#this took so long to write . bcs i was playing totk

[sharkpupsblog]

😨 Lost Horse! 🐎 PART 7. Electric guitar.

A Sabine x GN! Reader fanfic!

Hi guys!!!! So so so good to be back omg!!!! 😭❤️❤️❤️ thank you everyone for your patience ❤️ during my break I kept writing to distract myself and I have the fic all ready to go and to be posted! 🙏🙏🙏 there are . More parts than I originally planned but it’s ok the more parts the better! :D also there is some guitar playing here and I am not a guitar expert (I can barely play my acoustic💔) so if anything is wrong I apologize 😭💔 once again ty all for the patience! :D enjoy! ❤️❤️❤️

Summary: You get guitar lessons from Sabine.

Warnings: foul language.

Your first meeting with Sabine and Khaan was a bit awkward. You and Sabine talked for a bit, but since you did not know each other well you quickly ran out of topics to talk about. After you ran out of things to talk about you both awkwardly stood in front of each other. Khaan and your Lipizzaner watched as you both tried to come up with something. Nothing came up so you both stood in awkward silence. You ran out of things to say because you feared your sense of humor or interests wouldn’t match hers. She ran out of things because she felt the same way you did.

She also did not want to spill too much about herself just in case you were a spy for your dad. The second meeting wasn’t as awkward. You found more things to talk about. You talked, and she listened. By the third meeting Sabine decided to start talking more. She realized that you could not be a spy. If you were then you would have given up by the second meeting since she wasn’t talking, or you would have gotten bored. But you were still around, and you were always so full of energy. It was clear you actually cared, and you weren’t there for anyone else. You listened to everything she said, so she trusted you.

Many hang outs came after that. Most of them were in the Everwind fields. Some were in coffee shops. She learned how you liked your coffee, and you learned how she liked hers. There were a lot of things you agreed on, but coffee was definitely not one of them. After weeks of hanging out and talking over the phone you became good friends. You trusted her with everything, and she trusted you with most of her stuff. She wished she could tell you as much as you told her but what she had was heavy. She did not want to ruin the mood.

You didn’t know much about her past or about what happened the day you found Khaan. You wished to know, but you kept quiet. You wanted her to tell you when she felt ready. The stuff she could tell you always amazed you. The thing that surprised you most was that she did dressage, and she ran her own club. When you asked to join as a joke, she said you were too lame to join her club. It brought up a conversation about what would make you cool enough to join.

Which brings you to the present. You’re sitting on your couch with a guitar on your lap. In front of you Sabine kneels. She takes the hand you have on the neck of the guitar, and she gently moves it down a bit. She positions your fingers to different strings. They are now in place to form a note. When she tells you to strum you do. The guitar produces a nice sound that makes you smile “was that good?” You look at Sabine. She nods smiling back at you “good enough to join your club?”

The girl laughs she shakes her head at you “maybe learn a few more notes first.” The guitar belongs to her. Another thing you learned about Sabine was that she loved music. Her favorite band was the Miscreants. The band was highly popular in Jorvik, so it did not surprise you that she was a fan of it. She said she got her own guitar when she was younger thanks to the Miscreants inspiring her. The girl never really used it though. The guitar sat in her closet for most of its life. Only being used at random times like this one. Note learning was a first for you and a refresher for Sabine who had not picked up the guitar in a while.

“Did it take you long to learn the notes?” You watched as she grabbed your hand again. She positioned it to another note. “It took me a while but-“ she moved your fingers around “it might be different for you.” She told you to strum, and while the note played, she continued talking “you could probably learn them quickly.” She hoped you were paying attention to the placement of the notes. She had already told you which ones they were. The girl was now just showing you how to play them. “Maybe you’ll be in the Miscreants instead of my club” she watched as you went back to the other note wanting to hear how it sounded again.

“I have a good teacher, so I think I’ll learn quick” you looked at her seeing a small smile on her face. You catch a hint of pride in it. “Don’t flatter me it won’t help you join quicker” she looked down at her phone for the next note. You let out a huff resting your arm and then your chin on top of it against the end of the guitar “it was worth a shot.” You glanced at the grandfather clock in the living room seeing 7:14. Your dad was out for a meeting he wouldn’t be back until 10. You had plenty of time left to learn the notes and hang out with Sabine. You had to sneak her in, so you would also have to sneak her out it would only give you until 9:30 to hang out. The rest of the time left would be used for sneaking her back out of Valedale.

When you moved to sit up your elbow hit the tuning knobs. The knobs turned, and the strings loosened. You frowned, and you strummed the guitar. You cringed at the horrible sound of the untuned strings. Sabine looked up from her phone when she heard the ugly sound “what did you do?” She held her hands out. You handed the guitar to her “I accidentally hit the little knobs at the end.” You felt bad, you knew it could be fixed, but you still felt really bad. You hoped tuning a guitar didn’t take long. You hoped it wasn’t hard to do.

Sabine checked each string until she found the ones you untuned. “I’ll fix it” she looked up at you giving you a smile. She was letting you know it was a simple mistake. She didn’t want you to feel bad. “We can use this as a lesson for tuning” the girl stood up from where she was kneeling, and she took a seat next to you on the couch. She began twisting a knob “your stupidity ended up being useful.” She had a playful tone it let you know she was not mad, or genuinely calling you stupid. You scooted closer to her to watch her tune the strings, and she let you. The girl explained to you how to tune the guitar. You were barely listening because your heart was beating loudly in your ear. It was also beating fast, it felt like it was going to pop out of your chest. Soon all the strings were back to normal, and you listened as Sabine played each one.

“Do you know any songs?” You looked up at her hoping she did. She looked up at you answering your question with “only one.” She never bothered to learn more. Her rock star phase faded pretty quick. So quick she only learned one song before her guitar was banished to the closet. Sabine felt nervous, you were making her nervous. You were seated so close to her. Usually she didn’t really care that you were close to her, but lately it affected her more than normal. Even touching your hands and guiding them on the strings made her nervous. It felt way too intimate.

She had a guess to why she felt the way she did before she knew why. She thought maybe it was because she wasn’t used to touch. After a few sleepless nights she figured out why she was so anxious around you. She wanted to tell you she really did, but she feared it would not be mutual. The feeling was very much mutual though. If only she could hear just how loud your heart was beating. If only she knew how she made you feel. “Can you play it?” You hoped she would play it for you. Sabine nodded, and she positioned her hand to the first note in the song. “I’m a bit rusty” she played the note it made you smile.

“If I mess up don’t laugh” she moved her hand to another note. You crossed your heart it made you feel like you were on the playground again making a promise to your childhood best friend. “I promise I won’t laugh” you stayed quiet as she played the song for you. Sabine said she was rusty, but she played well. Her hands moved fluently and carefully. You felt like you were at a concert. Front row seats to- wait a minute.

You continued listening, and that was when you realized the song she was playing was a love song. Holy shit? You felt your face burn she didn’t see your blush though she was too busy playing to see it. You quickly tried to clear it while she played. The song soon ended, and the girl looked up to you “what do you think?” She went wide eyed when she saw the blush on your face. You couldn’t get it to go away.

“Was it that bad?” The girl cringed. She watched as you tried to formulate a thought. There was no way she was playing that for you, was she? You opened your mouth, and you tried to joke with her “was that for me?” You were half joking. You prayed to Aideen that it was for you. Sabine narrowed her eyes, and she tilted her head to the side a bit “huh?” She was confused by what you were asking. When she understood the question her confused look was replaced by one of understanding.

The girl laughed, and you swore you felt you felt your heart break. “Nah” she was trying to play it cool. She was freaking out as much as you were. How could she forget it was a love song? She learned that song because the guitar in the song was great. She completely forgot that there was more to the song than just the guitar part. “I just learned it for the guitar” she messed with one of the strings. She cleared her throat trying to ease the tension in the room. You frowned giving her a slow nod “that’s nice.” You felt so fucking lame. You looked down at your shoelaces.

You were about to change the subject, but Sabine felt bold. She felt brave she said, “it can be.” She took this opportunity to confess. No more dancing around it. You looked up at her “what?” Even though she was feeling brave she spoke softly. She repeated what she said this time with a stronger tone “it can be.” She wanted you to know that she was serious. She also wanted to look cool and confident. Your face got a deeper shade of red. You stared at her in shock “For me?” You mentally facepalmed. You felt like you were going to pass out. You were so shocked you stopped breathing. Maybe your reply was stupid due to your lack of oxygen. Sabine groaned “is there anyone else here?”

TY FOR READING! :D I didn’t have a specific song in mind so any song u want can fit in this :D also so happy to be back 😭❤️

[journalsouppe]

THE WIND WAKER AHHHHHHHH I love this game SO much, ranked right below OOT and MM for my all time favorites.

One of my biggest critiques of the game is that I wish Aonuma was given the proper time to develop the game since you can tell that there should be more but a lot was cut out for time constraints. Still an incredible game but what I would give to have a full scale sequel or the full scope of the original game T^T!!!

Writing typed below as well as my game notes! (Game notes won't be typed since it's just a mess of notes for puzzles and things to come back to)

Rating: 9.0 Played: Su 2023 Recommended by: Rylan Version: Original Port: (originally Dolphin emulation but bought a Gamecube and OG TWW bc the emulator kept crashing)

Comments

iPad kid... my son (about link)

love Mkaar

THE LITTLE ANIMATIONS

ww Ganondorf is my favorite

LOVE YOU ARYLL

the kids are adorable

the music and SFX are SO CUTE!!!!!!

the actual GC version is much better than emulating

Link's too small for the door i_i I love him

ooo the upside down triforce in outset

I like the wind waker (the instrument lmao)

oo god of winds

ooo you can control seagulls?

MASSIVE pig...

PEAHATS? >:(

oo a cauldro lemme climb in -> THEYRE SAVE POINTS!!

DARKNUT AND ARMOS

I HATE GOHMAS

link is just a sweet little guy T-T <3

inch resting great deku tree

STUPID 25 LETTERS

LOVE the syrup Korok

LINK IS THE SAME HEIGHT KOROKS

how long has hyrule been flooded and how old is zelda? why is there a statue of link...

Oooo did Link from OOT speak a different language with the Great Deku Tree? (bilingual king)

ooo I love that King of the red lions joins you at the tower of gods

magic is in this game *eye emojis*

ooo ganon's tower theme when stormy

all the OOT sages in stained glass omg :)

NOT TETRA'S PIRATES HOLDING THE BOMB GUY HOSTAGE

there's a lot to process at the cabana

TETRA IS LIKE 10 YOU CREEPS

HYRULE CASTLE THEME

i'm forever haunted by the floormasters

why did zelda lose all of her melanin

is the king of red lions actually the king of jyrule?

PHANTOM GANON DEAD MANS VOLLEY FUCK

the return of tingle...

ZELDA 2 STORY

moe the MOBLIN?

MAKARS WALK T-T

THE MEOW

schooner

love the maze idea

ghost ship next to me!!!!

GANON MOLDORM

I love this game so much holy shit. What a perfect sequel to the Hero of Time story, what a great continuation of Ganondorf's motive. I definitely wish there was more, esp dungeons and zora and towns, but this game was made pretty quick after MM and on the GC so I know there are limitations. Everything from Link, Tetra, the sound effects, the stylization, the Rito, the Koroks, Ganondorf, oh my god I absolutely adore it. Everything about it is so unique yet having the core Zelda elements within it. I also noticed how many future games took a lot of inspiration from this game, esp TP and TOTK. I also love how involved Tetra/Zelda is to the plot, Link could not have succeeded without her help, esp in the final battle and when saving Aryll. This game gives so much personality and background to Link and Tetra, every single cutscene is such a delight. This would be a super replayable game if my GC wasn't so wonky. Hopefully it'll come back to the switch. I love this game :')

[copaganda-clobberfest]

submitting ganondorf from the legend of zelda franchise, especially the version from tears of the kingdom! ok i know this sounds a bit crazy but hear me out (and also sorry if i get some other character's names wrong, i didn't play the games in english)

so i'm gonna have to get a bit into the worldbuilding of zelda first, specifically ocarina of time where ganondorf has his first real appearance so in hyrule there are several fantasy races, there's the hylians, the sheikah, the gorons, the zora and the gerudo (also in some other games there's the rito. and there's the kokiri/the koroks but they're not relevant to this) the hylians are basically regular humans except they have long pointy ears which is bc they're chosen by the godesses and their ears are for hearing the godesses' voices. they also (only in older games) all have light skin. the royal family of hyrule only consists of hylians. you can probably see where this is going. the sheikah are also human and are only meant to be servants for the royal family and do their dirty work for them. like a whole torture dungeon/mass grave, which was presumably used during the hyrulean civil war that took place about a decade before the start of ocarina of time. the gorons and the zora aren't human and, while they have their own leadership systems, since the end of the civil war they are under the rule of the hyrulean royal family. then there's the gerudo. they are based on middle eastern people and they are all dark skinned. (their fantasy thingy is that they're only women, except for one man who's born every 100 years and becomes their king. that's ganondorf.) they live in the desert and they're the only race who is independant from hyrule, which the hyrulean royal family really doesn't like. also the hylians are just super racist to the gerudo in general.

so ganondorf's motivation starts out as wanting to improve the life of the gerudo, because the conditions in the desert suck. (this is technically only really elaborated on in wind waker, one of oot's sequels. the zelda timeline is an absolute mess which i admit makes discussions like this kinda difficult sometimes.) ganondorf then conquers hyrule but doesn't actually improve anything for the gerudo, he literally just sits in his evil castle and is evil and kills people. and then you defeat him.

as i mentioned, wind waker, a direct sequel to oot in one timeline, really went into depth about his motivations and made him a sympathetic character. but then he also kidnaps little girls to find zelda and is the evil bad guy who you have to kill at the end.

twilight princess is an interesting case bc it takes place after oot in a timeline where link timetraveled back to before the start of oot and told zelda what would happen. so, in the backstory of tp, ganondorf gets executed for crimes that he mostly hasn't even comitted yet (though the execution fails bc plot). the gerudo are nowhere to be seen, it's implied that they have either been driven away or murdered. ganondorf's attempted execution even takes place in gerudo desert. then he attacks hyrule again and you have to kill him bc he's evil.

then skyward sword, as a prequel to the entire series, retroactively retconned ganondorf to be an incarnation of the hatred of demise, the demon king, who is basically just personified evil.

but at least these games mostly agreed that the hyrulean royal family is terrible (except for skyward sword).

then breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom came out. (spoilers ahead for totk) smarter people than me have written stuff about how imperialist the narrative of totk is, but i'll try to summarize.

ganondorf isn't in botw, but the gerudo finally appear again after a long and very suspicicious and. it's bad. i'm not even gonna get into how their writing is so racist (and honestly, worse than their writing in oot which came out in the 90s), bc that would really be its own essay. but to summarize the relevant stuff, they're now allied with hyrule and have really assimilated to hylian culture. they have pointy ears now which ingame there are two myths given for why that's the case: one is that it's bc of interbreeding with hylians, which is not how gerudo genetics work, and the other is that it's bc of their shame of having given birth to ganondorf, which yikes. bc of all of this the gerudo have finally "earned" being portrayed as the good guys.

in totk, most of the story takes place in the past and we see it through zelda's (very biased) memories. and the whole thing is genuinely kinda uncomfortable to watch bc if just feels like propaganda. rauru, the first king of hyrule, comes from a race of basically demigods, called zonai, that are from islands in the sky. he arrived in hyrule and "united" the zora, gorons and rito underneath the kingdom of hyrule. it's really just colonialism honestly. he also keeps trying to pressure the gerudo to join him but they, and ganondorf as their king, refuse (said refusal is narratively portrayed as being super evil for some reason). there's some fights between the gerudo (where the gerudo seem to very willingly go along with ganondorf) and the hylians, and rauru easily wins by using powerful magical artifacts that function as weapons and that he and queen sonia literally wear as jewelry. eventually, ganondorf swears alliance to the kingdom of hyrule, just to later betray them and murder queen sonia. then he becomes some kind of demon god. one sage of each race, including a gerudo, get recruited by rauru to fight against ganondorf and they get magical artifacts but only after they swear alliance to rauru and hyrule. (we never find out how the rest of the gerudo in this time feel about any of this, whether they're still loyal to ganondorf or if they agree with the sage.) in the present day, the gerudo are completely allied with hyrule. the old gerudo sage holds a lecture to the new gerudo sage (who is btw a teenager) on how much the gerudo need to be ashamed of ganondorf having been a gerudo. also, underneath the gerudo desert, there are 2 zonai mines, which implies that the reason rauru wanted the gerudo under his rule was so he could get their resources. another place where there's a zonai mine is underneath kakariko village, which is where the sheikah live, who are basically the royal family's servants. through the entire game the hylian royal family is portrayed as being absolutely unquestionably good (even though their actions are the absolute opposite), meanwhile ganondorf is portrayed the most unsympathetically he's ever been.

totk especially is just so bad about this. the previous games are still kinda copaganda but they're still a little bit better which just makes totk even more frustrating.

.

[ranger-kellyn]

tears of the kingdom has made me desperate to revisit my age of calamity fic, if nothing else so i can start working on a aoc timeline telling of totk and AHHH

idea musing below the read more, but endgame/major spoilers for totk

i've been vaguely wondering how i would work in the totk story line into the age of calamity timeline, and honestly??? i think it's going to be fairly easy. at least...leading up to it lol remembering to work in all the characters who are now still alive will be the main challenge lol

i hear a lot of youtubers saying that "zelda was a dragon for 10,000 years" but i'm pretty sure that that it was actually way longer than that. 10k years ago was the last time calamity ganon broke out, when the sheikah created the divine beasts and guardians. the founding of hyrule, when zelda turned, was an "unknown" years prior to that.

at least, that's how i'm working with it. when i am working/thinking about anything regarding breath of the wild, age of calamity, and tears of the kingdom, i am not at all considering any of the other games. to me, this is it's own contained thing within and around these three games. (mostly bc i never played any of the other games so i wouldn't be able to draw from them easily/fluidly) ((and yes i figure things that were similar to other games happened, but not those exactly))

all that to say, in my head, this is the timeline i'm working with: ganondorf, the original One True Evil™, was sealed away in the hopes that one day in the distant future, link will rise to kill him for good. (a good chance i'm wrong on some of the "canon" of what i'm about to say, but i haven't fully explored totk and won't for a while but w/e i'm Workshopping) hyrule castle was constructed atop ganondorf and rauru mostly as a way to safeguard that chamber until link could get there to take care of things. i still haven't worked out why the sky islands exist now, because rauru even makes the comment if you talk to him atop the first area with a view of the temple of time, "though in my day, this was all on the ground".

but on my initial descent into the depths of the castle to get back down to the sealing chamber, that whole area of downward stairs that seemed to just go on forever and ever, that i just...fell through rather than walked and dealt with all the monsters-- i kept that in mind thinking about how long it must have taken link and zelda to get down there. i remember in the initial trailer for the game, they had a huge ass ox and cart, so even though they got rid of that, it all still sets the tone that it took them...a while. to get down there.

i thought about it on my second playthrough that i started last night, and really looking around at the stairs and cave walls, and i just...i really got to thinking a little harder than i needed to about it.

i thought about what it would take to actually seal something like that away. it gets a pass because it's a Magic World, but realistically, good god the work that would take. our world 10,000+ years ago was nothing like it is now. we were still what? mostly hunter-gatherers. google says "pre-pottery neolithic B". so like, the world is constantly changing. the tectonic plates are always in motion. volcanoes erupt and make a whole new top layer of soil and earth. tsunamis regularly wash things completely away. earthquakes...fires...drought.........

like. hyrule has at least one active volcano, glaciers, is near the ocean--

if i played with even a few of our real world...whatever...to hyrule-- that sealing chamber probably would have caved in at some point, or at the very least, the stairwell leading down to it, along with the murals, and all the other tunnels and whatnot, would have to be rebuilt...pretty often, all things considered.

it's something i'm trying not to stress about while writing, but it will. bug me. lol i'll get over it

ANYWAYS

back on track.

thinking through the botw -> totk timeline:

i am going with the idea that like...Calamity Ganon??? didn't. exactly. Actually. exist. like, sure, ganon did plenty of damage and razed the land, but like...it was only...a manifestation of ganondorf. a way of pressing against rauru's aging seal.

the "first" time calamity ganon rose, meeting the sheikah army, the hero and princess-- getting defeated by them? that was all a part of the plan. and by that point...the general population??? completely forgot about what was actually sealed below the castle. that's well into the "nobody is to ever go down there not even the royal family--NOBODY". too steeped in tradition/fear/whatever-- ganondorf has been "forgotten" about. their focus is calamity ganon. which, at the very least, they all know will return again.

the sheikah get "too powerful" (probably reminiscent of the zonai's god-like powers--who at this point are probably nothing more than legend). the banishment happens, they seal away all their tech to appease the hylians, things...go quiet.

then, the events leading up to botw happen. calamity ganon rises again, and i honestly...think it was in the plan to lose. extra 100 years or not. 100 years is a drop in the bucket in the face of thousands. calamity ganon didn't need to win. calamity ganon needed to get the castle to fall into disrepair as a part of the final act.

zelda mentions something about if you talk to her on the way down; since the calamity, the castle fell into disrepair. then the gloom started leaking out from the depths.

ganondorf needed the ground to be shaken up enough to where the castle part of the seal would be broken enough for more of his powers to really be able to seep out into the world.

the giant pig monster of calamity ganon-- still part of the plan. tear up the ground. rip up as many of the devices that were set to contain calamity ganon as possible. (it's at least what i'm generally going with to explain what happened to all the sheikah tech)

SO.

with that in mind, i figure the "totk" events for the age of calamity timeline...happen very similarly. only a few years after the initial CG event. the castle was shaken up enough. the castle seal was broken. the gloom will start leaking.

but now thinking more in age of calamity terms. botw!zelda and aoc!zelda are....in my mind, different zeldas. very much the same in every way, but i think it's more of a "nature vs nurture" situation. their natures are the same, but i think they had different nurtures. botw!zelda was not a fighter. she was not the "take up a weapon" sort. she had different shit going on. aoc!zelda is a fighter. she's the one who figured out how to weaponize the sheikah slate. she's the one who refused to stand by while link and impa did all the heavy lifting in the breach of demise. she had just enough differences in her life that she could at least take that up while still unable to awaken her sealing powers. BUT STILL. at the end of the day, they're both ARE fighters, just in different ways. i'm honestly struggling to figure out if aoc!zelda would have the mental fortitude to take on draconification. i figure the whole 100 years imprisoned with ganon thing really is what helped botw/totk!zelda be able to do that.

so while i work through that, at the very least, on my drive home from work today, while sitting in traffic, i just...I saw the opening of my fic for the age of calamity sequel. all because i thought something along the lines of, "you know...that was an odd question for zelda to ask her father? 'what is below the castle'? why would she question there was even something down there in the first place? why would she ever wonder if anything other than like...a crypt or something was down there?? it seems like a very...pointed...question...a question that gets asked if you saw something you maybe shouldn't have..."

in my age of calamity fic, the endgame pairing for zelda is zelda/impa, so. obviously. impa will be going with them down into the depths as part of the first change. (really want to get back into drawing so i can try to explain the "future" design for impa more-- bc i'm loving what i'm seeing in my head. same hair length but braided, at least one new piercing, some more ink-- girl looks Good)

and knowing that, i've been trying to figure out "is impa staying the present with link and everyone else?? or am i sending her ass to the ancient past, too?? if i do?? how do i??? what do i??? do with her????"

as much as i would love some antics with "yOURE CLEARLY NOT MY WIFE" from impa with all the Shmelda's running around in the present...i don't think that's the route i will go. (i could prove myself wrong later who knows i haven't finished the first fic lmao)

BUT SO. i had an idea to completely change up how i have impa and zelda originally met. instead of them not meeting until their late teens, i had this idea of them being small children, right around the time of the death of zelda's mother. impa and purah are the children to the king and queen's advisors, and zelda had been good friends with them all her childhood. (for my work, impa is a year older than zelda, and purah is about four years older than impa) after the queen's death, little zelda had been inconsolable-- absolutely shut down, not taking, not emoting-- nothing. purah and impa are both desperate to make their friend smile again, so purah decides, "hey!! why don't we sneak you down to the secret tunnels! there's all kinds of cool stuff to look at down there!" and what she MEANS is the like. staff tunnels and whatnot that are all around the castle for staff to move about unseen. the secret escape tunnels-- things like that.

impa...was less keen on the idea, knowing damn well they're sneaking where they shouldn't be-- and teleporting around with the princess??? it's one thing to endanger your sister. it's another to endanger the crowned princess--

purah presses her, and when it's the first time zelda has shown any interest in anything since her mother's passing-- impa caves.

so down they go. impa's powers have always been strong, but they're definitely less graceful at that age. they "poof" around the tunnels, going down to the docks, around the tunnels, sneak somewhere where they can probably find the three of them treats. zelda has fun for the first time in...a long time. so impa doesn't really stop. they keep going, and going, and going...and going...

and eventually.

the three of them realize they're...in a part of the castle they've never seen. they're too young to be able to put into words how it's different, but it's a combination of just how stale the air is. the architecture. the color of the stone in and around everything-- in front of them is a huge slab of text. it's ancient hylian-- something only zelda can read a few words of. but she knows the words she needs to know from it.

she grabs both their hands. "it says stay out," she says with a gulp.

purah squeezes her hand, not bothered. "that just means there's something really cool behind it! c'mon, impa!"

impa hums, putting her hand on the cold slab. "i don't know...that's...really thick...I can't poof unless I have a perfectly clear path...at least, not yet."

purah, curiosity getting the better of her, needles her. childish taunts of her being a big scaredy cat, big cucco, bawcking at her until she's red in the face and is just like "FINE!!" and then smacks her forehead "but i'm stealing your energy to do it!!" in a manner similar to what she would need to do to sap energy for symbol clones.

she then is able to get them on the other side and it's....even more different. they're at that huge stairwell. the air isn't stale it's old. purah is too busy complaining about how much it hurt to have her energy sapped that it's a few seconds before she realizes that impa and zelda are both...terrified.

the endless stairwell shaft that looks like it goes down to the center of the earth-- this is where impa's fear of heights starts.

absolute silence between the three of them as they stand near the edge, zelda having a death grip on the railing.

it's so quiet, the only thing they hear is one another's shallow breathing...their own pulses-- they don't have to even see a trace of ganondorf, the sounds of their own pulses echoing in their ears is more than enough to terrify them.

zelda, tears in her eyes, "we're gonna get in trouble--"

holding back her own, impa grabs both their hands again and gets them the hell out of there, wearing herself completely out by the time they make it back to somewhere they're allowed to be.

impa almost collapses, so they all sit together against the wall of wherever, not saying a word until she's caught her breath.

weakly, impa finally says, "we can never talk about this ever again."

zelda nods.

purah doesn't even tease her a little about it.

and so they never do talk about it...but they all never entirely stop thinking about it. zelda asks one day "what is below the castle" and gets that cryptic answer from her father. she doesn't even dare try to tell impa and purah what he said.

probably around that point as well, i'm going to have the king dismiss his advisors, their presence reminding him too much of the queen. they head back to kakariko or something idk. but zelda won't reconnect with them for a long time, right up to the point where they originally did for my fic (so about 5 years before calamity ganon awakens in the game)

my fic goes how it goes, and then there's relative peace afterwards, like in botw/totk.

the kingdom is rebuilding, a bright future looks to be ahead of them--

then the gloom. the gloom that they quickly realize is coming from the depths of the castle. depths that has zelda concerned. she meets with purah and impa first. [i'll probably have terrako rebuilt by this point too] "do...either of you remember when we were children, and we went too far down in the castle? When we found that...horrible stairwell?"

impa wraps her arms around herself, visibly tensing. "i try not to remember."

purah grimaces. "i unfortunately remember..."

zelda opens her mouth to speak, but the words aren't quite there yet. eventually, "this has to be coming from there..."

and from there, they agree to meet with the others, the king is strongly against her going down there, but is eased by the fact she'll at least have impa, link, and terrako with her.

from there. i think i'm going to send impa back to the past with her. i think i'm going to use a little author liberty, and--

in the past, after zelda has committed herself to draconifciation, mineru pulls impa aside. "impa...there is something i must tell you," she says between coughing fits. "There is another secret stone. one even my brother didn't know about." (she's the older sibling--girl's got secrets i'm sure of it)

so impa learns of a stone, hidden away, deep on an island, off the southeast coast of hyrule. on a map, she will recognize it as Eventide Island. in person, it's...a completely different island. much larger, and even more dangerous, fraught with all kinds of trials for her, unlocked thanks to mineru--

she gets her own secret stone, and from there...i have two routes, and i'm not sold on either, 100% yet. the title "sage of shadows" keeps jumping out at me, but idk entirely what to do with that. i could either have her go immortal dragon as well, or...i could have her be the one who teaches the people who will become the sheikah that stasis power they ended up using to seal themselves away in the shrines to later test link for the calamity. thanks to her own prowess, and enhanced by the secret stone, maybe she'll be in a different kind of stasis. hidden away in a shrine of her own making, deep within the depths, waiting...waiting...waiting...

but shadow dragon DOES sound pretty cool.......(I like the idea of her dragon mirroring zelda's perfectly, just in the depths rather than the sky)

idk. that was. A LOT. of word vomiting. all to just be like "this is how much my brain crammed into the span of maybe 5 minutes during my commute)

no clue which way i will end up going. i kind of need to. uh. write the first fic to bEGIN WITH....but still. it's nice to like. be writing again, even if it is just word salad.