#I know technically the link is to Outset

[bitegore]

I made a character sheet to plot your OC's development over time! (There's supposed to be a character name in the big white space next to "over time" but it got eaten a little lmao)

You can use this for whatever you want, and you don't have to credit me. Feel free to change or edit anything you feel like. Please don't tag me if you credit me - just link to the original post.

Credits, explanations & a transparent version under the cut :D

Credits:

The actual image was made with the free NBOS character sheet creator, which is a sort of dated but free and solid text-layout sheet maker intended for ttrpg style character sheet creation.

Fonts used were Bisdak (titles) and Rockwell (body). Both are free! You can use them to fill it out if you like.

Inspired by a comment @maybe-solar-powered-calculator made on this other post about filling it out for characters at multiple points along their arcs. Thanks for putting the idea in my head :D

This is explicitly released under a CC0 1.0 deed, ie: you can do fucking whatever you want with it and I don't care and you don't have to tell anyone where you got it from and no one gets to stop you.

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Last time I made one of these I got a bunch of questions on all manner of things, and I can never keep up, so I'm just appending a set of notes for how to use it and a glossary because I know some of these phrasings will be confusing.

Ignore or change anything you don't feel like works for you here. You can do whatever you want forever.

Suggested / intended use & general notes:

This sheet could work for something story-level, if you want. But it's really only good for individual arcs; if the character goes through multiple arcs in your story, then they're going to fit poorly here. In that case, you're probably better off doing versions for each arc, or just adapting this to a different format more suited to your thing.

Also, if your arc has a nontraditional structure - divorced from the typical "rising action - climax - conclusion" type of structure where there's a clear 'important turning point' - it may not work as well either.

The mindset section is meant to come at it from a 'golden mean' standpoint - that is, everything on either extreme of the slider is 'too much' and therefore bad. It's not bad-to-good! The far right side is a flaw too. They're only grouped the way they are on basis of the specific OCs I personally had in mind when I put it together.

Growth is labeled 'worse'-to-'better' but it means, like, active decrease in that area vs active increase; if nothing changes, it should stay at the center even if it sucks. The category is about contrasting changes, and sometimes changes are for the worse!

The entire sheet is very deliberately subjective. It should really be answered from the character's perspective - how they feel about it, not what's necessarily true. Technically you can do whatever you want and I can't stop you, but it's a better tool if you approach it from the point of view that the character may believe things that aren't true - that will define their behavior way more than the objective facts of the story.

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Definitions:

This part is long as hell - recommend using ctrl+f to find the specific words you're stuck on. I defined everything.

General categories:

Mindset: how your character thinks about themself and how they act. Their understanding of their own approach to life. Attitude, viewpoint, decision-making process, that sort of thing.

Circumstances: the relationship between your character and the world around them. Where they are, what that place is like, and how they feel about it.

Growth: how the character and their impact - their attitude, their behavior, their immediate surroundings - changes over time.

Outset: the start of the character's arc.

Present: the 'center' of the arc. If you're planning something ahead of time and it hasn't 'happened' yet, then this is the near future.

End-game: where they are after the conclusion of the arc.

Mindset terms:

Center of the world: "If I have a problem, it's the only thing that matters to me." Self-centered, self-absorbed. Doesn't necessarily mean anything beyond that - they don't necessarily have to be unpleasant to be entirely focused on their own life.

my life isn't relevant: "Everyone else's problems are so significant, I don't pay any attention to my own". Someone who ignores or neglects their own life in service of some other thing, or doesn't consider their own behavior to have any real importance.

Only see enemies: Paranoid. Everyone's out to get them. Anyone who seems nonthreatening is hiding their potential for danger and everyone who seems threatening is a threat. The character must remain ever-vigilant, lest the cashier at the 7/11 suddenly stab them, or their best friend turn out to secretly be trying to poison them to death.

Only see friends: Naïve. Everyone is a good actor who wishes everyone else well, and if they don't seem like they're acting from a place of kindness or care then you probably don't understand what they're up to. The character is pretty sure the stranger holding that knife is, like, someone to chat up maybe, they're clearly only hanging out in this dark alleyway because it's a nice spot and no other possible reason.

overthink everything: Ten thousand thoughts per every single action taken. Maybe they never get around to acting at all. They have to consider every possible outcome. What if by eating lunch they accidentally trigger the apocalypse?! Who's going to think about these things if not them?!?!?!

impulsive to action: Act first, think never. What do you mean "consequences of actions"?

Unilateral decisions: "I will make every choice and no one else's opinions or thoughts are relevant". Discounts outside suggestions. Firmly convinced that they know best in any situation, and will brook no disagreement with their views when it comes to actually doing things.

Command me, please: "I don't know what to do and I don't know what to even start with, someone please tell me what to think". No confidence in their own views. Will not make any decisions unless forced and even then will beg someone else to please tell them what to do. Has no idea what's best and is pretty sure anyone else will have a better idea.

can't ask for help: No one will ever help the character; they have to do everything themself, even the things other people have repeatedly offered to do for them and have much more experience with. Doesn't necessarily mean that no one will help them or that they are explicitly barred by some real-world circumstance; just that, for whatever reason, they refuse to ask for help. This is an attitude thing - will they ever reach out? No? Then they're here.

too reliant on others: Have they ever solved a problem alone? Do they believe they're even capable of doing so? The character all the way at this end of the scale absolutely never expects to be able to do anything themself, has no trust in their ability to solve a problem, and needs someone else to come save them from it. The kind of person who needs ChatGPT to do their homework. Again - doesn't actually mean anyone will help them, or that the people they're relying on are reliable - just that they think they are helpless without ... well, help.

Weapon maker: This has to do with problem-solving strategies and not actual weapons. The weapon-maker is a character who views every situation as a conflict that cannot be de-escalated or solved by cooperation, and responds appropriately. The most fundamental weapon maker character turns everything into an argument, a fight, a war, etc. There are a bunch of other responses to conflict, though - they might avoid problems that need solving because they avoid conflict generally too. Fundamentally what you want to answer here is: when they see a locked box and they don't have the key, do they respond to it the same way they'd respond to someone telling them "you can't open this box"? And how do they respond to that? Typical weapon-maker approaches: - brute-force the box open or try and then give up if it doesn't work; and also get into an argument that might turn physical with the hypothetical person - shrug and give up immediately, in both situations so on and so forth. Another hallmark is that they kind of suck at problem-solving and give up if brute-forcing a problem doesn't work. This is not someone who is picking locks unless someone else told them to - they have one solution, it's to make everything into a conflict, and then to win that conflict by beating them or to give up because they think they'll lose.

Tool maker: This person approaches every situation like it's a puzzle, not a fight - up to and including actual fights. Tool-maker characters generally assume that a situation can be solved by just finding the right approach and doing it the clever way. There's the same fundamental question as above - if your character sees a locked box and has no key, would they approach it differently than someone telling them they're not allowed to open the box? 'Typical' tool-maker approaches: - I can trick the person into giving me the key by saying the right things, and I can also pick the lock because fundamentally there are 'right answers' to both of these - If i make friends with this person, they might change their mind, because now we're cooperating. I can still pick the lock because there are 'right answers' there. - The person has a reason for wanting me not to open the box, so I can definitely figure out what that is and solve the reason so then they'll let me open it. I can take whatever it is even if they really want to keep it if I just find the right answer. I'm going to break this box into little pieces because that's the easiest way to get into it but I could probably open it some other way if that wouldn't work.

A note - the center of this bar is someone who generally has different responses to different kinds of situations - like, in the box example, they'd approach the box and the person with two different general attitudes and processes - but generally responds to those situations using the same kind of decision-making process for each category every time. Most people are nowhere near either extreme. Characters tend to be classifiable into weapon-maker and tool-maker because they are fictional and it's easier to define one kind of approach than many. Approximately average approaches: - pick the lock if no one's around, but give up if someone is there because someone telling me not to open the box is a conflict i think i'll lose but a locked box is just a puzzle that i can solve - argue with the person, but give up on the box, because they're approaching the box as a puzzle and they don't think they have the skill to get into it, but the person is someone who can be convinced or bullied into handing over the key

I made this particular dichotomy up, which is why I think I get a lot of questions on it whenever I put it into anything, but I also don't know of any other snappy way to describe this sort of thought or approach variance, and it's genuinely useful for character writing in my opinion.

Pessimist spot-finder: Generally a downer but not necessarily. This kind of character just approaches everything with a close eye for problems, issues, reasons to find fault. If they're miserable, it might be why, but like, they can be a cheerful spot-finder if you want, I just wanted to get at "the glass is half empty" and "the glass is half full" more than anything.

Optimist upside fan: The opposite. "The glass is half full". If there are problems, they can find something about them that's not so frustrating or bad to focus on. Pretty damn good at overlooking minor issues if there's no reason to fixate on them. Not necessarily cheerful.

Abysmal company: could not give less of a damn about treating people the way they 'should' be treated. Maybe they take pride in that. Maybe they just think it's irrelevant. Either way, they know they treat people badly and they don't see any reason to stop. Does not necessarily mean that they treat people badly if they think they're doing the right thing and are wrong. Doesn't mean they're actually pleasant or unpleasant to hang out with, either, unless you really want it to mean that.

Decent to others: treats people well as a matter of course, or at least they sure think they do. Makes an effort. Would probably care and/or consider changing their behavior if someone said they were treating someone poorly. As before - they can be completely un-self-aware and just think they're doing right by people while treating them completely horribly.

Morality is irrelevant: 'abysmal company' for broader approaches to life and problems. Maybe they just know they're myopic and don't think other people's problems matter. Maybe they just gave up on trying to differentiate between 'good' and 'bad' and outsourced it to someone else or stopped paying any attention. Maybe they just like to take morally unjust actions and can't be bothered giving a damn when someone points out that they're morally unjust, or maybe they're proud of it. Kind of a villain trait generally, but not necessarily - it doesn't have to mean they act badly, just that they don't care if they do. Also, this is about how they choose their own actions and view their own behavior. They can think morality is relevant for other people as long as they ignore it when they act themself.

Always in the right: feels morally righteous in every decision they make. Standard superhero type of trait. Doesn't necessarily pass judgement on others, doesn't necessarily act well according to everyone's moral code (see: blue and orange morality), but they are extremely principled and will never deviate from the moral code they personally believe in. And they do genuinely believe in it.

Circumstances terms:

Generally terrible to generally excellent: how subjectively decent is your character's situation, overall? If they think everything is horrible, but the situation is charmed to everyone except them, then it's generally terrible.

Need for changes to passive tolerance: will they do something about it? Do they feel like they have to?

No agency in action to decisions are huge: agency being "how much power do I have to make changes here?", this just asks how much they have. No agency means that, no matter what they do, nothing will happen - they might be locked in a cage or somehow otherwise completely unable to use any sort of power at all, even the power of just leaving. The other end of the spectrum is where every decision the character makes makes a huge difference, not just to themself but to everyone around them as well. They can start wars, they can have anyone they want killed, they can do anything whenever they feel like it. If they think they have no agency even though they do actually have agency, they don't have agency here. If they feel like they have all the agency in the world and can do anything, then they do even if it's not true. It's perceptual again.

Stakes are deadly to mistakes solvable: what are the consequences of failure? Will you die, will you lose status you can't afford to lose, will you lose belongings, will you have to apologize, will nothing happen at all? Mistakes solvable is where they think every mistake is solvable forever - the character pushes someone through a woodchipper and they come out and to fix it, maybe an apology has to occur, but not much else. Does not necessarily mean no one gets hurt or killed as long as the character thinks there are no permanent consequences. This is the most important one on this section to keep subjective because it will greatly influence how your character approaches situations. A character who thinks everything is deadly-stakes may go to cartoonishly-extreme lengths to avoid turning a report in a day late. A character who thinks all mistakes are always solvable may push someone through a woodchipper and then just assume they can say they're sorry and it'll all go away. The setting and their approach do not need to be applicable.

Needs go unmet to attended with care: how do the people around them treat them? Do they pay attention when the character needs something, or do they ignore it? Does the character have to do everything themself around here, or are there people who will help out?

Regarded poorly to regarded well: how do they think other people see them? Are they respected, are they liked, or are they disliked? Do people broadly trust them or are they pretty sure everyone regards them with suspicion?

Nothing changes to changes in seconds: functionally the 'stability' meter of your setting - is the situation generally stable, or are things constantly changing? Does your character feel like every five minutes, there's a new problem that needs dealing with, or do they feel like nothing has ever happened ever?

Growth terms:

Changes in place: do they go somewhere else? Does the physical setting otherwise change (eg; earthquake, war, etc) ? Are there any other reasons that the 'vibe' or 'experience' of the place is different from before?

Change in power: does the character's percieved agency (see: no agency in action to decisions are huge) change? Alternately you can use it if they've gained or lost power in some percieved way (deposed, assigned a commanding position, etc).

Change in bonds: do their relationships with people change? Have they made new friends, lost old friends, changed the nature of their relationships with friends or partners, etc?

Change in beliefs: straightforwardly, have their beliefs, morals, etc, changed?

Change in hurts: have they undergone some horrible experience? Do they have past trauma from some pre-arc horrible experience they're healing from and/or discovering they're more powerfully subject to? Did they experience a physical injury that they're recovering from or which materially changed their life? Did something recent dredge up old issues? So on and so forth.

Change in hopes: Do their desires for the future look the way they used to? Do they care about different things now? This is something the character is not actively working for, but may be tied to actual goals.

Change in fears: are they overcoming fears? Growing past them? Gaining new ones? Are they scared of shit different from how they used to be?

Change in goals: Not the same as a hope because it needs to have a specific, achievable outcome the character is actively working toward. Do those material goals look different? Perhaps they no longer want to work against something, maybe they didn't have any goals and now they do. Or maybe they've realized the goal is impossible, or something has happened to make that goal unachieveable. Whatever it is, if there's a change, it's a change.

Change in self-awareness: their beliefs about who they are and what they're like, and what their circumstances are. Have they gotten more self-aware, have they gotten less self-aware, or has nothing changed?

Change in relationships: their relationships' overall health and resilience, as far as the character is concerned - which doesn't mean they're necessarily good, just that the character thinks they're how they're supposed to be. Have they improved? Have they gotten worse? Have they not changed?

Change in knowledge: do they feel like they know more about the world, their place in it, the people around them, etc? Not necessarily how to do things - just general information and awareness.

Change in social standing: how does others' regard for the character change over this part of their arc? Do people like them more or less? Are they respected more or less than before? Has nothing changed? And so on.

Change in skills and abilities: do they feel more skilled than they were before? Do they feel like they know how to do as many things as before? Again - not necessarily rooted in reality - a classic example of a character being wrong about this is a 'big fish in a small pond' character who used to be the high school sports star going to college on a sports scholarship and discovering they're not the best any more, and suddenly feeling like they're the worst - when they're better than they've ever been in an objective light. Use a subjective viewpoint for this.

Change in agency in life: how does the character's percieved agency change? Do their decisions matter less now than ever? Do their actions make way more happen than before? (See: no agency in action vs decisions are huge)

Change in outlook: Here's the upper/downer part. Are they more or less hopeful for the future? Do they think things are more terrible now? Are things improving as far as they're concerned? Or has that not changed?

Change in goal progress: how do they feel like they're progressing on the goals they've set for themself? Are they getting further and further away? Are they getting closer?

If some of this doesn't make sense and you want a clarification, you will have to tag me to get my attention, because I'm turning notifications for this post off the minute it leaves my immediate social circle.

Transparent version: (sorry you had to scroll so far)

[sprite-and-the-bunnydragons]

My Headcanons for the Links’ Last Names (LU)

Time: Lonlon (or is it LonLon?). I doubt the Kokiri had last names, and I think he 100% would have taken Malon’s when they got married to show they were each other’s family.

Warriors: Venir. Combo of Latin and Spanish words that mean “to see” and “to go.” I think both fit the themes and conflicts in Warriors’s game well. Added bonus of being pronounced like the English word “veneer,” which means a kind of pretty polish.

Twilight: Ordon. Ordon Village is so small (and technically outside/not quite Hyrule), I’m not sure they’d do last names. But going into Hyrule proper, someone probably needed his surname and/or called him Link of Ordon. The “of” got dropped after a bit. Twilight loves it because it reminds him of home.

Sky: Crimson. I like to think the people of Skyloft only get their last names when they meet their loftwing, and it’s always the loftwing’s color. Sky is the first to have the Crimson last name in a very long time, and he likes it. Much better than being called Slate, do you know how many Slates there are? Feels like one of them is always catching people who fall off the edge at night … 😂

Wild: Satori. I haven’t decided whether I like this better as the surname he had before the Calamity, or one he gave himself on his adventure. I kind of like the latter, honestly. Satori and Satori Mountain are completely unnecessary to BotW/TotK’s storylines, but they’re still there and part of one of the most amazing places on Wild’s map, imo. To me, Satori embodies everything about both Wild and his game: exploration, wildness, sacred things in unexpected places, and trying things just to see if you can. Also blue.

Legend: Alphonson. I’ve seen Legend’s uncle be called Alphon before, and I like the idea of Legend deciding on Alphonson because his uncle raised him. (Similar thing happened in my family, lol—I have a several-times-great grandfather who moved to live with his uncle and took his uncle’s name + son bc we’re Norwegian. And now it’s our family name since he immigrated to the USA and the registry keeps surnames the same over generations.)

Hyrule: Alphonson. I know this probably has zero shot at ever being canon, but maybe my favorite hc in LU is that Hyrule doesn’t have a family name, so Legend shares his own. I literally wrote a fic about it 🤣 (you can find it here if you want btw)

Four: Smith. Pretty self-explanatory.

Wind: Crowe. I imagine Outset Island is similar to Ordon; it’s too small to really need/have last names. Wind never knew about them until Tetra and her crew asked him what his full name was. After being told “Grandma” wasn’t an actual last name, Wind decided on “Crow’s Nest” bc that’s where he wanted to be so he could be the first to spot Aryll. After some … workshopping (read: the pirates told him “Crow’s Nest” wasn’t a last name, either), Wind settled on Crowe. Tetra added the “e” on the end because she said it looked pirate-ier.

[margindoodles2407]

Rando Link Headcanons: ft BACKSTORIES!!!! WHAT???

Forger: When he and Goddess and Groose were 12, there was a horrible fire on Skyloft. Being a small island, and with all the houses being made of mostly wood, pretty much his entire block was ENGULFED with flames. It claimed the lives of both his parents, Zelda’s mom, and Groose’s grandmother and older sister (who had been raising him), and left all three of them with moderate, but not life-threatening, burn scars- Link’s on his left arm, Zelda’s on her back, and Groose’s along his legs. The lung damage caused by smoke inhalation also gave Link moderate to severe asthma, which is why he has to consume Stamina Fruit and Potion so frequently to replenish his gauge.

Fractal: During his Hyrule's era, it was customary for children training to become knights to apprentice for 5 years under a Blacksmith, because it was considered honorable to wield a sword of one's own forging (and it was practical and more cost-effective to know how to repair your own sword in case it got damaged). That's why he is living with his Grandfather in Minish Cap, even though his father (and his mom okay i want there to be at least ONE link with a healthy intact family) is alive and well. During Minish Cap, he is on his 4th year of apprenticeship and is 15 (alrighty look i know he's a toon link but it's MY headcanons and I can age him up if i need to. which i do.)

Orpheus: Say what you want about "chosen heroes" and "destiny", you can't tell me that out of the blue one day his big sister hands him a flute and he's IMMEDIATELY amazing at it. In fact, he's actually quite terrible at the Ocarina until about right around the time he finishes the Shadow Temple, and until then he has to play every song he tries at LEAST three times before he gets it right because he keeps forgetting proper fingering. (by the time Majora's Mask rolls around though he is quite good at it because he's practiced so much)

Dawnbringer: HETEROCHROMIA. BOY'S GOT A BLUE EYE AND A BROWN EYE. YOU CAN RIP THIS HEADCANON FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS.

Awakener: He is actually quite good at singing. Aryll is terrified of storms of any kind (which is reasonable, considering hurricane season affects Outset the HARDEST of all the islands), and she would only calm down if he sang to her, especially when she was little. He can also belt shanties like nobody's business. It has earned him considerable respect from Tetra.

Engineer: First of all, like what I said for Fractal: he may be a Toon Link, but these are my headcanons and if I feel the need to age him up then I reserve that right. He is 18- because you can't tell me that they're SERIOUSLY going to let a 12-year-old graduate from Train School; this may be a Hyrule but I'd like to think that Tetra would have had more common sense than that when she wrote the New Hyrulian Constitution- however, he is quite short and has a BABY. FACE. and people consistently think he's younger than he is, aging him at around 14. Which I think is hilarious because this technically makes him the physically oldest Link and yet people would assume that he's one of the younger ones. (Phantasma suffers from this plight too, though to a lesser extent).

Odysseus: After the events of his games- and after he has moved into the palace to be Visionary's personal guard- he keeps a small garden where he grows plants that hold symbolic meanings from his adventures: Apples to commemorate his uncle, Hibiscus bushes to remind him of Marin, Mystery Seed Plants from Holodrum, and a cutting from the plant Roperi was growing in Labrynna's distant past.

Graffiti: He and Ravio look identical, except for the colors of their hair and skin and eyes. In most incarnations, people would tend to portray them as hating this fact, however, MY versions of them find it HILARIOUS and will sometimes dye each others' hair and wear contacts and try to pass off as the other. Hilda and Icon see right through it, of course, but several castle attendants in both Hyrule and Lorule have been completely fooled by it until the boys can't hide their laughter anymore.

Genesis: My man is quite the survivalist and can and will go DAYS without eating because his body is just used to it (due to his childhood years of living in the wild on his own in a cave). It drives Dawn MAD. She has to force him to eat sometimes (but he adores her so all she has to do is ask nicely). However, he is an AVID tea drinker (and ind of a tea snob) so, though he might miss meals regularly, make him late for TEA TIME and he will END YOU.

Luminary: During his last stand 100 years ago, he was WRECKED by the guardians- much more than would have been appropriate to show in-game. In fact, his left eye was COMPLETELY destroyed. During his century-long nap, it had to be totally repaired by Sheikah Tech, and so it has these threads of orange Ichor intertwined with the blue of his iris. This is what allows his encyclopedic knowledge of the things in the game- like how the Champion's tunic lets him see enemy health gauges, the identification of item names and weapon stats after he's interacted with them once, and the names of locations when he enters them.

[gintrinsic-writing]

Imagine how horrified Legend would be if he found a single lone gravestone, the name carved into the stone sending a a chill down his spine.

Marin.

So this ask has been living rent-free in my head for days, and let me tell you, it has a roommate.

https://gintrinsic-writing.tumblr.com/post/657391647091490816/once-upon-a-time-link-had-a-dream-a-dream-so

Honestly if I didn't already have so many WIPs, I'd probably try to write something substantial for this idea combo. Just picture the group stepping out of a portal to the sounds of lapping waves and birdsong...

Wind grinned as brightly as the sun shined. "Smells like home," he said, tugging off his boots to dig his toes into warm sand. "But I don't think it is."

Wild hummed and tilted his head thoughtfully. "We're on Evantide."

"No," Legend croaked, drawing attention to himself without even realizing it. His wide eyes were trained on a small hill above the shore, where a single, sunbleached gravestone rested beside a wilted hibiscus plant.

"It's Koholint."

[summertimemusician]

Honestly the one thing that really frustrates me about Hyrule Warriors is how they cut Linkle being Link's sister, because otherwise it would have recontextualized Warriors entirely as a character.

This is mainly just headcanon territory, but something always bugged me about him being a knight in training from the get go, mainly because it's usually never any Link's first choice with First, Sky and Wild being the main exceptions (Gaepora took him in, and Gaepora runs the knights academy, makes sense he'd want to join then plus he'd probably want to protect Sun, plus Skylofts knights function differently than Hyrule knights, they don't have the same hierarchy and Skyloft is pretty peaceful before SS truly picks up so again, makes sense he wouldn't have troubles joining, we don't know First's reasons besides him seeing evil on the horizon and deciding if no one's was gonna do anything about it he might as well do it himself, and Wild was basically recruited at a young age for pulling the Master Sword while presumably young, he was never given a choice), we see it with Four, he's a blacksmiths apprentice under his grandfather and we see in his manga him practically baring his teeth at his father he won't become a knight and he doesn't pick up the sword unless really necessary, we see that with Time, he was raised as a Kokiri, he dreamt of adventure already from the drawings we see in his room, but he could always just become an adventurer if he wanted to though of course we see that change with the Hero's Shade, I'll come back to that, Wind? Was content living in Outset with Aryll before Ganon decided to fuck around and found out really hard, Legend was also a blacksmiths apprentice and adventurer and he only takes up knight training in the manga because Sir Raven inspired him, like even if he didn't want to be a knight the training would still serve him well (and lo and behold the advice pays off given all the shenanigans mostly caused by divine beings Legend gets saddled with), Hyrule obviously leaves in a very hostile world so he wouldn't even have ANY time to think about knight training, he's self taught because he'd literally die if he wasn't given monsters need his blood to ressurect Ganon so it's honestly a unique case of technically self defense, either he learned to hunt or he'd remain hunted, Twilight is the same case as Wind's, Ganondorf fucked around and found out with the wrong older sibling's people plus the protagonists heavily implied love interest(s) and got shafted into next week, him and Dusk don't have a personal connection besides Midna for him to stick around much and we see him go back to Ordon, so no knighthood there, so why was Warriors different? What motivated him?

I think Linkle being his younger sister would have been the answer.

Long post ahead, continue under your own risk

I know lots of people characterize Warriors as being of a noble line and joined the knights at the urging of his father, but let's not forget most Links are orphans so thinking Wars is an exception is a pipe dream. So that's out, however, in medieval times knights actually get plenty of benefits since they work mostly for lords, ladies and the local crown, being a knight is synonymous with being a noble or at least having a decent life at the cost of serving someone else and the Hyrulean knights don't really have any requisites before joining (though we do see long lines of knights exist, which some Links are descended from without their knowledge, so it's not farfetched to think that a good chunk of the knights of Hyrule qualify as members of noble houses loyal to the Hyrulean crown, would also explain their why they're ineffective a lot of the time too, if most of them grew noble and Hyrulean isn't war seeking {most of the time} then they wouldn't have any real experience), it would be a good way for Warriors to support himself as he climbs up the ranks, and most importantly, someone else, because he'd need to make that money to feed Linkle if she's his younger sister because most Links who take on elder sibling roles are at their best when trying to protect their younger siblings (Wind with Aryll, Twilight with Collin, to an extent Legend and Gulley, all Links are at their best when fighting/protecting someone else), Linkle could grown up without restrictions and he could support them both, making them work harder than other knights because he's already at a disadvantage.

Making it so he's in the perfect place at the right time to get noticed by Artemis before the War of Ages, and give him a reason to go against orders and fight rather than standby like other traineés, being discovered as the Hero in the process.

And as a result since Mask is in the war too, he gets inspired by Warriors (who as an older brother would definitely just snatch him, Wind, Tetra and heck even the Skull Kid under his wing because no way is he letting children younger than even his own little sister fight alone) and eventually becomes a knight too after presumably stopping his search for Navi or using his knight status to search more effectively, which gives us the Time we see in LU who eventually become the Hero's Shade, which trains Twilight. Because he looked up to Warriors while younger.

I just think it's a huge missed opportunity with a lot of room for angst/hurt comfort/drama, and also opportunities for Warriors, Legend and Wild to bond over not really liking the knights because they've all not likely been treated well by his fellow knights while young even though he himself is one, and that Warriors would absolutely be one of the first to throw hands if he heard another soldier talk badly about any of the Links, in this essay I will-

[pixelartpeach]

Hyrule Brochure: A Potential for BotW’s Future

Hyrule’s map in BotW is pretty sparse as far as cities go. Yes, it’s got more than any other Zelda game, but it also has like, 90% of its map being pure dead space.

So I decided to play around and make what I imagine Hyrule would look like, as far as cities go, if it were allowed to properly rebuild and not get totally wrecked by Ganon again.

Credit to Eragon2589 on DeviantArt for the free-to-use map icons. I love these little buttons so much.

So, these are the canon towns we get in BotW; Hateno, Lurelin, Tarrey, Zora’s Domain, Goron City, Korok Forest, Rito Village, Yiga Hideout, and Gerudo Town. I’m counting Yiga Hideout as a town because if the Yiga were a little nicer, it WOULD be marked one.

Adding the various stables on makes the place look MUCH less empty, but still; what can we do with this?

Well, I’ve spent the last several days locating all the significant ruins and landmarks, with one or two extra things thrown in, that I think would make this place much more populated.

Maps are free to use if you want them, btw. Have fun!

As a general rule of thumb, I want to make the towers and stables their own cities. The towers are a good landmark and beacon of safety, and the stables have all the building blocks to start building up a village.

If I’m particularly inspired, I’ll give some background on what the town is/does!

Starting off with the Rito! Their village has grown into a town, and the stable at its foothill is its own village now. I called it “fledgeling” because that’s where the Rito and Hylians would intermingle most, so the Rito aren’t exactly flying around here.

Beacon City is built around Tabantha Tower; the Rito have turned it into a sort of lighthouse, reflecting light off into the distance to help guide nighttime fliers home. Because of this, it’s a very popular stop for mail carriers, and where they go, development and cultural mixing follows.

Kaysa Town is built around Great Fairy Kaysa’s fountain; it’s a popular tourist attraction, and she gets plenty of offerings, so win-win!

For the Gorons, we’ve only got two more cities: Silversmith Village and Din’s Spire. Silversmith is built around the culture in the southern mines, and it has down-the-road access to the Goron Hot Springs. Din’s Spire is less of a town and more of a landmark, due to the sheer cliffs all around it, but the huge (and notably not in the burning death zone) hot spring lake makes it a popular rest stop for people on their way through.

I decided not to rebuild the northern mines; they’re pretty busted up and lava soaked, so my assumption is that they were abandoned either due to hazards or due to the ore being stripped out.

Korok Forest wouldn’t change much, besides the Royal Family declaring it a protected area. The Koroks don’t seem to have much interest in expansion, and they, as far as I know, don’t live in houses.

Gerudo Territory is MUCH more expansive than the others so far, and with good reason.

Gerudo Town itself is now Gerudo City, and the Kara Kara Bazaar has grown into a town. Canyon Stable has developed a village (mostly full of Gerudo husbands so they don’t have to travel a million miles just to see their families).

The Gerudo have control of one of the towers in their region, and the town built around it is Overlook Town. It mostly serves as a training grounds for young Gerudo warriors.

The City of the Seven developed when the Seven Heroine statues were recovered and restored; the town around them was built to honor them, and then it got a LOT of foot traffic from those wanting to see the legendary statues.

Tera Town rose up much in the same way Kaysa Town did up in Rito territory, centered around the Great Fairy Fountain.

Mesa Village and West Gerudo Town are both smaller Gerudo settlements; West Gerudo sprung up out of access to snowmelt from the Gerudo Highlands, and Mesa Village, because of its relative safety from Molduga and access to oasis water.

Finally, Gerudo Valley, in reference to Ocarina of Time. This town is a Gerudo-only zone, and is more a fortress than a town. It exists both to keep an eye on the Yiga and to gain control of the mountain pass, making people go through Canyon Village to get to Gerudo instead of avoiding Gerudo customs.

Speaking of the Yiga, they’ve taken two new spots for themselves; Gerudo Tower, which they’ve renamed Kohga Tower in honor of their late Master, and Banana Labyrinth, which serves as their highest security area. Imagine if you’d had to go through the LABYRINTH to get the Thunder Helm back.

Up next we’ve got the Zora. Truthfully, their territory spans as long as Zora river and WELL into the ocean, but these are the only cities that, technically, a Hylian with adequate gear can enter.

Mipha’s Landing is an above-water city built expressly for doing trade. It got its name from the late Mipha; since the tower reaches up into the sky, it was hoped that someday, her spirit would sit atop it for a rest and see all that her people had been able to do thanks to her sacrifice.

Lakebed Village is in Lake Hylia, and it’s actually a slowly-repopulating Lakebed Temple, from Twilight Princess. Meanwhile, Great Bay City is a port town above water and an aquatic metropolis below, full of music and dance and exotic wares.

And finally, Hylians.

Hoo boy.

I’ve split this up region by region but

THIS is how many living spots they’ve got.

Silver stars indicate military towns. Red stars indicate military outposts.

I USE THE TERM MILITARY VERY LOOSELY HERE. Hyrule, since it doesn’t interact with its neighbors, only has the Yiga and the various monsters to fight against. Anything labeled “military” means that it’s staffed by royal employ, meaning knights and Sheikah and the like.

Let’s start with Akkala. The northeast labyrinth has been converted into an emergency bunker, in case Calamity strikes and people need a safe place to hide. Not only is it difficult to break into, it also has a completely empty lower level that’s PERFECT for long-term seige.

City Tempest got its name for being near-constantly wracked by storms. Despite this, though, it remains a popular vacation spot for people who don’t mind a little rain; the Skull Lake and the giant flowers are worth it.

Valley Town rose up out of both East Akkala Stable and Robbie’s workshop. It doesn’t get too much foot traffic, but it doesn’t really need to.

Midna Village, I built where the ruins of Shadow Hamlet are. I figured it was a fitting name, and the area is almost constantly covered in the shadow of Death Mountain.

Four Brothers’ Base is a knight outpost that’s up extremely high, spanning huge bridges between the four Tingle isles.

Then Parapa Palace, in reference to Zelda II: Adventure of Link, was built in place of the Akkala Citadel and functions as a mini Hyrule Castle + Castle Town. In real life, monarchs would have several palaces to go between, kind of like how well-off people nowadays would have a summer home. So, I followed that trend! This is Zel’s summer palace.

And you guys know what Tarrey Town is. Although interestingly, as it expands, it goes vertical into the stone column it was built on.

Onto Central Hyrule.

Camp Rauru is training camp and lodging for new knights. Rebonae Village and Kasuto City were made out of the Wetland and Riverside stables respectively, though Kasuto (also an Adventure of Link reference) gets substantially more foot traffic due to being on the way from Castle Town to Dueling Peaks.

Outset Town got its name, lore-wise, from the fact that it’s the first bit of land Link from BotW visited after leaving the Great Plateau, and meta-wise, because it’s the starting point for Wind Waker Link.

Aquame City surrounds the Coliseum, which is how it grew to be so popular. The grand stage holds sparring matches and various other shows regularly, and it’s a pleasant boat trip from Castle Town to get there.

Saria Town was built out of the old exchange ruins, and it’s in walking distance of the ruined Sage Temple—which, at this point in time, would have been rebuilt—and its existence is both an AoL reference and an OoT one (but mostly AoL, I’ve kind of fallen in love with its map).

New Mabe is where you can find the new Lon Lon Ranch! The ruins there are actually called the Mabe Town Ruins in game, and they’re right by the Ranch Ruins!

Eldin’s pretty sparse as far as Hylian towns go. It’s got Gut Check Camp, where Sheikah train for endurance and elemental resistance, and Windfall Town, a place that sees a LOT of gemstones pass through, freshly mined. That includes rupee ore, mind you!

Faron Province is a little more spaced out, due to the nature of the region. Lurelin’s grown since BotW, becoming a trading bay; meanwhile Cora Lake’s Sheikah Tower has expanded into Parache Town, and the Highland Stable has become Malanya Village. Both of those locations are VERY fond of horses, and they’re a bit competitive, especially during archery season.

Ordona Hamlet is a tiny village tucked away into the middle of Faron. It came about due to the Lakeside Stable, and it’s named that because I am STILL salty that the Zeldevs didn’t put an Ordon Village reference in the game.

Eventide Outpost is more of a testing ground for boats than anything particularly significant, population-wise. The even tides that gave the isle its name make it an ideal location to work out the kinks in new watercraft (and occasionally, the lieutenant in charge of that base demonstrates how to launch a raft into the sky with octo balloons).

Hebra’s the most militarized area of Hyrule, and ideally, it functions as a reserve of men and tech in case Calamity rises again. If there’s anything that BotW’s era learned, it’s to never underprepare for Gann’s return.

Fort Lomei is a converted base, just like the Banana Labyrinth is to the Yiga. This one, though, is patrolled diligently by knights who use daily-changing codes, and it’s impossible to navigate without the locals’ help.

Fort Pikida is situated in that weird stone cavern-y area, and it’s a supply stach and Hebran monster patrol site. It’s the soldiers there’s job to make sure that the Lynels that like to roam the region don’t get too close to residential areas.

Hia Miu Outpost is a training spot for knights sent to the Hebra region; any new soldier to the area has to prove they can handle themselves by going into the Hia Miu shrine and taking on the Major Test of Strength Trial. (Fun fact, did you know that the X-test-of-strength trials reset themselves every blood moon?)

Snowpeak Fortress exists both because it makes a fantastic secondary base for the Hyrulean royals to plan, and because i am once again salty about the lack of Twilight Princess in this game.

Sturnida Resort is built around hot springs! It’s a nice spot for people living around Rito Town and Fledgling Village to take a vacation without having to trek all the way across the country to do it.

Snowfield City came from Snowfield Stable, and it’s the Windfall of Hebra; it sees a LOT of people coming in and out of the region, and the view of the northern lights you can get from there? You’d be hard-pressed to find a Hylian that didn’t have it on their bucket list.

New Tabantha was built on the ruined spot of the original Tabantha Village; you can visit there in-game! It’s a quiet town that raises highland sheep for a living, and its team won the Hebran Triathlon three whole years in a row.

Then, the Tanagar Restricted Zone. If you’ve ever been there, you know EXACTLY why it’s restricted.

Most of the Guardians inside have been dealt with, but the ruined temple remains a hazard testing ground for new tech. It’s off limits to everyone but those with the HIGHEST clearance; I’m talking a direct letter from Zelda herself.

The Thyphlo Secret Camp is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a place for Hyrulean lieutenants to meet for top-secret missions, and it’s one of those places that you need to be SERIOUSLY high rank to even KNOW about.

Over on the edge of Lanayru, we’ve got New Goponga, built where the old Goponga ruins are, and the Crenel Garrison. The Garrison was built to take care of the Lizalfos problems in the waterways, keeping it safe for Hylians and Zora travelers alike. Goponga, on the other hand, is what Lurelin was in game; nice, friendly, and centered around fishery.

In Necluda, we’ve got New Deya where old Deya was ruined (I think BotW Link was born in old Deya!), Watchtower Village built around the lakeside of the Dueling Peaks tower, and then Dueling Peaks City, a HUGE trade hub that was once the Dueling Peaks stable.

Kakariko Village is now a Town, Hateno has grown into a full blown trade harbor, and a tiny village has started to form around the Hateno Tower, making Firly Overlook.

But what I most love is the City of Hylanay.

Back in the game, it was the ruins of the Lanayru Promenade. So I had the promenade rebuilt, then people moved in around it, and now, Hylanay’s basically Hyrulean Venice! I want to visit it.

On the Great Plateau, we’ve got Aboda Town, named after Spirit Tracks’ Aboda Village in reference to the starting point in each game. This Town has access to the original Temple of Time, but because of the nature of the isolated plateau, it doesn’t see a lot of new faces often.

Over around Thundra, we’ve got Tanagar Village overlooking the canyon, built out of the old Tabantha Stable. The village actually builds downwards into the canyon; people have windows carved right out of the cliff face!

Thundra Village is built into the rocky slopes surrounding Thundra Plateau and the Ridgeland Tower. Their houses are built in the shelter of the giant mushroom things that grow so well in the area, and they’re famous for their signature dish of escargot.

The Serenne Exchange is up north, encompassing both the old Serenne Stable and the Maritta exchange ruins. You can buy practically ANYTHING there; if ever there was a supermarket in Hyrule, it would be right there.

The Royal Lab was rebuilt out of its ruins post Calamity, and it’s directed by Purah, who still hasn’t cured her immortality yet. It’s not uncommon to hear explosions as you pass by that place.

And then Camp Rutile is a small observational outpost, meant to keep track of the activity on Satori Mountain. Supposedly, the mountain’s health reflects the state of the rest of the kingdom, so the researchers assigned there are tasked with monitoring it EXTREMELY closely.

And Hyrule Castle. It’s Hyrule Castle.

Now completely bolted into the ground! :D

If we put all these locations together, we get a very nice, very well populated Hyrule, with LOTS to see. This is how I would design the future of BotW’s Hyrule.

Thanks for reading!

[shadow-and-purgatory]

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

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

Bedrolls, Blobs, and Birdseed

read it here on ao3!

Word count: 3844

————

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wind’s face scrunches up. “…yes?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Right!”

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

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

Like he’s being watched.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“That’s a good question, ‘Rule.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For a while.

“Is that… milk?”

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

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

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

“But why?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“How could you?”

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

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

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

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

In hindsight, it may have been a bit much.

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

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

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

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

“Don’t tell me about what?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shit.

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

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

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

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

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

“For…?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Vet? Did you do this?”

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

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

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

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

“Then… who?” Wild asks.

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

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

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

The camp erupts into incredulous chaos.

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

“He got Twi and Wild? That’s cold.”

“He’s just full of surprises, huh?”

“Where did you even get the idea?”

“Maybe it was on one of his quests.”

“Where did you get the birdseed?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[troquantary]

Edward Cullen: That Boy Ain’t Right

So I was doing a reread of @therealvinelle 's collection of Twilight metas, as one does, and in "Edward, Denial, and a Human Girlfriend" she mentions that she doesn't believe Edward is sane. I thought, "ha, yeah, he's definitely not," and also, "but wait, what does that mean exactly, please say more about that." But since she's already inundated with asks, I've decided to use my own head-muscle and explore this idea. (TL;DR: I start out more or less organized, synthesize some points Vinelle has made across several posts (and have hopefully linked to them all where relevant but please tell me if not), touch a little on narcissism, then take a hard left into the negative effects of being a telepath.)

Just a couple things to note at the outset, though. Theses have been written already (probably) about Edward as an abuser. Edward being insane doesn't negate that at all; he's definitely an asshole and just...a disaster of a human being. (I find it more funny than anything, but YMMV.) I'm also going to try to avoid talking specifically about mental illness and how it relates (or doesn't relate) to abusive behavior -- that's territory I'm not really equipped to discuss, like at all. My starting point is "Edward has a deeply warped perception of reality," not "Edward has X disorder."

So: deeply warped perception of reality. The evidence? Goes behind a cut, because my one character trait is Verbose.

Vinelle provides a great example of it in the post linked above, which I'll just quote because she does words good: "[Edward] keeps acting like his romance with Bella is a romantic tragedy, and all the cast of Twilight are actors on a stage making it as sublime as possible." Edward's the one to pursue Bella, but he does so with the full belief, from the very beginning, that it will never last; Bella will "outgrow" him, go on her human way, and he can spend the rest of eternity brooding magnificently over his too-short romantic bliss. [Insert premature ejaculation joke.] Turning her is never an option, even though Alice, Noted Psychic, says that romancing Bella will either end with her dead (exsanguinated) or dead (vampire).

This framing, where he's a dark anti-hero in love with -- but never tainting! -- the pure maiden and eventually leaving her in a grand, tragic sacrifice to preserve her soul? It's fucking bonkers. Bella isn't a person to him in this scenario. As Vinelle points out, Bella's never really a person to him at all; he falls in love with his own mental construct, cherry-picking from what he observes of her behavior and her responses to his 20 (thousand) Questions to convince himself that she is the ideal woman.

Bella's not the only one who gets the projection/cardboard-cutout treatment. Edward sees everything and everyone through a highly particular, personalized lens. He filters his entire reality, which we all do to an extent, but the thing with Edward is that he starts with his conclusions and then only pays attention to the evidence that supports those conclusions. Often that evidence consists of what he admits in New Moon are only "surface" thoughts -- but recognizing that limitation doesn't keep him from taking those thoughts as representative of what people are. Edward then becomes absolutely convinced by his own "reasoning" and won't be swayed from what he has decided is Objectively True. It's obvious with Bella; it's also painfully obvious with Rosalie. (Vinelle explains this and brings up Edward's raging Madonna/Whore complex in the same post, so refer to that again -- she's right.)

He also catastrophizes. Everything. Bella's just vibing in her room, rereading Wuthering Heights for the 87th time? She's gonna be hit by a meteor, better sneak into her room while she sleeps. Bella's going to the beach with the filthy mundanes their human classmates? She's gonna fall in the ocean. Jasper's cannibal pals are stopping by for a visit, but know not to hunt in the area? DISASTER, DEFCON 1, ALSO FUCK YOU JASPER FOR EVEN EXISTING IN MY AND BELLA'S SPHERE YOU UNSPEAKABLE BURDEN. Edward must believe that Bella is vulnerable and in near-constant peril, to support the reality he has created in which he is the villain turned protector and maybe?? hero??? (!!!) for his beloved. So when the actual, James-shaped danger arrives, he goes berserk, snarling and flipping his shit and generally not helping the situation. His fantasy demands that Bella remain human, so instead of doing the very thing Alice, Noted Psychic, assures him will neutralize the threat (and not just a threat to Bella, either, but to Bella's family and any other human James might decide to include in the "game"), he vetoes it immediately, no discussion. Bella Must Not Turn, and he sticks to those guns despite James nearly reducing her to ground beef, despite leaving Bella catatonic with depression (but human! success!) in New Moon, despite Aro's order and his family's vote and, let's not forget, Bella's clearly and repeatedly stated desire to be a vampire. It's going to happen. But he doesn't accept it until Renesmee busts out of Bella like the Kool-Aid man and the poor girl's heart finally, unequivocally stops.

Sane people don't behave this way. I don't want to slap labels on Edward, but I can't help but note that he comes across as highly narcissistic. He's the only real person in his universe, the lone player among us NPCs. That probably has a lot to do with him being frozen in the mindset and maturity of a seventeen-year-old boy, but I think it's also just...him, on some fundamental level. His failure to connect with others and recognize them as full, independent beings with their own wants and priorities isn't like Bella's failure -- she's badly depressed. Edward is...something else, and I get the sense that his sanity has been steadily deteriorating over time. And a cursory google of narcissistic traits turns up some familiar-looking stuff. He's self-loathing, yes, but also grandiose; he hates himself for the monster he is (and hates most vampires besides Esme and Carlisle for their monstrosity, too) but still feels superior to humans, to the extent that he felt entitled to human blood and resented Carlisle for depriving him of his "proper" diet. He eventually returns to Carlisle, but he's far from content -- the beginning of Midnight Sun finds him in a state of ennui, bored and dismissive of (if not outright disgusted by) everyone around him, that has apparently persisted for years and years. He doesn't play the piano, he doesn't compose, he doesn't enjoy anything...at least until Bella comes along and then he becomes obsessed to a disturbing degree with her and his new, romantic tragedy spin on reality.

[Next-day edit: I’m not sure where else to fit this in, but the way Edward casually contemplates violence against people who have, at best, mildly annoyed him is...chilling. I have a hard time writing off his strategizing how to murder the entire Biology class as a result of bloodlust -- it’s so calculated, nothing like the blackout state of thirst Emmett describes when he encountered his own “singer,” and that is probably the default for when a vampire is extremely thirsty. But even ignoring the Biology class incident, Edward still does things like consider, with disturbing frequency, how he might grievously injure or kill Mike Newton, all because...Edward considers him his romantic rival (despite Bella barely giving the kid the time of day). He thinks about slapping Mike through a wall, which might be an amusing slapstick image, except as a vampire Edward’s actually capable of turning this boy’s skeleton to a fine powder. So it’s, y’know, kind of sick when you think about it.

But even worse than that, when Bella tells Edward about how she flirted with Jacob to get at that sweet, sweet vampire lore, Edward chuckles and then, after dropping Bella home, flippantly observes that now that the treaty’s broken, why not genocide? I’m not even kidding, it’s right there in Midnight Sun; he seriously thinks about the fact that he’d be technically justified now in wiping out the entire tribe because a teenager tried to impress a girl with a spooky story. That is fucked. Remember, Edward was there with Carlisle when the treaty was first established. He knows how remarkable it is that they even came to a truce in the first place, that it was only ever possible because Carlisle is...well, Carlisle, and that it marks a pretty significant moment in supernatural history. He doesn’t care; he doesn’t respect it, or he’d never think something like “Ha ha, if I went and killed them all, I wouldn’t even be wrong. I mean, I won’t do it, but I’m just saying, I wouldn’t be wrong.”

Again: not the thought process or behavior of a sane person. (Or a person that respects life in general -- sorry Carlisle, big L.)]

Finally, whether he's a narcissist or not, I think the fact that Edward has constant, unavoidable access to everyone's thoughts is a powerful contributing factor to his instability. He can tune out the mental noise to an extent, but he can't stop it -- so he comes to rely on it like another sense. This causes issues with disconnect and lack of empathy, of course, but there's another facet to this shit diamond: he's basically experiencing a ceaseless flow of intrusive thoughts. His narration in Midnight Sun suggests that he "hears" the words people think, can "see" what they visualize in their mind's eye, and can sense the emotional "tone" and intensity of their thoughts. Therefore, perceiving Jasper's thirst through his thoughts makes Edward more aware of his own, "doubling" the discomfort. This would be a lot to deal with even from just his immediate coven members, but Edward gets all of this pouring into his head like a firehose on a day-to-day basis because the Cullens live right alongside humans. I know Meyerpires have galaxy brains or whatever, but that's a ton to process.

Besides the compounding effect on his own thirst when he "feels" the thirst of others, Meyer never suggests that Edward has difficulty separating his own thoughts from other people's; even when he was newly turned, he recognized Carlisle's "voice" in his head as Carlisle's. That would create a whole different host of issues around identity, but it looks like Edward's escaped that particular torment. However, I can easily imagine that what he does experience is just shy of unbearable nonetheless, with an eroding effect on his sanity over decades. He can't sleep to escape it; he's on a dishwater diet and probably (like the rest of his family) experiencing a perpetual, low-grade physical discomfort due to his thirst never being fully satisfied; and he's around far more people than is the norm for vampires -- even discounting all the humans, his own coven is unusually large -- meaning more noise.

Honestly, it would be weirder if he were all there, considering.

And even though I feel like I lost a sense of structure around where I started ranting about telepathy, I've written like 1.5k words about Edward fucking Cullen and I think that's enough for one post.

[wutheringmights]

I just read the newest chapter and I loved it! ♥ ♥ ♥ I was wondering if you had some hcs about the engineer that you could share?

Awww I'm glad you like it! I just spent 5 minutes trying to figure out what "HCS" meant before realizing I'm a tired idiot who can't read lol

But yeah! I got some headcanons for the engineer/Spirits I can share!

These headcanons are a mix of things I generally believe for any iteration of the Hero of Spirits and a few things exclusive to CTB. It's pretty obvious which are which.

Technically this is slight spoilers since most of this is not mentioned in-story, but Warriors is a such a self-centered asshole that I'm not sure when I can get him to explicitly ask about Spirit's backstory lol

This got super long and kind of just became me talking about Spirits's entire backstory, so enjoy:

Spirits is sixteen during the course of Spirit Tracks, mostly because that was the vibe I got from him when I first played the game (I made him younger for CTB)

He's not descendant from Wind (who I maintain disappeared instead of settling in New Hyrule); instead, he's Aryll's great grandson

His family name used to be Outset, but when everyone who originally immigrated from Outset island took on that last name, they changed it to Aryll to reflect the family matriarch

So Spirit's full name is Link Aryll, though there is a branch of his family that uses Macaryll instead

The Aryll/Macaryll family is huge; everyone has at least six aunts and uncles on all sides of the family and they can trace back how they are related to Aryll

"I'm Grandma Aryl's third son's second daughter's fifth child." -someone Spirits is related to, probably

He actually never met his great grandmother; she died before he was born.

Spirit's dad was full-blooded Lokomo while his mother was Hylian; his mother passed a few months after he was born after never truly recovering from childbirth while his father died in a fishing accident when he was eight

He went to live with an aunt and uncle who owned a general store; their relationship was polite at best. The aunt and uncle told Spirits upfront that they intended to give the store over to his cousin when he was older so Spirits needed to come up with his own life plan

Spirits didn't necessarily mind since he never wanted to work in a store for the rest of his life, but the ultimatum made it clear that they didn't care for him like a son

To this day, their relationship isn't strained and he doesn't hate them. But whenever they meet, he's overly polite; they're more acquaintances than family

He's cool with his cousin though. They have different interests so they aren't best friends, but they're okay.

Spirits also always had his spirit-sensing abilities. It's really like a sixth sense to him, as normal and automatic as seeing and hearing; he actually didn't realize this wasn't normal until he was a little older

His abilities at this point are limited to sensing vague ideas of a person's spirit (if they're light or dark, etc.), and seeing ghosts (which are really rare. You have to have a lot of power yourself to become one)

(Note: I'm not the only one who headcanons Spirits as having spirit sensing abilities; if you know who can up with the idea, please let me know so that I can tag/credit them!)

The elder of his village told him that select Lokomo had minor spirit sensing abilities, and those who did were traditionally made elders of their villages; being more of a follower than a leader, Spirits adamantly dismissed that idea and refused to be trained on how to hone his spirit senses. He also never learned any of the religion behind it

Which was a little worrisome since his abilities are way stronger than most

Besides, he's always liked trains and it's been his dream to travel around the kingdom as an engineer; being some town's elder would get in the way of that

Anyway, Spirits had to pass a written exam before being accepted as an apprentice engineer, so he's very studious and has a lot of drive (pun unintended?)

He went to live with his Uncle Niko during his apprenticeship in another town; Niko isn't related to him, but he's been a friend of the family for so long that everyone secretly thinks he's actually related to someone and they just forgot who

Niko is his real family, hands down. Those two are as thick as thieves and bring out the wild side in each other

A preteen Spirits used to think Niko was a little lame and kind of embarrassing, but now that he's older, he's all for Niko's weird old man-ness and has even picked up on some of his weird old man-ness himself

That being said, they're both disasters. Neither can clean or cook or do any kind of housekeeping and their shared house is cluttered with Niko's art projects and Spirit's half-finished tinkering

Growing up, Spirits had no idea he was related to the legendary Hero of Wind; Aryll died before he was born, but even in life she was filled with too much grief over her missing brother to discuss it often. Within the family, being related to the Hero of Wind is a rumor at best.

Of course, Niko knows but keeps it a secret from Spirits; once he got back from his LU-adventure, Wind told Niko about the curse of the Hero's Spirit. Then he went missing post-New Hyrule's founding, which really drove the terror of the curse home. Niko thought he could keep Wind's family from falling victim to it by not inadvertently encouraging them to follow in Wind's footsteps

So Niko kept it a secret

And obviously, that didn't work

Spirits' quest to save New Hyrule resulted in him realizing that he needed to embrace his Lokomo heritage and get a handle on his spirit powers; Anjean gave him a little training during his quest but afterwards he traveled around the kingdom to find as many people as he could with abilities like his

They were all really excited to teach him what they knew, especially the religious aspects of the abilities; Spirits is still not the most religious person, but he at least understands and embraces the cultural significance of what he is able to do

This is where he learned how to read a person's Spirit to get an idea of their life experiences and the kind of person they're like; he can also detect where a person is without having to put much effort into it

At Zelda's encouragement, he also got more sword training from the Castle Guard. She offered him a place among them, but he turned it down in favor of remaining an engineer. He still helps around as a swordsman when he can and will act as Zelda's body guard

Speaking of which, he and Zelda are 100% in love. Their relationship started out as puppy love but over the years as matured into a deep connection built on mutual respect

When he's working on designing new engines or parts for his trains, he occasionally brings his drafting materials to the castle gardens so that he can work alongside Zelda; sometimes she falls asleep leaning against his arm and he has to be careful not to shake her awake as he works

Whenever she need to go anywhere in the kingdom, she rides in his train and teasingly criticizes his conducting; he takes a lot of pride in his conducting, but he lets her get away with it since her critiques are objectively hilarious

He keeps a tiny pictograph of her taped to his dashboard

But there's a bit of a problem with their relationship, and it's that he doesn't know if he wants to be the prince consort or not. He does love her, but that would mean giving up being an engineer in favor of being stuck at the castle all of the time

Plus, he's doing great as an engineer; he's saving up to open his own garage that produces his own train designs

Eventually, he leaves for the War of Eras

His experiences with Warriors leaves him more sure than ever that he doesn't want to be the prince consort, resulting in him ending his relationship with Zelda shortly after he returns home

It hurts for a long time to be around her since all of his old feelings keep coming back, so he keeps his distance for a long time; it takes a few years for him to go back to hanging out with Zelda as friends

But now she's approaching marriage age, and he spends a lot of time when he's on body guard duty super jealous of these princes and ambassadors from foreign kingdoms who try to court her

But again, he knows he can't be in a relationship with her so he respectfully and silently pines over her (I'm just a sucker for pining, okay?)

Okay, more random headcanons that are a little less sad

Spirits likes super spicy food, but since he can't cook to save his own life, he just eats whatever he can get his hands on

He's super dirty all of the time, just the epitome of scrappy; there's always a smear of oil somewhere on his person

He actually really hates bathing and only keeps his curly hair in check to comply with train safety regulations

He's really polite and a little shy, but once he loosens up, he gets talkative and personable

He's also very contemplative; he likes conducting so much because he gets to spend long stretches of time alone with nothing but his thoughts

His trauma/stress response is to shut down; he goes quiet, loses energy, and sleeps for longer periods of time

He tends to gravitate towards socializing with people who are older than him, which gets him labeled as being no fun by his peers (despite having someone as cooky as Niko for a uncle)

Post-adventure, his best friend is Linebeck III. They're drinking buddies. Neither can really explain why they even like hanging out as much as they do

(I just like the idea of Linebeck accidentally getting attached to one kid and his whole bloodline getting forever tangled with Wind's; they're bros for multiple lifetimes)

Not only is Spirits good at designing and building new machinery, but he's great at tinkering; he can fix almost anything and will buy broken things on purpose just to have something to fix

No one really knows he's a hero; he doesn't like the attention and, at his request, Zelda did her best to keep his involvement with Malladus a secret

Because not many common people know about his adventure and records of New Hyrule are very rare, he's considered in Warrior's time to be a forgotten hero; some scholars believe that a Hero of Spirits may have once existed, but if he did, no one really knows who he was or what he did to serve the bloodline of Hylia

[andoqin]

Novel Rec

Qiang Jin Jiu / 将进酒 by TangJiuqing

QiangJinJiu (QJJ) is about two men who at the outset couldn’t be more different, or really from more different circumstances, who are thrust together by the vagaries of politics and fate and find that they have many similarities that bind them together. 

Shen Zechuan is the only surviving son of a concubine of a traitor Prince (not royalty prince) who barely survived to adulthood (no thanks in part to our second main character) and is now on the path to bloody revenge on essentially the whole of this empire’s aristocracy. 

Xiao Chiye is the youngest son of another country prince, surpremely blessed in physical abilites and the arts of war. His family is responsible for a large part of the nation’s defense and so he is sent to the capital as a sort of hostage for the emperor not to suspect his family of traitorous thoughts as well. This is the worst kind of environment for him, because he grew up on the wide plains and hates the confines of the city, 

SZC and XCY’s first meeting does not go well (SZC is imprisoned and already close to death and XCY gives him a kick that is pretty much meant to send him to the underworld) but they both grow up imprisoned by the politics of the capital. SZC hides away for years, before he comes out into public to execute his revenge and at first XCY’s dislike of him holds true, but soon enough the fascination between the two of them leads them to have what is pretty much a one night stand. 

From there their relationship develops further and further while the outside world believes them to be on opposing sides. And while the two of them definitely have their own goals, they are an amazing force when combined. 

My personal feelings/review: 

I really, really like the way this relationship is developed, initially there is so much animosity, but you can tell there’s something else there too and they have sex fairly early on. Afterwards it doesn’t immediately develop into love, but neither can deny that the attraction they feel is real. SZC even goes to a brothel to see if he feels anything when looking at the kind of men/boys to be found there, but they leave him entirely cold and it is only when he is with XCY that he feels that heat.

One thing that I really appreciated was that SZC looks (and mostly acts) like a pretty boy, but he can chop people’s heads off like nobody’s business if he so desires and that’s something that XCY really appreciates about him too. He is ruthless when it comes to reaching his goals, as he needs to be, but if 

Furthermore the politics in this novel are insane in the best way, there are so many names you have to remember and so many named characters play an important part down the line. 

Another thing I appreciated, which is similar to LSWW, everyone (in their camps) knows XCY and SZC are together and it’s not really commented on beyond the fact that the guards often have to listen to them fucking haha. In the most recent (translated) chapters they have been talking about getting married as well! I don’t think that’s technically a thing in this universe but who’s gonna stop the two of them. They are *such* a great unit together, but they also understand that they have to fulfill their own goals. 

The translation is going very fast, currently there’s 110/282 Chapters translated with a new one coming out around every 3 days. 

I have no idea if it has a happy ending (if you have spoilers, pls hit me), I could see this ending up either way, but honestly what a ride no matter what.

TL;DR: should you read QJJ?

If you like really intricate plots, tropes like enemies to (devoted) lovers, murder couple, and possibly bringing down all of the aristocracy as a main goal? Yeah, do check it out!

Edit: maybe I should include links too...

English translation here: https://jade-rabbit.net/category/bl/qiangjinjiu/

Original JJWXC link: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=3373718

[queenof-literature]

Hi! Ik u usually only write abt wild but I’m getting desperate for some wind content since I’m pretty sure I’ve gone through what little there is for him so I have a req if it’s okay! Could you do something revolving around the theory that since Time technically didn’t die in Wind’s timeline the spirit of the hero couldn’t move on so when Wind forced the gods to make him the hero they created a entirely new spirit of the hero with him as the base which resulted in him having some 1/2

2/2 little differences to the other links? And this is where the actual req comes in can you write about the links finding that out abt Wind and their reactions? Thank you so much if you do!   

I’m sorry anon I didn’t completely understand the theory so I did my best. I’m sorry if it’s not what you asked for! I hope you enjoy it though! Also I haven’t physically played Wind Waker so please forgive the mistakes. 

    Wind knew he wasn’t like the other heroes. It was the stark difference that tipped him off. He had never ridden a horse, he had never been completely landlocked, his entire Hyrule was flooded for Hylia’s sake. Wind figured that’s why he got along with Sky so well, the fellow hero was also from a land far different from the Hyrule the others knew. Every Hyrule had its differences, but Wind and Sky seemed to be in a world that wasn’t even Hyrule. If Sky he supposed it was true, Sky was from Skyloft and Hyrule was the unexplored surface world. But Wind was from Outset island. That was his entire world until Aryll was kidnapped. Wind thinks that the Hyrule he explored was Time’s, but he didn’t want to tell the older that his Hyrule was flooded. Not the Hyrule he lived in with his wife. Not the one he saved just Wind to go and screw it up. The one he suffered to save over and over. He was terrified that Time would be furious with him, that he would think Wind was a failure. Wind didn’t want the others to know about his boat, how when King Hyrule died his boat went still and the eyes were milky and glassed over. Wind didn’t want them to blame him for everything. 

    “Wind? You with us buddy?” Warriors asked, placing his hand on WInd’s shoulder.

    “Huh? Oh yeah sorry I was just thinking!” Wind claimed cheerfully, burying his doubts down quickly. He could tell Warriors wasn’t fooled, but he at least didn’t have to worry about the older questioning him until they were alone. 

    “You know where you are in the timeline bud?” Legend asked. That’s right! That’s what had started the train of thought. The others were trying to figure out how the timeline was laid out. It wasn’t necessarily that important, but many of the Links were curious. They thought Wild was at the very end, Warriors was some branch off, and Time had made a couple different ones, it was all hard to keep track of. Time didn’t go into detail about it, but apparently his name had come from him messing with time throughout his quest with his ocarina. 

“Um. I’m not sure.” Wind said, trying desperately to change the subject. Please change the subject. He didn’t want to admit what he was thinking. That he wasn’t even one of them. He wasn’t the same spirit of the hero. He didn’t think he belonged with them and saying it out loud would only confirm it. 

“You have no idea?” Hyrule asked curiously. 

“Well… um…” Wind stuttered out. How can he explain this and still have his older brothers see him as one of them. He was already the youngest! He didn’t want to be the outcast in any other way. 

“This is confusing for all of us kid, don’t be embarrassed if you get it wrong. None of us know for sure.” Time comforted from across the fire. 

“It’s not that. Um…” Wind started. He might as well tell them. His grandma always told him not to bottle things in, otherwise it would come out in unhealthy ways. That was advice he always tried to take to heart. “I don’t think I’m like you… I think I’m a different hero’s spirit.” Wind got out, looking around to see the other’s reactions. They all looked some degree of shocked and curious.

“What do you mean, Wind?” Four asked. 

“Well when Aryll got kidnapped I went after her. I didn’t give shit who the hero was, I needed to save my sister. We always celebrated the Hero of Time so I figured I could do something similar I guess.” Time’s eye widened in shock. “So I went after my sister and eventually that turned into me pulling the sword and making the Gods make me the next hero because I was going to save my sister goddammit. But on Outset some of the elders told us they think the Hero of Time’s soul never died out so the hero never passed on his soul.” Wind continued on talking about the odd complexities of the Hero’s spirit and how it wasn’t quite passed on. Luckily they were used to Wind’s fast paced talking. “And anyway I think I’m an entirely different hero.” Wind finished with a big breath as he usually did when he was done with his rants. The other heroes looked at their youngest in shock, Time especially. He didn’t realize he would create so much chaos when splitting times. He didn’t have any other choice but still… and what does it mean the Hero’s spirit doesn’t pass on? Is there some way to solve it? But if he solved it, what if something happened to Wind. Time itself was so tricky…

    “You forced the Gods to make you a hero? That’s fucking badass!” Four called out. Wind felt his shoulder’s relax. How could he think the others would hate him?

    “How did you even do that?” Legend grumbled, not wanting to admit he was impressed by the little pirate. 

    “That is really impressive Wind.” Hyrule spoke up from beside Wild.

    “I’m not really that surprised you practically forced all powerful beings.” Warriors smirked, ruffling Wind’s hair, which the younger fought out of habit. 

    “Me either.” Wild spoke up. 

    “Can’t say I’m that surprised either. It explains a lot.” Sky smiled at Wind. 

    “Get ‘em pirate!” Twilight whooped, the rest of the group laughed, and WInd finally felt the knot in his stomach loosen up now that the light atmosphere was coming back. He looked appreciatively at Twilight. 

    “I feel like I should apologize.” Time spoke softly once the laughter died down.

    “There’s no reason to Old Man.” Wind said confidently, hiding his turmoil. He couldn’t tell Time about what he thought was his Hyrule. He wasn’t even sure it was Time’s. “It was a legend. We’re not even sure it was you. Who knows what happened in between then?” Wind stared down Time, daring him to argue. Time eventually relented and chuckled. 

    “Fair enough. Who knows how all this happened or if the time is even linear.” Time agreed. The rest of the group began chatting again, debating the potential timelines that led to each of them. Time moved from across the fire to next to Wind, sandwiching him between Time and Warriors on one log. 

    What else is on your mind?” Time asked. Wind sighed, he should have known Time would catch on. He wouldn’t lie, but he didn’t want to tell the whole truth. Not tonight.

    “I worried about what would happen when I said that. That you guys wouldn’t think I was a hero. I know it’s silly now but I was still worried.” Wind stated guiltily. The others wouldn’t think that, they weren’t that shallow. But was still his main concern when he spoke up.

    “Kid. You stabbed Ganon in the fucking skull. You’re a hero.” Warriors confirmed, leaving now room for argument.

    “Age doesn’t matter with heroic actions. If anything it makes them more impressive.” Time bumped his shoulder against Wind. It felt nice to hear it out loud from some of the people he respected most. 

    “Thanks guys.” Wind laughed. He was a hero. 

    The Hero of Winds.

[hedwigstalons]

High Expectations - Ch19

Sorry for the two week delay - life, work and insomnia combined to make writing a bit of a slog.  Anyways, on with the show.  

Thanks (maybe) to @willow-salix who has been helping with the direction this is taking.  She is far too under the thumb of Scott though and now I have rather more chapters lined up to write.  Also thanks to @gumnut-logic who popped up as a cheerleader when I was having a wobble over last lines.  I’m still not totally happy but it gave me the confidence boost to at least get something set down.

Earlier parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen

AO3 chapter link

Chapter Nineteen

The temperature at Marineville was a solid 15 degrees lower than Los Angeles with a weak sun that bathed the parade ground in a pale and washed out light.  The chill January air had a bite to it as it blew across the square but Jeff sat straight and unflinching despite those around him shuffling and wrapping themselves up tighter in their coats.

The formal part of the commissioning ceremony was nearly over.  There had been speeches, the inevitable demonstration by the Marineville drummers and all that was left was for the latest cohort of the WASP officer training school to march past their assembled families before moving inside for the more informal reception.

This was the culmination of six months of hard training.  Six months of commitment and dedication that not all had managed to complete despite WASP’s rigorous selection process.  When he had said his goodbyes to Gordon he had done so with confidence that his son would make the grade but Jeff reflected with some shame that this hadn’t always been the case.  I8 months ago he had been adamant that Gordon needed to go to college, even a year ago he’d harboured some doubts over his fourth son’s suitability for military life though he had done his best to keep those doubts hidden.  

The commands were shouted out causing the newly minted officers to snap to attention with regimented precision.  The ranks of men and women in immaculate grey marched past their loved ones with a uniformity that Jeff found himself unable to find fault with.  The display was in stark contrast to the march past of the Olympics; for a start the emotions of the WASPs were unintelligible, locked away behind expressions schooled to careful neutrality.  Jeff hoped that some of the happiness that Gordon had displayed so freely at the Olympics was still being felt by his son now.

The contrast didn’t end at the bearing of the participants.  The Olympic opening ceremony had been all bright colours and beaming smiles, spotlights and camera flashes.  Today was still celebratory but with a slightly sombre undertone.  The speeches of those two events had shared the common themes of honour, glory and self-sacrifice but in the background every family present at Marineville knew there was a chance their son or daughter might not come home.  Military service always came with a risk.  It was a risk Jeff himself had taken, a risk currently being taken by Scott, and now Gordon had stepped up to serve too.  

He had watched with pride as Gordon had sworn an oath to protect the world.  It was an oath that Jeff hoped his son would continue to live by beyond the scope of his military life as the rescue outfit plans moved closer to fruition.  If Gordon should consent to join them as an aquanaut, and add his soon to be acquired skills to the operation when the time came, it would extend the scope of the services they could offer to humanity, enhancing their ability to save lives.  It was a conversation Jeff was yet to broach with his fourth son but he had confidence that Gordon would see the sense in his plans and join the rest of the family when he made the offer.

Almost the rest of the family.

Scott was still being difficult and Jeff couldn’t help the tremor of a frown that flitted across his features at the thought of his eldest son.  Scott was meant to be his field commander and pilot of the organisation's flagship craft.  He should have leapt at the opportunity to take control of the rocket plane.  He should have wanted to join their cause to help save lives and prevent other families from experiencing the grief and trauma they themselves had gone through.  He couldn’t understand Scott’s reluctance to resign his commission in the Air Force and swell the familial ranks.  It wasn’t even as if he was asking Scott the step away from his military career right away; his plans were still a year or two off completion, although he would need Scott on site sooner than that in order to familiarise himself with the aircraft that was to be like no other on the planet.  

A tug on Jeff’s sleeve brought him back to reality.  “Uh, Dad?  Time to get moving, Gordon will be waiting for us at the reception.”

The stands around them were almost empty as spectators hurried to get out of the cold.  There was no sign of Gordon or the other officers who had marched off to the hall ready to meet up with their families.  Jeff nodded his acknowledgement to Virgil and followed after the crowds heading off to be reunited with their loved ones, Virgil and Alan trailing along behind in his wake.

It didn’t take long to find Gordon in the reception hall, or rather it didn’t take long for him to find them.  He had been eagerly watching the doors as the relatives arrived in small clusters and barrelled up to his  father and brothers the moment they had deposited their coats on the racks. 

“So, what do you think?”  He spread his arms to better show off the uniform.

“You look great, son.  I’m proud of you.”  It was going to take some getting used to, seeing Gordon in military garb.  The shoulder detailing, complete with the shining new rank slides of an Ensign, emphasised his swimmers physique but the cap looked a touch too large and reminded Jeff of just how young Gordon really was.  Scott had worn his uniform like a second skin from the outset but then he had let the family know from an early age that the Air Force was his chosen path, conforming to expectation.  He had also been that much older when he had followed the call to arms.  WASP was a path that had appeared out of left field and, while he’d had plenty of time to reconcile himself to Gordon’s choice, it still felt a little surreal seeing his son in the garb of an aquanaut.

Gordon felt his arms sagging slightly as the weight of those words hit him.  Pride was a feeling more usually directed towards one of his older brothers.  It still felt unusual to hear those words aimed at him at himself without a medal in his hand as a focus for that feeling.

“Thanks Dad.”

“Y’know, it’s going to take some getting used to, seeing you in uniform”

“I’ve worn a uniform before, Virg.”  Gordon rolled his eyes in response.

“Technically true, if you count team colours as a uniform, but I mean on dry land.  You’re going to be wearing this a bit more full time than your trunks.  I never had grey down as your colour before but you look good.”

“You’re not doing so bad yourself.  Finally got some dress pants that fit then?”  He aimed a dig at Virgil who shuffled uncomfortably at the reminder of his birthday faux pas.

“Dad insisted we both get new suits” Alan grimaced, clearly uncomfortable in the stiff outfit that was far removed from his usual jeans.

If Alan and Virgil looked uncomfortable in their suits, Jeff was a complete contrast.  He had opted for his own dress uniform to mark the occasion and wore it with his habitual confidence.  No longer hidden behind an anonymous winter coat the brothers could sense the stirrings in the room that always happened whenever their father was in attendance.  It didn’t help that the senior officers from WASP were by now well aware of who was in their latest cohort and were beginning to circle in order to congratulate their honoured guest and extol Gordon’s virtues; they weren’t to know that such flattery rarely worked on Jeff but Gordon decided to make himself scarce before being subjected to the embarrassment.

Grabbing Alan and Virgil by the arm, Gordon led his brothers away on the pretext of finding some refreshments, leaving their father to handle the military small talk.  They joined the long queue waiting to order drinks.

“So, how was it, really?” Virgil asked, the ever present concern for a brother clearly evident.

“It’s great, Virg.  Honestly it is.”  He took in the skepticism in his brother’s eyes.  “This is the right choice for me.  I know you’re not sold on the whole military thing but this is where I belong.  And now I’ve got the basic training out the way it’s going to start getting really interesting.  In two days I get to start my pilot training on the Merlin class subs.”

“Two days?” Alan let out a devastated wail, “So does this mean you aren’t coming back with us?  I thought you got some leave after basic training?  We didn’t see you at Christmas and I barely got three days with you at Thanksgiving.  You’ve had even less time off over the last six months than Scott has.”

Gordon felt the guilt rise up in him.  Graduating cohorts generally did get a week of leave before going on to their advanced training but he had volunteered to forgo this in order to get his hands on the Merlin.  The small patrol sub appealed to him far more than some of the larger vessels in WASP’s fleet which is where he would likely have ended up if he had taken advantage of the standard vacation.  He hadn’t really considered how this decision would go down with his youngest brother when he stepped forward to claim the opportunity.

“Uh, sorry Al.  But the good news is that my break gets shunted to when your birthday is so I’ll be home for your 16th.”  His brother brightened up considerably at this prospect.  “I thought that would be better than taking it now while you still have Virg and John for company.  Where is John by the way?  I thought he was going to be here.”

“You aren’t the only one making the most of advanced training” Virgil explained.  “John got specially selected for a stint on one of the orbital communication posts so he’s currently in quarantine.”

“Already?  I didn’t think you guys actually got to leave the ground until at least Easter?”

“This is John” Virgil shrugged, as if that explained everything.

“At least there was no chance of my school getting in the way of me being here” Alan smirked.

“Yeah, how’s the whole online gig going for you?”

“It’s good, I tell ya I don’t miss the High School at all.”

“What, not even your friends?  It can’t be that great being stuck on your own all the time.”

The snort Gordon got in response did not fill him with confidence.  The High School might not have been great but he worried how isolated Alan now was with the move to online school.  Looking back, however, he realised Alan had always been pretty isolated.  His brother, like the rest of them, had never had many friends outside of the family.  It was the curse of being a Tracy.  Each of the brothers had one or two bad experiences etched in their memory, friends that proved false as the other party was exposed for being after money, power, influence or a combination of it all.  Alan had watched his brothers get hurt, and been hurt enough times himself, to have decided fairly early on that sticking with family was safest.  The problem was there was no longer any family left at home for him to stick with.  

“Don’t worry Gords, Alan isn’t alone that much.  John and I get a visitor pretty often.  If I wasn’t only there on a short course we’d see about renting a bigger apartment so we could have a guest room.  As it is, there’ll be a spare room anyways once I finish at Tracy College.  Actually,” Virgil turned to his littlest brother, “seeing as John’s heading topside and Gordon isn’t coming back, how about I take you back to Kansas for a bit after this shindig is over.”

“Sounds great.  Does this mean I get John’s bed rather than the sofa this time?”

Gordon quirked an eyebrow at Alan who flushed slightly with embarrassment.  The two brothers had spent enough of their lives with just each other for company that they didn’t always need words to get their point across.  Alan knew exactly why his brother was getting at.  The vile accusations of Virgil taking on charity cases and pity projects rose in his memory, accusations that he had known deep down were unfounded but that he had still flung out in a fit of rage and heartbreak.  Virgil, however, seemed oblivious to the silent exchange.

“Sure, as long as you don’t mess up his room.  You can do your school work while I have class and then maybe I can give you a few more flying lessons.”

Gordon felt infinitely reassured that things had been patched up between Alan and Virgil.  If Alan was regularly spending time in Kansas then he has every confidence that the youngster was being looked after.  Virgil and John would keep an eye on things and make sure he wasn’t becoming too insular or crushed under the pressure of being the only one at home with their father.  He also knew that Alan would not be permitted to slack off his school work during these trips.  Perhaps the move to online school, which had worried him so much when Alan first told him the news, was for the best after all.  It certainly had to be better than Alan bunking off for weeks on end.

The brothers had finally reached the head of the queue and stood in front of the urns debating what to get.  The smell of scorched grounds assaulted Virgil’s nose and mortally offended the coffee connoisseur.

“Sorry” Gordon shrugged, “no single origin blends here. Just count yourself lucky that the cream is fresh, the preserved stuff they serve on the subs is particularly nasty. The best you can say about the coffee we get given is that it’s hot and wet.”

“I suppose one cup won’t kill me” although Virgil’s tone suggested he doubted the truth in that statement.  “I’ll grab mine and Dad’s if you two can sort yourselves out and maybe grab a couple of those cake slices.”

The brothers loaded themselves up and made their way back towards their father.   

xoxoxox

Scott had been like a bear with a sore head all day.  Those in his unit had discovered very early on that the young Captain, normally so amenable to those around him, was not in a mood to be trifled with.  Anything that could be found fault with was picked over and many of the airmen under his command found themselves on the receiving end of harsh words.  It was out of character and had the whole unit on edge.

There had been a lot of change in the unit lately and it was taking a while for the new status quo to be found.  His well deserved promotion to Captain had coincided with some retirements further up the rank structure and the whole chain of command had been reorganised.  Superiors that he had respected were no longer in place and those he now reported to seemed to have a dislike for the Tracy name.  He had spent so long proving himself as his own person, determined not to play off his father’s reputation, but the sneer he had received upon meeting his new commanding officer showed that the man did not believe he had reached Captain off his own merits.  He had tried not to let it affect his performance, to remain professional, but today he was seething.  Today he should have been at Marineville watching a brother receive his own commission but instead he was stuck on base, his request for leave denied seemingly for no other reason than that he was a Tracy.  Scott found himself thinking distinctly uncharitable thoughts towards his new commanding officer.

The end of the working day, which had been filled with trivial and meaningless tasks, saw Scott hurrying back to his quarters.  Once inside the sanctuary of his own space he dug out his phone, not even bothering to change out of his uniform first; some things were more important.  He had been filled with worry, imagining scenarios in which their father belittled Gordon and the service he had fought so hard to join.  It only took 2 rings for the call to be answered by the brother that had been in his thoughts all day.

“Hey Gords, how’d it go today?”  

“Great, Scott, just great.  Absolutely freezing out on the parade square but can’t have everything.”

“So you’re a proper squid now.”

“Yup, got the hat to prove it and everything.”  He grabbed his cap from where he had thrown it on the night stand and waved it in front of the camera.

“I’m surprised I caught you.  The night of my commissioning ceremony the base bars pretty much ran dry.”

“Actually it’s pretty quiet here, most folks have gone off for a week and the barracks are near enough deserted.  Y’know, I get a room to myself tonight for the first time since I went home at Thanksgiving.  The only snores I have to deal with tonight are my own.”

Memories of shared dorms flared in Scott’s mind.  He’d always appreciated having his own personal space meaning the communal living element of basic training had in some ways been more of a challenge for him than the Air Force training proper.   

“So you’re not out celebrating?”

“I might wander out later, see if this place has any night life.  There hasn’t really been any opportunity to explore before now, training was pretty full on.”

“I can imagine.  Well take it easy, I keep forgetting you’re still under age so stick to soda, the military police are not to be trifled with.  Getting a DND is bad enough, getting one as a minor will see you out of WASP quicker than you can say submarine.”

“Yes, Dad.”  Gordon responded with mock sincerity and a half-assed salute.  The mention of Dad reminded Scott of just why he had been so on edge.  

“How was he today, anyway?  Cos if he gave you any grief…”

“Relax Scott” Gordon could almost feel the tension vibrating though his older brother “Dad was fine.”  He received a single raised eyebrow in response.  “Honest, he was.  You can check up with Virgil if you want.  He...he said he was proud of me.”

Scott felt his heart ache at the slight crack that had appeared in Gordon’s voice.  At least their father seemed to have held off with the criticism he was normally so quick to dispense in Gordon’s direction.  “Well he has every reason to be proud of you.  Seriously, there’s not many that make it into WASP at your age, let alone as an officer.  I wish I could have been there today.  I should have been there.”

“Chill Scott, it’s fine.  I never made it to your commissioning ceremony either.  Call it even.”

“Gords, when I got my commission you were about twelve and off swimming in Europe somewhere.”

“Thirteen and Singapore.”  The instant response had Scott widening his eyes in surprise.  Gordon just grinned and shrugged his shoulders.  “You aren’t the only one that keeps tabs on the important stuff.”

This surprised Scott and he wondered just what else Gordon was hiding below the surface.  Growing up Gordon had only ever seemed to care about his swimming, an athlete with a focus that was single minded to the point of being selfish.  It was an impression that Jeff had done nothing to disabuse him of over the years.  This perception had come crashing down with the exposure of Gordon’s role in Alan’s life and now it would appear that the fourth Tracy had also been paying attention to those above him in the age hierarchy.  Scott felt a gnawing guilt at the past wrongs he had heaped at his brother’s door.

“I still should have been there today.  Christ, Gords, you’ve worked your ass off to get to this point.  It’s been killing me today, not being able to be there with you.  It’s not just Dad that’s proud of you, I am too.”  The guilt only intensified when he realised Gordon wasn’t quite meeting his eye, still unaccustomed to the praise that flowed more freely now.

“Yeah, well, I’m just glad I didn’t let you down.  You took a risk, standing up for me against Dad.  Thanks for that.”

“You couldn’t let me down.  I know whatever the outcome you would have tried your best, it’s what you do.  I always used to think John was the single-minded one but when you get an idea in your head you can blow him out the water for focus.  So anyway, how come you aren’t heading off on leave like everyone else?”

“Got a chance to get my hands on a Merlin.  I know they are being phased out but those of us signed off on the Merlin will be the first to get trained on the Stingray when it comes in and I’m gonna be putting myself firmly in that queue.”

Scott grinned at the enthusiasm pouring off his little brother, although as a commissioned WASP officer perhaps Gordon wasn’t so little any more.  He remembered that feeling of excitement about getting his hands on a new craft, in his case it had been planes rather than submarines, but the thrill was still the same and from what he could tell that Stingray was going to be one hell of a craft.  He listened happily as Gordon prattled on, regaling him with tales from basic training and thoughts on the opportunities about to come and when they cut the call nearly an hour later he did so with the confidence that Gordon really was happy with his choices.  The family fish had taken to WASP like, well, like a fish to water and Scott just knew Gordon would make a success of it.

Scott wished he could summon up that same enthusiasm about his latest assignment.  With the call to his brother over he turned to the mission briefing he had brought back to his quarters.  The details in it were scant and the intelligence it was based on looked questionable but his earlier attempts to raise his concerns with the new CO had been meant with a swift reprimand for daring to question authority.  

With an audible sigh he examined the paltry file in as much depth he could, liking what he saw less and less as he read between the lines of the report.  He had enough experience to know that casualties were likely to be high on all sides.  The weight of command sat heavy on him; soon enough he would be expected to brief his unit then lead them out on this mission that in all honesty he could not bring himself to support.  

[jeannereames]

You ever thought about making a podcast or something like that about Alexander or history in general? It would be great for people who struggle with concentration issues while reading and so interesting to hear!

Thank you that you’d be interested in such. But honestly, I’m not web savvy enough to do so.

I’m by no means a luddite. I had email before many of you were born (1988), or most of my contemporaries knew what email was. I was on GEnie Roundtables and NVN before the internet was A Thing, then I was on the internet before the AOLHell invasion publicized it in the mid-90s. This was all the Era of The Modem, where we turned off images so as not to slow down page loading. I used “Firefox” when it was still Mosaic. I recall Usenet, and bulletin boards, et al.

In short, I watched the internet be born. I wrote (simple) HTML at the outset, and used to throw up HTML pages for lecture because it was easier (then) than learning Power-point. But Power-point is prettier.

My website for the Alexander novels I built myself. It’s not spectacular, but hey. I didn’t hire anybody to do it as I’m not making enough in royalties to justify the expense.

So yeah, I have a decent knowledge of the internet for a 56-year-old chick.

But I don’t do podcasts mostly because that level of technical expertise is beyond my paygrade. 😊

I HAVE, however, been featured on Patrick Garvey’s Ancient Heroes Podcast. I’m linking to the first in the series. There were three main parts, then another on Hephaistion. So if you want to hear my voice (and my semi-Southern accent), there you go. 😊

If somebody wants to podcast me, I’d be open to that. But I don’t know how to do it myself.

[staczak91]

Future Ties: A Family Ties-Back to the Future Fan Fiction

Okay, part 3 is here! 

Here are the links to parts 1 and 2 if you missed those.

https://staczak91.tumblr.com/post/622481652344668160/future-ties-a-family-ties-back-to-the-future-fan

https://staczak91.tumblr.com/post/622555820021972992/future-ties-a-family-ties-back-to-the-future

This part is only from Marty’s POV because, well, you’ll see. It leaves off at such a good cliffhanger that I wanted to wait to show the next part with Alex’s POV in a separate post.

So, without further ado, please enjoy!

Marty casually leaned against a tree, while the Doc took a look at the Keatons’ car. Folding his arms and leaning backward, he observed, relaxing, the Keatons and how they treated Alex. Although they teased him, the family seemed to love him, and it looked as though they were all very close.

“So, tell me, Marty, are you from Hill Valley?” Elyse asked him, taking a step away from the car.

“Huh?” Marty looked up at her, interrupting his daydreams, and tried to grasp what Elyse had just asked. Introductions had been made minutes before, and Marty had quietly stepped aside, letting the family talk amongst themselves. He had just never thought they’d be interesting in speaking to him.

Doc muttered to himself under the car, as the evening grew darker and the moon shone above the trees.

“Marty,” Elyse began again, “you’re from Hill Valley, aren’t you?”

“Oh. Oh, yeah.” Marty stepped forward, and held out his hand to Elyse. “It’s nice meeting you all.”

“What a polite young man,” Mallory marveled. “Alex, you could learn a thing or two from him.”

“Excuse me, but I’m great just the way I am,” Alex answered back huffily. “I’m polire-.” The whole Keaton family interrupted him, laughing to themselves, as Alex crossed his arms, a frown on his face.

Elyse shook Marty’s hand. “We want to thank you for helping us, of course. But, just wondering, what were you doing alone this late at night? Weren’t your family worried?”

“Geez, mom!” Alex interrupted, coming over to Elyse and placing a hand on her shoulder. “Leave the poor kid alone. It’s none of your business what he does with his time.”

“I’m a parent. I worry.”

“Then, worry about your own kid: me!” Alex answered, shaking his head forlornly.

“Marty, did your family know you were out so late?” Elyse asked, ignoring Alex, who stamped his foot in disapproval.

Marty just shrugged. “My family? Yes, of course they knew.” He tried to sound confident, but the words came out muddled and unclear. He cursed silently to himself for not having more confidence in front of these strangers.

Elyse just raised her eyebrows. “Maybe we can take you back home soon?”

“No!” Marty answered a little too quickly and loudly. Both Elyse and Alex raised theit eyebrows at him. “No,” Marty continued a little quieter, sighing and taking a deep breath. “My family knows what I’m up to. They’re fine without me.”

“Well, you heard the man, so stop bothering him, Elyse!” Alex shook his head, a small grin on his face. Elyse just gave him a glare. “I mean, mommy…”

Marty couldn’t help but giggle at their antics. At times like these, he really hated his own dysfunctional family.

Mallory stepped forward now, a sly smile on her lips. “Marty, is it? You know, you’re pretty cute, and we’re the same age about-.”

“He has a girlfriend,” Alex answered shortly, as Mallory pouted. Marty just blushed. This family was great!

“Great Scott!” Doc exclaimed from under the car.

Steven stepped up to the Doc’s feet. “Doctor Brown, is everything okay under there?”

Doc rolled himself out from under the vehicle and shook his head. “This car’s broken. I’ll probably need at least two more days to fix it. Do you have anywhere to stay?”

“Two days!” Mallory whined. “We could have been in Hollywood by now!”

Jennifer just shook her head. “Sad day, isn’t it?”

Elyse stroked her chin for a moment. “Yes, Doctor Brown, we have a place to stay. You’ll definitely be able to fix it?” The Doc nodded. Elyse then turned to Marty. “Marty, why don’t we at least walk you home? I’ll feel safer doing that.”

Marty and Doc exchanged glances, as Doc just shook his head and muttered to himself. Marty, though, suddenly felt one very strong feeling: panic!

“No, no. It’s really okay. I can get myself home. I still have my skateboard on me.”

“Really, it will be no problem at all,” Elyse pressed.

Marty just gave a timid smile. “Get out of town, Elyse. That’s really nice of you guys. But-.”

“Okay, it’s settled, then,” Elyse finished. “When you’re ready, Marty, let us know.”

Marty tried to smile, but his insides suddenly hurt. What would the Keatons think of his messy, dysfunctional family? Would they call childhood services on the McFlys? He shuddered to think of what sweet Steven and Elyse Keaton would think of his alcoholic mother and absent father.

“Get out of town?” Alex asked, giving Marty a strange look. “Is that slang or something over here?”

“Alex, stop!” Mallory interrupted. “Can’t you see our guest is tired?”

“Well, technically, aren’t we his guest because he lives here-?”

“Alex!”

This time, the whole family called out his name, and Alex shut himself up instantly.

Marty still wasn’t sure what to think of Alex. He seemed incredibly full of himself, yet still had gone out of his way to help his family, something that seemed so unlike him at the outset. Marty would just have to wait and see if Alex really was as selfish as he imagined him to be.

Doc checked his watch quickly. “Well, I really must be going. Things to do, people to see.”

Marty gave Doc a pleading look, hoping he would get the message, but Doc quickly shook his head. If the Keatons noticed this look between the two of them, they didn’t say anything. “I’ll meet you here tomorrow at 9AM to work more on the car.”

“9AM?” Steven asked, stifling a yawn. “Isn’t that a little early?”

“Do you want your car fixed or not?” Doc asked. “I’ve got places to go, things to do.”

“Better listen to him,” Marty agreed. “He knows exactly what he’s talking about. Don’t you, Doc/”

Steven nodded. “Alright. 9AM, then.”

“Good. Good-bye all and have a great night.” The Doc walked away from the group, now leaving Marty alone with the Keatons.

“Marty?” Elyse asked softly. “Do you want to show us to your house?”

Marty gulped. “Oh, yeah. Right this way.” His hand began to shake, as he pointed in the general direction of his house. Mortified, he hoped the Keatons hadn’t noticed.

Alex, though, gave him a silent, quizzical stare, apparently already noticing Marty’s troubles.

Marty took a deep breath. Well, he guessed it was time for the Keatons to meet the McFlys.

[daliaxela]

Brand Development

ERROR 404 is our brand name, and we were discussing it with Will when someone mentioned something along the lines of "like those online sites where the browser can't access the page and says "error 404," and Rodrigo exclaimed "that's it!!" Our name may be ERROR 404." We decided to keep the project's name since everyone agreed. I really love the name because its so different . Our logo will be ASTERISK, as shown in the image above. We believed it would be a good way to tie the pop-up store's exclusivity with the exclusivity we aim to achieve. We don't want to be a hidden brand, but we do want to generate anticipation with our collections and stores, which is why we use an asterisk.ERROR 404 is a wonderful name for our brand since it pertains to technology and is something that doesn't happen very often these days when we use any technological gadget. We can associate it with vintage equipment and utilise it as a source of innovation for our company.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/34cda76e6999ce4fb668dfd37b574980/5706d5ac6654d2b3-3f/s500x750/97b1d85718290bc18a650708f364239e6de61a12.jpg

We agreed as a group to develop a website, an Instagram profile, and even a pop-up store in the future.

The pop store concept is predicated on exclusivity: it will appear in random locations throughout the world in the most prominent fashion capitals, with only the most observant individuals knowing where it will appear next. The concept behind the pop-up stores is to utilise bright colours to promote our brand because even if you are unfamiliar with it, if you see a green, pink, or orange block in the centre of Paris or London, you will want to learn more about it. The pop-up store will have old games and other amusing items in order to foster the humorous attitude that we express in our vision and mission. Passwords and QR codes are also two things that we may incorporate. But, as I mentioned at the outset, the pop-up store is a long-term plan, and we'll start with the instagram profile and website.

FINAL DESIGNS ( designed by Rodrigo)

I was merely going to follow up on producing additional designs as I had talked with Rodrigo, but because he was the strongest in technical drawings, we all enjoyed the way he did his pictures and decided to continue with his concepts.

A puffer dungarees is the initial design. They'll be made of shell, nylon, and polyester since it's spring and summer, and we don't want anything too hot, and want to make something light so our customers can feel comfortable. For example, you will be able to skate with it.

The second look is more laid-back, with a bomber jacket and loose-fitting pants. We also agree that bomber jackets will become fashionable again, with companies such as Vetements producing them. The jacket will be constructed of shell and polyester for the same reasons as dungarees. The lycra, cotton, and polyester trousers will provide comfort to our customers while also being durable for anyone who enjoys BMX, SKATE, or any other sport.The stitching links the outfit to our brand; as you can see, the embroidery uses an asterisk and the number 404.

A rugby polo and bell-bottom pants make up the third outfit. The rugby polo, which was originally designed for Ralph Lauren or Lacoste, is an example of how the streetwear culture adapts classic items. A good example of this adaption is the palace or supreme.Our rugby polo will be manufactured entirely of cotton to ensure that it is light and comfy. The bell-bottom trouser is a risky design since it's not something that many guys wear yet.  Polyester and cotton will be used to make these pants.

This collection has been designed to be as comfortable as possible in order to offer our customers confidence and to meet their streetwear demands.

[digisourabh]

Essential tools for Digital Marketing

As an SEO enthusiast, I feel it's important to have a well-rounded collection of tools that are not only useful but are easy to use.

I have put together a list of WordPress tools that are designed to enhance your WordPress site. 

I have not only tried to list the best of the best but I have reviewed each one so you can easily find the one that's perfect for your WordPress site.

Having the right tools will make your work faster and better. The tools you use can make your job easier or faster or both. That's why it's important to have the right tools for the job.

The list of tools is below

·    Keyword Planner

·    Google analytics

·    Google search console

·    Google mobile-friendly test

·    Google disavow tool

·    Moz link explorer

·    Ahrefs

·    SEMrush

·    GTmetrix

·    Broken link checker

·    Canva

·    Nichesss

·    Answer the public

·    Competitors app

Let us discuss a few of the tools in detail

 Google Keyword planner

Google keyword planner is used to check keywords that generate more traffic or have more visitors, along with that it also lets you know the competition for a certain keyword, so it is a must tool that one should check before content writing.

 It also helps you to discover new keywords that you should target in your campaigns.

Most SEOs use Keyword Planner to locate new keywords, either to help direct a plan by identifying the particular terms an audience is using to find businesses like yours at the outset of a campaign or to identify possibilities to generate and rank new content. 

Finding keyword ideas is simple and easy in either case.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web tool that provides a detailed analysis of a website's online performance in the market.

The more relevant data you have for the channels, the more potential for optimization, new ideas, and understanding how everything is connected concerning the whole business.

Google Analytics works seamlessly with other Google services, so if you're utilizing them for marketing, you'll need GA to keep track of their performance. 

Google Search Console

Search Console is a tool that can help you identify their performance on google search plus what they need to do to increase their visibility to drive relevant traffic on their websites.

It also provides information on how google does crawling, Indexing and ranking help website owners to optimize their SEO easily.

Plus Google search console also helps you, monitor, maintain and troubleshoot your website's presence through the URL inspection tool

Google Disavow tool

Google Disavow tool is a must tool one should know, it helps you to remove unnecessary backlinks that violate google Quality guidelines created of your website or blogs by spammers or competitors.

It is an easy-to-use tool just select the website for which you wish to delete the link, then upload the link to disavow list and within a day google removes the backlink.

 Broken link Check

Broken link check tools scan all external and internal links on your website and let you know if there's any dead link and also help you improve the bad links ultimately the user experience.

It also helps you to detect missing images and redirects if any.

You are notified of any broken link, missing images, or technical errors through the dashboard or by email, the duration required to detect depends upon how big your site, sometimes it may take a minute or hours as well.

Canva

Canva is a free as well as a premium tool used for designing posts, Images, invitation cards, presentations, flyers, business cards using formal templates. 

It is home to more than 50000+ templates, you can also upload your image from the gallery and do editing as well.

It also helps you design newsletters so you can make a professional reach to your clients or business partners out there.

Its beginner-friendly UI makes Editing real easy and fun.

 Nichesss

Nichesss is a tool which helps you create content for your blogs and emails, get you business ideas, captions for your social media profiles, FAQ generation and run your ads as well.

 So these are the tools that will help you master SEO and ultimately wordpress, to know more about the other tools as well kindly Digital Scholar, they are one of the best digital marketing institute in India for more information you can go to their website/contact +91 9169-231-231 to get in touch with the admission counselors of Digital scholar.