#botw Link

[axidentshappen]

Reuniting as Champions: Pages 100 & 101

I had the lineart for both done already. But I started coloring these an hour ago, so they're kinda rushed :)

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[demiboydemon]

[daeyumi]

doodle request: BOTW Link chilling with his horse (pick your fav BOTW horse)

giant horse giant horse 🐴

[smallfisheyes]

you pierce link's ears

cw: some mentions of blood.

“Yarna’s daughter said no sewing needles!”

“It’s all I got.” Link shrugs.

You guffaw, snatching the needles from him. "No hollow needles, then no piercings!"

That was two weeks ago.

Even with the correct needles, you’ve never seen yourself frown so deeply. Two hollow needles sit in the bowl of hot water, ready for poking. The tips are so sharp and shiny, perfect for piercing, but you've heard plenty of horror stories of ear piercings gone wrong.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Positive,” Link responds, grinning at his reflection. He eyes the lobes of his ears, already picturing the two piercings he begged and begged for. He flops his head side to side, hair falling with his movements, imagining two blue hoops moving with him. 

This entire excursion feels like a fool’s journey. The air smells sharply of sliced lemons and lavender from Link’s burning incense. Two hollow needles stolen from the resident healer in Hateno Village sit in a bath of boiling water. Sweetly, Link had placed two hooped earrings carved from blue stone into the sauce plate you had handmade for him for his birthday last year; your thumbprints forever pressed into the clay. Now, his new birthday gift was sitting on his old birthday plate.

Even with his reassurance and the eager kicking of his feet, Link’s tooth gap does little to calm the rapid beating of your heart. 

“Okay. Yeah, stupid question.” You shake your hands, head downturned. You fiddle with the clean cloth draped over the back of Link’s chair, frown falling deeper and deeper. 

Your ears were pierced as a baby, but you know it’s supposed to hurt. Your grandmother had told you over and over again how you wailed, how your ears hadn’t healed for months, and that the needle didn’t cleanly exit your lobe. Paintings of you as an infant specifically left out the angry lumps on your ears. They had nearly fallen off. 

What if you did the same to Link?

You inhale sharply before speaking again. “I mean, I should be asking you if you want me to do this. I think Yarna’s pierced—”

Link catches your eye in the mirror, a small smile growing bigger and bigger the longer he holds your stare. “Positive,” he repeats. “I wouldn’t want anyone else to do it.” 

His voice is so even, so calm, that you believe him. Just for a second.

What was that swirling feeling between your lungs, and why does it feel so nice?

You huff. “Yeah, whatever.” 

Link laughs. It sounds like tinkly bells; the very sound of joy released from a crystal jar.

Too much research and planning was put into this anyway. It would be selfish to back out, especially since this was supposedly your gift to Link.

“It’s my birthday, so you have to do what I say,” he had sing-songed, hands planted on his hips in a wide stance. A goofy grin stretched his squishy face.

Needles stolen, gathering research from Yarna’s obnoxious daughters, the timing aligned with his sister and dad’s biweekly visit to Sanidin Park to spy on the horses and ogle Hyrule Castle; you had to do it now. 

So, hands washed and spritzed with lemon juice, you pick the needle from the hot water. Yarna’s daughters had talked about something called “disinfectant” to prevent “infection because of germs,” whatever that was. 

“You don’t want to give your boyfriend lumpy ears, do you?” she had teased you. She waved a skinny finger at you, her red hair tied into frizzy dual braids. They looked more like horns.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” you grumbled. What a way to remind you.

You stomped all the way back to Link’s house, slamming the door behind you. Link had wondered why you returned so grumpy. You even had the notes you promised you would get from Yarna’s daughters, everything from preparing sliced lemons and what needles to use. What was there to be upset about?

Needle in hand and ear lobes already marked where Link wanted his earrings to go, all you had to do was poke him.

“Ready?” You speak more confidently, head raised higher. There’s the excitement Link was looking for. His eyes grow bigger.

You do just as you had written in your notes: place a piece of cork behind the ear. Align the needed to the penned mark. Ensure there’s a ninety-degree angle between the ear and the needle so that the earring does not sit funny.

“That tickles,” Link giggles.

“Okay, smiley. Try not to move.”

You swear Link’s tooth gap grows a millimetre or two. He smiles into the mirror, watching your movements. 

You begin a slow countdown, the tip of the needle brushing Link’s skin. “Three, two, one.”

You push, pushing the lobe against the needle. It makes a clean exit, the sharp point poking the cork.

The first thing you sense is Link’s squirming.

“Hylia! Hylia!” he screams.

You screech, eyes bouncing all over Link’s face, scanning for pain. He flinches, Link’s pretty face scrunching into a yelp, eyes closed, and mouth biting hard onto his teeth.

Oh. Oh no.

The world is ending. The world is ending. You want a Like Like to swallow you whole and never spit you out. You hurt your best friend.

“Did it work?” Link suddenly says. A calm washes over him, limbs no longer flailing like an armoured porgi on the shore. “Did it work? Did it work? That wasn’t bad.” 

You blink, rapidly. “It—it did.” You gently remove the needle from Link’s ear. Shock pushes you to grab the clean cloth on the bathroom counter, gently holding Link’s bleeding ear. Your voice comes out small. “Does it still hurt?”

Link’s tone is soft. “Just aches now.”

You meet Link’s eyes in the mirror. He looks so beautiful, bloody ear and all. His hair is messy and tucked into a ponytail. A streak of dirt is still on his face where you had lightly slapped him. He snuck up on you while working on the rice paddies. How could you not?

Your smile grows. His smile grows with yours. You fall into a fit of giggles, shoulders shaking. You feel golden.

Link turns in his chair to shake you by the shoulders. “Put the earring in now, weirdo!”

Giggling, you rush to pluck the blue earring from the birthday sauce plate. Opening the clasp, you slip the earring through Link’s new piercing.

There’s a beat of silence. Link stares almost emptily into the mirror.

“It’s perfect,” Link breathes. The air leaves his body. He waves his head side to side, just as he had done pre-piercing. The blue loop shifts right and left; to and fro.

“Thank you.” His voice is soft; fragile. Link gives his head a final shake. 

You smile. Link watches you in the mirror.

“You have to pierce my other ear now.”

You huff, gripping your knees. “Give me a second to recover.”

“No. Earring. Now!”

You move to choke Link.

It is a joy to see him with his earrings now, ears healed with the help of dabbing lemon juice every night. You watch the swing of his blue hoops when he playfights with you, wooden swords in hand. You admire the jump of his blue hoops as he nods, listening to you attentively. Lately, you’ve been rambling about your apprenticeship with the witch of the village, specializing in elixirs and potions. How his earrings lay by his bedside when he sleeps, two perfect blue rings.

You have been seeing Link less and less. Ever since his stunt with the pot lid when a guardian had lost control, his promotion to appointed knight to Princess Zelda frightened you. Even worse, distanced you.

All you can do is research elixirs and clean your ex-mentor’s dusting storage cupboards. What happened to dueling with wooden swords and squishy grins?

Even if you see him very little now, and as he grows higher and higher, you just remember he’s your friend. A very good, long-distance friend.

That is until he bursts through your shop’s doors. Only one blue hoop swings from Link’s ear. You look closer. Oh. 

“I need your help,” he murmurs. The piercing had closed up on his other ear.

You smile, rising from your stool. “Help me find some hollow needles, will you?”

i am almost done playing botw. i just need to beat ganon's bum now D:

[entiqua]

i had a incredible need to see these two snowboard racing

[lucky-clover-gazette]

thank you times a million to @solarwreathe for bringing the main characters of my totk fic mask off to life! i'm going to stare at this until my eyes dry out <3 🍌

[yeetbaka]

Link charging up his spin attack

OOT, PH, BOTW, TOTK - absolute bangers

[pawthko]

always just beyond my reach

[roaxes]

Stingy!

[jinaxxo]

Zelda and Link as "The Shadow" (1909), Edmund Blair Leighton

[cosmicghoul99]

Gonna watercolor this soon, but I finished the line art. He’s my baby girl :3

[raincoatpng]

help i cant stop making ocs auuujjghhh

so fun fact, i headcanon princess ruto from ocarina of time as half hylian. on account of the ears and the nose and other things. so the natural evolution of that headcanon is sidlink baby.

i made her on a whim so idk if I'll draw her again but if you have name ideas let me know :)

[demiboydemon]

Link, so in love that he would listen to Zelda talk about anything for any amount of time: ☺️😍

[mamegami]

Gerudo Link

[samjustbc]

Something newish