#does this work!

[imtwentyfuckingfour]

@spiritxtrain​

Kafei was only supposed to make a backup copy of a badly decaying document...but what’s he supposed to do when it blatantly contradicts a record he’s already read?  Thoughtlessly finish the backup copy; which could be wrong?  The purpose of this place is to define the very truth, and the truth should not be defined lightly!  Kafei is by no means the highest ranking scribe, but he isn’t about to build his career on a foundation that treats this sacred duty like just a job!  He dutifully brings the problem to his supervisor’s attention, who gives him a familiar look of pride and weariness; they hired exactly the right person, they hired exactly the wrong person.  

Kafei hasn’t left Castle Town in eight years, and he’s in no hurry to.  This place is safe.  It’s home, like nowhere else ever was.  The peace he’s found only makes sense in the context of this location.  Out there in the world, life could look like anything for all he knows.  He certainly isn’t itching to volunteer to travel to Whittleton and ask them what their records say about how trade was established between there and Hyrule Castle.  

But his supervisor said no one’s noticed before that Castle Town has two different records of first encounters.  And then his supervisor said that it’s probably not a priority to get to the bottom of this, and they should just make a note of the discontinuity somewhere and call it a day.  And Kafei explained to his supervisor that this mysterious discrepancy could actually be settled if somebody passing through Whittleton had just a simple conversation.  And his supervisor frowned knowingly and said that there isn’t really a process for other members of the Castle’s staff to do research for scribes.  A scribe would have to go.

And once you say, I’m a scribe, to that kind of observation, there really isn’t any looking back.

Kafei arrives at the train station a good half hour early, to make absolute sure he doesn’t miss the train.  The last time he rode a train, the stakes were a bit higher, and his mind still casually associates urgency with trains.  He’s packed too much spare clothes, too much food, and too many books, in a bulging old duffel bag borrowed from his uncle.  

Kafei can hear the kingdom’s trains go by daily from his uncle’s house, even from Hyrule Castle.  Those far-off sounds do not scare him.  Those far-off sounds are comforting, even.  That’s part of what Castle Town sounds like, and Castle Town is safe like other places aren’t.  The train that finally pulls into the station is VERY LOUD.   And VERY LARGE.  He’s read that trains can’t stop quickly.  If there’s a train coming, and you don’t get off of the tracks in time?  The driver is powerless to stop the train, and you get run over.  And if the train doesn’t kill you, it takes you into a dangerous unknown.  Kafei watches the train stop, very suspiciously.  He approaches it cautiously once it does, holding his luggage tightly.  Who does he give his ticket to?  How much time does he have to board this enormous machine before it chugs away in a cloud of steam?  He’s ridden a train before, and yet he’s suddenly forgotten everything about trains, except how they can kill you.  He quickly approaches the driver and shows his ticket.  

“Excuse me, do I give this to you?” he asks.

[imtwentyfuckingfour]

@pristinepoison

Something’s wrong with the swamp.  The Tourist Agency sent an advisory to Clock Town that the area is growing toxic and hostile.  Most troubling of all is reports of some half-glimpsed creature no one’s ever seen before, with an indistinct body and the face of a white wolfos...maybe even a true wolf.  

Kafei’s father, the mayor, rightly observes the swamp to be a bit far away and isn’t particularly concerned.  The Curiosity Shop man, meanwhile, reads opportunity in the situation.  Kafei doesn’t closely follow the details of the Curiosity Shop man’s greedy operations, but he has to lend a hand with the legwork sometimes in return for being consistently allowed to borrow a key to the backroom and use it as a part time living space.  Some weeks after the news broke about the swamp, Kafei was asked to accompany the crook to the swamp for some underhanded business.   Apparently the Tourist Agency in the swamp is facing a steep drop in business?  And the Curiosity Shop man was able to pressure them into selling some valuable artifacts for less than they’re worth?  “You’re bookish,” was the explanation Kafei got.  “You’ll know more than me if they’re trying to turn me away with a fake.”

Kafei hates jobs that put him in too much danger and he hates jobs that take him too far from Clock Town.  This one checks both boxes, and he shows the Curiosity Shop man a perfectly sullen front for the whole journey, even despite the owlish stare of the mask he borrows to hide his face on the job (a curious mask known by some as the All-Night mask).  It’s been dark for a while by the time they reach their destination, and the man from Tourist Agency isn’t too thrilled to be at the meeting either.  The Curiosity Shop man is all smiles conducting this little orchestra of dissent, tickled to have so much power and happy to return a richer man.  

Kafei and the Curiosity Shop man don’t encounter a swamp creature with the face of a true wolf as they make their way home in the dark, artifacts in hand.  But they do encounter a garden variety wolfos.  One of the hungry ones.  And there’s not a puppet string in the world that could keep Kafei from running for his life, with exactly the level of consideration for the Curiosity Shop man that the two of them showed the man from the Tourist Agency only an hour earlier.

In the context of being chased by a hungry animal, the direction you want to run is away from it.  In the context of being between home and a toxic swamp, the direction you want to run is towards home.  Unfortunately, these directions don’t line up for Kafei.  When he manages to escape the wolfos, he keeps running just in case, giving no thought to direction.  He finds a tree that looks climbable and situates himself in its branches for good measure.  At this point he’s exhausted.  It’s still dark, and the most sensible thing he can think to do is sleep as best he can.  He isn’t aware that his borrowed mask has any particular effect on its wearer, and doesn’t know to take it off.  He spends a miserable four hours staring sleeplessly into the dark.  To make matters worse, there’s a bad smell in the air, and he can’t risk climbing down the tree and going somewhere else in case the wolfos finds him.

Day breaks, revealing toxic swampland in all directions.

Kafei hadn’t spoken at all during the meeting with the man from the Tourist Agency.  He figures he might be able to weasel a night’s stay out of them if he shows himself as belonging to the Mayor’s family (of course he wasn’t able to fall asleep in a tree!).  He climbs down from the tree and prepares for such a meeting, rearranging his clothes as best he can (the cloak can stay in the tree).  He takes the mask off and arranges to carry it more discretely.  Now, which way was the Tourist Agency...?

An hour later, the smell is worse, and Kafei’s practically asleep on his feet.