very prominent, so I just decided to continue that.

(The Gibdo mask, Giant's mask, and Fierce Deity mask are in a weird spot as you technically don't need any of them but they're very important anyway. Except maybe the Giant's mask? Idk it's been a while since I played the game.)

ANYWAY. In the TOTK/BOTW era, this Garo Master is still the one you'd see most often, he runs the spies and warfare division after all. But at first glance you wouldn't know he's the Garo Master, because he doesn't go around in uniform willy nilly. Because y'know. Spies.

The Garo have a code of honor of sorts. They might not fight fair and will absolutely use every advantage and underhanded tactic they can, but they are nothing if not strict followers of their own laws. One of them being the whole "leave no body" thing they do. When defeated they give up information. Whatever that information they decide to give is up for debate, but once they give it up, they will make sure they don't leave behind a body. Bomb flowers are carried by all the Garo, even when not out in the field. Even the four Garo Masters carry them.

As spies from an unknown nation, they could just be the Termina version of the Sheikah, defending the royal family and following orders.

OR. The Garo ARE the unknown enemy nation, and we only ever see the spy/warrior division of that nation. The other three Garo could be the leaders of this nation, just the ones that remain in the capital to govern their nation. In that case, obviously random citizens aren't walking around carrying bombs on them. But perhaps they're given a chance to join the very dangerous, very exclusive spies that go out and collect information from their enemies.

Now for technology. Assuming Termina is a little more stable and advanced than Hyrule, I'd say they're maybe close to the Industrial Revolution era in terms of tech, if said tech was all powered by clockwork. Because again, Termina is very much connected with clocks.

Everyone's got a pocket clock. There's regional variants of these pocket clocks depending on where they're made, and the Garo of course have their own style of pocket clocks. It's literally a popular trend to collect and trade pocket clocks they might as well be the equivalent of keychains that can tell the time.

Ikana's is very stone-like and geometric, and plays a little tune and is often carved in some way to honor the royal family. Older versions have imagery of certain four statues that all share the same green hat, an ancient hero who saved them from a curse.

Woodfall's clocks are made of wood and have more tribal designs. Occasionally there's a bottle, owl, or a monkey and a Deku princess carved into the face.

Great Bay is alllll water, music, and beach designs for their clocks. Waterproof too, and perhaps you might be lucky enough to get one signed by the Indigo-Go's or a certain famous Zora. They often have a golden seahorse or a giant island turtle somewhere in the design.

Stone clocks for the rock people up in Snowhead. Gotta be heavy as hell and sturdy to survive being used by the Gorons. Carvings of Darmani, snow and ice, or even the lens of truth are the most common.

Clock Town's pocket clocks are just handheld versions of the ones on the walls in the buildings, which in turn are just wall clock versions of the Clock Tower. Their unique in that they incorporate a little from all the regions, and the clock face itself is what turns. Every dawn it chimes with a familiar bell toll.

Romani Ranch has their own version too, it has little grasshoppers, red horses, and weird alien ghosts on them. They moo at dawn and are shaped like milk bottles.

The Garo's pocket clocks are completely silent, they don't even tick. And if push comes to shove, they can be easily rigged to explode. I theorize the Garo live in the desert, so their clocks are actually shaped like an hourglass. Not an actual hourglass, just shaped like one. It spins.

And of course, the Gerudo pirates have their own version. They're very fancy, and have a lot of lightning and storm imagery with gold inlay. (At least I think that's what it's called.) These clocks are also very good at conducting electricity. Like tiny lightning rods. For Urbosa and Riju reasons.

That's all for now, I might come up with more later.

[gerudospiriit]

follow up to this ask

Nabooru paced the length of her desk, twisting a crimson strand of hair around her fingers. With how long she strode the same path waiting for Aveil, she could have carved a a path into the the deepest depths of the desert. She purposefully kept her gaze from roving to her desk, the pile of ash sitting atop it. She could still see it in her periphery. Feel the heat radiating through her body. The flames of the torches rising and roaring around her...

When the door finally opened, her second striding in with the least amount of urgency possible, it took considerable control not to scold her for taking so long. She purposefully neglected to request the guard hurry or inform Aveil of an emergency to keep from alarming the young woman or her second. At least not until she could speak with the latter face to face.

"You called?"

Nabooru paused her pacing, and, judging by the way Aveil's brow wrinkled and she frowned, she didn't hide her frazzled state as well as she hoped. "Yes, we need to talk."

"You're not breaking up with me, are you?" she teased, trying to lighten the mood. Her specialty under more...normal circumstances. "What's eating you Nabs? I haven't seen you this out of sorts since you were dealing with Ganondorf."

"I'd rather be dealing with him," she muttered, resting against the desk. She folded her arms. "That dignitary from Hyrule wrote us back. He basically said there was nothing they could do, and that all of our concerns were unfounded. He dismissed us, as usual. they won't help and the won't investigate further."

She laughed bitterly and added, "Oh, but we're invited to attend the princess's coronation. Said they would be honored to have us."

The Gerudo second in command's visage darkened. "I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm disgusted. We presented evidence for all of it, but they refuse to investigate?" she hissed, hands curled into fists at her sides. "We can't let this stand. They'll keep doing this to our people and pretend they had nothing to do with it. We have to do something."

"I know," Nabooru agreed, the words of the letter tumbling through her consciousness again. Boiling her blood again. She sucked in a breath to calm herself. Her high emotion seemed to trigger...whatever happened to her before. "As much as I respect the princess for trying to ease the the tensions between our peoples, her efforts are in vain, apparently. The damage from the war, from Ganondorf...it's too much for the fools to put behind them and realize we're just trying to live our lives. They won't be content until we're gone, it seems."

Aveil mirrored Nabooru, arms folding over her chest. "We can't just attack them. The fight would be over before it could start once the Goron and Zora come to Hyrule's aid. And we can't just leave either. We've just started building the town, and we weren't exactly making it big enough for everyone to move into."

"We'll have to be smart about it, but I think our only choice is brute force." She inhaled, the scent of burning paper lingering in the room. "Really plan things out and ensure we don't make a single mistake. Do our research and give ourselves any advantage we can. Find allies, maybe..."

"Allies where?" Aveil questioned, eyebrow raised. "The Kokiri aren't exactly fighters, and those bird people from the north, the Rito...if they weren't interested in the squabbles of the rest of Hyrule before, I don't see why they'd be keen on helping us now."

"I don't know. Beyond the desert? We can travel more now. There might be more out there..." In another realm...

Despite her attempt at putting a positive spin on her suggestion, it still sounded unconvincing in her own ears. They needed a solution, and they needed it quick. Traipsing the desert, speaking and making deals with other tribes or kingdoms if they ever found them...would Hyrule's hate for them allow them that kind of time?

She couldn't get desperate. Desperation bred mistakes, missteps they couldn't afford. She couldn't lose herself. Not like he did.

Her mind reeled back to the letter, the pile of ask she left it in. She licked her lips. "There's...something else."

"Please tell me it's good news."

Nabooru circled to the other side of the desk. "That letter...I..." She trailed off and dipped her index and middle fingers into the ash, dragging them along the wood and leaving two sooty lines in their wake. "I burned it."

Aveil stared, unimpressed. "Is that a bad thing? I think I would have done the same."

"No...no I mean I burned it. With...with..." she held up her hands, half expecting them to glow. "With I don't know what. Magic? My sage powers don't deal with fire though, so...I don't know what happened. The torches went crazy, too. I was reading it, getting angry and..."

She trailed off, pulse quickening. Magic. Forced to carry the legacy and power of the Sage of Spirit irked her enough, and now...now something else awakened in her. What did it mean? Where did it come from? If she lost control of it...

Nabooru swallowed, finally glancing up to find her second in command staring at her in disbelief. "Like, fire magic?" she asked. "You've never practiced magic though. Did Ganondorf teach you something?"

"No, I wouldn't let him even if he offered." She wiped her hand on her pants. "I need to figure it out though. I...if I lose control...I don't want to hurt another Gerudo or destroy the fortress."

Aveil tapped her finger against her cheek. "That's a good point...Though if you lost control in Hyrule Castle..."

"Better there than here, sure, but I'd rather not," Nabooru sniffed.

"Just a thought," she defended, the hint of a cheeky grin on her lips. "My only suggestion would be to talk to one of the priestesses. They're the ones that would likely have any knowledge of magic or...weird magic suddenly manifesting in people?"

Sinking into her seat, she rubbed her temples. "Yes...I guess you're right." The thought of speaking to any of them about this already threatened to split her head with a migraine. "I'll go find them in a bit. Keep this to yourself for now. I'll see what's going on with these powers, and maybe we can do some research on lands outside of here. We'll talk to the rest of the Elite in a few days."

Aveil nodded. "Let me know if you need anything. Go take a relaxing bath or something first. Calm yourself down."

Nabooru waved her off and watched her leave, but seriously considered her suggestion. Stress relief would do her some good. Keep people from suspecting the worst in seeing their chief stressed out more than usual. She stood again, chair legs scraping against sandstone, and headed back to her room to take Aveil's advice.

[benchowmein]

Haven't gotten to Gerudo Town yet but thusfar Rito Village takes the absolute cake for best main quest: the markéd difference the village has undergone, arriving to find it buried by snow, the impeccable level design that leads from playfully jumping on ice, using it to solve puzzles, and finally beating the boss with the exact same mechanic...the music was sublime, the path to the dungeon felt truly threatening, I was so hyped seeing that cooking pot knowing I was heading into a place of peril and that this was the game telling me to prepare accordingly, that moment where you rise above the storm to see the peaceful sky and dive into the eye of the hurricane, impeccable transformation of Rito Village back to where we know and love, kids growing up too fast, Tulin being commended by Teba in a way that felt so meaningful.

Comparatively Yunobo is so boring the only thing I legitimately enjoyed about Goron City was seeing him angry and mob bossesque, I am glad they made new roads into it to make the journey feel fresh and that they made it more hospitable - I'll obviously be returning to do the side quests but honestly I didn't see a huge difference to the area before and after the dungeon given that somehow Ganondorf's master plan for the area seems to be just...making Gorons lose ambition and become hedonists (?) rather than using the lava to his advantage. I feel like a better version of the dungeon boss would be to incorporate minecarts, which comprise the entire 'level' from entering Goron City to ascending Death Mountain to the dungeon itself. Bosses like that are mainstay of the franchise, often being a "ride the minecart and shoot arrows at the weak spot" - it would have been fun to have seen that come back only with Yunobo's special power used to knock off thick rock armour or something. At LEAST the arena should have had several levels to make use of Ascend, with ramps that fling off in different directions, forcing you to quickly aim Yunobo to crash into Gohma - instead I barely used his power and just used Recall on the falling rocks, then spammed arrows at his eye.

I wouldn't have gone for marbled rock roasts as the main threat to Goron City. Obviously the rocks are filled with gloom, so why not have the threat be that the mountain itself is being slowly gloomified? Falling gloom rocks and landslides would be much more of a threat to the Gorons, and they could even have retreated into caves - an opportunity to show off a cool underground cave system like the one in Ocarina of Time. I feel like Nintendo were really trying to move away from BOTW's Goron City, where lava and fire make the area awkward and visually disinteresting, but in doing so they replaced it with nothing except purple rocks that disintegrate after the quest.

Zora's Domain is in the middle so far: the difference to the setting is fun, and seeing the murky river and the mud is exciting knowing I can restore it. The music is great and very eerie - I barely spent enough time in Goron City to even hear it, but Zora's Domain and Mipha's Court have distinct themes that make sense. There was a great moment where on the path you find Sidon's monument swearing to devote his life to preserving the beauty of the domain, only to turn and find the path has been covered by fallen rocks and sludge and then to see the Domain partly covered in sludge as well - I wish they'd gone all-out and covered more of it or at least dulled the vibrant blue of the architecture, which looks a little awkward against the murky river. The Zora story leads around a couple of locations that aren't very easy to get to, with hopping back and forth to trigger "updates" from Sidon and Dorephan and so on. Not very fun, but the plight of the Zora feels very real and tangible with the infirmary and the side-quest to help a Zora who's been splunched by sludge. The path to the temple isn't great - I was anticipating a lot more falling sludge especially at that point where you're waterfall-hopping while ascending, which isn't challenging and feels so slow because of the low gravity. If there was sludge falling regularly there wouldn't be an issue of accidentally knocking the player all the way to the overworld, but I would prefer it if they'd made a mechanic where if you get hit by sludge while paragliding you continue to move but can't open or close your paraglider or change direction (encouraging you to aim straight for a waterfall, which would then wash you clean when you were submerged). I'm unconvinced by the idea that this is some ancient Zora spring that feeds Hyrule - shouldn't that be underground? Wouldn't an underground temple be better suited to this level? The waterworks section was fun, and I wish there was more to it than breaking a couple boulders!

I presume Gerudo City will have a sand/spirit temple in the Depths, mostly because there have been two sky-temples and one depth-temple thusfar, so I can see why the Water Temple is in the sky. But We will see

[jaslin-mostadim4]

"Us" Analyzed (African American Studies 112A)

How would you react if you saw individuals that identically resemble your family appear in your driveway? Well, this was the case for the Wilson family. “Us” by Jordan Peele is a film about the Wilson family, which includes parents Adelaide and Zora, and children Zora and Jason on a family trip that takes a turn for the worst. Their worst nightmare comes true when four masked strangers, which come to be their doppelgangers, show up at their house ready to attack. The concept behind this film was very engaging, and I had never seen anything like this in the black horror genre, or any genre for that matter. Throughout my viewing of this film, I kept getting chills and was asking myself; “What do we see in ourselves that scares us so much?”, and I think that since the topic of seeing our doppelganger is such an unnatural experience, it comes with a sense of discomfort and fear. After discussing the film and giving it more thought, I realized that the fear symbolizes a bigger idea, which is that seeing your doppelganger is like facing the demons and evil in your body that we want to run away from. So, I think seeing this in ourselves is what scares us the most. I know positively that if I was in that scenario, I would run away as far as I can for as long as I can, then most probably pass out. 

This film also displays various themes. We detect the isolation theme in the beach scene where the Wilson family is the only dark-skinned family in the public beach. Secondly, we see the preparedness and survival mindset theme when Adelaide is prepared and calls the police immediately when the doppelganger family shows up in the driveway. Thirdly, we can recognize the privilege theme when Gabe takes his boat for a ride on the water. Even thought the boat was smaller in comparison to the boats owned by the white families, it is still a boat. Lastly, we see the neurodiversity as a superpower theme which I found to be the most interesting theme not only in this film specifically, but in all of the black horror films I have viewed thus far. This theme is portrayed in Jason’s character, which is hypothesized to be on the spectrum, and turns out to be the most advantageous factor. Jason is the first character to discover that the other family is a copy of them and is the only one able to control his doppleganger because in a way, Jason and his doppelganger bond and relate like no other character has with their identical copy. He sees the world differently and figured out a way to hypnotize his doppleganger, and we can see this in the scene where they are both sitting on the ground, wearing a mask and playing with a bright object. His ability to connect with his doppelganger is what allowed him to lure his him to death. I personally loved this theme, and actually hope to see this theme played out in other horror films. Overall,  “Us” by Jordan Peele was an amazing watch for many reasons, such as the creepy fright and various themes to name a few.

#ucla

[bugcatcherwill]

When you said One of the main themes in RATC is "planting the seeds of a tree for those you will never live to see, but knowing it will give them shade"

Their will be issues that I feel like will persist like species racism with hyrule’s ‘good’ races over the monster ones, accessibility for each monster race like areas for hinoxs, moldugas (there is like 4 of them they need to be protected till they’re at healthier numbers…), areas for gleeoks to land, village areas for monsters, gorons and Taluses will have to learn to help the other as taluses can produce ores which gorons can eat or sell, try and keep the gibos queen and her hive safe from rival hives (which would cause issues for the rest of hyrule), keep peace with the yiga and sheikah.

There seems to be always some problem between the races but if most of the races of hyrule can learn to get along, then they can learn to get along with monsters.

And we don’t know how old a monster can get we saw how old impa and robbie who are a sheikah are in botw where as age of calamity takes place 100 years before botw (still wondering how old is master kohga)

So who knows maybe they will see the next gens of friendly monsters in hyrule.

Oh there's gonna be all sorts of issues that will arise, and that's why I'm planning on showcasing the few years that'll happen between BoTW and ToTK with my monster characters.

I just recently saw a great video by Hello Future Me about revolutions, and how fictional revolutions usually end at the big bad being defeated because everything that happens post-revolution is messy and often just as conflict-stricken as the revolution itself.

And that's more or less where I plan to go when they defeat Calamity Ganon. Kobb and the others are having their own revolution against the Malice, but freeing all the monsters is only the first step. While they've had moderate success bonding with the other races of Hyrule, everyone will be trying to rebuild what was destroyed in The Calamity - and the monsters will now have to fight for their own spot to create their own thriving cities like Rito Village and the Gerudo Capital.

Boundaries will have to redrawn, compromises will need to be made, and at the end of the day there will be many Hylians and others that maintain an irrational hatred and resentment of monsters, or seek ways of taking advantage of them for their own gains.

As for monster age, I'd assume Bokoblins and Moblins live around the same age as Hylians/Sheikah, Lizalfos are similar to Zora but have a slightly smaller lifespan then them (imagine those old-ass crocodiles lol), and then Wizzrobe's get a big ol' (?) because we have Brine who was a surviving remnant of the Wind Waker era but it also remained in the Lost Woods for aa very long time and rarely used its magic.

So yea :)

[vahrutasgrace]

From the top of one of the majestic silver pillars of Zora's Domain, where the long bridge connects the land and the watery domain, the Captain of Angels called out to Zora's gracious Princess, Mipha, "I heard you wanted to get stronger-icus."

While Pit's heart fluttered, smitten by the soft-spoken child of water when she turned her gaze upon him, though the way she obviously seemed... surprised by his presence, he leaped off the pillar, landing a few feet away from her explaining himself, "Ah, I know you were expecting-icus, Daruk, but something came up. So I offered to help! I hope that's ok?"

Typically, Pit came off as lively, maybe a little too spirited. However, he seemed to be making an effort to maintain a poised demeanor, speaking sincerely and respecting Mipha's personal space as a Captain should, "Mipha, I haven't really left the best impression-icus, and while I understand it's hard to trust a stranger, which, to be honest, is wise on your behalf... You can trust my skills as a warrior and Captain. I'd be honored to help you if you'll have me-icus."

Daruk would come any moment now.

She waited patiently, holding the handle of her trident close to her chest. He was supposed to train with her, help her get stronger, and had agreed to meet at the domain to do so. Daruk mentioned using the elements around her to her advantage, and she was determined to do just that.

Water was her friend. Her power. Her source of everything her people had to offer. It was how she healed and how she spoke to her ancestors.

She looked around the domain in search of the Goron, wondering if he was late. The turning of the sun, her shadow moving from east to west, signaled the passing hour, yet there was no sign of him. She frowned.

Daruk had always been a man who was easy to spot. If not for his impressive size, it was the heavy sounds of his foot steps that shook the fountain of the domain that often signaled his arrival. Yet all was silent aside from the rushing sound of the surrounding waterfalls.

She hoped nothing had happened to him on his way from death mountain.

Hearing a familiar voice, one that made her feel disquieted, caused her to flinch, the handle of her trident pressing securely against her chest as an immediate reaction. Cautiously, she turned to look over her shoulder, brows furrowing at the sight of the captain who fluttered his way down to her to stand before her. She instinctively took a step back and guarded herself warily.

To say that he had left a bad impression was an understatement. The way he approached her the first time they met left a lot to be desired, especially towards a princess. Though his demeanor now did feel like an adjustment in the right direction.

Saying that she shouldn't trust him though-- it felt like an odd thing to say in the moment. It piqued her concern, but she brushed off the looming feeling of unease in favor of turning towards him. For now, she would give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I am unsure if that is wise, captain." She exclaimed, gaze glancing towards the glistening water at their feet, its channels connecting all throughout the domain. She knew of his fears of water and the deep trenches that lurked underneath. She was sure that him being here was enough to have his hackles raised despite his desires to assist her. It was admirable.

Golden eyes flickered in his direction once more.

"You see-- You would have to get in the water."

[ganymedesclock]

Goron and Zora cultural values, pt.2 (the zora)

Okay things got long talking about the gorons so the zora are their own post.

So the Zora have a couple of claims to fame within TLoZ. They’re essentially freshwater shark people, which I’m going to be honest, is one of the more inspired Fantasy Race Concepts running around in traditional major franchises. They’re rather noted stonemasons considering the elaborate structure of the Domain itself in Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Breath of the Wild, and also Twilight Princess’s lakebed temple. We seldom get to see them in action (disappointingly) but their primary weapons seem to be spears, which make sense similarly to the development of the bo staff and sickle in martial arts- if you’re a culture that survives mostly on seafood and you contrive a way better to catch fish than your own vast shark teeth, you’re probably going to develop fishing spears, and at the point the majority of people have a spear in their house and have been using it since they were very small, militarizing it is effortless.

They’re consistently Hyrule’s closest neighbors and often framed as one of their major allies in part due to managing aquifers with their stone architecture, and on two different occasions the princess has been engaged to Link only for it to end in her tragic death- even more brutally in Breath of the Wild when Mipha’s life expectancy was much longer than Link’s.

(obligatory doofenshmirtz “-which is weird that it’s happened twice”)

I was requested to do a take on the zora and other TLoZ races quite some time ago but I ended up deleting the ask unfulfilled because I was struggling to assemble a take from all this. I mean, what’s the picture here? People who are amphibious but much more maneuverable in water would develop technology for moving the water where they want it, and then this would enter a symbiotic relationship with that this mastery of water flow would make it very easy to cut and transport even very large pieces of stone, despite not being a “burly” race like the gorons. If anything, while the gorons are clearly far from primitive in their steel-forging and fine carving work, the zora seem to be the much more committed architects- which, again makes sense. The gorons can pride or challenge themselves on simple subtleties and natural work- they’ve got thousands of years and tremendous strength advantages to make something smooth and ornamented, so it’s more of a flex to flaunt natural stone in advantageous states.

Meanwhile, the Zora are basically shit out of luck if they can’t bend the environment to their advantage. They seem to have very few settlements- usually a single Domain- but said Domain is elaborately, vastly, and beautifully engineered. In Twilight Princess, Zoran waterways link the vast majority of the game map, which means that freezing the Domain and blocking those areas with boulders may have been an attempt by Zant to prevent the zora from coming to Hyrule’s aid during his initial invasion.

This speaks of a relative amount of entrenchment- great stone cities and vast waterways that can easily transport an impressive standing army. The zora are relatively important- in Ocarina of Time, more directly than with the gorons, Link has to signal that he comes with the blessing of Hyrule’s royal family to be permitted to enter the city at all.

Relatively...

...but not absolutely.

In Twilight Princess we are given a pretty shocking and egregious breakdown of trust between Hyrule and its closest neighbor. The Castle Town doctor- seemingly the only doctor of note within Hyrule’s capital city- dismisses and refuses to treat an extremely ill zora child. He suggests he doesn’t even know how to, and the people urgent for this child’s welfare thus have to make a- specifically unaccompanied by the royal guard- desperate cross-country trip to try and get to a doctor in Kakariko.

This would already be a major diplomatic incident potentially able to lead to open war between them without Link’s knowledge that this child is in fact Ralis, the crown prince of the entire Domain. And while the Zora are in a bad place at the time he’s missing, they get back on their feet quickly and send out search parties looking for him. Hyrule is pretty lucky Link’s altruistic Ordonian ass was there to bail them out of that.

In Breath of the Wild, there’s more obvious animosity between the zora and- in this case, Link himself, about the fate of a royal heir. Once again, Hyrule did a pretty big wrong- asking the Zora to stand with them, and asking for their crown princess specifically to pilot divine beast Vah Ruta. At the time, this is all dandy; Mipha’s pending betrothal to Link seems like it’s going fine, it’s a great honor, Hyrule is at peace and of course the zora with their military strength and vital position in the irrigation of Hyrule’s green fields are happy to defend their mutual agreement.

But Mipha is killed, and Hyrule collapses absolutely. There’s not really anybody left to blame at the top besides her former beau, who has even forgotten her in the interim, while being spared the ravages of aging himself. (It’s not a fair judgment of everything happening to Link, but this could easily be how the zora see it)

There are two things Sheik talks about when teaching Link the Serenade of Water in Ocarina of Time: love, and the passage of time. Both of these things seem very relevant to the Zora.

Breath of the Wild establishes the zora as long-lived, and while I don’t think it’s logical (or, really, narratively comfortable) to frame it as them staying children for an impossibly long period of time- development tends only as delayed as it needs to be, and most species tend in a hurry to get to their adult form for the sake of survival and reproduction- that longevity checks out. It gives them a strong connection to time, which is already sort of there; in the Oracles games, Nayru is connected with time, and Nayru’s archetypal element throughout the games is water, which is vital to the zora.

I talked a lot about Darmani on the goron post but the biggest thing that helped me consolidate a take for the zora is Mikau. Because for the zora, Mipha is a healer, but that didn’t really stand out to me. It’s sort of an easy narrative contrivance to mark her affection for Link as taking care of him.

Mikau... is a soon-to-be-father who dies trying to save his partner’s eggs from pirates. His signature tactic, that Link takes on... is generating an electrical barrier. Defensive magic- which ties in interestingly with Mipha’s healing magic. The zora’s close, but not secure position to Hyrule comes off interesting when these guys seem to have a lot of resources for comfortable entrenchment, but are not entrenched- they’re always just a little disposable, a little vulnerable, and this seems to drive a focus on defensive powers.

(the Zora’s vast weakness to shock-based weapons in Breath of the Wild also makes sense that Mikau’s electrical barrier power is actually a terrifyingly overpowered capability for a zora to have!)

[l1ve-l4ugh-lov3craft]

Hiiii so you might remember me from asking about Zora’s domain the other day… I was wondering if you any similar thoughts about Kakariko Village by any chance? :>

Bestie, of course I remember you! You made my day asking about Zora's Domain lol. And I do have a few thoughts on Kakariko Village I would be delighted to share :D

As always, we start with the location and boy oh boy I LOVE where Kakariko is placed

As we can see on Ye Olde Map (shoutout to zeldadungeon.net for all my map screenshot needs), there's exactly one path that runs through Kakariko village, so that means there are only two ways you can actually get in

Not only that, but they're both SO goshdang narrow. They're these teeeeeny tiny canyon passes that would be a massive hindrance for anyone trying to raid or invade the village.

And it doesn't stop there! Because if you, for whatever reason, were to try and come from the Sahasra Slope entrance

You're going to have to trek up this MASSIVE hillside first, and because there's no good spot to stop after that to regain strength, any enemies (monsters and people alike) would be going into an attack on Kakariko Village already exhausted, thus at a MAJOR disadvantage in combat.

This entrance here from Telta Lake is perfectly secure as well

Cos like...come on. No one wants to have to climb up the cliff to get to the actual entrance.

The biggest entrance liability to Kakariko is this one at the top that you can fin by going up through the forest past the shrine.

This one could be used to an enemy's advantage if they were more local (so maybe a Yiga attack or monsters) because there's no guards and it's mostly wilderness. It could provide a good cover for a small group of enemies, but any larger forces would have a hard time all funneling through the Lanayru Road and the canyon it leads into.

Honestly, it would probably be alright though, because they would be coming from the top of the hill Kakariko sits on. For one, that's farthest away from Impa (who would probably be the main target especially if it's a Yiga attack) and also gives all the villagers easy access to the Sahasra Slope exit to evacuate if they needed to.

This exit here between Bonooru's Stand and the Pillars of Levia is absolutely GENIUS and Kakariko Village's best defense

First of all, it's the main entrance to the village, and so the people there probably keep a pretty good eye on it even if we don't see it overtly in the game. It's also one biiiiiiiig long canyon that any large enemies would have to squeeze through, but also smaller groups of enemies would have nowhere to go should the Sheikah decide to face them head on before they can make it to the village.

They also have access to easy slopes up to said canyon walls that an enemy would not have, and so if the Sheikah got wind of an impending attack, they could send up a few archers to shoot down most or all of the enemies before they even go to the village

Now if we zoom out just a bit FURTHER, we see even more advantages to this particular entrance location

As we can see, there's only two roads you can take to get there and they eventually lead up into one.

If attackers really wanted their best shot at sneaking up on Kakariko Village, I would say they should take the road coming from Hateno

cos there's the least amount of people who will see them coming.

Should they come from the Dueling Peaks area, I hope they're ready to get cut off REAL quick cos look

First you'd have to get through the Dueling Peaks which isn't a problem for a small monster or Yiga raiding party, but the likelyhood of larger force invaders is a lot higher coming from this direction because if its location relative to Hyrule Castle. If someone trying to overthrow the Hyrulean crown wanted to really finish the job, of course they would top it off by taking down the village of the royal family's most loyal advisors. So they would need to come through the Dueling peaks to get there, and that is probably the slowest bottleneck to ever bottleneck. All you have is a VERY narrow shoreline that would slow down any self respecting army considerably.

THEN, you have additional issues 1, 2, and 3

First, Big Twin bridge. Yet another teeeeny tiny lil bridge that would just continue to slow down a large army. (But also wouldn't necessarily be a problem for a small band of enemies)

Second, the Dueling Peaks Stable. Depending on how you feel about the lore and when the stable system was established, this might not be an issue pre-calamity, but for the sake of argument, we're gonna assume they were there all along.

The stable would be nothing but a small hiccup for a large army, but for a smaller group of raiders? This could be Kakariko's first line of defense. And even if it doesn't end up stopping anything at all, it's a literal stable! It would be all to easy for someone to hop on a horse and book it to Kakariko to warn the Sheikah and give them plenty of time to prepare.

And then third is Kakariko Bridge which poses the same issue to a large scale attack as the Big Twin bridge does.

NOW! I do have a few grievances with Kakariko Village itself that I cannot ignore.

Kakariko Village is built on a hill, and while I DO appreciate that the vast majority of the village's stores and inns and the like are lower down, I do worry about the level system

It's split sort of-ish into four tiers

Ideally, the highest tier would be where they put Impa's house and all their shops and things of most importance, but instead, it's at the very bottom. This is less than ideal because any enemies coming from the main entrance above would have a bigger height advantage.

HOWEVER! It sort of cancels out though just because there are plenty of buildings (and this neat tree stump)

to use for cover.

My other grievance must be taken with a grain of salt. We know that the Sheikah are brilliant inventors and excellent fighters, so overpowering them in a fight would be hard to do.

Exceeeeeppptttt...

Besides Dorian and Cado, we don't really see anyone else in the village who is obviously a fighter. Most of them are farmers or cooks or seamstresses. And while I'm sure Pikango could absolutely take a person or two out with his paintbrush slinging skills, it doesn't bode well for them that there's only two trained fighters in the entire village (not counting Impa).

I do say take it with a grain of salt thought because who knows! They are the Sheikah, so the chances that everyone in that village is secretly well trained in combat is extremely possible! If that were the case, then they have an entire village of people who know how to use both Sheikah weapons and the equipment of their trade to their best combat functionality which is pretty cool XD

BUT! All my own ideas and thoughts aside, they had to have done something very right seeing as it's one of three Hylian villages to survive the calamity. And that is very important actually because we know that Calamity Ganon targeted the places that would be most crucial to defeating it [as seen by the havoc wreaked on Hyrule Castle, the Akkala Citadel, and (believe it or not) the coliseum]. Naturally, the Sheikah were essential to defeating it seeing as they invented the Divine Beasts and Guardians (which the Calamity ended up bending to its will but that's beside the point). So it would make sense that the Calamity would try to bring down Kakariko Village and the Sheikah living there.

BUT IT DIDN'T! It is still standing 100 years later, and if you look around, aside from the guardian remains all over Blatchery Plain, there's not many guardians near the village either. So, personal opinions and insights aside, Kakariko Village had to be doing something right XD

Honestly as far as overall defenses go, I'd give Kakariko a SOLID 8/10. It has some weaknesses, but honestly it's an incredibly defensible village all things considered. Nicely done, Nintendo XD

[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

[airplanned]

All the Trashy Novels Part 29

It’s a long one, because it’s the smutty climax.

Part 1...Part 28

***

Link pulled his horse to the side of the road as they were riding past the wetlands, right before the fork away from Zora's Domain.  She stopped and waited impatiently as he crouched down in the tall grass and snuck towards the water.  What was he doing?  It was impossible to tell with him.

A minute later, he shouted, "Ha!" and stood up with his hands cupped together.  He came up to her horse, lifted his hands for her to see, and uncupped them.  Inside was a dragonfly.

"Oh!"  She slipped off her horse to bow her head over the cave of his hands and peer inside.  When it launched itself upward, she meeped and jumped back, laughing and pressing a hand to her chest as it darted off.  At some point she had taken hold of Link's wrist.

He smiled at her and shifted, twisting their hands until hers was locked in his, and then pulling her off the road and towards the water.  He caught her another dragonfly, and she caught him a frog, explaining its medicinal properties and how one day she would use it to run experiments on him.

"You're already running experiments on me," he said.

"No.  You are assisting as I run experiments on myself."

"What experiments will you run first?"

"I need more data points.  Duration and intensity of the glowing.  I need a survey of the other factors that may be involved before devising a more strenuous set of experiments."

His mouth quirked, as if he were trying not to laugh at her.

She shoved him into the shallow water.  

A second later, he'd grabbed her around the middle and pulled her down with him, and splashing and spluttering, she'd had to fight her way to sitting.  He grinned at her, and she covered his face with her hand.  He took the opportunity to lick her palm, and she shrieked and ranted about how gross he was all the way to the citadel.

There they stopped for the night: one last night sleeping in a bed in exchange for playing princess as the general gave a guided tour and then hosted them at dinner.  But the tour turned out to be much more interesting than she'd expected.  A team of Sheikah had brought in a handful of guardians with the intention of adding them to the citadel's defenses.  They were a bit behind those from the Royal Tech Lab, and had to be aimed manually, but they still outstripped the cannons.  The general and the Sheikah soaked up every word she said, and soon she was gesturing wildly with her arm half inside a guardian, her face streaked with grease.

"The general's in love with you," Link whispered as he walked her to her room.

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Everyone here's in love with you."

"No, they're not.  They're just too far removed from the castle and haven't heard the terrible gossip about me yet."

"Okay, but if you ever need a fake Akkalan boyfriend, I bet he'd volunteer."

"I do not require a fake Akkalan boyfriend."  She paused at her door.  "How is your fake townie girlfriend?"

"We broke up."

"Oh?"

"She didn't like that I was leaving town for so long.  And she didn't like that I was going with you.  She's very jealous of you."

"Well," Zelda said.  "She should be.  Everyone here is in love with me."

He nodded.

"Everyone at the castle will be disappointed."

"They'll get over it."

"What will you do the next time you get a bite mark on your neck?"

He lifted his eyebrows.

She lifted hers back.  Then she closed the doors behind her and went to bed, smirking.

They reached the Spring of Power late the next day.  As Link set up camp, Zelda ducked away to see the Goddess statue.  She didn't change into her prayer dress or step into the water.  She couldn't sort what she wanted into words that might reach the Goddess.  She was out of practice praying.  Instead, she bowed her head and clenched her hands before her, gathered all the worry and hope and pleading that tightened in her chest and mentally projected it into the heavens, hoping the Goddess would hear her.

Link gave her a cautious look as she returned.  She realized that she usually left her prayers feeling lost and worthless and small.  Link must have noticed.  He must be expecting more of the same.  But this time felt different.  It wasn't a gladness that she'd heard others describe, but maybe the hope and determination that had pushed her on for the past few days was bolstered by the Goddess.  Then again, maybe it was the absence of a sense of defeat.  She gave Link as honest of a smile a she could as she accepted the bowl he passed to her.

"I'm alright," she said.  "I'm going to figure this out."

"I know you will."  He said it so easily that it disarmed her. 

Because of the depression in the ground, the sun seemed to set earlier than usual.  They ate in silence, and she pretended the warmth on her face was from the fire. 

She snuck a few looks at him--his posture easy, the planes of his face lit orange in the light.  He was handsome.  She'd never thought about him that way before.

She blinked, handed back her bowl, and retreated to her tent.

She arranged everything to her liking. She had a comfortable bed roll and a number of blankets fit for a princess.  She had a soft glowing lantern and a pocket watch and the Sheikah Slate and a journal with a pencil.  She made sure the pencil was sharpened.  She changed into a shirt with fine embroidery around the collar and a softness that belayed wealth, but it was also far too big for her, fitting a bit like a sack that barely covered her rear.  She didn't wear anything else.

She was suddenly overwhelmed with nerves.  But she took a shaky breath and stuck her head out of her tent.  "I would like to run an experiment.  If--if you have a moment."

He looked up from the fire, his interest piqued, and she ducked back into her tent before he could see how badly she was blushing.  Once in her tent, she put on as much bluster as she could to hide her nerves, ordering him to remove his boots and his sword and his shirt.  She thought about asking him to remove his pants, but that seemed a bit pushy.  Maybe she needed to be pushy?  "And your pants," she said.  "But your undergarments can remain."

She then had him lie on his side on her mat.  "You will observe and take notes," she explained, showing him were the pocket watch and journal were.  She tucked her hair behind her ears, lay down facing him, and hooked her leg over his hip.

He looked mildly surprised, but went along with it.  And that was weird, right?  This was weird.  She was taking advantage of how he couldn't deny her.  She was royalty and possibly the key to saving everything he knew from destruction.  Maybe should should find a way to--

"You're over-thinking it," he whispered.  He'd made himself comfortable, resting his head on his arm and a hand on the small of her back.

She huffed.  Then she closed her eyes and worked her hand down her body.

"Want me to help?"

"I don't want you to be too distracted to record your observations."

"Right.  Good.  Because this isn't distracting at all."

She pinched him with her free hand, and he laughed.  It was soft and low and she could feel his breath against her face.  It did more to arouse her than her own hand, which slid between her legs.

His hand moved to her bare hip, and once he did, she could feel how much she moved against him, how much her hips rocked.  He didn't try to control her rhythm or hold her still, and she found her movements growing even more animated as the pleasure built around her.  She bit her lip and breathed.  

His voice was soft like his laugh when he murmured, "What are you thinking about?"

"What you would say if you were talking to me."

"What would I say?"

"'That's it, Zelda. That's so good.'"

Not missing a beat, he said, "You're so good, Zelda.  The way you move, the way your whole body moves.  You're so emphatic.  In everything you do.  Your whole body moves when you talk.  And now, Goddess look at you, the way your shoulders move and your back arches."

Her shoulders rolled even more, her breath coming quick.

"Call me something sweet," she said.  In her head, he called her darling, and it wasn't quite right.  She always stumbled over it.  She couldn't hear it in his voice.

He leaned in to kiss under her ear, sending a shudder down her spine.  He whispered, "You're my peach."

She gasped, her hand picking up speed, a spike of pleasure rocking through her.    His hands wandered inside her shirt, down her leg.  Dizziness crept in around her edges.

"That's it.  That's it.  Let go.  I've got you."

He had her.  He would catch her when she fell.

"Look at me."

She tried twice to blink open her eyes, and when she finally managed, he was there, a heat in his eyes and adoration on his face.  The rhythm of her hand stuttered, and then his fingers had replaced hers, picking up the rhythm she'd set as he pulled her fingers into his mouth.  It all happened so fast that she thrust her fingers against his tongue a few times before realizing.  His eyes darkened and then rolled as he moaned and sucked greedily at her fingers.  The movements of his hand matched her own, except steady and sure when she faltered, when her body jerked, and her breath caught and caught and caught.  Link would catch her.  She threw her head back and grinned, riding every wave, letting herself fall.  She grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him into a kiss as she burned and burned and burned, still smiling against his mouth.

"Zelda?"

She blinked dreamily up at him, and there was a click as he snapped her picture with the slate.  He turned it around to show it to her. 

She was glowing.  Her whole body surrounded by a halo, her skin golden as if she had become the sun.  The picture smiled dreamily back at her.

"You've been glowing for two minutes and fifteen seconds and counting."

"You timed it?"

"Of course."

She beamed at him, and she could see from her hands on the slate that she was glowing more brightly.  Beams of sunlight radiated off her.  

She reached for Link's cheek and closed her eyes and reveled in the warmth in her chest, the shape of it, the pressure of it.  It was like...happiness?  A warmth of affection that had been there for a while, but had never before tapped into the power of her soul.  She hadn't let it.  She'd held it at bay.  She had pushed it aside to berate herself and turn her insecurities outward.  She'd thought the Goddess was spiteful, but the Goddess was love, and she rewarded those who loved.  To protect her country, she first needed to love it.

"Link?"

"Yeah?" He brushed hair from her face.

"I don't hate you."

"You sure?  That was a little fun."

"Only a little?"

"This is better."

She laughed and dragged him in to kiss her as she glowed.

***

Part 30