limning.

of course i'm scared. but i have also learnt to accept failure.

[balladetto]

GENERAL MULTIMUSE for various media with a particular focus on the legend of zelda series. tracking #balladetto. independent, private, very sporadic activity, & extremely headcanon-based. open to writing with a variety of ocs, aus, & crossovers. currently yi-themed.

( blog roll: flockrest )

featuring, among others: yi from nine sols / several links from several games / toothless from httyd / tri from eow / queen zelda from tp / rauru from totk / original characters of varying backgrounds.

Visit Original Link

( guidelines / dossiers / mains & dynamics / memes tag / interest tracker / permanent sc / track src. )

[balladetto]

[YELLING] no longer will i suffer from work-related grievances*!!!

[balladetto]

not to say that aidan dislikes Hudson Construction Pty Ltd and all affiliated companies — he's sure the folks working there are swell and whatever — but when you apply for a job you're, ah, pretty fucking sure you should've gotten because you have all the qualifications and are a dang hard worker and would greatly appreciate the experience and would totally be a great asset to the team yada yada only to be declined because your name does not end with -son, that's not super conducive to peaceable feelings

[balladetto]

@wylkstone / ♡

     Something approaches. Shy and quiet, but not so familiar that he is not lightly — annoyingly — roused when it creeps too close. The part of him that is still asleep nearly mistakes the footfalls as not-human — many of Half Of Him's flock-subjects are very so much heavier, if not louder, in how they stomp everywhere. He suspects who it is even before he registers that strange scent and squints an eye open to glimpse that strange stone, and is pleased-surprised-curious to see that he is right.

     It's the new not-monster human they found, without the company it usually follows after or is followed by.

     He lifts his head slowly, just as silent. Truthfully, he still does not know what to think of it. Too old to really be a baby, too young to be much more than a hatchling. Half Of Him is better with both, especially when they are scared — and this one is always always ALWAYS scared. Badly, even: of the flock, of people, of HIM, which is something he would have been proud of back when every human was a monster, though now just makes him feel...weird. Only someone bear-brained would want a HATCHLING to fear them so bad.

     But Half Of Him is not here, and it is approaching him anyway. It can't be TOO badly scared anymore if it can do that, yes? He chuffs, head tilting. What do you want, Small One?

[pestilight]

     The hero will not make it.

     Rauru pours every scintilla of light he has left into those grievous wounds. He presses it all into the wrist he's yet to let go of since that fateful clasp, a wellspring funnelled through the anchoring point of their contact. So tremendous an effort is it that another piece of his arm crumbles, quicker to decay without the blessing of Zonai blood nor heart nor stone, peeling off and fading into nothing within strands of dispelled radiance.

     Still, it is not enough.

     The right arm is beyond salvaging. The Gloom: a loathsome force merely kept at bay with his light's slower abrasion. With what it has devoured, devours, and seeks to continue devouring as its master recovers his strength, the hero — Link, a faint voice chimes, sweet with conviction and love for her swordsman — will not make it.

     What an enormously cataclysmic thing to reckon with.

     Somewhere in the far distance, what sounds startlingly like the time bell knells a solemn rhythm. His spirit cannot cast shadows, but it paints a seafoam glow over Link as Rauru looms over his body — hand clutching ever tighter, as though his hold alone could pierce past the trappings of mortal flesh and erase every sliver of rot in one fell swoop. He reaches for the Gloom again, tendrils of incanted light enveloping the source in a shimmering embrace, and once more, his magic does not purge as cleanly as he wants it to. Once more, another fragment of his remains falls away.

     This is foolish, a part of him thinks; the part mired in memories of wanton bloodshed, of surviving at whatever the cost, of a time before a tempering kindness. Foolish, and needlessly cruel. He has seen damage of this severity wrought before — has treated it before.

     At his core, he knows what must be done. His hesitation, in the face of that, is not a mercy: it is another moment suspended between life and death, another opportunity for the Gloom to spread, another tally against the odds of what would now be a miracle.

     Another failing.

     Rauru does not need to breathe, yet he nevertheless finds himself going through its invisible motions. It calms him, marginally, and his mind clears enough for the thought to turn constructive. Yes, he knows what must be done. The question now is: what is he to do with the repercussions?

     —What repercussions? Another part of him thinks; the one locked in shame, drowning in regret, fraying with the need to pen this story to its very end.

     The flow of his light stills.

     It resumes a split second later, surging forth to continue hindering the creep of darkness, but his grip loosens. His fingers, slowly, unwind.

     What repercussions, the thought continues, when it is only the right arm that has to be dealt with? A right arm that has to be accounted for?

     A right arm that he, blessedly, still possesses?

     Link's chances of survival do not seem so slight, now.

     ( Rauru's chances of atoning do not seem so elusive, now. )

     It is a simple thing, grasping that ruined hand. Honing his light to burn through everything — skin, sinew, blood, marrow — is, too, effortless with how densely the corrosion is seeped into the flesh. The Gloom lingers, harder to contain for a moment with no corporeal bearer, but that will soon be remedied.

     Link's fingers are the last ashes to be swept away. From there, it is just a matter of connecting.

     Rauru does not say the words as he threads their vitalities together. Vows like these have always been a show of devotion more than anything, anyway. When this arm is all he can hope to offer to Link — to Zelda, to Mineru, to Sonia, to Hyrule, to everyone and everything he's loved and lost — what could possibly indicate his devotion more?

[balladetto]

@heartwilled / ♡

     "So," Aidan starts, all casual business, like they're buddies on some camping trip together and not total strangers who happened to be caught up in the same monster encounter. Which, y'know what, can't be all that different at this point when both scenarios could feasibly lead to huddling 'round a bubbling pot of soup in a cave.

     —A delicious bubbling pot of soup in a cave, or better be fucking delicious, considering he put his entire soul into the making of it. Seriously. Pure heart for all four steps of the process. The least he can do for his practical savior, and all that. He scoops a full serving into her bowl, so committed to being the perfect host that the irony of not allowing her a real say on how much she's going to eat is lost on him, and passes it over with a wry smile. "Not that I don't appreciate the company ( or the help you provided back there, holy crap ), but, uh."

     He pauses, gaze darting from red eyes to that shock of white hair and back. He's not so ill-travelled that Sheikah on the road are a novel sight by any stretch, but they're not really common in these parts of Hebra. Or, well, to Aidan's understanding, in Hebra at all. "I'm not exactly on the beaten track right now. What brings you all the way out here, friend?"

[balladetto]

@writingtides / ♡

     Half Of Him is still there when he stirs, so little a weight ( but so warm a feeling! ) nestled into his side. He thinks at first that He has fallen asleep too, drowsy with good, filling rest that he is, but His breathing is not slow enough and His scent says "focused" instead of "relaxed". He smells of charcoal too, sharper than usual, and there is a familiar shht-shht sound — it pulls him further up out of sleep, curious to see what strange shape his precious thing must be capturing.

     Half Of Me, he greets with a slow blink, loving. Then, yawning. He stretches the best he can when his human is leaning against him like this, and turns his head to peer at the dead-skin thing He likes to put His nonsense-but-not-nonsense markings on. He looks! And...looks. Keeps looking.

     What is that??

[balladetto]

i would very much like to get back into the swing of things here, so i am tentatively placing this starter/inbox call down for something short and sweet! as always, please specify muse, or i will simply slide into dms for some brief plotting :]

[rage-reloaded]

@balladetto || starter call

She glanced down at the vessel sitting next to her (perhaps a little too next to her) and then looked at the conspicuously empty space left on the bench they both sat at. Just what was the little Ghost playing at now?

◌∘♕∘◌  ❝ Must you? There is a whole rest of the bench that way. ❞

[balladetto]

     So often does must seem to need to dictate every move nowadays. Is it not enough that they simply can? It tilts its shell up, listening, watching. She is bothered? Maybe, it thinks. Can't tell for sure. It has not sat next to many bugs in this land, where it is not ignored or avoided or fled from, much less ones that do not just let it be in their shared space. Bretta is probably the closest to this maybe-bothered thing, but the memory of resting beside her does not feel like resting beside Hornet.

     It looks away, to this whole rest of the bench. Yes, confirmed, there is one. It turns back to her. Not clear why it matters how big this bench is.

[balladetto]

your muse as a drink!

tagged by: @fableoftime ( thank you, lovely! ) tagging: @gloryseized ( akira ), @writingtides ( hiccup ), and anyone else who would like to do this!

zelda basili hyrule.

[balladetto]

so it turns out that i'm not as immune to toxic old man yaoi as i thought

[balladetto]

naughty or nice!

[notmorbid]

my darling dreadful thing.

dialogue prompts from my darling dreadful thing: a novel by johanna van veen.

you're different from what i expected.

are you pretending?

some things are so horrible that the only sane response is a bit of madness.

the truth scares people. they're always afraid of what they can't explain.

children accept so much as normal, don't they?

you need never be alone again. i shall keep you safe.

they were onto something, those greeks.

poor little thing. you must have been terribly lonely.

it's very clear in my mind, but it doesn't sound very clear when i try to put it into words.

you were mine, and i was yours.

i can see i've touched a very sore spot. let's talk about someone else.

please. just a little while longer.

do shut up.

your feeling does you credit.

what could you possibly do to help me?

i suppose you must feel very pleased with yourself.

i'll never come back to you.

do you often feel violent toward people?

you're inscrutable.

you know, you needn't stay with me.

you don't owe me anything.

hotel rooms are such strange places, don't you think?

i can see you now.

what a sick little story.

all these years, i thought i was alone.

i only had _____ to teach me love.

forgive me. i didn't mean to laugh.

i thought if i could make the situation darkly funny, it would be easier to handle.

you're a blessing and a curse, aren't you?

am i a curse to you?

please don't raise your voice at me.

i've no doubt that in your mind, it was all true.

do you think i do not know? do you think i'm stupid, as well as mad?

i'm trying to tell you everything, but you keep interrupting me.

every house has its own scent.

to speak of evil is to invite it in.

the house is very talkative.

arrogance is a greater threat to justice than evil and ineptitude.

remain always wary. ever-vigilant.

god hasn't yet given me much reason to believe in him.

describe _____ to me.

you've seen right through me.

smoking is an acquired taste.

i like listening to you talk.

every house is entitled to its secrets.

you keep your cards close to your chest.

are you done interrogating me?

if i had my way, you'd never have to clean.

happy: such a funny little word, isn't it?

doing little has never agreed with me. it gives me too much time to dwell on things.

you've never looked more beautiful.

knowing and understanding: what is the difference?

some things must be experienced to be understood.

it seems to me that you are a little jealous.

i want to know everything there is to know about you.

i want to eat you up and drink you in.

there's a reason the word 'haunting' is rarely used in a positive way.

this is no place to raise a child.

i feel like you're being dishonest with me.

some things can't be talked about.

please, will you hold me?

how do you want to be held?

everything you say is interesting to me.

i don't want you to think all i ever went through was misery.

i told you this is how it would be, didn't i?

i'm going to make it alright. i promise.

remind me again why you thought this plan would work.

i'm not doing it all by myself. i've got you.

you've thought it all through, haven't you?

your hair is getting long.

let me help. let me bear it for a little while.

some things can only be learned through experience.

i can bear anything, if you're there to bear it with me.

i'll help you wash.

i'm like a magpie. i like shiny things.

men are such babies.

i read that in a library book.

i always suspected you didn't have a heart.

please don't look at me as if you don't know me.

my marriage was nothing like you seem to think it was.

if that was love, it came at much too steep a price.

you could charm the devil himself.

there's only so much disgrace and shame a person can suffer.

i could have helped you. you needn't have carried all this alone.

i've never had anyone i could trust enough to talk to before.

you must have felt so powerless.

does anyone know what you did?

everything i touch blackens and withers.

sometimes i think that all i am is what ____ made me.

you're kind and funny and smart. and so much more, besides.

you've got me all wrong, you know.

you don't have to say anything. i just wanted to tell you.

you're more than what _____ did to you.

maybe i'm already dead. maybe this is hell.

my love for you is as strong as death.

when you wake, please come haunt me.

you really are a funny one.

where will you go, if you won't come with me?

i don't much like to be beholden to anyone. it hasn't worked out so well for me before.

i don't think i deserve to be safe and happy.

[balladetto]

okay. this has been a long time coming and if there's one (1) thing i can begrudgingly thank aoi for, ig it's kicking me into actually refining this post in a desperate scramble to denounce it — here's the deal with my take on rauru and what i've either got in the works or have already cooked up for him.

first off, obligatory disclaimer that i have only dipped my toe into seeing aoi cutscenes and so do not care for whatever lore it has dropped about what hyrule of the very distant past looked like as an acting kingdom ( as well as the really odd devotion the land's other peoples had to it ). obligatory disclaimer #2 that i also do not care for the "perfect king" rauru apparently makes; i would like to examine his beliefs, decisions, and motivations from the ground level rather than the pedestal canon has put him on.

i am essentially prying him away from the imperialist agenda underpinning the games he appears in that nintendo has practically made him the face of in their dogged need to let you know why hyrule as a kingdom with its Divine Rulers is apparently worth restoring to explore why the fuck he is the way he is as an actual person in his own right, with all the past trauma ( he and his sister are. the only zonai left in hyrule. why would this not affect him so crucially, why would this not touch every thought he has and every decision he thus makes in a position of power, WHY WOULD THIS NOT BE HIGHLIGHTED OR EVEN ALLUDED TO AS SOMETHING THAT MAKES HIM SO UNWELL [i am saying this with sympathy and no derision at all] AND UNFIT TO LEAD AN ENTIRE COLLECTION OF PEOPLE WITHOUT QUESTION ), misgivings, and experiences that would've shaped him — which might lend the ensuing rambles an impression that i might be trying to relieve him of what little canonical flaws he has, downplay the insidious nature of the role he plays in canon, or otherwise unequivocally defend him. which i can 100% assure you is not the case!

i suppose if i was a different writer, i might've been able to lean into the imperialistic propaganda from the extremely skewed perspective of a rauru who is notably more contemptible — someone with some sort of god complex, divine might makes divine right beliefs, all of that gross jazz brought to the forefront and blatantly on display as markers of a Not Great guy even as he thinks otherwise — for the sake of narrative exploration, critique, and ig to be a convenient punching bag for other muses lmao. while there is definitely a place somewhere for a rauru of that interpretation, i just don't believe swinging onto that other end of the spectrum with his character gives him much more dimension, or that i'm capable of seriously studying him like that as a SEA who would not like to have to think about imperialism to such a degree for a hobby like roleplaying. in other words: i cannot be that writer! i am only someone who thinks every single character in this context suffers from nintendo's own lacklustre writing, and finds the concept of the zonai siblings really compelling for what they could've been and the story they could've told—

( hello, potential plotline of the zonai as an incredibly ambitious people who were not all good nor all evil; who simply wanted more and more in their never-ending, never-satisfied search for bettering their lives because there existed the increasingly arrogant concept of what counts as "worse" and "better" in the first place; who didn't stop biting when they tore off more than they could chew with how they started turning on each other with their own creations and secret stones until they devoured themselves nearly whole; who could not put a stop to this trend of you are your worst enemy bringing about their downfall even when only two are left.

hello, the unexplored effects of any generational and personal trauma that might lead to a cycle of paranoid, self-fulfilling prophecy where it's made so clear that this is not okay, that you are not wise or strong or better for the act of going on and on without some form of healing, that even if what happened to you was not your fault, you are not exempt from the consequences of your actions nor the critique they could — and should — garner.

hello, compelling arc-that-was-never-on-the-table where the sudden focus on the past and glory days of a dead kingdom and returning to them/revitalising the embers that have already been stomped the hell out is construed as inappropriate, impractical, and unnecessary through an emphasis on the strength of the land and its peoples that survived ( and thrived, in nature's case ) a literal apocalypse, how all things have their own time and it is not a terrible thing to have lived long enough to reach it, how the bitterness of something ending can sweeten into something else beginning. why history is a good point of reference to learn from in the context of avoiding future mistakes and atrocities, not replicating them! why the world can and must find its own footing without the past shackled to its ankles and guiding its every movement, but rather with the past relinquishing control and accepting it cannot pen every single word of the future's story any more than the future can pen its story and that's fine! it must trust that the world will be okay!

hello, does anyone else think about mineru holding her brother's hand for the first time in actual millennia and NOT REACTING in any way about it because who cares about that when she's got an epic vow to pledge, right. does anyone else think about this awful combination of really neat character details and disappointingly omitted character details in this game when it comes to the siblings. does anyone else think about how the zonai were shoehorned in as real important, how the sheikah and their technology were shoved into a locker for them, only for almost everything about them to be lukewarm. does anyone else think about how rauru is simultaneously explicitly lauded by the narrative for gross purposes and barely cared about in any other existing capacity because we don't even get any passing mention of his and sonia's kids. their kids, their literal family, among other things! it's not special treatment given that they pulled the same thing with urbosa and daruk, but it is so infuriating to see how the zonai on-screen are clearly plot devices and mouthpieces before anything else despite their purported significance!

HELLO, MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR CHARACTER INSIGHT AND DEVELOPMENT THAT COULD'VE COME WITH A RAURU THAT TRAVELLED WITH YOU, AND WITNESSED EVERYTHING WITH YOU, AND SAW THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE WORLD GOES ON WITHOUT HIM WITH YOU, AND RECKONED WITH HIS GRIEVANCES AND ANXIETIES THROUGH THIS WITH YOU. )

—so please bear with me and my massive divergence from canon as i attempt to flesh this old man out beyond the letdown we see. here we go! rapid-fire tidbits style!

rauru is ancient on account of zonai aging slowly, but not that ancient. i do not want to place him at the head of or even among any of the generations of zonai who first descended from the skies for zonaite and other potential resources/to dwell on the surface, because i don't believe him to be, nor that he should be, that prevalent or important. he really only sees the surface and depths in brief glimpses in his early years; i imagine mineru might see more of them as a scholar who actually does field work? whatever problems the zonai are making down there for other peoples, he's largely uninvolved in and only distantly aware of due to his comparative youth and the trajectory his professional life takes.

he starts off life with mineru as a precocious magic practitioner with a constantly developing affinity for the element of light, cultivated through dedicated study, faith, and practice. his speciality lays in cleansing and healing, something that would make him highly sought after in the succession of civil wars that breaks out amongst the zonai's most powerful.

as one of what few healer-warriors that do not get slain in the whole mess, rauru serves several lieges over the years, allying with parties that emerge from skirmishes alive in a bid to survive the bloodshed. he ends up with a whole Thing about unchecked authority for it, which deliciously clashes with his hypervigilant need to have total oversight because his hands are the only ones he can trust ( a direct result of, y'know, witnessing and unwillingly participating in the wiping out of your people ) as a king.

at the point where he and mineru take what sacred artifacts they have left of their forebears and flee from their home, rauru feels so defined by their unimaginable loss that he sinks even further into his faith in the divine ( the goddesses and hylia ) to cope with the grief, resentment, and desire for aimless retribution it is just absolutely gripping him with. religion, for him, is the lifeline he needs from Everything he cannot at any cost allow himself to feel. this must be the goddesses' decree. there is no use in wanting — aching for, raging for — something different.

then the loss later continues with sonia herself, and what ganondorf takes from him — what rauru's conceit leads him to lose — with her death. his beloved, so many of his people ( again ), his kingdom, a home that wasn't his but now is. it's his past repeating again, in the worst possible way because he was so assured that he would not be able to lose anything again with the control that being king consort would allow him, and it at once really tests his faith in that the perceived unjustness of it all wants to consume him ( is he simply made for loss? is he simply doomed to love what he cannot have? are the gods so cruel? ) and makes him double down on it because he cannot let himself go down that road, lest he completely lose himself.

of course, before he weds queen sonia and becomes her king consort, he has to meet and bond with her in the first place. i'm of the mind that the siblings are initially very alone and really only trusting of each other when they make the permanent plunge to the surface, mostly out of fear that those they're running from are still alive and will chase after them after a pyrrhic victor is decided. i will have to discuss this with any sonias out there interested in writing with me, but sonia takes the siblings in after they meet each other mostly out of a kind heart that she does not ever stop baring to them.

i think the implication in canon is that sonia and rauru travel across hyrule to fight off monsters after they're wedded given that their shrine statues are holding hands ( it's honestly really cute ), but i have to imagine that that isn't their first cross country journey together. sonia showing rauru and mineru all the wonders hyrule as a land offers beyond what preconceptions they might have of it, and how healing that might be to go from we no longer have a home to this...isn't so bad a place to make home...it's so. [clenching my chest]

ykw i'm not a fan of how the zonai are worshipped by the narrative itself for an apparent connection to the gods, but there is something to be said about how sonia is known amongst her people as descended from divinity ( i'm assuming hylia, specifically ), which her command over time definitely supports rather than rejects, and the potential for the delightful interplay of i revere you ( but eventually learn to view you in a way that's fair to the both of us ) between them both given how rauru is a man of such intense, earnestly practiced faith himself. like. mutual awe of being in a perceived Divine Presence gradually transforming into a down-to-earth appreciation of each other for who they are at their cores and what they have come to mean to each other on a much more personal level.

on that note, in being so religious, i do not think rauru actually enjoys being likened to the divine so much. the zonai in their base forms may be highly attuned to any gods or goddesses' divinity, but they are not gods or goddesses themselves. being compared to one feels sacrilegious to him! almost insulting in the face of what he could not prevent the zonai from losing.

also yeah, i've said it before and i'll say it again: rauru is king consort to queen regnant sonia, because you are not making the princesses and queens of hyrule critical in so many times of crisis without having it be some form of a matriarchy. plus: not his homeland, with the added alienation of the above mentioned. he would not be invested in it the way sonia might be at first. he comes to love it, sure, but he still holds the skies and the life he had up there before everything went to shit pretty dear to his heart.

related: hyrule is not envisioned as some kingdom with all factions led in unity under one rule by either founding members. it starts off as something like a small halidom they actively work to protect, which is what rauru would've liked to keep it as when that means 1) less people to care about and lose and 2) easier to supervise when he's very much focused on the losing everything and everyone part. then his paranoia gets the better of him and has him anxious to have potential allies super close so he can "better protect them" ( monitor them and spot betrayals or attacks before they can be enacted lmao but who's asking — and look how that turned out! ).

which isn't to say they're suddenly out there calling for annexations or vows of fealty, but the perceived power imbalance afforded by the secret stones acts as a tacit threat on its own. rauru and sonia can publicly swear all they want that they will only ever use their powers appropriately in any campaign for good relations, but lbr. if you were a leader looking in from the outside with only the best interests of your people in mind, you'd probably feel like you can't exactly take the word of the guy who can laser beam an entire horde of monsters to death or the lady who can literally control time at face value. especially when they're those words. rauru is not ignorant to this.

obviously it's still gross and questionable, but in essence, for rauru, any political affiliation with hyrule as a kingdom that he pushes for isn't in the name of conquest, seizure, "enlightenment", or resources. resources may play a part in terms of negotiated trade or as ( again, gross ) trade-offs for a higher level of freedom from his watchful eye, but it is very much so about trying to make sure the folks they share the land with don't try anything — or at least get ahead of them if they do. nobody should've let this guy get crowned lmao.

sonia and rauru definitely have kids by the time zelda is dropped into their timeline and i'm frankly flabbergasted that we see no sign of them in canon at all. i have not thought of them further than that because i would like to do so with any sonias i might write with.

last thing to note because my exhausted brain cannot whip up anything else, but rauru lingers as a spirit companion after link leaves the sky islands, bound to their shared right arm as he is. he cannot be seen or interacted with by others unless they're spiritually touched, inclined, supernatural themself, have a secret stone, etc. because so much of his remaining energy is spent on ensuring that right arm works in all capacities.

wait, wait. final thing for real. enemies who would rend each other from limb to limb given the opportunity, but also i bind your heart to mine because that is the only way i can keep you at bay and we slumber together in the murk of being sealed, a necessary evil. do we ever dream together? do we share anything more than millennia of damnation? do we get lost sometimes? do you suddenly know things i know, the way i suddenly know things you know? not everything, but enough? is an interesting dynamic. quaint choice to seal your nemesis away with you by holding his heart, rauru.

if you made it this far, you're a legend and i'm bowing at your feet because this has sapped all the remaining energy from me sldkfjl i will not pretend that i am not biased in some way in my interpretation of rauru, but i genuinely hope what i've said here makes sense and doesn't come across as me liking or excusing everything canon has done with him because i don't.

[balladetto]

what brand of stupid are you?

tagged by: @mightiestbanana ( thank youuu! ♡ ) tagging: @writingtides ( for hiccup ), @stygicniron, @thegreentunic, @quillheel ( for anyone! ), and whoever would like to do this :]

terrako // BASTARD stupid

swears are your language and crime is your profession. your reason for doing just about anything is because you could, no matter how stupid it was. why did you set that fence on fire? to watch it burn. why did you put that bug in your mouth? to see what it tastes like. why did you teach that kid to say fuck? it's funny. keeping you around is like housing a cartoon villain but at least you know how to pick locks so that's a reason to let you stay!

[balladetto]

yi, the guy of all time that you are...yi, the scientist raised in a home of traditions and faith and stifled dreams and prospects, so hungry for knowledge and the need to make sense of the world and the overall concept of more that he could be aware of, more that he could be doing, that he bucks, constantly, against because i said so and it's for your own good.....yi, the big brother who loves his little sister in the only way he's learnt how: ardently in quiet, devotedly with his actions; words mean little in the face of all the opportunities he gifts her, all the things he's saved just for her, all the decisions he's made that he deems best for her, a cycle unbroken from his own place of perceived superiority....

yi, the scientist who wants to be seen, he who explodes himself in the name of making a name for himself, he who believes everything is a learning experience and yet he who believes he knows what he's doing always....yi, the big brother who throws out their expensive medicinal citrine as a child when his parents weigh his word that it's poisonous against their beliefs and find it lacking, who threatens to disown his sister, to forget her, when she does not believe in leaving their home behind for his unhinged plan of a controlled, sustained existence amongst the stars even if that means certain death. perhaps because it means certain death. yi, the self-righteous. yi, the hypocrite.

[gloryseized]

@balladetto asked:

     He should be hunting. He is hungry enough to want to abandon this sneaking to go do so, hungry enough that his wings twitch against his back each time the want pulses, but he stays — watching from a perch too high to be peeked at and perfectly hidden beneath the cover of stars-twinkling dark.      There is a new thing in his territory tonight.      It is a two-legs: smaller than the ones he's seen here in these winds, without all the wings and feathers. It reminds him of the monsters he used to see before flying to this land, which is why he's looking from afar, except it's too quiet. Not I am hunting quiet, or even I am looming quiet, just— quiet. It is very so much strange.      It makes him very so much curious.      He waits until it is asleep before carefully approaching the cave it's made a den out of, slinking on silent paws and back arched in ever ready-to-act. The closer he gets to the two-legs, the better he can smell it: it has travelled many places, is very loved, and is a little heartsick. There's also the scent of metal, the stinging tang of a fang and shell well-used, but it's asleep so that's okay. He can kill it faster than it can wake and use them on him if it decides to.      He follows the best smells here — the ones that speak of food. After watching the two-legs for some heartbeats to make sure it isn't going to wake, he pushes his snout into the weird dead-skins it's left by its still-fire, snuffling through it all. There is fish here, he knows it! Where is it, where is it—

Ostensibly, Link is hunting Lynels. He knows several of them have taken up residence in the snowy landscape in the north of Hyrule, and he thinks he's ready to try his mettle again against the monsters. He's already fought a Lynel once, before freeing Mipha from Vah Ruta, but that hadn't been a long time ago after he'd first woken up. He's freed two more Divine Beasts since Vah Ruta, with just the final Vah Naboris in the far south to free.

It's a chance to practice his skill in battle, to challenge the great enemy, a chance to try to remember the skills he once had. If he ever had them. His memories are still frustratingly vague, bits and pieces returning to him in a puzzle that is nowhere near completed.

His self-appointed quest has had some middling success. He's killed two Lynels so far, while also shooting some wild boar and deer to keep his energy up. Food is sparse here, and he's already had to dig into his stores to round out the meals. He has some salted, dried fish still in reserve if times get desperate, but for now, he begins roasting the deer and boar on a spit, munching a handful of rice while he waits.

The cave is a lucky find too, getting him out of the cold and wet, and Link finds himself snoozing next to the fire. He'll pull off the meat in a little bit, but for now, he can allow himself to rest.

He must've rested deeper than he thought because the sensation of a large Presence is the first thing to awaken him, some additional warmth near him not from the fire. It's only years of unremembered training that still rests on his body, waking him carefully so he doesn't twitch on accident and give himself away. He can hear the rustling near his packs--whoever it is must be hungry--but it hasn't attacked either.

Hand shifting slightly to check his blade, he doesn't pull it free yet, but he does move in one smooth motion to his feet, hands at the ready. The sight of one of the lesser dragons meets his eyes, it's coal black coloration creating an inky blackness in the otherwise dark cave, almost looking like it's drinking in the shadow. Link's eyes round in surprise, surprise gasp dancing out of his lips. He's seen some of the other lesser dragons from a distance, but never one this big slow close.

[balladetto]

     There is a split moment before he hears it move that he almost feels the intent in anticipation. The still-fire seems to quiet, the smell of fish seems to sour, and the sudden cold of ready-to-act ripples across his scales; he tenses, muscles coiling-coiling-coiling, and when he catches that scrape of dead-skin on rock — he strikes!

     He twists in a quick half-loop to face this maybe-monster that is now awake — not so stupid that he'd turn his back on it but distracted enough that his side had been too exposed — tail arcing wide to slam into it before it can think to become a real one. In the same motion, he knocks over whatever it was doing with its sticks and meat over its still-fire and stamps the flames out with a firm hind-paw, bending into a threatened-threatening crouch.

     Stay back, he warns with narrowing eyes. A nightfallen in his element in this darkening murk he makes with his shadow, he says it louder: he can't spread his wings in full display when the cave is too small like this, but the low, rolling growl rumbling behind his bared teeth is, surely, more than a good warning for even a two-legs. This is how he waits for what it will do next, prepared-cautious-mistrusting, and yet: not leaving — or really wanting to.

     Not killing — or really wanting to do that, either.

     Just watching, alert.

     ...Watching, still curious.