#aquaticpal

[shalottpress]

Silence by @airplanned

Silence by @airplanned is a lovely introspective fic where Zelda and Link have both been banished to the temple of time and begin an awkward friendship there under a vow of silence. I really loved the the worldbuilding around the religion and the description of daily life of the abbey. It is gentle and beautiful and I could rant about Zelda and Link's relationship in this story for ages. I'm so thrilled I have a copy for my physical collection now.

The beautiful art on the cover is done by @aquaticpal and perfectly illustrates the moonlight kiss from chapter two. Thank you so much for once again for giving me permission to use your art for this one-off personal edition!

My maths was slightly off as can clearly be seen on the cover, the border decorations do not go far enough over, which is annoying but not annoying enough for me to redo the whole cover. I am a recovering perfectionist and trying to practice the belief that done is better than perfect. I normally prefer more colours on my printed covers but this really suited the tone of the story.

Casing is never my friend and I will learn to live with it. I think I am actively getting worse at this point but that will not stop me making books!

Huge thanks to @airplanned for giving me permission to bind this fic and to edit my copy to be an edition that uses UK spelling!

More pictures and a video below the cut.

[embyrinitalics]

Zelda is a mouse??!?

Bweeheehee! This one is cute. 😆

So waaaaay back in October 2020 there was this BotW Big Bang event, which I ended up not participating in. BUT ANYWAYS this was the story that I wanted to write for that!

I posted a snippet for it almost two years ago and HERE IT IS. STILL ON THE WIP PILE. FLOUNDERING. LIKE A LITTLE DEER MOUSE TRYING TO TREAD WATER IN AN EXTREMELY LARGE PUDDLE.

The idea is that Zelda's "sealing power" is more of a shapeshifting power, and the goddess is one of those shapes she can eventually master. But right now she keeps unintentionally turning into like a cow or a hedgehog without warning cuz she can't control it. And she spends a good deal of the story as a mouse riding in Link's pocket. :)

I had much bigger ambitions for it Back In The Day, but I think it would be super fun reworked into a oneshot or short story, which is why I was looking at it again semi-recently. So, yeah! THIS COULD BE THE YEAR! But uh, we'll see 😂

[drsteggy]

Okay, what is "Gwen"

WELL. Ha ha, in my Google docs, it’s called A Dog Named Gwen. I decided to start using Scrivener and thought I moved everything HOWEVER, this doc is empty.

Gwen is a dog owned by the Zelda of the Faroriverse. She was created by @presentstone and is a little brown terrier mashup that one of Zelda’s kids finds in stables and brings home. Zelda is pretty annoyed about this at first, but eventually the puppy attaches herself to Zelda and serves as a support system for her when she is widowed.

Gwen also takes exception to the head of Zelda’s personal guard after she initiates an affair with him, and he isn’t really ready for what that entails

What I have is more notes than story, but this is sort of bridging that gap:

Zelda dotes on this small dog. Gwen sleeps on her bed, and eats out of a fine earthenware bowl glazed with her name. She has a leather buckle collar with her name carved into it, and a small silver charm of the triforce. The back is engraved with a plea for a blessing from Farore, to watch over this small creature.

The dog accompanies her to official meetings. She sits on her lap. Front paws crossed, looking attentively to whoever is speaking, as though she is following whatever meeting is going on. Zelda absently buries her fingers in the curly coat.

Gwen returns this love by stepping between Her Grace and anyone who might have too stern a tone with a low woof. She has an uneasy truce with the captain of her guard, eventually. They never really care for each other

[itcantbe]

Zelinktines Month!

Hello! Come celebrate Galentine's Day with Link and Zelda and Link and Zelda! What?! Read a snippet below, or just head over to ao3 to read the whole thing (and see a special surprise)! A million thank yous to co-creator @aquaticpal for her patience, plot assistance, betaing and so much more, I couldn't have done it without you!

Read on ao3/Click through for a snippet!⬇️

Zelda rolled her eyes.

“It’s Gerudo Town, Link, what could happen? It’s probably the safest place in Hyrule next to the castle.”

Link had his doubts — he’s fought assailants away from the town gates before — but he supposed with Urbosa and Impa with her, he shouldn’t worry too much.

He will anyway.

“You stay in the bazaar and I’ll meet you when it’s time to go home. Relax a little!”

Sure, as if that were possible whenever she was out of his sight. And just how much relaxing could he do when he was forced to babysit him?

Zelda was joining Urbosa, Mipha, Impa and Purah for Galentine’s Day, a Gerudo tradition that had sprung up in answer to Valentine’s Day for the many vai disappointed by the voe in their lives. And since many Gerudo dispensed with voe all together, it had turned into a day to spend with your friends, to relax and have a good time. Zelda had been looking forward to it for weeks and Link wasn’t about to let anything get in the way of her having a relaxing day away from the worries of the kingdom and the pending calamity. Not even his own anxiety over her safety.

Then, at almost the last minute, she was informed that her cousin, confusingly also named Zelda, was visiting from a distant kingdom. The two princesses met at the castle with all due pomp and circumstance, and Link’s princess was overjoyed to add one more to her Galentine’s Day party. There was only one problem: Zelda’s cousin had brought her own companion, the hero of her kingdom. Also named Link. What were the odds?

Certainly not in Link’s favor.

[shalottpress]

All the Trashy Novels

All the Trashy Novels by @airplanned is one of my favourite pre calamity cannon divergent fanfictions. It is hilarious and heart warming and I have returned to it so many times. Zelda and Link are such awkward horny little teens and I love them so so much.

I typeset and had actually finished the text block for this one (along with others) last November, which is why the information page says 2024, but we move, she is done now.

I was stuck for such a long time on the cover but I had seen other binders working with matte soft touch laminate/fanart for covers and had wanted to give that kind of cover a go for a while.

When I found the amazing art on the cover of this fic by @eerna and the gorgeous kiss on the back cover by @aquaticpal I was desperate to create a cover from them and could think of nothing else until I had achieved my goal. Thank you both so so much for giving me permission to use your art for this one-off personal edition to my collection. I am so happy with it and will absolutely treasure it forever.

There are a couple of things I would edit about the cover in terms of where I placed things, and the colours came out quite a bit darker than I expected, but overall I am thrilled with how it came out and can't wait to create more covers in this style.

The casing isn't quite abysmal which I am taking as a win. I do need to work on my margins however.

Many, many, thanks to @airplanned for giving me permission to bind this fic and to edit my copy to be an edition that uses UK spelling!

More pictures and a video below the cut.

[embyrinitalics]

Most memorable scene: Uggghhh the Dead Hand whump curse you 😂😭 I think it’s the first or one of the first of your whumps I read, too. ❤️

Excellent, another reader traumatized! 😎😂

[drsteggy]

Your top 5 favorite things to do in BotW

This so depends on my mood but

1. Riding my horse anywhere, but the beach in particular

2. Picking fights

3. Stealth bombing bokoblin camps

4. Hunting molduga. I love hunting molduga.

5. Generalized fucking around

[jenseits-der-sterne]

Happy birthday! 🧠💭🍰🍰🍰

Thank you so much, my friend! 🥰🥰🥰

🧠 What’s an idea you have that you can’t quite call a WIP yet?

Oh! Hmm. So... I'm Very Behind on doing the @zelink-prompts "Ball" prompt. I do have an idea and I even have a title in mind, but I have literally not 1. made any files/folders and I haven't 2. written anything down. The working title so far in my head is "Two Fancy Slippers and a Spiffy Beret", but idk if that'll actually be the title. I have to actually just sit down and just start writing it.

One that is more of "a thing" is a Star Wars/LOZ crossover idea that I had way back in February 2021. I wrote a rough outline and I wrote out a chapter 1, but that's all there is so far. Technically, this concept "exists" more than the above one, but it'll need to be multi-chapter and that is more daunting to me than a oneshot is.

💭 What is a headcanon you have about your own work?

Huh! I feel like there are two ways to interpret this question:

What headcanons have you formed about canon from writing?

What headcanons exist within the worlds I've created (that are not be related to canon)?

So... I think I'll answer the first one.

Hot take: I don't think Link grew up in Hateno. I think it's possible his family had a homestead there. Maybe the house we purchase in BOTW during the "Hylian Homeowner" side quest is The House. But even if that's the case, I don't think he spent a lot of time there.

Realistically, if his father was a knight and a member of the Royal Guard, Link's family was most likely living in Castle Town. Maybe Link did some traveling as a child (ie. Zora's Domain). Maybe he spent summers in Hateno.

But, the rest of the time? Castle Town.

I think he probably grew up close to the castle because of his father's position within the guard. I think he probably began a trajectory to enter knighthood when he was young. So, I think he was close to the castle at most points during his young and teenaged life.

There's part of me that really wants the house in Hateno to have been his, but I also don't know if I practically believe that anymore. @airplanned and I have speculated on this quite a bit and those conversations are always fun :)

🍰 Name one of your fave comfort fics (doesn’t have to be your all time fave).

LOL, I already cheated and named 4 in my last response to this. But, I did allude to some fics that live "rent free" in my brain, so I'll list two of them here:

"A Hylian Marriage" by hrtiu - This one has an "arranged marriage" vibe, although it's not technically. Link and Zelda spend a lot of time Not Getting Along. Link has some really interesting quirks that stuck with me (ie. he's really competitive and if he keeps losing a mini-game, he won't accept defeat. Leads to a lot of awkwardness!)

"Harry Potter and the Champion of Hyrule" by Fox_the_Reaper - This is a quirky crossover and it has some really interesting ideas. Link ends up in the Harry Potter world: it's a retelling of HP5, but if Link were there! It sounds so weird, but it really works. There are some gut punch moments. The way the author reveals certain details about Link's life in Hyrule are really great.

I've only read the above two once before, but I really like both of them and I actually find myself dwelling on them a lot.

There are more comfort fics than this, too, but I've now cheated twice by answering with more than one! LOL