Hi, you can call me Antares or Julian 🌟 he/they/she 🌟 fic writer 🌟 AO3: AlphaScorpiixx 🌟 mostly Kingdom Hearts, FFXIV, Legend of Zelda, RWBY, and whatever else I'm currently interested in 🌟 beware of untagged nfsw 🌟 like spam is welcome but I block/report empty blogs
I'm probably not going to be very active on these unless tumblr goes into some serious nosedive and actually shuts down. mutuals can ask for my discord
my sideblogs since this is going to be my new pinned
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to be honest i think there’s a large number of people who conflate the very real and widespread phenomenon that women tend to be written off as just mothers or love interests in order to diminish their importance in a given story with the fact that a huge reason they’re sent to narrative purgatory in this way is BECAUSE the labels of “mother” and “girlfriend/wife” are systematically devalued and seen as inherently inferior because they’re terms that have been associated with ownership and/or control over women. like the amount of people who’ve told me that a certain female character is uninteresting or badly written because she happened to have a kid or be a man’s girlfriend or sister just to find out she was actually fleshed out very well and carried significant narrative importance frustrates me soo bad. there’s a huge problem with how those roles (specifically “wife” and “mother”) are systematically devalued and yet also perpetuated as the only viable options for women to achieve their societal roles in the patriarchy but acknowledging the devaluation of those labels to begin with is an important discussion in itself.
more women whump. more women pushing themselves and passing out from sleep deprivation and exhaustion. more women training until their knuckles bleed and their legs give out from under them. more women being held prisoner and remaining stoic until the very end or perhaps when they’re rescued. more women under truth serum and terrifying hallucinogens. more women waking up in a pool of blood, their own and others’ and not knowing what happened but that something is terribly wrong with them. more women falling apart o ly when rescued. more women pushed to their breaking point. more women whump.
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I’m reading a book on biofeedback trainings right now and they talk about this. The words “try” or “need” add pressure to stuff. Sometimes switching from “I need to calm down” or “I’m trying to slow my breathing” to “I’m allowing myself to calm down a little more with each exhale” or “I’m giving myself permission to slow my breathing” can be more helpful. There’s a difference between “try to relax the muscle” and “allow the muscle to soften” that is significant enough that for some people it can totally change the outcome of a relaxation exercise.
For other tips and tricks, instead of asking “why” you can’t change a thought/feeling (why being an offensive question, meaning it forces you to respond defensively - in this case defending the emotion you don’t like) you can ask “is there any leeway or wiggle room with this feeling/thought/belief for something else?” Oftentimes we know multiple things at once, and by allowing for a small amount of ambiguity we can start to accept the situation more fully.
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The reason most farmers dock (cut off) the tails is to prevent fly strike, an often lethal infection of fly larvae in the rear of the sheep. Without a (VERY FLUFFY) tail for fecal matter to accumulate on, fly strike is almost completely eliminated!
there is a wide variety of similar treatments for farm animals that are entirely for the animals well being
pigs get their tail curled and tusks removed as babies so they dont accidentally nip each other while playing or stab each other just walking around- even a small tail nip might be fatal once the other pigs react to the scent of blood
goats/cows often have their horns removed as babies as well both for obvious reasons to prevent stabbings but also to prevent them from growing in weird that can cause pain and infection for the animal
chickens and other poultry, especially pet ones or hobby farms, might have their flight feathers clipped to prevent them from flying over fences, where their life expectancy is nill outside the farm/owners enclosure
Very good and valid points but please tell me what you mean by “might be fatal once the other pigs react to the scent of blood” before I lose my marbles
the silly billies have a moment in the woods and uhhh um it uh
kind of a shorter chapter this time. i feel like this one also gets like REALLY far away from the initial prompt uhh oops? i swear all the chapters have been planned in a way that correlates with the prompts this one just doesnt do it very well. uhh they were alone in the woods? does that make it quiet? lol
anyway
@zelinkcommunity
PREVIOUS/NEXT
COURSE CORRECTION CHAPTER 3 - NATURE WALK
The park was mostly empty when Link and Zelda got to it, allowing them both to swing on the swings without being interrupted by anything.
Which was probably the best outcome. Zelda needed this. She looked at herself occasionally through the swinging motion to let it sink in that she was intact, she had a body, she was safe.
She made sure to have a conscious grip on the chains of the swing, just to really allow herself to process the sense of touch that she was still able to feel: the chains were cold, but her hands were warming them up ever slightly, the motion of the wind hitting her through each swing, just... everything.
Thanking Link for this was her next step. Until she looked up and saw him just... staring at her.
Zelda had to admit that maybe, maybe, she liked him as more than a friend. She was busy with her job so often that whenever the two of them hung out it was mostly to be able to get twice the amount of work done in the same room (Link was often at the council building of the decision makers because he was the one who helped save New Hyrule and therefore was seen as a hero by everyone, but he never considered himself a hero), but the times where they actually got outside and went and did things besides work were some of her happiest moments.
All this to say when she saw him looking at her, her heart did flutter a bit.
Link seemed to have a much more extreme response to the sudden eye contact, though, he looked away almost instantly and tried to say something but ended up staying silent.
Zelda laughed. They had been swinging in complete silence for maybe 20 or so minutes, and at this point she was ready for a different activity other than just. The same motion over and over.
Come to think of it... there was a little trail that led to a patch of woods that she saw behind the swingset when the two first got there. A few more people were staring to show up, a lot of them little kids that Zelda really didn't feel like being around considering how "famous" she was, she she figured that maybe the two of them could take a walk in the woods?
"There's a trail behind us if you wanna go take a walk." She turned to him.
"Oh! Oh—I forgot I noticed that too." He gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah, I—uh—I wouldn't mind going for a walk with you."
Suddenly looking surprised as his words, he looked away a bit frantically.
"Sorry—only if you want to of course!"
"Link, I was the one who offered." Zelda said. "Are you okay?"
"Yes!" He squeaked.
Zelda smiled for the trillionth time. Yeah. He probably liked her too. For a long time she thought he was nervous around everyone—social anxiety, fear of saying the wrong thing perhaps, and to a degree that was definitely true. But around her he just kind of flip-flopped between being super happy and super fearful at the slighest thing. Not to mention how sad he looked earlier when that whole breakdown happened—if she remembered correctly she was almost certain she heard him yell something borderline aggressive when she was crying and the crowds were there. He NEVER yelled. At least not from what Zelda had seen of him.
Hmm. Well, maybe the walk could test this theory. The more she thought about it the more she realized that yeah, she definitely liked him. She found it funny to make him nervous (as long as it wasn't in a harmful way) and the two of them did tease each other often. They had been friends for 2 years at this point—and she realized right then and there that if she did like him, which she did, and he liked her back, then she wouldn't be opposed to it. In fact, maybe she wanted it.
She could tell her heart rate picked up a bit as conformation. Neither of them were looking at each other, for equally valid reasons.
Well, if she wanted to figure out if he liked her back, she had an idea was of how to go about it. And a nature walk was the perfect opportunity.
...
Entering the trail in the woods, Link almost felt like something was being planned. He couldn't confirm, but Zelda always had a smirk on her when she had an idea that amused her, and she definitely had one right now.
But this smirk seemed a little different. He didn't understand how, but she seemed... off. Maybe it was from the events earlier. That was probably it. Still, he made an effort to keep his guard up. Maybe he had to hold his defenses on the war of paying for each other's food again.
Neither of them spoke for a bit, which made Link increasingly nervous. Did he blow it? Did she know he liked her? Was she upset? He panicked in silence for the walk until Zelda finally spoke up.
"I forgot how nice the woods were." She said, with a bubbly cheerfulness that Link couldn't tell if she was forcing to try and make herself happy after the incident in the building or if it was genuine.
"Yeah. I've driven through the woods a lot—" Link responded. "—the shade is nice and I like the birds."
Zelda nodded. "The birds are nice, but my favorite part about nature I think is the water."
Link rolled his eyes, but in a teasing way rather than an irritation.
"Of course you'd like the water."
Zelda laughed. "What? Too aquaphobic to hear that?"
"I think its more of thalassaphobia than aquaphobia." Link admitted. "But it's not like I'm gonna kill you for liking the water of all things."
"Yeah I'd hope you wouldn't kill me," Zelda smirked, "you like me far too much to do that."
Link's entire body felt like it was going to melt off the second he heard that. Did she mean that in a platonic way, or—? He hoped she meant platonic. Well, part of him did want her to think that in a romantic way, but he felt like he would probably pass out if he got the conformation for that. He just looked to the side and tried to hide his very red face from Zelda.
He didn't notice, but Zelda smiled. Eventually Link snapped out of it enough to continue the conversation and the two of them kept making very unrelated conversations with each other about very unrelated things until they stumbled upon the smell of a river.
"Ooh!" Zelda chimed in, "do you think this trail leads to the big river we crossed?"
"The river we crossed on the side of a spooky-ass bridge?" Link chuckled, "yeah, I don't think I would forget that."
He hoped he meant he wouldn't forget it because of how scary it was and not because of the whole hand-holding thing, but he didn't know and couldn't choose before the words were out of his mouth.
"Oh c'mon, the bridge wasn't spooky, you were just scared!" Zelda pointed at him before giggling and heading further down the trail.
The trail was heading downhill at this point, and it was pretty clear that this was leading to the river. Link shook his head and followed. As long as she wouldn't make him swim.
"Hey, crossing a bridge in the method we chose was scary!" Link followed through with the joke as he found Zelda standing before what was the shore of the very large river.
It was a beautiful spot, really. The sun was shining in dappled patterns through the leaves, and even though he didn't care for being in the water, Link had to admit that the sound of the water flowing slowly and steadily made him calm down a bit. He walked next to her. She was standing near a sign that showed a map of the trail, with a little "you are here" star at the middle point where the river was. After that, the trail looped back around to another side of the park they came from.
Zelda turned around to face him, and his heart skipped a beat.
She had a look on her face. Something mischievous, and Link instantly realized that she was planning something. He just had to figure out what it was. Was she gonna try and slip money into his pocket and try and win the food paying war? Was she going to toss him into the river? Shit, he hoped that wasn't i—
Zelda smirked and slammed a hand beside him, essentially trapping him in front of the sign in a very, very flirtatious manner.
"Are you scared of that?"
YES.
Yes he was. In fact, his legs were starting to shake and he had no idea what to say, what to do, and his mind was screaming whatdoesthismeanwhatdoesthismeanwhatdoesthismean. Is THIS what she was planning?! What the FUCK???
Zelda awaited a response, but Link couldn't talk. He didn't even want to know how red his face was, but she was so close to him—shit, he wanted to kiss her. Should he? No. Absolutely not. That could ruin everything. He was panicking so much and Zelda was about to speak again—she still had that look on her face of wanting to mess with his brain, wanting to get a reaction—she started to speak—
"So if I were t—"
BAAAAAAAA. BAAAAAAAA. BAAAAAAA. BAAAAAA.
Their phones both got an government emergency alert, cutting them off.
Zelda was the one to look panicked now, she hurriedly took her phone out with a fearful look before Link took his out too, and they both read the message. Zelda's hand left his side.
Carson Kendal, supporter of the former Chancellor Cole has been suspected and proven of continuing his attempts, and is now jailed for illegal magic use and attempted soul-seperation murder. You are now safe to enter Windfall's city hall.
"Uh—" Zelda started, somehow looking just as flustered as Link was after they both read the alert,
"Um—okay so that's good—okay so we should go find somewhere to spend the night, because—it's like almost 5 PM and uh—I really don't want to sleep on the side of the road again."
She didn't even look at him before walking away to a tree off in the distance. Link just stared in shock, eventually managing to sit down and catch his breath.
Was she actually about to kiss him? Did she like him too? As oblivious as Link was sometimes, he knew that was far more than a simple joke. Especially because of her reaction when it got messed up. She always handled losing to a joke quite well, but this time she didn't even look him in the eye. His heart was still racing and he buried his head in his hands, just sitting there.
...
Well, that went horribly. But at least Zelda got the answer. Yeah. They both were definitely in love with each other. Zelda knew she would fluster Link, but she didn't think it would go in a way where she got flustered herself. To be fair, she didn't know where she was going with it other than she wanted to get a reaction out of him in a way that could simultaneously give her the conformation that he liked her back. It just.... was far more embarrassing than she would ever like to repeat.
Zelda looked up from the forest floor to see Link sitting underneath the sign she had basically pushed him against. He hadn't even moved except from going from standing to sitting, and even from a distance Zelda could tell his brain was going a million miles a minute trying to process what the fuck just happened.
Oops. She felt a bit bad, actually. She considered apologizing once her heart rate calmed down, but she ultimately decided not to and instead just continue acting how she did before. Maybe something would happen, maybe something wouldn't. Kudos to her and her goddess-awful impulsive actions.
Still though, she had the answer.
At least she was 90% sure of it. Maybe she made him so overwhelmed that he would stop liking her. Even as a friend. She didn't want to think about that possibility. If she had actually ruined 2 years worth of friendship for a stupid tease—
"Didn't you say you didn't want to sleep on the side of the road?"
Zelda looked up, and, to her surprise, Link was the one to approach her first. They stared at each other for a moment and Link immediately blushed because they both knew they were thinking about the same thing.
"Uh—no—no hard feelings." He managed to stutter.
Zelda couldn't help but exhale in relief at that. If there was one thing they were both good at, it was clear (or at least mostly clear) communication. Which was very very ideal. Neither of them wanted to end this, whatever it would turn into, and Zelda regained her sense of security with his silly bashful smile.
Zelda didn't know what to say other than "thank you". The two of them got up and took one last look out at the river before following the rest of the path back to the park.
To say she was grateful was an understatement.
(bonus thing drew because. i just had to. you see the vision right)
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COURSE CORRECTION CHAPTER 2 IS ACTUALLY ON THE CORRECT DAY THIS TIME LETS GOOO
@zelinkcommunity
after waking up from camping on the side of the road, link and zelda head over to the city of Windfall's town hall to try and find a method of transportation to get home. What they find instead, is a reminder of something the two will never forget
PREVIOUS/NEXT
CHAPTER 2 - THE ENCOUNTER AT THE CITY HALL
Link awoke to a voice.
"Link."
Or at least, he tried to wake up.
"Link."
It took him a bit too long to realize that that was Zelda's voice, and as soon as he did he actually opened his eyes to see her.
She looked far more awake than he did, though her hair was a mess and she had little bits of grass on her. Link probably did too.
"Morning!" She said. You sleep like a rock. Actually, worse than a rock."
She seemed to be a lot happier (or at least re-energized) than she was when they both went to sleep the night before. Speaking of; both of them were at least an arms length away from each other, which made sense, sleeping with a friend any closer together than that would be weird. Still, it made Link's mind wander a bit.
"...Are you still half asleep?" Zelda questioned.
"No...?" He guessed.
She giggled at that, and then stood up, dusting the grass pieces off of her. Link slowly stood up too.
"So its almost 10 in the morning, and we really should find a way to get transportation out of here." She said, gesturing to the still busy roads and sidewalks that were in front of them.
Link nodded. "I agree. Oh—we have service again! We can probably figure out where to go with a map that we can zoom in and move around and stuff."
He took out his phone. There surprisingly were no new messages, but he quickly did a search and found the same map that Zelda had taken a picture of the day before. She leaned over to try and get a look at the map, too.
"Okay, uh," Link pointed to one of the really tall buildings that was likely a block or so away from them.
"I think that's a general town hall?" He said. "The name is "Windfall Center", so, I mean that's kind of clear."
"They would probably have people there that could give us directions to a train station." Zelda said. "Or at least lead us to a different building that does know that. This city is kind of huge—there's gotta be something."
She looked up at the town hall in the distance, than around the surrounding streets and such. Then she simply waved a hand for Link to follow her, as she had seemed to find a decent path to go.
The two grabbed their bags. Link had to stop and get a drink of water around 5 seconds after they started walking, and Zelda ended up drinking some of her water too after a bit of convincing from him.
Their water bottles were a huge contast in style—Link had a large one that be carried on him via a strap like a purse, but, for water bottles, and Zelda had to take hers out from her backpack every time she needed it. Link could have easily put it in his backpack too, but it was more practical to carry it on him by his side the entire time.
Regardless, they walked for a bit and still couldn't find a crosswalk.
"That's it I'm jaywalking." Zelda huffed.
She at least carefully observed both sides of the traffic and waited for an opening before doing so. It took a moment for Link to realize that, he had to jaywalk too, and she was almost halfway across the road before he started to sprint across. This was not something he wanted to—
HOOOOONK!
Link yelped at the sound before the actual sight of the car screeching to a halt inches in front of him.
"SORRY! SO SORRY!" He tried to say, before Zelda intervened and yelled some string of curse words at the driver for almost hitting him.
He quickly sprinted at top speed to the other side of the road was, where Zelda looked incredibly upset. The driver looked almost embarrassed—pissed off too, but he set something in his hand down before continuing on and unclogging the flow of traffic.
"Are you okay?!" Zelda turned to him, almost frantically.
"Um—" he didn't expect her to be that concerned about him—wait what was he THINKING?! He could have died there! Obviously she would be panicked!
Link looked back at the traffic beginning to move steadily again, trying his best to lower his rate of breathing after the whole thing. He was still incredibly spooked.
"He was texting while driving." Zelda hissed. "Fucking prick."
Oh. So that's how the car got so close to him.
"...This is why I don't jaywalk." Link stated.
After recovering from THAT, Link and Zelda were luckily on the intended side of the road now. And neither of them were roadkill.
"I think he would of gotten close to hitting you whether we were at a crosswalk or not," Zelda said as the two continued across the sidewalk, trying to walk side by side but it was proving more and more difficult the closer and closer they got to the town hall.
"I guess so." Link sighed, still a bit shaky. "I still would have preferred to not jaywalk though."
"Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm still kind of frustrated from yesterday and I saw a way to get across and didn't even wait for you to agree." She confessed.
Link smiled at her.
"Its okay, I forgive you."
...
The town hall was huge. Not only did it have a huge sign on the entrance of it that said "WINDFALL" in giant letters, but there were so many different sections! It seemed like a general community center that could be involved no matter what role you played: just from Link and Zelda walking around trying to find assistance for 5 minutes, Link had spotted things like an auction house. An AUCTION HOUSE!
And Zelda was hungry again. Link actually was too, this time.
"We should split up to find food, maybe?" She asked, putting more effort into getting Link's opinion this time, which he appreciated. "Are you hungry today?"
"Yes, actually." He said. "I think we walked past a place that was selling buttered pretzels and that sounds really good now that I'm mentioning it."
"Ooh, buttered pretzels sounds awesome." Zelda agreed, her face lighting up at the idea. "Should we split up? You go get pretzels while I try and find a place to see when the next train comes?"
Link paused. He wasn't sure about splitting up in a large city, especially in a giant mulit-story building like this. He contemplated this for a moment, deep in thought.
"Okay. But we should text each other each time we go to a significant area like when I find the food place or if either of us go up or down a floor. Safety."
Zelda nodded. "That's a good idea, actually. We can do that."
She smirked. "You sure you dont want me to pay for the—"
"Zelda you are NOT winning this battle." Link cut her off, but he couldnt help but smile at the joke, even if he wanted to be irritated.
Zelda giggled at his response, and Link hoped his face wasn't turning red again.
"Okay, okay, go get those pretzels, train boy." Zelda said, waved at him and started cheerfully walking away.
He needed to stop getting so caught up on her words and actually start getting the pretzels.
...
Zelda couldn't help but laugh a bit as she walked out of earshot from her friend. He was very very goofy and it made her very entertained. Not in a way that she was exploitative—she could see his smile creep in every time she messed with him, even if he didn't want to admit that he was very much trying not to smile, and it made her happy making him happy. Plus, she would try her absolute hardest to, uh, not make him illegally cross roads without asking him first. She guessed that was some sort of genetic quirk she got from the Pirate Queen.
So. Her phone was in her purse, her supplies were in her backpack, and the two were going to eat yummy pretzels as soon as she found where the board of whatever transportation methods were available were.
She looked all throughout the floor she was on, but only found a sign for what floors were for what purpose:
She ignored the random stuff on floor 2 and above, and instead tried to find the escalator to the lower floor. A subway would probably have the schedule of where it's stops were, so that would be handy to know what to plan.
Oh, texting Link would be a good idea.
• hey
• theres a subway on a lower floor im gonna go see what its stops are
• after I find the escalator obv lmao
He responded quickly. Though, he always responded quickly to her.
• alright
• im waiting for the pretzels to be made and then we can meet at the entrance maybe?
She gave a smile at her phone, even if he couldn't see it.
• yeah sounds good
• ill be there in like 5-7 min
• :)
There. Now he would see the smile. After that message, the little bubble of him texting appeared and disappeared for a few seconds. He seemed to not know what to say, but, Zelda never took offense to that. If anything she found it funny how nervous he could get at so little.
• :3
Okay, that got her. She wasn't expecting that little emoticon to be a response from him—and she ended up having to cut off her laugh because it echoed all throughout the near points of the building. After recovering she just had to respond.
• hell yeah go break those gender norms cat emoticon boy
He responded in under a second.
• WHAT
Okay she was laughing again. She had to stop getting so distracted by this, as funny as it was to tease him. They both had a mission to do and they were failing it miserably.
• okay were getting off track im gonna go look for the train schedule you go get those pretzels
She closed out of the messages before he could respond again. He seemed to have the same idea, as there were no new notifications after that.
Zelda spotted the escalator quickly. Heading down it, the rooms darkened without the sun's light through any windows. Luckily there were still plenty of ceiling lights, so navigating was no problem. The air was slightly colder due to being underground, but she didn't mind, it was a hot summer day. There were still a few people walking around this floor, but the numbers were far less than the floors above.
Good. Less crowds gave her more room to breathe.
Silently getting a hang of her surroundings, Zelda examined the walls and the people, scanning for any indicator of what the train schedule was. The train itself was gone, it was likely off doing said schedule until another one came over to give the rest of the people a chance.
There was a bench, and a person was sitting on it, tapping away at a laptop. They seemed to have been traveling from far away, they had a suitcase that was next to them and a bunch of bags attached to them on top of that. Zelda wondered where this person was from. But the only thing she intended to ask was if they knew were she could look at the train schedule.
"Hi, do you have a moment?" She asked them.
They had a grey hoodie over what must have been a lot of hair considering how bulky it looked. Dark sunglasses were over their eyes, and they didn't even look up from their laptop to start talking to Zelda, which she did find a little disrespectful, but it was no big deal.
"Yeah. What's up."
"I was wondering where I could find the time schedule for the..."
The person looked up at her. In such an intense manner that Zelda had to stop talking just to process what the person was so shocked about. They adjusted their sunglass, taking them off to get a better look at her, and... they stood up.
"Train schedule should be over by that board." They mumbled, pointing down the hall.
Zelda exhaled. She didn't even realize she had been holding her breath, but that person's intense stare scared her. For a moment she thought she was in danger.
"Th–thank you." She stuttered, and quickly began to walk over to the board in the distance after the person sat back down on the bench.
It had a lot of text on it. Trying to find what parts of it where the most important to read so she could quickly get out of here, she read:
10 AM - DOWNTOWN WINDFALL
11 AM - UPTOWN WINDFALL
12 PM - OUTSET
Outset? The rest of the timestamps were much longer than an hour later, so this must have been a stop away from the city and possibly leading to another stop. Now just to get away from the... footsteps?
Footsteps. Behind her.
Zelda whipped around to find the hooded man, with his hood down, revealing what looked like horns—but with the majority of them cut off in a method to hide them.
The horns were stubs.
Because this was a demon.
From New Hyrule.
Who was out hiding in the middle of the underground section of Windfall in the next province over.
How could she tell it was a New Hryule civilian? The sweater. That was a brand that was exclusive to her homeland. And in their hand, was dark, illegal magic.
The same magic that separated her spirit from her body.
Zelda balled her fists. She felt like crying—this brought back so many—too many—of those awful old memories. Her losing her body. Her homeland falling apart. And all of the abuse she faced from the person who was "sent to help her learn" how to be a decision maker: Cole.
"IM NOT STUPID!" Zelda screamed at this person, hoping the volume of her voice would get the attention of any nearby people walking around. It didn't. In fact, it seemed like all of the people had left.
Her heart was pounding and she was panicking—she tried to lower the rate of her breathing but it was no use. With her on the verge of a panic attack, the demon spoke.
"You walked over to the board anyway. I'd say you're at least a little stupid, Zelda."
They began to advance forward, backing Zelda up against the board as they snapped their fingers and the dark purple electricity flowed through their hands.
"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" She tried to squish herself against the wall she was forced into to even get a tiny amount of extra distance away from the person.
Shit. Now she was crying.
The person sighed. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be."
At this point she couldn't squeeze out to the side, either—the person was too close, and their hands were twitching with the magic they held, repeatedly snapping their fingers to try and keep the flow of electricity going. She was going to die. She was going to die and Link would never know because it was HER idea to split up and—
Buzz buzz.
The demon's eyes flicked over to the sound for a split second. Zelda was getting a notification. Probably Link, updating her. And if she didn't act, she wouldn't be able to update him back—
They scowled for a moment and then—
WHAM!
Not even knowing how, Zelda had punched the man in the face. Her hand hurt, she didn't know how to properly throw an actual punch–but—it clearly hurt a lot, as they made a pained sound, clutching their face.
Their magic was fizzing out.
Looking around rapidly, Zelda kicked the demon in the gut, knocking them to the ground.
"YOU—" They started, but Zelda didn't hear it. Instead she just ran.
And she kept running. Towards the escalator, back up to the surface. She tried to wipe the tears streaming down her face but her hands were so shaky it was difficult—
She ran into another person, and she fell over onto the ground.
Frantically scooting along the floor, she looked at the person. They had a dark blue uniform, and in her panic she thought it was Link for a moment—but Link wasn't wearing his engineering uniform today. Instead they had a badge. This was a police officer.
Zelda was going to get arrested. She punched a man in the face and she was going to get killed for it.
The officer said something, but Zelda didn't hear it. She got up and ran, and was instead grabbed by the arm.
"LET ME GO—"
"Zelda, I need you to remain calm." They said.
"I PUNCHED THEM BECAUSE I HAD TO! IM NOT—IM NOT A CRIMINAL—PLEASE—"
Her phone was buzzing again. She could barely hear it over her screaming and panic, but she managed to get her arm out of the cop's grasp and started sprinting again.
The officer got out their walky-talky and called for backup. Zelda just kept running. They knew her name—they knew her actions—she was going to get jailed for assault or at least lose her job—and what would Link think?! She had already stressed him out with crossing the road earlier—no—he cared about her, right? She just had to get back to the pretzel booth—
She almost tripped getting to the escalator, but she looked behind her and the demon was being confronted by not one, but two cops, and she had to get away before even more came.
Zelda had never sprinted up an escalator before. It was difficult, but that was the least of her worries right now. She was still sobbing her eyes out, and then she got to the top—and was stopped by yet another officer.
This one was a Rito. That explained how he got to the escalator so fast—he probably flew throught the halls instead of ran.
Zelda stared up at him in fear.
"I need you to stop running." He said, causing her to cry even more. "We are here to help you."
To help? She thought... she swore she was going to get arrested but—
"Y—you're... here—you're here for help?!" She managed to say, wiping the overflowing tears as she looked up at the man.
"Yes. We need you to describe what happened. The demon is being arrested—not you—you were defending yourself for a good reason."
Zelda paused. This may have been the first time she had ever been praised for defending herself. Or... maybe she had just blocked out everything except all the times that she wasn't. She wasn't sure. But eventually she described the scene, as painful as it was.
...
10 minutes later and Zelda still hadn't responded to 4 texts, and one call. To say Link was worried would be too mild—he stopped eating his portion of the pretzels the moment she didn't answer the call, didn't leave a message, didn't do anything. At this point he had gotten up from the wall he was huddled up at and was speed-walking down the hall, calling her name, in hopes that she would answer.
Maybe she just lost her phone? No, that didn't make any sense. But to Link, all he could think of was how she might have gotten hurt.
She got hurt because of him before. She always told him it wasn't his fault—but he was the one who drove her out of the New Hyrule council center and he was the one who didn't make it to their destination in time before the cultists destroyed the spirit tracks. She lost her body and couldn't interact with anyone but him and the Lokomo, and the province went into lockdown all because of HIM.
He sped up from a jog to a sprint. If Zelda got that level of damage done to her again Link would NEVER forgive himself.
"ZELDA!" He called out, "WHERE ARE YOU?!"
He had to slow down to catch his breath. He wasn't good at running for long periods of time—but...
Oh no.
There were police officers. At the edge of the hallway, where he could just barely see the escalator Zelda said she would take. There were crowds surrounding the area and he couldn't get a good view of what was going on—but the police seemed to be sternly trying to move the crowd away—
He needed to see what happened. He didn't want to know the damage done, but he needed to make sure Zelda was okay. Sure, maybe he was a bit overprotective in general, but anyone would be concerned for their best friend in this situation.
"S'cuse me—" Link tried to be polite about it but he was very much pushing people out of the way to get closer.
His heart was beating fast and he didn't know what to do. Eventually he weaved through enough of the crowd—
"You need to stay back. No use in being nosy." An officer said, blocking the path.
Link didn't speak. Instead he looked to the side of him to get a glimpse of the scene, and, there was Zelda. Sobbing with her head in her hands. She was intact at least, but her level of distress was enough to make Link want to cry, too.
The cop, a Rito, blocked the rest of Link's view by transforming his arm into a wing as a shield.
"I need you to keep your distance, just like everyone else—"
"I'M HER FRIEND!" Link snapped, and then felt a wave of instant regret as the cop gave him a very stern look.
"If you intervine we will fine you 200 rupees for resisting safety orders. I'm hoping you aren't going to go through with that."
Link didn't have that much money on him. And he really didn't want that to be what Zelda paid for him. So instead... he gave up.
He held onto the bucket of pretzels and just waited. Waited for the situation to resolve itself. He wanted to go comfort her, but he didnt want to cause any more trouble that what was already done. Who knows—maybe she needed the space away from him. Maybe he was too much.
Eventually a couple more police brought a man with some incredibly damaged horns up the escalator with handcuffs.
Horns.
There was only one group of people Link knew with those features. And they were all related, caused, even, by what had happened all those years ago. Someone had tried to do a repeat. Another assassination attempt of separating her soul from her body.
He wouldn't have to ask her what happened anymore. He already knew.
...
Link had stopped watching the scene after that. Instead he sat away at another wall and occasionally looked up to see more and more of the crowd dissappear.
Eventually the police started escorting Zelda in his direction.
She seemed to have calmed down for the most part, but still looked incredibly drained.
"You're sure you're okay? And you have a way to get back home?" The officer asked.
Zelda nodded before speaking, in a slow, tired voice.
"...Yes. Thank you. For helping."
The cop nodded before turning back around and starting to walk away.
"You're welcome."
Zelda slumped down beside Link along the wall. She was messing with her fingernails, likely due to anxiety, and didn't say anything.
"...You're doing alright?" Link asked.
Zelda sighed. "I am now. I think. I, uh, they need to up their security here."
"Yeah." Link said. "I saw the aftermath, you dont have to explain what happened to me."
Zelda gave a weak smile at him.
"Thank you."
The two sat there in silence for a bit, just keeping each other company without words until Zelda took our her phone. Then she suddenly looked far more awake.
"What is it?" Link asked.
"...Alfonzo messaged both of us. In a group chat." Zelda started. "...He says he's going to be picking us up at some point tomorrow and bringing us back home."
She looked up at Link, and the they both smiled. They were good at doing that around each other.
"That's—" Link began, "that's great! Wait—tomorrow?"
"Yeah." She read further. "Something to do with being super busy with the council helping repair all the chaos that happened yesterday—so he wouldn't be able to start driving here until 1 AM at the earliest."
"He's a busy man." Link said. "But at least we have a secure way of going home now."
"Yeah." Zelda said. "Yeah."
They sat there in a bit of an awkward silence for awhile while eating the now cold pretzels. Zelda still looked tired, and Link wanted to do something to help but he didn't know if a hug would be too much? And he was scared of asking—he didn't want to embarrass himself for the billionth time on this little detour, but at the same time he knew that clear communication was always the most ideal in any situation, and that not enough people realized that.
So he didn't hug her. Not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't want to do anything without asking. Instead, he looked at the map on Ooccoo and scrolled around until he found a park that the two could possibly hang out at.
"There's a park with what looks like some swings down a couple blocks from here, if that would help with anything we could go there?" Link asked, hoping that would cheer her up some.
Zelda looked up from the pretzel she had half eaten.
So I was scrolling and saw this image in an article about the European heat wave,
And was like, uh, are you missing something there, buddy? Like all that red in northern Africa? Because that's a lot of red.
And I was going to give them the benefit of doubt, since I don't know much about the climate in Northern Africa, aside from Morroco and Egypt, which seem like really hot places, so you know, maybe it's normal there?
But nope, that's not the case:
Africa is struggling with heat waves and many countries on the continent lack the resources rich economies have to deal with rising temperat
Some selections from the article:
"The region has been experiencing some of the most intense heat waves in recent years, but in many cases they’ve been under-reported due to misconceptions about Africans’ ability to withstand them.
“Africa is seen as a sunny and hot continent,” said Amadou Thierno Gaye, a research scientist and professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. “People think we are used to heat, but we are having high temperatures for a longer duration. Nobody is used to this.”
"The Sahel, for instance, has been heating at a faster pace than the global average despite being hot already. Burkina Faso and Mali, both in West Africa’s Sahel, are among countries that are set to become almost uninhabitable by 2080, if the world continues on its current trajectory, a UK university study found. Its people are especially vulnerable due to shrinking resources, such as water, and poor amenities, and a dearth of trees and parks means there are few options for places to cool off."
A Scorpion in the Sky @alphascorpiixx - Tumblr Blog | Tumlook
