#balladoftime

[changeling-rin]

So. In game, Ocarina relies on Navi for L-targeting. In the battle against Ganondorf, Link cannot do any L-targeting because Navi is prevented from getting close because of Ganondorf’s ‘evil aura’ or something.

And without L-targeting, quick aiming at enemies can be tricky.

THEREFORE, in DL, does Ocarina (and potentially Mask as well) have a hard time focusing on the enemies because he doesn’t have Navi there to spotlight the enemy?

Hmm... interesting point

I'm gonna say that it's not so much a focus thing as it is an attention span thing. Ocarina can absolutely focus on his target, but he is only about nine years old. He gets distracted by a lot of stuff. And in a fight, where there's a lot of stuff to get distracted by, it's hard to keep his attention on the enemy and not, say, all the fire his enemy is spewing.

Mask, being older, has mostly grown out of this problem, and will actually subtly act as an attention-target for Ocarina in order to direct him at the opponent. But nothing works quite so well as a glowing ball of loudly-shouting fairy floating above a target's head and keeping all the attention where it needs to be

[changeling-rin]

How does Lore act when he gets Angry - like legitimately, truly, angry? We know Dusk goes full Protective Wolf and destroys the threat (rip Ganon), we know Gen gets overprotective concerned and goes on a potion buying spree (rip that shopkeeper), but what about Lore? What kind of Angry is he?

Lore goes off, but he never says a word while doing it. If you've gotten him to shut up and take you seriously, then you should probably start running. It's basically a refocusing of all his energy onto a single target, and then he does his level best to obliterate it. No holds barred, keeping nothing back, full-out carnage. He'd wipe a place off a map, probably

[changeling-rin]

Piggybacking on Servo’s question, details of Lore that just haven’t come up in the story?

He's actually ambidextrous, but not naturally. He just decided one day that it would be neat, and then used his non-dominant hand for everything until he got good at it. (He's originally a lefty though)

He has so many freckles. Literally so many, and they're everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. You can draw constellations on his skin

He puts on a different accent depending on what language he's speaking, just to make sure that he's giving everything equal treatment. Hylian gets a Labrynnian accent, Labrynnian gets a Subrosian accent, Subsosian gets a Darkling accent, so on and thus forth.

He actually gets his languages mixed up in his head all. the. time. But since he always passes it off as just being his ridiculous self, nobody's noticed.

He's also fluent in Koholish, Sign, Archaic, and Divinet... and he really should not be fluent in Divinet, because that's the language of the gods, and how did he even learn that-

His response to being truly, properly, actually angry is to completely and irreparably destroy whatever set him off. This is also known as 'Lore taking something 100% seriously'

He gets attached very easily, and then he pretends that he doesn't. This fools nobody

He'd be a very good artist, if he ever sits down and actually draws

He's panromantic, but very asexual. It literally has not even occurred to him that people might want something more intimate from a relationship. Not that he isn't aware that such things exist, but like. Why would they want that, when there's things like hugs??? He's a cuddle monster and is all about physical affection, but it comes to a violent screeching halt at anything crossing the boundary of platonic.

He has ADD/ADHD and is probably on the highest end of the possible spectrum

He's got just a little bit of Gerudo in him, which makes itself known in his darker complexion and vividly red hair. It's not enough to make him the target of a Male Gerudo Prophecy, thankfully - it's roughly three percent of his makeup. Just enough to give him a taste for spicy food, really

And lastly, he has a vocal stim. The proper term for it is 'echolalia' but he just thinks of it as 'making whatever funny noise pops into his head'

[changeling-rin]

Okay a version of this has probably been asked before BUT-

In the Link Masterpost, you mentioned this about Rune:

He’s quiet to the point of almost being forgettable, which is a side effect of a) spending nearly all his time in the wilderness alone with nobody to talk to, and b) having to constantly be on the alert for Guardians because nothing alerts a Guardian like a loud hylian.

Which. Yeah. That checks out. It makes sense

But how does this impact his first meeting with the Chain, seeing as they’re 17(ish) people with no sense of calm and the definition of quiet is nowhere in sight

In particular, how panicked does he get upon meeting Lore, whose go to response in dangerous situations usually has to do with shouting at enemies and trying to distract them which Lore they’re mechanical spiders they’re not gonna listen to you - Lore get BACK HERE THAT WASN’T A CHALLENGE-

Well, we're assuming that Rune is a 'dangerous situation', which I'm inclined to think he's not. Most of the time.

Remember, at this point the Chain is 18+ Links strong, and the automatic response to seeing a vaguely blond and heroic teenage boy now is to go 'fellow Link???' like an excited puppy meeting new people. If anything, Rune's first response is going to be 'overstimulation via loud and happy group hug'.

He'll be up in this tree for roughly twenty minutes or so? And then he'll come back down and try again. They're not dangerous to him, he can tell, they're just... uh, very enthusiastic.

On Lore and the Guardians though: Rune is very much okay with this, because a Guardian focused on the loudest and most noticeable target is a Guardian not paying attention to him, coming around back, with an Ancient Arrow nocked and ready. Wow this kid is good at being loud

[changeling-rin]

Ooooookay so we know that the Links are all very athletic right. They fight enemies and use swords and frequently run through monster hordes and do other hero-y things.

But how *fast* can they run?

So: the Links (from the main story) all have to run a 400 meter dash (approximately 1/4 mile), a mile, and a half marathon. Who finishes each race first, who finishes last, and approximately what are the times of the first and last person to finish each race?

Brought to you by, someone who realized the fastest mile ever run was done in under four minutes and suddenly felt deep pain for the DLinks who have to track down Realm even when his earrings are in place

(But is also wondering who would win each race, since a short sprint is a very different game than distance running)

You made me research olympic track records for this. I hope you're happy.

The 400m dash: Gen wins, because he's not great at distance but Din can that boy sprint. He clocks in roughly at the 50 second mark, and there's a good five seconds of space between him and the next finisher. Realm finishes last, at about two hours and thirteen minutes, because he got lost. This skews the results horribly. Nobody is willing to try it again.

The mile: Lore wins, somewhere around 8-and-a-half minutes, because he just started jogging and then... never stopped. Mask and Dusk are close seconds. Realm finishes last, roughly ten hours later, because he got lost. At this point everybody just mentally removes Realm's time from the list.

The half-marathon: Realm wins by a landslide when he comes in at twenty minutes. Apparently, he got lost. This, at some point, seemed to clash directly with the amount of distance he was trying to travel. Everyone else decides to mentally remove Realm's time from the list again, albeit for completely different reasons. Last finisher is Steam, who does his best but just isn't used to running everywhere the way his siblings are. He comes in at a little over two and a half hours.

(If all modifiers were removed, the winners would be Gen, Realm, and Realm again, respectively. The loser would be Steam, every time, poor boy. With modifiers, such as a wolf, a Goron, a bunny hood, pegasus boots, etc, it's an all-out free for all war and nobody actually sees who got first through all the dust they kicked up.)

[changeling-rin]

As the Links are passing through a town, a panicked Hylian comes running towards them and begs them to come to their house to kill a house spider that won’t go away. What happens?

Or, in other words:

How many Links does it take to kill a spider?

"...this man is living in a Spider House," Mask says slowly. "Why is he living in a Spider House? Of course they won't go away! It's their house!"

"Also we should probably ask if they need a curse broken, that seems to happen to Spider Houses a lot," Ocarina adds.

They help the man find a new house. (Seriously though, why was he trying to live in a Spider House?)

((How many Links does it take to kill a spider? All of them. One to panic (Gen), one to calm him down (Dusk), and all the rest to murder the spider violently for triggering one of their siblings.))

[changeling-rin]

The Chain meets Ash & Pikachu. What’s the response of both parties? Also how does Lore react to creatures that can quite literally create fire at will

Practically anybody can see at first glance that Ash is a harmlessly optimistic adventurer, so the Chain waves hi and strikes up a collective conversation. Ash, on the other hand, has been proven to have absolutely no qualms about immediately befriending and trusting complete strangers, so he converses back, naturally!

Lore learns about Charizard. He wants one.

[changeling-rin]

If each of the Zelda’s got a cursed form, what would their cursed forms be?

I must regrettably tell you that I have not fleshed out all the personalities of all the Zeldas yet. And unfortunately, a great deal of my decision-making when it comes to the Cursed Forms revolves around their personality and what animal I think fits that.

So I can't give you all of them, but I'll give you the ones that I feel the most confident about, and I hope that'll be enough!

Dawn (TP Zelda) strikes me as a leopard sort of lady. Unassuming and camouflaged as harmless, until it's far too late and she's wrecking all your best-laid plans. She's all lethal grace and poise, very classy of her

Jinx (ST Zelda) gives me dragonfly vibes. Free-spirited, zippy, plus I think she deserves to fly on her own wings rather than as a side-effect of a bodily eviction. On the smaller side, but still bright and noticeable and fantastic for recon

And... Grace (SS Zelda) would probably be some sort of bird, but I'm not firm on which one. I do think she'd be one of the birds that has a mischievous reputation, but that only narrows it down so far...