Midna gestures wildly at Zelda, who sits like a stone unbothered by the vitriol being launched at her. “This is stupid. You going to get her in line here?"
“I don’t know what’s happening.”
Zelda flips a page of her magazine. “It’s a case out in the Gerudo Highlands,” she explains. Oh. That is far. Why the hell would they go out there? Zelda’s bored eyes look at him from above the magazine. “There’s a Twili temple out that way that’s experiencing a leak, and they need assistance.”
Link stares at her. “Sounds like they need to call a plumber then.”
The Scientific Hyrulean slaps down on Zelda’s desk. “Don’t be obtuse,” Zelda chastises. “It’s a super spooky supernatural leak.”
Part 8 of Link and Midna's Investigative Services
Smothered Mate
Complete
By the late winter of 1930, Link has to face the dumb dog's mortality, but the bean nighe will never let him go it alone, and Link finds himself stalked on a job.
“Ye’re not giving him yer surname,” Link finally snaps.
“It’s the kind of nepotism that calls for a security expense write-off," says Midna.
“I don’t think ye know what a write-off is,” Link retorts. “Also, I’d like tae remind ye that while we got away with the Misko spaghettification incident, Revenues and Customs isn’t liable tae be so kind.”
Link mistakenly believes that’s the end of it when Midna doesn’t say anything more.
As he races down the cliffs to the beach, he feels something soft and uneven underfoot. Link pulls his skimmer away to find a mouse lying on the path, dead. He stoops to take a closer look at it. Blood has spurt from its mouth, though he’s not sure if he’s the cause honestly. It strikes him that he may have killed the small rodent, but he doesn’t think much on that.
No, that’s not the odd part of it. Of course there are field mice and rats on the island, but the rodents are never this close to shore, and they certainly keep out of the open where men are known to frequent, the skittish things that they are. The likelihood, essentially, of him running across a live and healthy mouse is slim.
When he comes to the shore, the captain is sitting in his waka ama’s main hull, staring out into the ocean. Seeing him approach, Tetra quickly wipes her eyes and nose, her cheeks a dark, rosy color. Her strange purple eyes are swollen and puffy. The shattered expression on her face is so different from her usual confident, steely air.
WILD GO
In Progress
They say the heat makes people crazy. Deep in an economic depression, the simmering civil unrest reaches a fever pitch on Summertide in Castleton when the Yiga cause a citywide blackout. When Link offers to accompany Zelda to check on her ailing father, he quickly finds he has more to worry about than the dark when rioters flood the streets and a killer takes advantage of the chaos to make a final sacrifice to the Old Gods.
Zelda gapes at the blackness beyond the window of Romani's. Suddenly it feels like she’s floating in some dark cloud, not high above a city that should be filled with the glow of lights and neon. Five minutes pass, then ten, then fifteen, but no sign of the lights coming back on. The quiet murmur begins to pick up to a light chatter and then to animated talking in the restaurant.
The first was Revali on Summertide. The next was Urbosa on Autumntide. Then on Wintertide was Daruk. Mipha was last on Springtide. Rusl wonders who might be so unlucky to face Calamity tonight. The fierce look in Mipha's little brother's eyes and the way they demanded that somebody DO SOMETHING haunt Rusl even in the waking hours.
Zombie Cake
In Progress
He opens the door to the bus to let the sound of the rain in. The drops beat against the roof in a fast tattoo. He yawns widely, trying to hold it together for a bit. Squatting in front of the open door, he watches as the rain comes down across the plains. He kind of misses the ocean, he thinks.
As if summoned by that thought, he hears his slate buzz. He ignores it. It buzzes again. He rubs his nose. The buzz comes through again. Link puffs.
He reminds himself that he loves her as he reaches behind him for his slate. Even if he wants to toss her into the ocean.
Link barely scans the barrage of messages on his slate and just calls her. When she picks up, he tells her, “Hey, I’m outwith Kakariko. I’m alive. No meds. You’d like these stupid frogs statues they’ve got.”
“You weren’t answering!”
“Yeah, I was sleeping,” he yawns. “Hold on…” He taps through his slate to get to the fitness app and opens it up. “Yeah, so in the last twenty-four hours I’ve slept… almost seventeen of them.”
“No way.”
“Want the screenshot?”
Bury Them Bones
In Progress
Standing just outside the portal is a beast of a man, at least twice Link’s size. The behemoth turns to the pair at the threshold of St Fi’s grounds. “This is as far as I can go, yes?” he asks the behemoth. The beastly man grunts and turns to watch a pair of cardinals flutter by.
Zelda gives Link a small curtsey, and he feels his face redden. He is not used to such courtesy, not deserving of it. “Until next time,” she says, and she walks through the portal with a polite nod to the behemoth.
Link watches her go for a spell until he feels the stirrings of guilt, knowing he is shirking some of his duties within the cathedral. He looks over to the guard, who seems to take no notice of him. Trying his luck, he leans over through the portal. “Do you wish to lose your head?” comes the low rumble, and Link immediately straightens.
Link has one year to prove himself innocent so long as he stays within the grounds of St. Fi's cathedral, and he swears to the gods that he'll do it.
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This one was fun to paint, since I got to play with the way this cheap watercolor paper isn't very absorbant to make giant leaf blobs. The korok leaf is also based on a pumpkin leaf.
Original request:
I'm also ready for autumn vibes today because it's so miserably hot and humid. Kind of hoping the forecasted thunderstorm will hit soon.
OK I just realized I NEVER posted A THING for this AU here and now you’re just gonna have to take it all at once enjoy my BOTW/TOTK x Sleeping Beauty AU (part 1/2)
My youngest has been into chess recently, so I played a couple of games with him. And I really, really appreciate how much it's engraved into the very rules of this century old game that the Kings are wife guys.
The whole premise of the game is basically "if you come at me, I'm going to release my beautiful, terrifying wife who has all liberties to crush you under her heel."
And while he's doing a strategic side step once or twice, his wife is a threat to everyone on the whole board who only dares to breathe in his direction. Oh, and sometimes he sets her loose for her own enrichment even if nobody is even getting close to him yet and she's free to wreck havoc among the rest of the figures.
Love that for them, and the best part is, that it's true for both kings. 😂
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Ghost Hearts begins in the summer of 1918 when Lauchlan is seventeen, freshly graduated from the conservatory, and in a flight mode. He goes west to start wandering the desert wastelands and the sand sea, meeting Bastet. The two of them take on odd jobs, scavenge the desert. Get the teenage road trip vibes until they come upon an dying man in the sand sea, which is the catalyst for Bastet's supernatural transformation and cements Lauchlan's absolute devotion to her.
Most of what has been written so far are the letters and telegrams Lauchlan exchanges with his friend Luise (Lulu) from the music conservatory. He cannot find Bulls-Eye candies out in the desert and is desperate to get her to send him some, while she wants him to come home to play jazz with her lol.
Here's some of their correspondences lol
I don’t even know if the maths whiz really exists. Please.
5 September 1918
Super amazing fantastic Luise,
To be clear: She’s definitely NOT Bastet. She doesn’t even know what the hell calculus is.
I met this other girl, Miral. Like her. She’s funny and clever, but she also does not know what the hell calculus is. So she is not it.
Am I not worthy to send sweets to? I haven’t seen Bulls-Eyes out here. Where am I supposed to get them?
But also, I made a bench. Yes, I sat on it. No, it did not collapse. This bench is about to carry the weight of the goddamn universe on it.
Best fishes,
Your bit dim friend Lauchlan x
P.S. This does make jazz more appealing. Please run the appropriate experiments to determine exactly how much jazz repels Maria, and return the results to me for consideration.
P.P.S. What do you think about snarky librarians? There is no context for this, no.
16 September 1918
Bit Dim Lauchlan,
I’ve been able to get in touch with Pons Joubert, but I have not managed to track down Ivan Sokolov. Therefore, a piano position is woefully still open. Mr. Joubert is very enthusiastic about playing jazz, and he had lots of VERY nice things to say about you. And funny things. (Yes, he told me about what happened at the last jury you played his accompaniment for.)
Tell me more about Miral. I’m sorry if my making fun of your maths whiz has created some impossible standard. Don’t you think that possibly you’re blinding yourself to other possibilities in life? And yes, clearly I’m not just talking about romance, you absolute dweeb.
Also, tell me more about the snarky librarian — wait, is that what Miral is? Tell me more about that.
I love you, but you are the DUMBEST man sometimes. (So I guess no, it’s not weird. Or are we weird? I like being weird.)
Also, also, I am not sure I like the implication about your bench?? Sorry to say, but I am doubtful about your bench-building capabilities.
Stay weird,
Your very weird and devoted fan Luise
P.S. Like the pun. Ria would hate it. Just like she would hate the weird. HINT HINT
29 September 18
Very weird and devoted Luise,
Okay, so FIRST OF ALL: That bench is rock solid and a pinnacle of woodworking ingenuity. Turns out my hands are good for more than just tinkering with piano keys. And what implications are you talkin Never mind. How dare you? I think?? I’m fair tricket that YOU’D imply such things, michtie me. I implied nothing of the sort.
Zugzwang is a Link and Midna's one-shot that spun from cut bits of Smothered Mate.
Zugzwang translates to like a compulsion to move. In chess, it's when every move available worsens your position on the board. So the chess theme continues lmao.
There's not much plot to it currently since it's from cut bits, but it takes place in 1930 and covers more inter-office antics between the trio, and Midna continues to commit to acts of micro-feminism lol.
“Ew. Why are they pushing so hard for lower hemlines?” Midna complains, flipping through a magazine as she sits on the corner of Zelda’s desk. “Like people literally cut off their skirts. You’re not just adding that back.”
Zelda looks up from her own reading, waiting to see if there’s more to Midna’s complaints, but she simply frowns and flips the page.
“Money,” Link answers from his office after a quiet beat that’s only filled by Courage’s soft snores from the corner.
The magazine slaps Midna’s thighs and knees, and she sends a glare over towards Link’s open door.
Zelda holds out her hand to take a look, and she displeases Midna when she points out, “Mm, well, these are more the length we had around in ’21 and ’22.”
“You had knee-length then,” Midna says.
“I’m a rebel pioneer,” says Zelda, handing back the magazine to Midna. “But Link’s right: It’s money.”
Midna is sour about that.
“They add even three centimeters to yer hemlines, and that’s literal millions in the garment industry. They’ll be able to sell thousands o’ meters more fabric with a lower hemline.”
Midna looks back towards Link’s office and hollers at him, “How do you know that?”
“I read.”
Zelda giggles, but she quickly averts her eyes when Midna locks in on her.
Can you tell me about Ghost Lights and Ghosts on the Shore? ☺️
I'm actually close to finishing Ghost Lights, and Shore is not far behind! Ghost Hearts is the third story. The three move in reverse chronology and mostly take place in a city called Warrich that has cultural quarters that sort of mimic a post-WWII occupied Berlin. Just no occupation lol.
Ghost Lights is the first to read, but it occurs last over the end of 1935 to 1936. Lauchlan Huntly is a jazz musician who is forever cold. His wife Kreszenz has an infallible memory, and while they suffer greatly from child loss at home, she uses the cabarets he performs at to maintain their closeness. When his friend Bastet finally returns to his life after a decade, he quickly finds out she only does so to get his help as she brings to his doorstep three monstrous crones that eat the hearts of humans and have her as their most wanted target.
Ghosts on the Shore takes place over 1924-25 and unveils a much more carefree Lauchlan who hasn't fully been saddled by grief or sacrifice. He's desperate to figure out a way to save Bastet and eventually Kreszenz from their cosmic tethers, but he is also plagued by dreams of the sun and moon colliding.
Ghost Hearts shows a teenage Lauchlan in 1918 and 1919 as he wanders a desert wasteland and sand sea with Bastet before he ends up setting her down her doomed path.
Ghost Lights:
He shrugs and tells Lulu, “She’s been interested in like some weird shite, I guess. Voodoo kind of things? I don’t know. I’m trying to stay out of it.”
“Sounds spooky,” goads Lulu, wiggling her fingers at him.
“Stop,” he groans. “Och, I’m so over spooky shite.”
The phone rings, startling Lauchlan.
He reaches over, picks up the handset, and drops it immediately. “Remind me to kill whoever stole our bar seats,” he gripes, but Lulu only finds it funny.
Another cylinder drops in the tube station when the waitress comes by and snags his glass, and Lulu takes that one out as well. She sniggers, reading over the note, and tries to hold it out to him. “Nae wanting it,” he grumbles.
“I really think you should read it,” Lulu insists.
“I can’t be fashed,” Lauchlan grunts.
“You’re no fun, you know that?”
Another beer is dropped off for Lauchlan, and he sets the second note aside without reading it.
Ghosts on the Shore:
Lauchlan Huntly, self-proclaimed asshole, supposes that he could have been a bit more civil about everything, but she elbow-punched him in the jaw.
So you know, she’s literally the best.
Except she absolutely does not appreciate his marriage proposal. “If it’s the blood, that’s on you,” he tells her.
Kreszenz Noll just gapes at him.
Her mouth falls open, unsure, then clamps shut. Her face blooms like a brilliant tomato, and then she spits at him, “I was going to apologize, but if you’re just going to be ridiculous, forget it.”
Lauchlan loves it.
“Go away.”
He does not.
Her teeth grind, and she grabs her cart to drag it and herself away from him, but it’s far easier for him to just step alongside an overburdened library cart. She frowns at him, absolutely not having any of his nonsense. At this point, he’s just there to scunner her, basically.
It’s the best.
She decides that it is most definitely not.
“Life is better when you don’t take it so seriously,” he tells her, but Kreszenz huffs at him and pulls her cart a little further down the aisle.
There was no real plot plan for that one haha. It started as a way to write Zelda fairy tales, essentially. I don't remember where I was going with this one, honestly lol, and my Japanese has suffered over the years since I don't speak or read it enough.
I'm not sure it'll be one that I ever get around to finishing, but maybe some of the ideas in it could be incorporated into something else more defined.
Mukashi mukashi, he thought as he trekked up the dirt path. Afternoon sunlight flitted through the late summer trees. Insects buzzed in a pulsing chorus that filled his ears. His boots clapped against the dirt. The tip of one caught a rock, and he kicked it up the path. He paused. Sweat clung to his brow, and with one shirt sleeve, he wiped it away.
Yes, mukashi mukashi, yama no naka ni ojiisan to obaasan ga sundeimashita. That was how the story began, he told himself, and once more he picked up his pace.
In the dead of winter, an old man who lived in the mountains came upon a statue of Farore. To protect her from the harsh winter elements as she had protected him, the old man placed the hat from his own head upon the statue.
The young man came to a stop on the mountain path as the image of an old man placing his hat upon Farore came to his mind's eye. The statue that stood before the young man was weathered. Sharp edges had been worn away by the elements to soft and almost indistinguishable features. He supposed the statue had a generic face mukashi mukashi. Farore stood before him with her hands out, welcoming him into her presence.
The young man shifted the firewood he carried on his back, then he bent into a bow and clapped his hands together. He offered his prayers and gratitude to his stone patron. When he straightened, he studied the statue for a moment more. The grass had grown wild, and the creeping charley had crawled its way up Farore's robes.
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RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous, and tag as many people as you have WIPs. People send an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and you post a snippet or tell them something about it
Thanks for the tags @louwhose and @mistresslrigtar!
I looked through my WIP list, and there's not been too much of a change since I last had this one come around lol. I did end up posting Bury Them Bones since last time, but here's the other unposted/unpublished stuff:
Black Elephants
Egress
Ghost Lights
Ghosts on the Shore
Ghost Hearts
Was war das?
Bury Them Bones
Mukashi Mukashi
Nevergreen
Scotch Game
Wayward Queen
We Looked Like Giants
White Elephants
Zugzwang
Oof, I know I'm behind on this as it is lol (sorry if you've been tagged already). @karama9, @ladyhoneydee, @improbablescience, and anyone else who wants to play!
