#plus totk this month

[theinconsistenciestherein]

Been hit by a hyper mood

[larissel]

you have to for real be an idiot to say goty award was rigged for bg3 to win over spider-man 2 and totk.

[thedelusionreaderbitch]

Am I in the process of writing a 4000+ word fic for fucking Link from Botw? 

Yes, yes I am. 

[chimpukampu]

Welp, I'm muting/blocking all TOTK or Zelda-related tags from now on. I've seen the leaks and while it didn't damper my hype to play the game, the info is a bit overwhelming & I wanted to play the game blind.

See you guys on the 12th May!

[daechwita]

Awaiting your sparks notes on the bts book queenie

i’m sorry lovely work has been really tuff this week, i shall have the chapter done this weekend!!

[applecherry108]

I am CHEWING on the new tears of the kingdom trailer! But at the same time—

Hahahahha yeah that’s a redead. I am crying sobbing in terror already. 🥲

[the-carnival-of-time]

Now that I’ve been thinking about it it might be worth to go back to OOT for a bit, since I’m right at the Shadow Temple (which was my urge to GIF from the game in the first place lmao) and I feel like it’ll be worth being in the area of the Spirit Temple as well again. Work is kinda burning out my brain at the moment (bad dogs and hair splinters causing over stimulation), causing me to come home and do not even play video games just do nothing.

General play TOTK spoilers below (its...just about the map idk how much of a spoiler it really is)

But I do believe there to be a lot of references to the game in TOTK, as well as of course Skyward Sword, but I suck ass at Skyward Sword even on the Switch >:( But at least I have Hyrule Historia which has tons of info on SS? (I’m stuck in the Lanayru Mines and UUUUUUGH I could GIF that game too tho hm)

But yeah the maps are kinda driving me crazy, constantly contrasting the 3 in TOTK along with Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, and even Wind Waker as I believe those games (in order) are the most heavily referenced in TOTK and BOTW and WE ALL WANNA FIGURE IT OUT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT ISN’T IT COOL

[alithographica]

As promised, welcome to

Fun biology in TOTK’s designs

I'll keep this post updated as I go through the game. I'm going to skip the more general identifiable things like apples (they're based on apples!) because there are tons of more unusual species to talk about.

Overall, the really interesting thing I've noticed is that many of the more unique Earth-based lifeforms in TOTK are super ancient, like predating dinosaurs ancient, which is a really cool tie-in to the overall time-hopping plotline of TOTK. Specifically, they're found in the new areas (caves, depths) while the surface remains a bit more normal.

(There will be no plot spoilers in this post, and also I've barely gotten into the plot because I'm spending all my time wandering, so shhh no spoilers in the tags for like a month please.)

Most recent additions: More lilies, irises, wild ginger, spiny bones, pigeon extravaganza, plus added some more real photo comparisons to old stuff.

PLANTS

Bryophytes my beloved. Bryophytes are among the earliest land plants, waaaay predating flowers and even seeds. In our world, they’re small by necessity—they lack vascular systems to help move water around like other plants, so they have to stay small and moist (hence their frequency in caves in TOTK—though they do need some light in real life.)

In TOTK they’re quite large and I think that’s very sexy and art directors should give us big bryophytes more often

Anyway, there are three types of bryophytes: mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. First image pair is a moss, second is a liverwort. Those red-brown and palm-tree-like structures, respectively, are their reproductive structures.

Real liverwort photo © Graham Calow, NatureSpotUK

Not yet spotted: Hornworts! Did they forget the third bryophyte sister :(

I think these next guys are probably lycopods (specifically club moss, which is not a true bryophyte moss, thanks science.) Very old, but vascular, so they're a bit more evolutionarily recent than bryophytes.

Real photo © Gloria Hanley Schoenholtz, virginiawildflowers

All the enormous curly-topped trees in the depths: Ferns! They curl like that until they unfurl. Another very old plant, though younger than bryophytes and lycopods.

Real photo via The Cosmonaut, Wikipedia

Brightblooms and some of the other giant plants in the depths: Possibly based on a cycad? Again, a very ancient plant lineage. At this point, evolutionarily, they've developed seeds—that giant cone in the center is called a strobilus, and that's the seed structure.

These next few plants are angiosperms, meaning they produce flowers. Angiosperms are a more recent evolutionary lineage—still many millions of years old, but it took a while to develop flowers as a reproductive tactic.

Sundelions (left) are a fun recolor of a lily. There are also some scenery lilies (right) in various places—there are yellow ones that spring up when you turn on a lightroot (which gives them literal and thematic connection to the surface) and several other varieties, including tiger lilies, throughout Hyrule. Fun note, the sundelions appear to only have 5 stamen, while other lilies in the game (correctly) have 6. Seems to be an intentional decision to make it a more distinct fantasy species.

These next ones are Peruvian lilies/Alstroemeria, just used as a scenery plant but a very fun inclusion. Fun fact, not true lilies, so they're not deadly to cats like true lilies are.

Real photo © Dick Culbert, Wikipedia

Plum trees: These are also called out as plum trees in game! There's a journal in Kakariko that refers to the plum orchards.

Okay I'm a little proud of figuring this one out. Bomb flowers blend a few botanical references. Superficially, the fruit resembles a type of seed pod called a capsule—specifically it's very similar to a poppy capsule. The little red thing in the center is a nice addition to resemble both a flower stigma (reproductive part that leads to the ovary) and a bomb fuse. Now, poppy capsules disperse their seeds via wind, but there are other plants who do explode their seeds outwards as a dispersal tactic! This is called explosive dehiscence.

There is one tree in particular called the sandbox tree, AKA monkey-no-climb or dynamite tree (yes, really.) Their capsules look more like little pumpkins, but are known for violently exploding when ripe—they can launch seeds at 150 miles per hour (250 km/h) and spread them roughly 200 feet (60 m) away. The photo comparison is a poppy capsule but you should def go look up dynamite tree videos.

Real photo © PommeGrenade, pixabay

Fire fruits (and the other elemental fruits) grow on the same generic plant that looks kind of like it has grape leaves. Fire fruits resemble a specific botanical thing too though—the black netting is a papery calyx (part of the flower) seen in a nightshade genus, Physalis (golden berries, tomatillos, etc.)

Real photo © Helene Rogers, Alamy

I think this stuff is an Asarum, AKA wild ginger. I was actually puzzling over it until I walked past some today and went HEY

Not sure of the exact species but they're very green and heart-shaped and love being dense and low to the ground.

Real photo via David Stang, Wikipedia

Irises: Love irises, one of my favorite flowers and words, very happy to see them in game.

MISCELLANEA

Cup lichen! Lichen is not a plant, but a symbiotic structure of an algae + a fungi. Cup lichen is just a type of lichen formation that has a kind of vertical cup-like structure.

Real photo via Bernard Spragg

Geology crossover! Go look carefully at some of the whiter walls in the depths—they look like they have fossils of coral and other undersea hard-structured animals in them.

ANIMALS

Sticky lizards: Based on Diplocaulus, a very early (now extinct) amphibian! Their skulls are wacky. We're not sure whether the long sides stood out separately or were smoothly connected to the body by skin flaps, but the separate arrow-like shape is the most popular rendition.

Deep firefly: Might be a stretch because it could just be a multi-winged fantasy critter, but I think the "wings" and antennae are very reminiscent of Anomalocaris, an ancient aquatic arthropod.

Update: Other folks in the notes/tags have pointed out that they're probably based on a cryptid that's especially popular in Japan: skyfish AKA rods! They show up in photos and people think they're an alien lifeform. In reality, they're an optical blur created when a lower quality video captures intermittent flaps of an insect's wings, leaving sort of a many-winged smear in the photo. Thanks to all who left info!

Little frox: Another stretch because it totally could just be a Hinox-like frog, but every time I see the little ones I can't help but think of like...Ichthyostega, Mastodonsaurus, Eryops, and other early amphibians. They were pretty hefty—little frox size or bigger—and had with little waddling legs. This is less "I think it's definitely this" and more "it makes me happy when I picture frox as primitive amphibians."

I haven't detailed many of the scenery animals around Hyrule because most are identifiable with the camera function—it'll tell you that a certain animal is a heron or porgy, for example, and those groups are real, even though the exact species is made up. But I think the pigeons are fun because they're all crested pigeons. Pink-necked green pigeons may have also been the inspiration for the color palettes on the wood and rainbow pigeons.

Both pigeon photos via JJ Harrison, Wikipedia

Spiny bones: Not a specific critter, but those spiny bones that you can find lying around Eldin Canyon are vertebrae—possibly from the same thing that left those big rib cages around? The top spike is the spinous process where muscles attach, the littler spikes on the side are the transverse and articular processes. The dark O in the center is the spinal cord.

Also I made a friend who finally recognizes my purpose in Hyrule.

That's all I've got for now! Will add more as I keep playing.

[skyward-floored]

Breath of the wild Dark Link au

I’ve been playing with this au on and off for literal years, but haven’t posted much in the way of writing for it, and I wanted to change that lol. This is just a bit of it, so it’s a little out of context, but I really just wanted to finally post some.

The au takes place after botw, but only by a few months, so totk isn’t mentioned or referenced at all (plus I haven’t played it lol so I’m more or less ignoring it here). Here it is, enjoy.

——————————————————————————————————

Link shivered as he absently plucked a stem of cool safflina and tucked it in his pouch, his breath coming out in a puffy cloud of steam in front of him. It was frigid up here, and even with the snowquill tunic’s gloves he could barely feel his fingers.

He’d been prowling around the edges of the Yiga base for a few hours now, and it was nearly dark, the temperature dropping to downright dangerous levels. He’d promised Zelda he wouldn’t sneak inside the base itself on this particular trip, but the lack of movement he’d so far observed was both concerning and boring. Nobody had seen any members of the cult since the attack where he’d been injured, not even the Gerudo, and they were practically next-door neighbors.

And that, along with the curse that had attacked Link, was too suspicious to ignore.

Link sighed, trying to rub some feeling into his fingers. Maybe since he’d survived the curse or whatever it had been in his injury, the Yiga had all decided to just give up on worshipping Ganon and trying to kill him, and were now living their lives as model citizens of Hyrule.

He snorted to himself. Right. And maybe they’ve started a shelter for homeless wolf pups.

A faint noise brought by the wind tickled his ear, and Link looked around for its origin, his hand going his sword. His eyes caught sight of a few figures far below him, and he felt a flicker of excitement, pulling out his slate and activating the scope feature. Flurries of snow were being blown around, making it a bit difficult to see, but when he zoomed in he could make out two Yiga footsoldiers standing next to a blademaster, the larger one holding a dark bundle of some kind.

Link frowned and tried to get a better look. This proved that the Yiga were still active, but what would they be carrying all the way up here? The soldiers below him weren’t very close to their base, and it was stupidly cold in this area. Maybe they were dumping banana peels or something? But why trek all the way up here?

The blademaster dropped the bundle to the ground, then reached for his windcleaver, lifting the blade high. Link startled as the bundle moved slightly, but a footsoldier put out a leg to kick it, and it fell still.

And that was when Link realized the bundle was a person.

Snapping his slate to his belt without a second thought, Link leapt off the ridge he was on, paraglider in hand. He was too far away to shoot any arrows without risking hitting the bundle, and all he could do was watch as the blademaster plunged his sword downwards. A muffled cry reached Link’s ears, and the blademaster removed his sword, crimson spattering the snow.

Outrage burned in Link’s chest, and now that he was close enough, he focused, drawing his bow and firing three arrows near simultaneously at the Yiga.

Two hit the first footsoldier as Link landed with a roll and unsheathed his sword in one swift movement, and the other arrow struck the blademaster in the shoulder. Link leapt forward at the large man, who deflected his blade with his own blood-stained one, and a small gust puffed from it as they clashed.

The first footsoldier had vanished into paper as soon as Link had hit him with the arrows, but the other had joined the fight, and the blademaster was stubbornly continuing to attack despite his own arrow wound, deflecting all of Link’s advances.

Link shot a glance towards the bundle on the ground, and felt a twist in his gut at the large amount of blood staining the snow.

Whoever was there didn’t have long if they were still alive.

He gritted his teeth and quickly swapped weapons, exchanging his royal guard sword for an ice rod. Ignoring the burst of cold that suddenly enveloped him, he dodged a thrust by the blademaster and flicked his wrist, sending a cloud of freezing magic in the Yigas’ direction.

It didn’t catch the blademaster all the way, but Link managed to get most of his left side, sending him reeling with the sudden freeze. The remaining footsoldier was frozen completely in place, and Link switched back to his sword as he jumped forward, whirling into a spin attack that knocked both of his adversaries backwards with a shattering crash of ice.

The footsoldier and blademaster looked at each other as they stumbled to their feet, then waved their hands in a complicated pattern, disappearing into the same paper as their earlier companion without a word.

Link breathed out a sigh of relief that clouded out in front of him, then turned to the motionless figure on the ground.

He wasted no time in sliding to his knees beside the Yiga's victim, grabbing in his bag for a fairy tonic. He didn’t have any of the actual creatures with him, a tonic made with their help would have to be enough. Pulling the blanket out of the way, Link prepared to give who he could now see was a teenager the bright pink liquid.

But he stopped short at the figure he’d uncovered, blood running cold.

His own face met him.

Link stared down at himself, brain refusing to believe what it was seeing.

Same nose, same mouth... the eyes were squeezed shut with pain, but he assumed they were the same as well. His skin lacked Link’s vast scar collection, and was a fair bit paler and gaunt, missing his own tanned color, but the main difference was his jet-black hair instead of Link’s own gold. And even then the color was really the only difference; it was the same length, though matted and dirty, even cut nearly the same.

Link swallowed.

This couldn’t be a coincidence. Not with everything that had happened with his injury and him and Zelda. This... this lookalike, must be connected somehow, to the wound, to him, to the Yiga...

...why had the Yiga tried to kill him?

His double whimpered, and Link snapped back to himself, shaking off his whirling thoughts.

Right. Injury. Questions could come later.

Link pulled the blanket further back so he could see what exactly he was dealing with, and breathed in sharply at the stab wound in his double’s stomach bleeding everywhere. He wasn’t wearing any clothes besides a pair of worn-out trousers, already stained with blood, and Link shook his head in dismay when he felt his freezing skin.

Link pressed the blanket back atop the injury with one hand in order to staunch the blood flow, and hopefully warm him a bit, and tried to ignore the unsteady gasp that came from his double at the pressure. He quickly uncorked the fairy tonic, then tilted his double’s head up to help him drink it. It took a few tries for him to coax his mouth open, but the pained noises coming from him slowed as Link finally helped him drink.

The hand that had been scrabbling weakly at the injury finally stilled, a weak sigh escaping him once the medicine was gone. One fairy tonic wasn’t enough to heal an injury of this caliber, but it would keep him alive long enough to get him somewhere safe.

...should he bring him somewhere safe?

Link hesitated as he looked at his double, biting his lip uncertainly.

He didn’t know a thing about the Hylian in front of him, other then the fact that they looked nearly identical to each other, and that the Yiga had tried to get rid of him. The second point was pretty indicative of the fact that they were at least both enemies of the Yiga, but... that didn’t necessarily mean they were allies either.

Was it safe to bring him to Hateno?

His double made a small noise of discomfort, and Link sighed, looking at all the blood in the snow. Even if he did mean them harm, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to them now, not with how injured he was.

Mind made up, Link made sure the flow of blood had truly slowed before gently lifting his double up, noting again with some worry how utterly cold he felt. He was also extremely lightweight, which he supposed made carrying him easier, but was yet another thing to be concerned about.

Link tucked the dry parts of the blanket as best he could around him, and started in surprise when his double’s eyes abruptly slitted open.

They were a bright, startling red from what Link could tell of them, and it almost looked like they were glowing in the fading light. His double blinked hazily at him, but then his eyes slipped closed again and Link couldn’t be sure if he imagined the glow or not.

He studied him again and was struck once more with how identical they looked, something squeezing his throat for some reason.

They could be brothers for all he knew.

Link swallowed, and decided that thinking about the implications of this wasn’t his priority right now, despite how much he wanted to.

Adjusting his hold, he pulled out the sheikah slate with one hand and continued to hold the clone with his other, tapping the shrine on the outskirts of Hateno, right by his house. Zelda was waiting for him there, as were more medical supplies. Hopefully she would know what to make of this.

Blue tendrils of light wrapped themselves around him and his double, and Link held tight as he felt the familiar sensation of travel with the sheikah slate warp him away into temporary nothingness.

The only sign that anyone had been in the area was the still-warm blood staining the snow.

[xephyr-your-sticks]

Good evening, Revalink Nation. I am once again back on my bullshit!

Have some modern-day human AU dumbasses! There's a little fic I'm working on for this AU as well, but with how many ideas i have for this thing, something tells me it's not going to be very "little" 👀. REGARDESS, there's some fun little deets in the read more, as well as one more drawing! ^^

• I like to think that Link would be the captain of the colour guard. Those of my oldest followers, the ones that have followed me since I was an undertale ask blog, know full well that I was in colour guard my freshman year of high school. Lots of peeps put him as captain of the fencing club, but I mean, HEY, CG involves its own types of saber and rifles! Plus, it helps make things just that little bit more unique ^^

• That being said, Revali is, predictably so, captain of the archery club. You can take the bird out of the archer, but you can't take the archer out of the bird.

• They share a college dorm together, and for the first month, Revali spends it acting like he couldn't give two shits about this tiny little twink of a boy, but then suddenly shifts gears one day when a particular short black woman with red cornrows has a Talk™️ with him.

• Link promised Revali's Nana when he first moved in that he would cheer Rev up whenever he was in a sour mood. So Revali's disdain for him is quite confusing, given that they hardly know each other at that point. He's convinced for that whole time that Revali hates him because of his tourettes, (He later finds out that Revali actually does understand sign and that he hated not being able to read Link's expressions. It's amazing what happens when you actually tell people how you're feeling and why!)

• Before the Very Mysterious Young Woman who's Definitely not Mipha reams into Rev, the only time he was cordial with Link was when food was involved.

• Like seriously, when Link was cooking, that was the ONLY time for that first month where he felt he could talk without stuttering or messing up his words.

• After that first month, Link starts leaving notes for Revali in places he commonly was, or attatched to meals that were then placed outside their door. They're not typically anything special, just little words of encouragement, praises of his accomplishments, even empathy for a particularly rough day. He puts the words he can't quite get verbally out into writing because, at least that way, there's no perceived embarrassment when he speaks.

• Revali. Keeps. Every. Single. Note. He reads three very specific ones over and over again at night once he gets all of them. The rest, he keeps safe in a little wooden music box that his mother gave to him (it plays song of storms), and he'll go through and read those too from time to time. They're secretly his favourite. Link has no idea he keeps them at all.

• They start dating some time after an extremely important archery competition. The CG was off on the sidelines watching the competition, and Link sprints over to slam himself into Revali the moment everyone else on their school's side of things begin filing onto the field. That's when Revali truly learns his own feelings.

This is a good deal of points in my fic, and I've been working on it on and off between playing TotK, working, and packing up to move. If anyone read this far, thank you for listening to me ramble!!!

[wutheringmights]

Hello :)

So.... I went silent for a hot while there. Sorry about that. I was just playing TOTK, much like everyone else.

Unfortunately, I am a slow gamer and despite playing this game constantly, I am nowhere near done with the main story.

I was planning on not picking up writing again until I was at least done with the main story, but I can't hold myself to that any more. Going this long without writing is genuinely affecting my mood, and I really need to flex my writing muscles again.

So I am going to tentatively get started on the next chapter of CTB, but keep in mind:

I am still splitting my time trying to play this massive game

This is a super busy month for me, so I have less free time to write than normal

All that's to say that you might not see a new chapter until mid-July or later.

The good news is that my tiny hiatus did wonders for helping me to think through future plot points and to thoroughly plan out the last of the story. As of right now, CTB will have 11 more chapters, plus an epilogue (but that number is subject to change based on pacing).

In the meantime, I will start tackling replying to reviews and the messages left for me in my ask box. Thanks for your patience!

[newtabfics]

Ok so now that I’m playing TotK it reminded me of how I used to ship Revali and Princess Zelda. I liked that they both disliked Link and I thought that maybe with Revali, it stemmed from Link getting to be Zelda’s knight and not him. He wanted to spend more time with her and be close to her, protect her.

I’m thinking if it was canon that he most likely had an unrequited crush on her…but for the sake of my ask let’s say they have mutual feelings. Ok now…

For the ask would you be willing to write a scenario of Link being appointed Zelda’s knight and that night Revali comes to her window in the castle (Link isn’t there) and they’re both remorseful that they have to be separated. He’s worried that Link is moving in on her and that he’ll lose her. Take it in either a SFW or NSFW direction if you want (that is, if you’re comfortable writing this), I’m fine with either (I also enjoy a good horny fic, ngl ;D ) But I do love me some angst and this is filled with it.

If it’s NSFW it’s probably because Revali wants to claim her virginity for himself, that way he could always be her first, and in his mind Link doesn’t win

I’ll stop rambling now lol

I just need you to know, you AWOKE a ship in my head I didn't even realize I needed. Had to consult my sister cuz she's a furry and a Revali fan so she directed me to some NSFW Revali art she likes to help me figure out the general biology regarding all this.

I did also take some creative liberties with this and adjusted the timeline for it to kinda sync up with the plot of BOTW.

Btw: you reminded me of my Mipha x Revali ship I had and like, hear me out. AU Of these two trying to help each other get with their real crushes (Mipha x Link, Revali x Zelda) and ya know, shenanigans? Maybe? Idk. I'm rambling. BELOW THE CUT:

Always First. Revali x Zelda Spicy Fic

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　　 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Warnings for BOTW Spoilers, I GUESS???? Plus spicy content.

Word Count: >1000

Revali watched the knight return to his own chambers before flying over the castle quietly. He hurried for her room, assured now there would be no disturbances.

Her gasp made him smirk as he quirked his head. She shook her head. “You can’t just do that anymore, Vali,” She sighed softly.

“If you were really angry, you wouldn’t be smiling,” He chirped, making it widen across her face as she quickly wrapped her arms around him. He held her close, nipping at her ear affectionately. “You’re really being restrained ever since you got him beside you,” He muttered angrily.

Zelda sighed, nodding. “It’s…for my training.”

Revali clicked his beak closed, sighing. It wasn’t that he could argue. He had isolated himself for months on end at one point to even begin scratching the surface on how to use his power. Given everything, he supposed he could understand the king’s fear.

“Still, it’s not fair to you to have to go through all this for something you don’t even know you can do.” Her eyes flitted down to their feet, as if he just spoke the one fear she had. Which he had. “Zelda, stop,” He said, using a feather to lift her chin. “You’re smart enough to know we can use our resources to our advantage. After all, you’re head research for those ancient machines.” He smirked as her cheeks flushed a slight. “You didn’t just ask me for help because of my down feathers, right?”

Zelda smiled and kissed the tip of his beak with a nod. “You’re right,” She chuckled softly. There was a long beat of silence before the princess sighed. “What is it?”

“He’s a bit too close for a knight,” The Rito hissed, feathers ruffling a slight in anger just at the thought of the knight.

“He takes his job seriously, Vali,” She said, smiling up at him.

“And what if he takes you?” She blinked at that as he sighed. “I’m not saying he’d do anything without your permission. He’s too much of a good little bird or that.”

Zelda’s lips pursed at the taunting nickname as she remembered her own mother’s nickname for her. “You’re jealous then?” She realized.

At the way he fluttered and stammered at the accusation, she smiled adoringly. When her hand cupped his face, he stopped and relaxed into her touch.

“You’re such a needy Rito,” She teased.

He chuffed and nipped her hand playfully. “I hate this,” he sighed.

The separation for so long had been a bit too much for him. He was joyful when she melted into his touch not long after she’d asked him to be Vah Medoh’s pilot. He was joyful to know that she, the princess of Hyrule, chose him above Hylians.

The king’s orders stopped those late night meetings He had been fine with the system they had in place. Despite her grievances, he asked her to stay by Link, which he was now kicking himself for. He wanted her safe.

Link would take her to a spot and go off once Revali had arrived. Despite all the taunting, Link would just wave and turn his back. He wouldn’t be leaving entirely but he wouldn’t pay them any mind and give them privacy.

But now, the king’s orders even reached the Hebra Region. Many of the Rito sympathized with the princess. He wondered briefly if others had heart of it too.

Though, if they heard that, they must’ve also heard how hard she was working, to a point of utter exhaustion.

“I just don’t want to lose you to some boy,” He sighed.

“You wouldn't," she chuckled. “He’s annoying.”

He laughed at that and guided her to the bed, holding her close as he nuzzled into her. “Even so,” He sighed. “You know the old trope?”

“Hm?” She hummed, blinking at him.

“About the knight and the princess?” He coaxed.

“A…trope?”

“You need to read more,” He teased. “About how the knight does something amazing and the princess can’t help but want to be ravished by him.”

Zelda’s face flushed a bright pink as she playfully pushed him away, making him laugh as he held her closer. “Ew! No. I’m not interested in him at all!”

“Oh? So you only want to be ravished by me?” He joked.

“Yes!” A silence hit and she went a brighter red before hiding her face.

Revali leaned in and nuzzled against her cheek. “Zelda, don’t be scared. You know I will protect you.” He smiled. “I don’t want him stealing you from me.”

“I know a few things he couldn’t take even if I gave it to him,” She muttered, looking up at him.

Revali’s heart fluttered as he watched her before leaning in. The kiss was gentle, full of affection and promise and want. It slowly deepened before he was laying her back into the bed. His beak dug into her hair and lightly nipped near her scalp, making her shiver and smile under him as he carefully helped her strip.

Zelda gulped when he stepped back, seeing the tip of his length peaking out from under his feathers. She knew Rito biology well enough. She didn’t have to be a scholar to know he was aroused by her nudity.

She reached into his feathers, carefully gripping the hardening length. The Rito froze and let her test the waters carefully, stroking him to full hardness. She was surprised when it stood out against his body.

“How did you hide this?” She asked curiously.

His chest swelled with pride at that as he stroked him carefully. “What? Like it?” he teased, making her gulp thickly as she bit her lip. He took her chin into his fingers, pulling her eyes back to his. “At your command, your highness.”

She shivered at that, not entirely sure why that sent a jolt through her body. “You–You’ll need to be in charge. I don’t know…I mean, I understand the logistics…”

He smiled and bent, kissing her. “Want me to take the lead?” She nodded hesitantly, still unsure of herself but knew this was the path she could finally take for herself.

Before long, he was sliding into her, making her hands twitch against his back. He moaned lowly with her, careful not to move to quickly. “Don’t be afraid to pull a few feathers,” He grunted. “I’d like knowing I stopped your brain from working.”

She smiled and cupped his face. “Then stop it.”

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

I got Tears of the Kingdom for Christmas and boy howdy this is so fucking fun. I might get around to writing some stuff about it but right now I just want to keep playing. I was right when I predicted months ago that it would consume all of my free time (and eat a bit into my not-free time).

Related, although I originally planned for my WIP Linked Universe fanfic Descent to Darkness to be a sequel to my previous fic (Oops! All Links), after playing TotK, I’m thinking of using the TotK iteration of Wild instead of BotW. His character is a bit more fleshed out, he’s had more experiences, and at the most basic level, his new powers are fucking sick. With the exception of maybe stasis, this new kit of abilities is cooler and more fun to play with, so it would probably be more fun to write.

Thing is, I would need to decouple OAL and DtD. What I’ve already written has barely anything to do with OAL though, so that’s an easy fix. Plus then it needs no explanation that you don’t need to read all 87k words of OAL to understand and enjoy DtD. I mean we’ll see how I feel when I’m ready to sit down and write more, because like I said, I just want to keep playing the game.

[somethingwittyandweird]

see it’s especially hard to top colgera because you don’t actually even need bows! i did it that way bc i didn’t realize you were supposed to just skydive at it at first but refighting it later the right way makes it sooo fun. colgera has like infinite refight value simply by virtue of not having to spend a single resource on it unlike literally every other fight in this duology. unless you have insane patience with remote bombs somehow i guess. plus you get a good fuse piece as a reward. plus the fight itself is fun and the music is great. literally insanely satisfying to not have to worry about breaking weapons or wasting arrows WHILE enjoying an insanely good atmosphere

Count me as among today's lucky 10,000, because this message is where I learned that you don't just fight it with bows!

(I mean obviously you DO and you CAN and I DID every time I came up against it, and that was cool enough on its own, and <insert the usual spiel about TotK multiple-valid-approaches-to-every-challenge here>, but...)

You know, when I have seen people over these past months talk about Colgera blowing their minds as a fight, I always assumed they were just geeking out over all the midair shooting, because in my experience it was a neat fight but not really mindblowing... but apparently the reason WHY I wasn't floored was that. I've just. Been doing the objectively less cool way the whole time.

How did they manage to make a game where "you beat the boss by soaring around it in midair and doing epic slo-mo fire arrow barrages" is the less cool option?

[dany36]

after months of putting it off i finally finished xc3 future redeemed with 25ish hours in yaaaay time to put this thing to rest with some extremely junk thoughts below (with spoilers of course)

i gotta be honest, i wasn't really looking forward to playing through this dlc ever since it was announced. it came out in...what? april? may? i forget, but it was around the time that i was playing the dlc for horizon and then i think totk dropped after that and i just kept using that as excuses to not pick it up and play through it. plus i wasn't a fan of the design for older shulk (yeah yeah i know inspiration from dunban but idk just personal preference that i didn't vibe with it) and well rex is probably my least favorite protagonist tied with the dude from tales of arise (lmao i forgot his name), and really overall i didn't care to play as them again, so i mean not the most perfect material for me to look forward to.

anyways, some positives:

-seeing colony 9 again was cool but the excitement to callbacks to places in xenoblade 1 kind of wore off in xc3. so when i heard the original colony 9 overworld music it didn't make me flip my shit as when i would see references to it in the base game. it was more of a oh that's cool i guess. same with valak mountain even though when i played DE i was so excited to see it again.

-might be because it was a dlc and the world wasn't as unnecessarily huge and empty to explore as in the base game but i actually was having a better time exploring this world than the base game's. finding relics and containers was actually useful and rewarding (and necessary i'd say!) this time around instead of finding your nth useless drop-off container or whatever those things were in the base game that i just stopped bothering to pick up.

-oh in comparison to finding and sending of husks which i again lost incentive to do very early in the game, finding city survivors was better because at least you would get to see colony 9 grow etc.

-the chain attacks are still as fun as ever and FR is no exception. it was great hearing the chain attack music again!

-i felt like the bosses were harder this time around? alpha kicked my butt several times before i was able to beat him. i mean i certainly didn't have the best gems (sorry, not gonna go farming!) and didn't unlock all the slots for accessories/gems/affinity growth but it was a nice change having to be on my toes and carefully plan my chain attacks instead of just doing whatever like i would do in the base game lol.

-glimmer actually? sorry that your dad is rex but your healing powers saved my ass so many times in the last battle that now you get an honorific mention. like...this girl was just ON. TOP. OF. IT. i'm a bit confused about the instrument theme that she had going on though--was this an xc2 reference that i'm forgetting or something? like did pyra/mythra really like music? lol. anyway i really liked her and nikol's friendship and the bits that we got to see of it, it's why i never changed their unity combo because they are besties and they always attack together :) OH and that sidequest that ends with A volunteering to teach glimmer how to play the lute was cute, especially since that sometimes you get to see them practicing together at rest spots. i wish we had gotten more types of those sidequests but well, can't have it all i suppose.

-A. i was very wary about her character starting the dlc but she actually ended up growing on me, design-wise and battle-style wise. her friendship with matthew was interesting and i liked how she would compliment matthew's wild and reckless side. idk not much to say here other than i thought she was cool despite me being judgement about her character initially lol.

-matthew. pretty fun protagonist. it was like having reyn as a protagonist except with a bit more smarts. again i was wary about his character starting off but his personality as a protagonist was refreshing and he was pretty fun to play as, too.

the negatives:

-the secret locations were...pretty lame? they were in the base game as well so idk what i expected. i'd get to a secret location and i'd be like oh....is that it? i don't remember xc2's secret locations or how they'd compare but i know most of the time xc1's would get a little bit more of a reaction from me.

-the affinity scenes oh my god. they were so boring and meaningless to watch most of the time. i think i watched at least like 80% of them and there wasn't really anything that would make me look forward to watching them like xc1 future connected's. i think in one of them you're just talking about the fighting machines that they're building in colony 9? or looking at a tomb?? like idk i certainly wouldn't feel like i was growing my "affinity" with any of the party members! plus the fact that they were just like shots of the scene you were looking at instead of seeing the characters interact (like with FC's) would just make them feel even more souless. idk maybe i'm just so jaded about this whole thing now but i just didn't really feel it when shulk talked about fiora at the overlook park or dunban outside of his house. i guess it also doesn't help that he's talking about them with people who don't know anything about his world so that must be weird to him too. so i mean idk i'd always look forward to the heart-to-hearts in xc1 and affinity scenes in FC and here it was just like maybe one or two that i was like "wow i'm so glad i got to see this!"

-ok this is pretty random and i'm not sure it's a negative but i was just reminded of this when talking about the previous point: towards the end the whole party is walking together towards prison island and within earshot of everyone else shulk is talking to A and he's like "hey, A, when I refused to become a god..." like lmao imagine being nikol or glimmer and hearing THAT sentence. like WHAT hahahaha like SIR what do you mean!!!! anyway!!!

-na'el. i'm sorry but...why am i supposed to care about her again other than she is matthew's sister? she likes kids and likes to play the piano? unlike N who i got to sympathize with after learning his origins, i never really cared much for na'el and actually was like "whatever lady, i don't care much for you!" whenever she'd show up, so i wasn't able to really to connect to matthew's struggle or whatever. like i know she's supposed to remind us of N/moebius with her being like "i don't wanna fight anymore i just want things to stay as peaceful as they are RIGHT NOW in the city!!" but idk i never found her character to be too sympathetic or interesting for me to care about, so her whole thing was just....pretty weak to me which is kinda bad considering how much of the game seems to revolve around her.

-again this isn't exactly a negative but one thing that confused me was that i'm PRETTY sure matthew mentions the queen of keves being imprisoned in the castle, which is something that nia also mentions when you rescue her in the base game. so is the reason why shulk and them are not worried about that atm is because...of the truce...with Z...and...alpha being the main threat?? i mean I GUESS but unless i misunderstood (not sure because as soon as i heard that i was like uhh HELLO??) it just seems kind of weird knowing that melia is captured (unless matthew meant the "fake" melia which to him would be the "real" one since he wouldn't know) and they're just like yep!! that's right! she's imprisoned! anyways.

uhhh this is getting way longer than i wanted it to be so i'm just gonna wrap it up and say yep, that was A DLC alright. i mean again this is just me being jaded but after i finished xc2 and saw that they were trying to connect xc1 with xc2 i was just like...why lol. considering how i thought xc1 ended pretty well?? i just never really cared about how this whole thing would connect, so i don't really remember ANYTHING about xc2 other than how much i did NOT enjoy it, i never played its dlc because i didn't care about the lore. while i was playing the dlc i know some xc2 stuff flew right over my head, and i'm rusty on my xc1 lore, but again, xc2 disappointed me so badly that i just never really bothered to keep up with the overall lore. i enjoyed some parts of xc3 yes but after i finished it i was never like oh i hope they make a dlc of this and that!!! unlike when i finished xc1, where i DID want to play Future Connected because of how miserably things ended for melia in regards to her dead family, her people, her half-sister who apparently hated her (BUT LUCKILY RECONNECTED WITH AT THE END), and her whole hometown being fucking destroyed. might be me being biased because melia is like one of my favorite characters ever but i mean...who wouldn't want to know what would happen post-xc1 to such a tragic character? which is kind of funny to say considering that we more than likely would not have gotten FC if it hadn't been for xc2 lol.

anyway, overall i don't really feel too strongly about this dlc. i was just mostly going through the motions and trying to get it done so i can just move on with my life lol, i got other games to play. like sure it was great seeing the worlds at the end unite once and for all and apparently there were some xenosaga references towards the end to make this whole thing be in the same universe (which flew over my head since i'm not that familiar with xenosaga), so that's cool and all, but idk rex and shulk sacrificing themselves and the game trying to make me feel sad by having nikol and glimmer run up to them because those are their dads!!! ;( just made me shrug and be like "ok i guess??" yeah i'm tired lol.

oh well, for now time to wait for the next game in the xeno series!!!!

[hepatosaurus]

2023 AO3 Wrapped!

I had a lot of fun tracking my fic reading in 2022, so... I did it again in 2023! Still fun, still both completely unsurprising and a little illuminating at the same time. I definitely read less fic this past year—only 77 across 12 fandoms, compared to last year's 110—but that's OK. Life happens, and I'm very aware that I'm never going to be a person who reads a million words per month (or 100 books a year). Stats-wise, I can't guarantee that these numbers are completely accurate, but they feel right and that's what counts.

Word Count

971,646 words! Numbers fluctuated throughout the year with one real dead zone (lol @ June - I was busy! sibling got married! played a lot of Zelda!), and I kind of petered out by the end of the year. On the plus side, my brain can handle reading actual books again, which was fun. On the minus side: less fic. Oh well. (Also: May's number isn't entirely accurate, but I had to put rubicon's final word count somewhere. No, I haven't finished reading the complete edited fic yet, but that's when the last chapter draft hit my inbox, soooo there.) Most fics were on the shorter side, unsurprisingly (average length was ~12k); I think rubicon was the only one over 100k. I did read more 50–100k fic compared to last year though, which was nice.

(Putting the rest behind a cut. Obligatory warning that this is mostly about Fire Emblem, but what else is new?)

Top Fandoms

My FE3H reading took a HUGE hit this year, falling from 87.3% to... 83.1%. Ouch, how will my faves recover. Really though, this was yet another reminder that although I certainly watched and loved a lot of new movies and tv shows, read new books, played new video games (ok, it was mostly BOTW/TOTK), all things that could conceivably lead me to check out greener pastures, I am still in an extremely monofandom phase in terms of actual fic reading/fandom participation (four years now!). And honestly, I'm fine with that! I'm having fun, blorbos are still my blorbos, there's still a ton of fic I haven't read yet (new and old), and I'm in a nice/quiet/drama-free corner of fandom. Besides, the average fandom lifespan is too short these days anyway. I'm doing my part to break the cycle. :P

I do wish I had the brain space to read a little more widely, though. I was so close to going on a zelink bender after I finished BOTW, but life got busy and it just... didn't happen. Maybe in 2024. Severance and fandom juggernaut SoftBank Next 30-Year Vision tried their best—two fics each! impressive, lol—but the heart wants what it wants, and what it wants is anime chess pieces kissing (and/or killing) each other.

Top Authors

56 individual authors, with the top spot going to...desmodus! which does not surprise me tbh; they write such good fic. Looking at these particular results was an interesting reminder that I'm really not someone who methodically/voraciously reads through an author's entire back catalogue, at least not currently. Like, besides the named authors, there were four more with two fics each and the rest had only one each. Next time, I'm almost tempted to see if I can factor in word count to get a better idea of how much time I really spent reading each author, especially since I might (hypothetically) read multiple forgettable 1–5k fics by Author A, and then a single memorable/meaty 95k fic by Author B that sticks with me for years. Is Author A really more of a "top" author? Not really. That's more work on my part though, so we'll see what happens. (All of this waffling could be solved by making an actual rec list for once, but shhhhh.)

Top Pairings

Surprising absolutely no one, I'm still in sylvix hell. Congrats to None for jumping a couple spots in the rankings, though! A solid showing. I need to get better at tracking platonic relationships, but to be fair, those tags are underutilized on AO3 to begin with (or not used consistently), and I typically—but not always—stick with the main tags chosen by the author.

Also, please note that the ship in sixth place was entirely thanks to alphabetical sorting (it was a six-way tie), but I'm keeping it as is because it makes me laugh/implies some sort of character growth on my part that may or may not exist.

Top Characters

Lol. In my defense(?), Sylvain did drop almost three whole points this year; he couldn't even hit 60%! What kind of blorbo...?! Jokes aside, it's an entirely expected list. My Blue Lions/Golden Deer bias persists, but I'm not sure what determined when I logged "Blue Lions Students" vs. their actual names—probably half laziness, half just following what the author picked. I did love seeing Ask A Manager's Allison Green chilling at the bottom of this list with Bakugo, though. I'm sure she'll be fine. (And god knows Mr. King Explosion Murder and the rest of my top 20 could stand to follow her advice.)

(Also: apologies to Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, as I see his illustrious surname was cut off accidentally. Forgive me.)

Ratings, Categories, etc.

Also pretty unsurprising! I considered cutting my NSFW tracker at the beginning of last year since it's a little redundant, but that never happened. It might come in handy one day, especially if I'm looking through my spreadsheet for individualized recs. I was surprised that the Multi category was so low, but that could be due to inconsistencies in how people tag their fic? And/or how I logged them. Sometimes it means poly, but sometimes it just means that there are multiple kinds of ships in a fic. Either way, it's something to consider for 2024's tracker. Consistency! Let's strive for it! ✨

Tags & Tropes

Also about what I expected, though I was honestly shocked to see Established Relationship ranking so high? And Friends to Lovers so low? What is going ON here. (The former is probably partially due to mikey desmodus's excellent married sylvix fics.) Sorry to Horse Feelings, though; I made a dedicated tag on my google form and everything, but there was only the one fic in the end :(

Etc: Commenting, Rereading, Reccing, and Bookmarks

Commenting: My only real fic-reading "goal" in 2023 was to get my commenting percentage up to at least 50% and...I did that! Just barely, but 51.9% is 51.9%. Obsessive media tracking works!

Rereads: As expected, and pretty in line with last year (with a tiny increase). I'm just not a big rereader in general, though I did do a fair bit of rereading WIPs to prepare for new chapters. (Not sure how I classified those, come to think of it...)

Bookmarks: Also pretty similar to last year (with a tiny decrease).

Reccing: Now this DID surprise me. That "Yes" percentage seems almost absurdly high, jumping from 46.4% to 61%, and my "No"s dropped a ton too (22.7% to 5.2%). Either I got nicer or I just read better fic. :P Leaning towards the former, but probably a bit of both tbh. My one DNF was a longfic WIP that didn't spark joy and was becoming a hateread, which is rare for me - byeeeee.

Takeaways

By now my tracking form has become part of my fic-reading routine (read - track - comment/etc), and I can't see that changing any time soon. Obviously not everyone wants to (or should!) engage with fic this way, and I can definitely see how it might suck the joy out of reading for some people, but for me, it's been a good mental exercise and a really helpful commenting aid. Also, it's just fun. I like thinking critically about media! I like having a place to record my silly little thoughts about the silly little fanfics I read! All in all, I highly recommend doing something similar if you, like me, get a rush from making lists and compiling data, and if you like complimenting people but sometimes need that extra push to actually tell them and post a comment.

Goals-wise... I don't really do those lol. Probably to continue commenting and maybe try to read more widely, but honestly I'm probably not going to change my habits intentionally. Besides, looking at what I've read so far, yes, it's already half Fire Emblem, but also half gen and half F/F with nary a Sylvain in sight*! We got History Boys, we got Haikyuu filk, we got Ingrid and a MILF! Who knows what's around the corner?

(*This is quite literally only because I haven't logged rubicon yet. Don't worry, he's coming.)