Yawp

Chapter 25: Wild III

Back on my bullshit.

***Snippet***

Wind has been quiet since he and Wild set off early that morning to forage supplies, refusing to answer Wild’s few questions with little more than quiet hums. He has a harrowed, haunted look in his eye that Wild finds uncomfortably familiar; he’s seen it in the faces of the elders of his Hyrule, in Impa whenever she speaks about the Calamity. He’s seen it in the mirror, after particularly fitful nights.

Luckily, Wild is quite used to not talking, so, regardless of how awkward the resulting silence feels, he lets Wind alone. As the two make their way through the little wood surrounding their makeshift camp, Wild falls back, allowing Wind some obviously needed space.

There has been no sign of civilization nor passing travelers so far, but Wild is confident he knows where they are; the ground beneath his feet is familiar, despite it looking like just about every other forest floor he’s traversed in the passed few months. He breathes in deep and the smell of moss and fallen leaves is like a soft caress, easing some of the anxiety buried in his stomach. He can hear Wind a few paces away, shuffling about through the undergrowth, but he can also hear birdsong; on the branch of a small tree, two birds twitter in apparent conversation. One ruffles its feathers, puffing itself up as it hops back and forth along the branch. It flashes its tail open and closed as it does, chirping all the while. Despite everything, Wild finds himself smiling as he watches.

Sparrows, he thinks fondly as the little song and dance continues. One of the birds is a muted mix of gold and grey. She seems rather disinterested in her companion’s advances, preening herself while her green and yellow admirer continues his desperate performance.

A golden sparrow, Wild corrects himself as he studies the pair. And a common sparrow.

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Chapter 24: Warriors II

Spinning the wheel of pain.

***Snippet***

A stalfos, its burning eyes aglow in the rain, wielding a strange curved blade; Warriors meets its attack with his sword, growling as the impact reverberates up his arm. He redirects the swing downward and wishes he had his shield. But it’s back in Wild’s Hyrule, too big to been have carried up a stormy mountain, so Warriors shifts his weight to the balls of his feet and leaps away from the stalfos’ next attack with a grace he thinks General Impa would be impressed with.

He doesn’t linger in his pride; the stalfos falters, unbalanced, and Warriors thrusts his sword into the gap of its ribcage. Even as the monster crumbles, he turns to cut down his next foe—another lizalfos—and then continues on, wading through the throng of monsters and terrified hylians.

“Get inside!” He bellows to a duo of teenagers; one is using the lid of a barrel as a makeshift shield and he snatches it from their grip and pushes them toward the nearest door.

“That’s not my house!” The kid protests, but the look Warriors gives him is enough to silence him. The kid and his companion scramble inside just as a flock of keese scream their way into view from a nearby alleyway; Warriors roars and positions himself in the doorway, knocking away the wave with his new ‘shield’ and slicing through the next with his blade. The surviving keese screech at him in return, diving down to bite at his face and neck. Warriors rolls, grunting as his shoulder hits the cobblestone road, and comes up sprinting, leading the flock away from the doorway.

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(take your time forever and ever, however long until youre happy with the results!!)

So we're all pissed at the new update as we should be and I've been seeing many people proposing blackouts, which is amazing! But all the dates are different and people might get confused at what's happening when, so I just want to organize every blackout (at least that I saw) in one place.

So far I saw six people with dates.

The earliest one, organized by @yourlocalfandomfriendo begins on March 18th and will last 48 hours.

This overlaps with a second proposed blackout by @veejiez for March 19th.

There is also one on the 20th proposed by @daysleftofsecondterm and another one on the same day from 6AM UTC to 6AM UTC on the 21st by @everythingwsnormalhere.

These three days are all very soon so not everyone may see them in time to participate, but if you are able to participate for any or all of these days, I highly encourage you do. Otherwise there are two more blackouts coming up:

The next one after these will be on March 24th as organized by @aroacesafeplaceforall who suggested doing 12 hours.

And the last one, which I personally have a lot of hope for as it's a major day for activity on Tumblr and a blackout then could be especially impactful: April 1st, as proposed by @darkwood-sleddog

There is also a discord set up by @yourlocalfandomfriendo and @aroacesafeplaceforall for anyone interested in joining in!

SO OVERALL, it may sound like a lot, but no one expects everyone to participate to every date here. But PLEASE try to participate in at least one or two of these, even if you feel it may not do much.

Typical strikes, the ones we hear about all the time, win by withholding their labour for consistent periods of time; that's the power people have at work because that's what's exploited.

For blackout strikes, we need to withhold our attention; the resource we own which is exploited through the selling of both advertisements and data.

My comparison of blackout strikes with regular strikes will be for a whole other post, but for the time being, just know that

withholding our attention is our digital bargaining weapon

Tumblr literally lost 63% of its monthly traffic from 2024 to 2025; they are not in a position to play around with those of us still here.

So PLEASE try participating. We cannot let every decent online space get enshittified with no care or consideration for the communities using those spaces.

they’re sharing

it’s a key difference in perception. fic isn’t given. it’s shared. it’s part of a fandom community— in which readers are also an integral part.

it’s probably inevitable mission creep from the increasingly transactional nature of the internet and fandom-as-consumerism, which was always gonna happen after corps worked out how much bank there is to make from those weirdo fan people