Silence. 24
Table of Contents....Chapter 1...Chapter 23
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Zelda didn't bother to be quiet as she shoved open the sanctuary door. She let it slam closed behind her, the bang echoing through the room. It was loud enough that Link bolted upright, his head popping up over the back of the pew. He blinked at her, then jumped to his feet.
Halfway down the aisle he paused, probably catching sight of the sword on her back. "You--"
"Yes." She just grabbed his hand as she stomped past, pulling him with her towards the Goddess statue. "I didn't realize what it was, and I took it. For that I apologize."
To relieve her burning face, she busied herself arranging the candles around the Goddess statue's feet and lighting the wick of a long handled taper used by the acolytes.
When he spoke again, there was a hesitancy in his voice. "I...I'm sorry I didn't tell you." He had grabbed his own taper to help her.
She paused only for a moment. "It's alright." In a way, she was glad he hadn't. She would have been upset.
Another candle. Another. All her fear bunched back into a ball in her throat. "And it's not as if I was forthcoming myself. I didn't tell you I'm the failed princess."
He froze beside her, and that was it. She had ruined it. He would never look at her the same way again. All her failures would make sense. Her reasons for being here. Her reasons for being so hard on herself. But it would be unfair to keep the truth from him. Maybe he still held onto enough of his vows to be forgiving and charitable. He still loves you. Oh, she hoped he would. She refused to look at him and kept lighting candles, carrying on, carrying on.
"Finally. Now I know your name."
She nearly dropped her taper as she whipped around to gape at him.
There was a look on his face, assessing, but not judging as he stood, leaning on his taper in the warm glow they had created on the first few steps leading to the Goddess' feet.
She swallowed hard, not daring to believe it.
Then he stepped forward, and let his hand brush hers before signing, I’m sorry.
She was not ready for his pity. Instead, she dropped her eyes, then pulled the scabbard from her back, shaking her hair free and pressing it into his hands.
He held it uncertainly for a moment.
"It doesn't usually let other people touch it. I thought it was trying to push people away. It shocked both my parents and my superior officer and--well, a bunch of guys in the barracks who were fooling around. And there was the voice saying I was worthless, that I'd let everyone I loved die, and I deserved punishment. I thought the thing to do was isolate myself. That my destiny was to be alone. But you never saw me as a failure, and you were welcoming and kind and warm and we were friends. And then when you touched it last week, I thought...I thought maybe it was time to let people in. Maybe I was going about it the wrong way."
The sword held between them, they looked up at each other. Uncertain. Hesitant.
Zelda licked her lips. "I need your help."
"Okay," he said. No hesitation. No asking what kind of help.
She put out the light on her taper and set it down as she sunk to her knees. Link followed her down. "I spoke to the sword. She's the one who's been telling you all the percentages."
He startled. "The sword talks?!"
That got her lips to twitch towards a smile. "Evidently."
He frowned down at it, then jerked his head back up to her. "It sounds just like you."
She shrugged. "She does the percentages, I do the, um, the--"
"Self-flagellation?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, fine. But you mentioned a third voice. One that encourages you."
He thought for a moment. "That's not you? Are you sure?"
"The sword says it's Hylia."
He stared at her. Then his eyes drifted up to the statue's face, lost in the darkness. At length, he said, "Oh. Okay."
"Okay?! A goddess is speaking to you and your response is okay?"
He threw up his arms. Clearly he had no idea what was happening either. She needed to get them back on track.
"Hylia speaks to you. I would very much like it if she spoke to me. So I need you to..." She waved her hands as if searching for a way to explain through gestures. "Walk me through what you're doing. Or reach out and ask her to talk to me too. I'm honestly not sure."
He frowned. "I don't know. I thought you were all the same until a minute ago." But he did take a moment to think on it. "Okay. Um. It's kind of sporadic. And it's...it's quiet. Because...I don't know it's hard to hear."
She nodded. "So listen really hard."
"No no. It's...difficult to hear. Emotionally. Like, it usually feels like a stray thought that I just push away, because I try really hard not to listen to anything you shout at me--sorry."
"No, that's...that's understandable." Her face felt very warm.
"I try to push what you say away, and those little nice things, the ones that say I'm doing things right, those are even easier to shove off, because they're hard to believe. And they're...light. Fleeting. It takes a lot of work to take in what it's saying. And...I don't know."
She chewed her bottom lip. "But...you were listening. The past few weeks."
"Yeah. Yeah, I guess I was. Because they were saying what I felt when I was with you. I guess you just have to be open to it?" He cringed, knowing how ridiculous that sounded.
Be open to it.
Zelda was not very good at being open to encouragement.
She took a deep breath.
Quietly, he added, "I hear it the most when I'm listening to the math."
The math. Goddess how embarrassing.
"Alright. Okay. Then that's a place to start."
She folded her hands beneath her breast, took several deep breaths to push down the frantic jitter in her blood, and closed her eyes. She thought of the Perrin sequence, of triangles populating around each other into a spiral, growing larger, bolder with each new iteration. She thought of her sense stretching out, starting small in her body, the pushing out to where Link's shoulders were easing, out to the sleeping monks in the abbey, out towards Castletown and the villages and the mountains and the sea. And was it really any wonder she projected her prayers when she had meditations like this? Triangles, triangles, spiraling around her until the numbers grew too large for her to keep up with and she felt as if she'd covered all of the world, as if she held it all in her mind. So she held it, held it, the moment full and waiting and quiet quiet quiet.
Listen.
With a stab of fear, her eyes snapped open, and she spun on Link. "How do I know it's her, and I'm not simply listening to my own thoughts?"
He tilted his head, unsurprised at the interruption. "Does it matter?"
"What?"
He shrugged. "I mean...Maybe she's talking to you and maybe she's putting thoughts in your head and maybe she's inspiring you to think kind things. Those are all gentleness and love, and all gentleness and love come from her. If it's pointing you in the right direction, what does it matter?"
She shifted as her skin prickled in discomfort. That...made sense logically. And yet...And yet it did matter. It mattered so much. She wanted the Goddess to speak to her. Directly. To wipe away all doubt.
But it was just her own voice, and she could never stop doubting herself.
She blinked as Link slipped his hand into hers. When she looked up at him in surprise, the smile he gave her was simple. Loving. Trusting.
He believes in you.
She swallowed hard. Link squeezed her hand. Then with trepidation tight in her chest, she turned back to the statue and closed her eyes.
Is that really what I need to do? Believe in myself and...open my heart?
What do you think you should do?
She nearly rolled her eyes. She was definitely talking to herself. With a deep breath, she pressed on.
I have no idea.
You wanted to figure it out all on your own.
Well, it would seem at this point that that was not the correct path.
You put too much weight on simplicity and not enough on charity.
What? No. I broke the vow of simplicity and was doing too much charity.
You broke your vow of charity first. You broke it immediately, and have repeatedly broken it every day since.
Zelda's eyes snapped open. That sounded exactly the way she berated herself. And yet it was different. Was she just saying different things because she was hoping to be chastised from a different angle?
Uncharitable. To...myself?
You were cruel and punishing and unforgiving. You knew that your actions were wrong. You would never think of your fellow acolytes in such terms. And yet you unendingly berated my favorite daughter.
How ridiculous. She was hardly Hylia's favorite daughter. What was she even saying?
You are brilliant and loving and beautiful and loyal. If you cannot accept kindness from yourself, how will you accept it from Hylia?
Her arms and chest trembled as if she were about to cry.
No, this was so stupid. As if believing nice things about herself and thinking she could do it would be enough to unlock her powers.
Or was she turning away? Turning away yet again. How could she know?!
A leap of faith.
A leap of faith. It did feel as if she were stepping off a cliff and into a void with nothing to catch her. Approving of herself felt like a trick. After all the disapproval and all the punishments and all the belittling and all the isolation stamped over and over and over on her mind until she took them into herself, how was she supposed to step out from under that?
She shook her head, and the tears that had welled up slipped loose. It's so hard to trust that voice.
Which voice? Hylia? Or yourself?
"Both," she said.
Both.
Tingles raced over her skin, prickling up her spine as the reality of it settled into place. "Maybe they are the same."
Link tilted his head when she turned to him. Her palm was warm and sweaty against his, but he didn't break the hold to ask a one-handed, Did you hear anything?
She lifted her free hand to answer, but stopped herself.
She didn't need to gesture.
And the back of her hand was glowing warm and soft as the candlelight.
She spread it out before her, gazing at the small flicker of a Triforce that maybe one day she could coax into a beam of light. A blinding beam. But for now it flickered with fragile hope.
She wiped her cheek with their joined hands, unwilling to look away from the glow even for a moment, unwilling to let go of his hand as if their connection were somehow powering it. “I think Hylia might believe in me.”
“Do you believe in you?”
She wasn’t sure, and she looked over at him and the encouraging look on his face. She squeezed his fingers. “I think, maybe, I could learn.”
.
The end.
Thanks everyone!
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A Persuasive Argument - dpxdc
"Great!" Danny says, clapping his hands together to get everyone's attention. The dinner table falls silent as everyone looks towards him. It's a full house today and, honestly, Danny's a little nervous. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I gathered you here today."
"It's dinnertime. In our house." Duke mutters, while doing a very bad job of concealing his yawn. He holds his fork poised over the braised beef, but, just like everyone else, still looks towards Danny before tucking in. It's intriguing enough to wait.
"Yeah, no one misses Alfie's dinner." Dick says, with a brilliant smile that Danny can't help but return.
"Precisely! What better time to talk to you all than when you're all actually here!"
"Wait, I thought you came round to work on our English essays?" Tim asks, blinking owlishly.
"I'm afraid I've lured you here under false pretences, Tim."
"This is where I live."
"I would still really appreciate help on that essay though, I mean, what the hell is Hamlet even about? I just don't get that old time-y language, like 'Hark! A ghost hath killed me!' - absolute rubbish, what does that even mean?"
"The ghost never kills anyone in Hamlet, he's there to tell Hamlet that he was murdered. Have you actually read it?"
"No, but it sounds like you have. Tim, I want this guy to help me with my essay instead. I know for a fact that you haven't read Hamlet, either."
"So? We don't need Jason, I've read the Sparknotes."
"Hi Jason, I'm Danny, pleasure to meet you, summarise Hamlet in three sentences or less."
"Am I auditioning to help you write your essays? I can't believe you’ve gone through your whole school life without reading it, it’s good!"
"Hamlet, along with a number of other classics, was banned in our house because it portrayed ghosts as intelligent and sympathetic beings rather than evil, animalistic beasts. I didn’t even get to see The Muppet's Christmas Carol until last year with Tim! It was surprisingly good, and I hate Christmas because everyone always argued and it sucked. But we're getting off topic. I—"
"No, no, please go back to that, because what the fu—"
"Boys, please." Bruce interrupts, looking to the world as if he wants to hang his head in his hands. "Danny, you were about to say something?"
"Oh, yeah, Mr. Wayne! Thanks!"
"Please, call me Bruce."
"Well, that very succinctly brings me to my point, because I'd actually really like to call you dad."
Nobody says a word. Nobody even blinks, all as shocked as the other, watching open-mouthed as Danny pulls his laptop out from beside his chair. Bruce can definitely feel a headache coming on.
"Before you say anything, I've prepared a 69 slide PowerPoint presentation on why you, Bruce Wayne, should adopt me, Danny Last-Name-Pending. Please save your questions, comments, and verdict until the end, thank you."
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i have been unmedicated for the entirety of spring break and thus have had little interest in writing this down, but i have been thinking about this for the entire week (as well as a dpdc clone danny au that resulted in it becoming its entirely separate batman au that includes a teenage vigilante bruce wayne, an ocarina, and me entirely incapable of making a batman au without making bruce dirt poor but we're not talking about that) and so i've finally went 'fuck it' and forcibly grabbed my laptop. I will get this done in one sitting even if it kills me.
BUT. This is about neither clone^2 danny nor about who i am calling Ocarina Batman. This is about my Danyal Al Ghul Au and more SPECIFICALLY it's me thinking about his relationship with Sam and Tucker specifically.
Tucker and Sam? Adore this asshole (affectionate) with every fiber of their being. And it is very much a reciprocated feeling, but Danny's thoughts will not be delved into much other than he would kill for them.
Tucker? The only person currently capable of getting a deep, loud, belly laugh out of Danny. Sam can get him to smile and to laugh, but it's the kind that's a chuckle-under-the-breath. The quiet, looks-down-while-huffing laughter. Snorts once with laughter and then grins stupidly.
But Tucker? Tucker can crack a slew of stupid jokes and Danny will be incapacitated for the next five minutes because he's laughing so hard that he can't breath. He lands one well-timed pun or quip and Danny will be close to tears. His laughter is their favorite sound in the whole world.
Sam is lowkey jealous of this ability, and she's gotten a belly laugh out of Danny a few times. But alas, it is Tucker who wields this power and has gotten it the most times out of the two of them.
-
They're also both physically affectionate with Danny as much as possible. It started roughly around when they were 12-ish, a year since they befriended Danny, and they noticed that he sought after touch but never seemed to initiate (and was in some ways repulsed by it). They started slowly being more touchy with him. Hooking a finger around his to lead him somewhere, tapping his wrist, looping arms. Little touches, grabs, etc, to get him used to it, and once he started doing it back they started increasing it.
It's gotten to a point where he will now just. Lay on them. Like a lizard sunbathing on a rock. Leaning on their backs when they're sitting in class before the bell rings, his chin on their heads. He'll talk about anything with his arms looped around their shoulders.
If they're sitting on a couch at either of their houses, he'll lay his legs on theirs. Him and Tucker will press their feet against the other's and try and push against them (newsflash: Danny always wins, Tucker claims its the ghost strength but Danny's been winning since before his accident)
-
Naturally, both Sam and Tucker know where Danny keeps his weapons on his person, and are allowed to grab them off of him if they need it. His only requirement is that they don't lose his weapons if they take it and forget to return it immediately.
They both understand how big of a thing this is from Danny, and so they do their best to treat his weapons with a lot of respect and care because they know its his way of saying he trusts them.
-
Sam and Tucker are so fond of Danny it's insane. Like fr. That's their goddamn best friend, and they are so protective of him. Emotionally, physically, you name it. They will tear the head off a grown man if they need to, Danny's had scars since he arrived in Amity Park and Sam and Tucker both are going to find the person who put them there and make them pay for it.
One time, Tucker overheard a bunch of upperclass girls speaking nastily about Danny and about the rumors surrounding him, calling him names like 'freak', 'monster', etc. Danny was with him and heard it, and seemingly appeared unbothered by it, even telling Tucker that he was used to such rumors.
Tucker was so furious that hacked into the school system later that night and tanked those girls grades. They were kicked out of their clubs and had to go to mandatory tutoring for the rest of the year. He made sure to leave some way of letting them know it was him who did it.
And Sam doesn't like using her money for things, doesn't like abusing that wealth. So instead, whenever her parents talk bad about Danny, she causes a media incident that has her parents scrambling to deal with. She does something wild, outrageous by her parents' standards.
She heard some boys on the basketball team making fun of Danny once, similar to those girls had. She kicks up a fuss about something eco-unfriendly at school and forcibly holds a protest on the same day of the big home basketball game, forcing them to cancel the event and reschedule to a visiting school.
She anonymously donates money so that there's new uniforms for the team but oops! Looks like she "forgot" to donate enough money for them to get uniforms for all the team members, and strangely enough those boys in particular didn't get them! Looks like they'll have to wait until more money gets donated for the basketball team to get their new, nice uniforms. The old ones look so ratty in comparison, right?
And since the football team gets most of the sport money, that might just take awhile. And if (and when) they kick up a fuss? oops! Off the basketball team you go, :) such unsportsman-like behavior is unfit for the team.
(The only good thing about how corrupt the school system is is that she can use it to her advantage too.)
The both of them know that Danny suspects them for the sudden misfortune falling on these people, but he doesn't call them out on it. He's kinder than he used to be, but not kind enough to vouch for people who speak badly of him. Sometimes, he might just congratulate them on not getting caught.
Because Danny is their wonderful, hurt friend with a "slightly" Blue and Orange Moral code, and enough scars that people have been calling him a criminal (and worse) since he arrived in Amity Park when he was ten. And they'll be damned if he gets hurt anymore.
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